I have had the opportunity to ride a pre-production Raptor on a couple of good long hammer sessions.This thing absolutely 'rocks'. The engine torque is awesome, short shift it and let it pull. The suspension is way plush, especially the front, which has a lot of 'stroke feeling'. It seems to find traction where a Banshee would just spin, this translates to a point and shoot style of riding that requires all your attention.. it is extremely quick to respond to throttle, and steering inputs. The fun-factor of this bike rates 10 in my books, like the man says it handles like the best of the 400's with a motor that is in a class of its own... well done Yamaha. By the way, you can't compare to a Banshee, its apples and oranges, there's still lots of room in the Yamaha stable for the twin screamer.

 

Why can't you compare it to a Banshee? If YAMAHA is going to produce 2 high performance ATV's, there is no doubt that they will be compared and analyzed many times side by side. I understand the power delivery is probably totally different....but the question is....what happens when the two quads pull out along-side each other with the throttle pinned? Does the Raptor pull from the Banshee throughout the powerband? I would think after all of the testing, this would have been done many times. Thanks!

 

Sorry Gary, I just meant that the Banshee and the Raptor are not in the same class market segment for direct comparisons... what happens when you do a roll on.. they are close but generally the Raptor will get the nod, it has a much wider power band and depending on the traction (terrain with stock rubber) tends to hook up better and motors away...R

 

Thanks again for the reply. I think that it's pretty impressive to motor away from a Banshee (still picturing images of my brother on his '00 Banshee pulling away like crazy from a '00 400ex that I sold).

'00 400ex-GONE!
'01 Raptor on order

 

Restless,

One guy was claiming that the raptor could bring the front wheels into the air in any gear (providing you are at the right speed to allow it to do so).

I know that from brute force (not clutching it), my banshee will only do that in 3rd. Does the Raptor seem to have the explosive type of power that the Banshee does? Enough to loft the front tires in higher gears?

Thanks for a reply, I've got one on order and have little patience. Little tid bits are all I'll have to go on for a while.