I just finished the rear braces, pic on My Page.

Please do get those front pics up, there are a dozen ways to brace the front a-arm and shock mounts and I'd like to see an example. Thanks!

 

I've had two cracks in my frame. The first was on the smaller tube the oil tank bolts to. Near the bottom left side of the tank where there is a factory gusset welded. It cracked right in between the welded area of the gusset on the tube itself.

The second was on the right upper motor mount just in front of it and part of the weld. That crack went all the way around the tube, luckily when it came back around it didn't connect with where it started. I lined everything back up and welded it. So far so good on that one. The first hasn't been a problem since it was welded a while back.

I don't race, but I dune fairly hard and try and hit the whoops hard while drag racing up dune hills.

The quad did flip once in the mountains when I crashed, the cracks could have started then and just were never noticed till they got bigger I guess.

 

I agree completely! Super fun bike to ride, but all that torque aint worth the abundant amount of flaws that come with a raptor. The frame problem was the last straw. That is why....unfortunately and fortunately i am taking my interest to dirtbikes instead. For trail riding, the raptor's frame crappiness would not be a problem and it IS worth keeping for that use. But for MX, the raptor cant handle it. I already noticed paint chipping on mine and ive only taken it to an mx track 6 times and never crashed or flipped. Yamaha makes some cool stuff, but they really dont care about making the customers happy unless there's something in it for them. All manufacturers do this, but im must say Honda is better when it comes to satisfying the customer and standing behind their product.

The whole 01 tranny story makes me sick and i normally would be anti-yamaha with my next purchase but the yz250f has been around for 4 years to prove its reliability and the cr250f is on its first. Im not about to be the guinea pig so it looks like ill be blue still.

alright, see ya later

 

lets see, for 5600 i can get a yz250f and be ready to take it to teh track or i can take my raptor i got for 6499 plus 350 for pipe and then put another 2k atleast into it to make it perform decent at the track. And then...have to worry about my frame every time i ride.