My thoughts exactily...

 

Thomez; i know your proud of that new dale. and i don't know how much seat time you have on that thing yet...but you don't hear about the dales dominated at the drags. it's shee's Raptors and Bombs. my buddies got a cannibal and i've ridden it often....the only place i'd want that quad is on the track.

and i also hope you don't have the problems he had with the frame and engine (cdale swapped out his engine back when they existed) that he had.

as far as this race...i give it too the Banshee

 

Johnny, The T-5's are great, but in Oregon The Hush kit is a must to keep the rangers off your butt.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Read and learn here.

The Speed is the fastest stock quad out there except the new Yami. That is from everything I have read. Of course that isn't what I will here in the Yamaha forum but its the truth.

You were on a Cannibal. Still faster than either here questioned but the Speed is faster due to a 1500RPM higher limit.

Thunderalley has no reason to lie to you. Neither do I.

Shees, Bombs, and Raptors dominate at the drags - where nothing is stock. Read the link above and you will find out that isn't always true either.

I don't know of any problems with the aluminum frame.

The engine did have its problems. Quite a few of them. That is what happens when a bicylcle manufacturer tries to build the best production quad ever made and starts from scratch. They still did it, they just had a few issues. With a few updates that are fairly cheap, the 'Dale is as reliable as anything. And stock for stock, faster than most too. Drag, mx, woods, you name it.

I still don't think the 'Shee could catch the 'Dale in 300 feet. When I get some seat time on mine I will let you know. A purely stock Banshee rides with me all the time. Also a piped Raptor. I will report when I have personal experience. For now I listen to the owners who have no reason to lie.

 

well, you keep reading...and i'll go with my experience and seat time on one. and the cannibal i rode by-the-way had the speed mapping and ohline shocks, nerfs and other extra's that came on the speed. when he got his...cannondale would do or give you anything to make you happy. hell, the service rep should up when his replacement arrived, to meet with him and understand his problem. Yamaha owners are lucky if they get to speak to an actual person when their tranny fails.

to bad they went out of business...hopefully the aftermarket companies will be as kind to the cannondales as they were/are to the 250r. eh.

if you want to learn more about the frame problem...do a search in the cannondale Forum. my bud posted everything in there. even pics. good luck.

 

themez- Reading is fine and dandy but in the world of the consumers the dale did not cut it. I have ridden with dales and have put seat time on dales. My raptor has as good or bettle throtle response. We drag race all the time and piped and jetted they are about the same. The dale will jump most quads 2 out of the hole and but 200 feet they are even, at 300 the raptor has 1 on them and will carry that the distance. Dales have problem areas just like other quads but i see more dales on the rope being drug back in. Out of 6000 quads even a few on the rope is a high percentage compared to raptors and shee on the rope. If cannondale would have stuck around they might have made a great quad by know. They get points for trying and then points taken away for building the motor that they did. In the end buy what you want but you will have more headaches with the dale.

 

I did buy what I wanted, it's in the shed waiting on my arrival home. I looked at Raptors, almost bought one brand new. Also looked at the first YFZ in the area, thought about it too. Then I realized I didn't want what everyone else in the world had. I can't even imagine how many of those new YFZ's I'll see every stinkin time I ride, and I'd hate to be just another quad in the pack. I'd rather walk to the truck, get the Wolverine, and pull out the 'Dale once in a while [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

After I get some seat time I'll let ya'll know what I think of it. Unfortunately for me, that will be awhile. School and quad are over a 1000 miles apart. :/

 

Themez- I like that attitude, i will walk to the truck and get the wolv and tow it out. That is what it is all about. We want a update in a year to see if you still own or ride the dale if it still works.

I have personally busted 2 trannies and still bought another raptor. I will say the 2001 tranny was weak but i added 20 plus hP over stock and knew going in....

 

I'll be sure to keep ya updated. In the next few months I should have both of my setups done, one Blaze setup like stock ready for Harescrables and one long travel +3 setup with Moto Ohlins (w/TCS ZPS setup) and a Durablue Eliminator 2+2 in the back to give me my MX ready 50". Nice to have two bikes in one for relatively not that much money. And I can map it for whatever I'm up to, which is pretty darn cool too. I'm also hoping to be pushing 55 HP or so by then. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

The magic available for these machines is out there and mostly untapped. A guy was working with custom maps and pulled out 6 more HP on the same bike. It is in there, just needs brought out by some tuning, etc. I love the 'Dale phenom just because it is SO different. Obscure. I want the questions such as "What in the hel1 is that?" and "Damn that thing is fast, what have you done to it?" - that was one of the fun things about the Wolv - I'd cover it in mud, thrash through thick stuff, yet keep up with the sport bikes on the trails and people would be quite impressed. You'd be AMAZED how many people have never heard of a Wolverine. They have no clue. I met a guy once on a Honda 400 of some sort and he couldn't quit saying "man, I wish my 400 ran as good as that 350" ... it isn't even that strong of a bike!

I just thought of something. You said the throttle response was about the same as your Raptor. I wonder if this is because of the high throttle sensitivity settings on the quads. The maps allow you to change that, they just put the highest setting in all the quads probably for safety reasons. People are experimenting with the higher sensitivity settings in the quads like that which are in the bikes. Not sure if that would change throttle response but I'm betting it wouldn't hurt.

And if you added that much HP to an 01 tranny you knew you were dancin with the devil [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]