Ok, last night, after finally getting my new Raptor to run and stay running, I took it out to
an area that is known for trashing both people and machines. Lots of ruts, rocks, woops,
off-camber, steep hills, sand, you name it, and it's there someplace.

How did it do? As the title of this post indicates, a lot of **** and vinegar on the top-end,
but not much else.

Positive Side:
1. Climbs hills like there is no tomorrow. Pin the throttle and hang on!
2. Goes down hills better than anything, quad or dirt bike, that I have ever ridden.
This is something that I simply didn't expect and was EXTREMLY impressed with.

Negative Side:
1. No bottom end torque what-so-ever.
2. Long, narly rock-gardens were very hard to navigate through.
3. First and second gear are way too tall for slow, point-to-point maneuvering.

Neither positive or negative:
1. I wasn't bothered at all by the high riding position. Simply leaning into high
speed corners solved any high center of gravity issues that I've heard about.
2. Pipe heat, on the lower right side, seemed excessive although tolerable.
3. It takes some time to get used to throttle reaction. I found that using very
light end-of-thumb touch was much more effective than laying your thumb on
the throttle lever.

Summary:
Are these new high compression 4-stroke engines the answer (or replacement) to
pipey, 2-smoker designs? I don't think so. After riding 2-strokes all my life, if you
want this type of hit, ride a 2-stroke. For me, I prefer 4-strokes that come on strong
right from the bottom and have a more linear torque curve. I've ridden my friends
CRF 450 dirt bikes and they react just like the Raptor. Very hard to do precise maneuvers.

Sure it's fun to go like he!! when conditions warrant, and you'll never get me on a
utility quad, but I'm going to need a lot more convincing (usually refered to as practice),
that the Raptor is a serious, all-around sport machine. I'm going to give it the time,
patience, and practice that it takes to make a real, long term decision, but I'm not sold yet!

 

i think raptors have a lot of bottem end torque, every two stroke i have ridden, they have extreme throttle resposnes but it has to be reved up really high, it the rpms are low, it doesnt do anything. but i love 4 stroke power, the rap should grow on you.

 

ding ding.
here we go [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

lol, Have fun playing with your new toy
Junior

 

my raptor has mad ***** when on the throttle. just tappin it is enough but when u pinn it just takes off like a f*ckin rocket.love that thing and also getting a banshee too lokkin for stock .

 

Ding ding ding!! Lets have a clean fight guys!! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

No low end torque? I dont think I've ever heard that complaint from a raptor rider or owner... Have you ever ridden a banshee???

The raptor isnt high compression either. It's a 9.2:1 stock ratio. I always considered the curve pretty smooth on the raptor. With the right pipe its even smoother.

 

Are you sure you got this running correctly? What did you have to do or why did it not run? My bike has lots of low end torque and its stock except for pipe and jet. I can climb any hill with out going fast! I can just put up them steep hills and if I need to throttle it, its all ways there and never lets me down. This is my Second Raptor I have owned and have riden all the new bikes out there and just couldnt buy anything else.

 

So my issue with the Raptor is that the torque curve doesn't come evenly. As you give it throttle from
idle, it has a noticeable pause, then an immediate surge. This is fine for fast acceleration, hill climbing,
etc., but it very hard to control during tight, technical trail conditions.

Since my Raptor is still fully stock, it also may be that the carbs just don't get any air until the throttle
is advanced far enough. I've looked at the entire intake and it is very restricted. However, whenever you
open up the intake you also need to open up the exhaust. Since the exhaust baffle is built into the spark
arrestor, pulling one pulls the other. Around here, both the Forest Service and the BLM will ticket you if
you aren't fully spark arrested.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get a linear acceleration curve from the Raptor so that I can not only
enjoy the high speed, *****-to-the-walls stuff, but the technical, slow speed trail stuff as well. Maybe I'm
asking too much from the quad. Given what I know now (which is obviously limited), I just don't know if
I can setup a Raptor to perform well in all of these cases.

 

You must have a problem with yours, mine pulls like a tractor from bottom to top. I did put a 43 tooth rear sprocket on after the first ride or two tho. You might want to go with a 12 tooth front for that kind of riding.

 

You should play around with the sprockets and find out what suits you best. Gearing down in the front, or up in the rear should help you out alot in the tight technical trail riding.