PC_350_Warrior,
You still haven't explained why it takes twice as much maintenance to maintain a 2-stroke than a 4. As far as reliability, I own a 1994 Banshee and a 1991 Warrior. Believe me, I ride my Banshee alot harder that my wife runs her Warrior. I have had the top end replaced once on the Warrior and never on the Banshee. In my estimation both are very reliable, although I do spend alot of time making sure that they are well cared for between rides. Oh yeah, thanks for the tip on the carb removal.

 

I don't have a quad anymore, but I have my dirtbike so I think I can speak in on this. My bike is fast, my friends bike is fast. I beat him sometimes, and he
beats me sometimes. Big deal. We ride because we have fun, isn't that the whole reason we all ride? If we didn't have fun, what would be the point or riding. Just my opinion.

 

Don't be scared, Your gonna see the back of the Raptor quite often boyyyyyyyyyyy!

 

TWo strokes require more FREQUENT mainteneance, but overall they are about the same with a fourstroke. So you have to re-ring your banshee every season. No big deal. Now adjusting the valves on your 400, well thats a different story. Now its time to replace a twostrokes pistons. Easiest thing in the world. Ever done a 4 stroke top end before? If you havent it will be one of the most complicated and time consuming things you ever did to your bike.

My point is, say over a 5 year period, a 2 stroke may have to have the top end changed a couple times more than a four stoke, but it will be cheaper, faster, and easier then what you will be doin to the 4 strokes top end even though you replace it less.

 

As a Honda owner who rides with a 400EX, I will have to admit that it will take a "highly" modified 400ex to keep up with a stock Raptor. Now throw some mods on the Raptor, well lets just say it will be very ugly.............

To be competitive Honda will have to go back to the drawing boards & come out with some thing new.

Will the new Polaris 700cc twin sport bike be a match for the Raptor, well have to wait & see.

All this is conjecture at this point. The wait will be over soon, real soon.

 

Well I have to say some one stirred up a hornets nest with this topic, BUT I will not be bothered. I have the first one in this half of the state when it gets here and I feel this is what I have been waiting for for atleast 10 years. As for power Im just gonna give a Guess, but an educated guess. The raptor is advertised as the most powerful ATV ever. the DS650 has a debated 48-53 HP. For Yamaha to make this claim true it would either need more torque or HP or both. I found the MZ motorcycle site. Although the MZ was used for the Base of the engine it is a supposed superior design to that. The MZ skorpion has 4 sub models 3 have 48HP one has 50HP. Also overlooked is the other MZ Baghira Dual sport offroad machine which appears to look more similar to the raptor engine and has 50HP. So yes you guessed it, Yamaha if it did improve on this design should claim over 50 HP. here is the URL: (http://www.motorradna.com/motorcycles/Bagh/Baghira.htm ) of the bike.
ALL I HAVE to SAY is:
TIRES AND SPROCKETS BABY

One other thing if you dont think it has power take a 350 warrior and race it against a Banshee 350, same exact cc'c but the warrior is a 4 stroke and it takes 4 strokes to complete the cycle to make power a 2 stroke takes only 2 thereby making the power twice as often. for a four stroke to make usable power it would have to have 2x the displacement and be able to pull the same amount of RPMS, the raptor is the closest thing to this and it does just that, other wise a 4 stroke 350 to make the kind of power as a 350 banshee would have to revv something like 22000 rpm which aint gonna happen this year. Add on to that that the Banshee is a twin cylinder and it is apparent that the banshee has an advantage there also. So for any one to say that a 660 keeping up with a Banshee is Pathetic you need to Grow up and realize that these are apples and oranges. The raptor is just designed very well to provide similar feel and will provide more useable power than a banshee. Besides how many big bore 65+ hP race quads do you meet riding the trail in the local woods. 0 id bet. Y? they are not designed with a useable range of power. besides that how many parents are gonna buy a kid a NEW NHRA TOP FUEL Dragster to drive around town, same thing. 0 also. Id say yamaha hit the mark with this one. If you need additional power then Do it, but 78+ mph is only on pavement or on a dirtroad straight stretch for me. ( You know illegal speeding is just as illegal as being on pavement.) but I dont care how fast it is but how well it rides and if the power is usable for the riding I do.

 

DITTO YamaRaptor,

And for those that took offense to my comment about age. I did "not" direct that at a whole nation. It was meant for "1" single person, that sounded like he was 15 and he was retarded. That doesnt mean all 15 year olds are retarded...come on now. LOL. Seriously, no offense to the younger generation...hell, Im only in my mid 20's, and I still act like 15 sometimes. Nothin wrong with those years...in fact, I wish I still was that young. Yes, I was doing a little bashing, but only to the un-intelligent creator of this whole post. Read Mag500's posts about 2 strokes and 4 strokes, and tell me you dont agree..lol.

Everyone chill, and ride on.

 

YaMaRaPtoR,

I think this is why Yamaha has been so secretive about the power rating. Maybe the plan was to let everyone expect 45 or 46 hp, then drop a bomb on them when it finally is dynoed and comes out to be somewhere over 50 hp. Of course, that could be wishful thinking on my part.

Did you notice that the bike in that link has a rated top speed of 110 mph? How much will 2 extra wheels and an inferior CD take away from that if the Raptor is geared the same?

I'm still having questions regarding the Raptor only being one or two MPH faster than the Banshee.
If it will hit 9,000 rpm as claimed, and the gearing is higher than on a Banshee, wouldn't it be significantly faster?

 

I would be VERY surprized if yamaha actually made the RAptors engine more powerful then the MZ's. Look at some of the other quads engines that derived from motorcycle engines, they have all had nearly 10 hp chopped off. The 400ex, from XR400 34hp to 27. The banshee from the RZ (not sure but was alot higher then 37!!) And look at the 250 quads from the 80's. (LT,TRX,KXF) They are all in the low 30's when their dirtbike counterparts were in the low 40's. But if Yamaha does actually update this engine, good for them. Im sick of seing potent engines being dropped in quads with less then stellar outputs. This could be the call for other manufacterers to step up and do some updates to their quads every year besides color and graphics.

I think a good move for honda would be to update the 400's power for 2002 with liquid cooling, 5 valve head, DOHC, updated ehaust design. That would seem to be a more logical move for now until they come out with something new.

And, why is it that the Raptor has SOHC as to DOHC? I always thought that dual was vastly superior and made more hp?

 

In the first magazines to interview the yamaha designers, they stated that the Raptor engine was a step up and had power than the MZ engine. They would have to resort to Clinton-esq type of word play in order for that to mean that the Raptor has less power, wouldn't you think?

Does the word more mean more? I guess it depends on your definition of more.