I would'nt worry about the axle thing either it's the same axle Yamaha's been using for years. Is it the best no but what stock axle is? I believe The Raptor is here to stay just the honda fans are looking for anything to "bash" it. No pun intended Bash. Hope that a-arm is good to go soon.

 

I still cant picture how this happened, Are you sure you were not sabotaged by a Hammer Wielding Jealous Honda Rider from your neighborhood. Did it fold down or backwards or what? also did it involve both pieces of the A-ARM or just tweak one of them? What are your shock settings?

 

haha, that was a good one Yamaharaptor!

It did more than "tweak" the rear section (closest to rider) of upper A-arm. The forward section of the upper A-arm bent very, very slightly, but it looks like a result from the rear one caving in causing it to hit agains the shock or something. The problem was, in my opinion, with the aft section of the upper A-arm. It folded in (actually down) fairly far. My shock settings are stock.

I should have took a picture of it before bending it back. In this case, a picture would have been worth a thousand words.

Yeah, I knew when I posted the original message that the anti-raptor crowd would be all over this, but it was the only way to find out if I was the only one or not. It may have also opened up an avenue for those who actually crashed their Raptor to blame Yamaha, but I didn't know any way around it.

We'll get these minor problems worked out, I'm confident in that. I still think for my riding, my Raptor is the best thing since sliced bread. I got to ride in some tight trails today and the grunt factor is pretty awesome.

 

So it was a major downward bend, I really wish you had not did anything with it.They probably needed to test its tensile strength with out the holes drilled though it. As I can tell the only force acting upon the upper A-ARM should be from the top of the spindle into the ball joint, basically just to hold the wheel upright through out the range of travel, the tie rod does the steering effort and the lower A-ARM handles the weight and suspension efforts. whether jumping, wheelieing, or what have you the only force that could bend it would come from the top of the spindle, but it would seem that the ball joint would absorb most of the force in its movement, unless there is a problem with the lower ball joint allowing the bottom to push further out away and allowing the force of the weight and suspension to be transferred to pushing the top inward too far. thus the energy not absorbed in the ball joints movement would be transferred to the upper A-ARM and force it downward. It would have had to be out of vertical alignment somehow, before anything happened , but then you should have noticed it, right?

 

One thing I must add to this topic is we all must not beleive all that we read.Now we all no that probably 70% of people posting in this forum are posting B.S. that there will be at least a few dozen honda people posting that they own raptors and that they blew 5th gear or their valve fell out doing 40 mph.All im saying is dont beleive every thing you read.I totally beleive that the front A arm got bent but for some strange reason I dont beleive the story of the guy who just brought his Raptor home and was riding in his yard and bent his rear axel.Most of the time when one guy has a problem with a new production quad more will follow.I learned this from The DS650 after owning one and following the post in the Bombardier forum.As for now I just picked up my Raptor 4 hours ago and no problems yet.But I will be watching this forum closely to try and filter out the truth and the B.S.Until then lets all ride and have FUNNNNNNNN!!!!!!

 

i AGREE, alot of the bent this and that just doesnt add up, even if I was pissed from breaking something like bash did, Id still find the time to brag on all of the awesome attributes of the bike, I mean sh:t you just dropped $7000 on it right? And apparently some of these people have never posted in here(the yamaha forum) before or we would recognize them. Most people even with one on order came in to ask questions and such before they got one.

 

Good point yamaraptor. I tried alluding to it earlier, but there are a lot of unfamiliar "faces" around here with problems supposedly. My Raptor paperwork didn't come with a link to the ATV Connection website, so it is curious that all these new Raptor owners show up at once having problems while only 1 or so of the original Raptor "waiters" has had any kind of problem.

You're absolutely right, this thing is worth fixing and any minor details to be worked out is well worth it.

 

Is it possible some of this "bending rear axle" talk is a guy hoping someone will back out on their place in line and move them up a notch????? I love my raptor even though I got ripped a new one for riding it on another post!!!

 

This is a quote from a guy in the honda forum.

Now, most of you Honda fans will say that the 400ex is a great quad, and rightly so. Do the problems that existed when it was new now deter from the machine? Any new product is going to have unexpected "bugs" that need to be worked out. The question that a person should ask themselves is, Is the quad that I'm looking at buying worth working out any bug that it might have? In the case of the Raptor, I can say positively YES!

 

that s.cks! You know they hammered on them in the testing phase yet they would roll them out with a serious design flaw. "Ladies and gentlemen I give you Yamaha" We make it easy to trash your ride.