Yeah i seen one at the dealers last week so i no they are out. looks like a nice ride.

 

All they are is a slightly updated warrior.

 

That could certainly contribute. My bro-in-law has a Warrior with Bandits on it and they are one heavy set of tires. He also polished the paint off of the rims and it appears as though the Warrior has had Aluminum wheels for awhile.

mx

 

You are correct. I had thought that they were using smaller wheels though. But they arent.

The difference is only 22 pounds.

 

Yeah i thought they were going with the 20 inch banshee tire instead of the 22 inch warrior tire.

 

I haven't seen it in person but, the website does list the 20" tire.

mx

 

I rode one all last weekend. My wife has a new 04' Warrior so I have spent time on both. The new Raptor has about the same amount of torque and top speed as the Warrior. I am 200lbs and I couldn't get it to wheelie without pulling up pretty hard on the bars. My wifes Warrior is about the same. I will say that the new 350 Raptor is a little snappier, throttle wise than the Warrior and it does seem to handle agressive riding better. It's ergo's are better than a Warrior for serious trail or mx riding. It was a nice bike and I am curious how much improvement you will get from mods like a pipe, header and air filter. If they would have came out earlier this year I would have definetly bought on of them instead of the Warrior for my wife. Just my .02 centss.

 

the new raptor sounds similiar to the 660r but not as violent and i got on my buddys warrior w/ pipe,k&n, and jetting and the raptor 350 still took it.they're not slow for the size but my blaster still took it throughout the race.

 

Wilson's in Fresno,CA had a blue one a couple weeks ago when I was by there. I think they saved weight on the bumpers, skid plates and heal guards by going to some kind of plastic. I'm assuming these come from either the YFZ or Raptor. Not like the rear skid was all that strong on the Warrior anyways.

IMHO the nose on the 350 is butt ugly. Needs either more vents or no vents. It looks like some cheap Korean bike nose (not that there is anything wrong with anything from Korea). Blech. And the lines are a little off when looking at the headlights. Something just doesn't fit right. It's not as bad in person as the pics on Yamaha's site show it to be. I've wondered about the tires but didn't think to look at them. Dropping down to 20" (from 22" Warrior) should give it a little more snap one would think at the expense of a small amount of ground clearance. It's only a little less than a Warrior. The rear suspension is also different. The resevoir is now piggie backed on the shock instead of remote and the rear linkage seemed different (Raptor donation?)

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