What's up with Yamaha's development of the yfz250 four stroke quad for the youth class. I hear both Yamaha and Kawasaki are working on this class of quad. Any news??

 

dude that would suck now that the yfz toke over the raptor lets make a yfz 250 yfz 150 yfz 800 efi 4x4

 

Here is how I see this. You will not see a YFZ 250 as a "youth quad", ... ever.

Yamaha YZ, YZF, and YFZ machines are RACING machines, and you can bet that Yamaha will keep that heritage intact. So when, and if, Yamaha builds a YFZ 250 it will have the YZ250F motocross engine in it, with a slightly downsized lighter chassis than the current YFZ 450. It will still be a full race ATV though, with a manual clutch, and no reverse.

The Raptor line of ATVs are "play bikes", and a 250cc youth quad may very well be introduced someday under the Raptor name. Suzuki made a Z-250, and then dropped it. Now only Honda and Polaris make 250cc youth quads. If Suzuki dropped the Z-250 I wonder how much demand there is for this market segment.

 

[quote]
Originally posted by: DesertViper


Suzuki made a Z-250, and then dropped it.

Just when did Suzuki drop the Z250?
Are you saying 2005 is the last year they are selling it?

 

Ahh, the "youth quad" term was not put into context properly by me in so much as it would be a sport quad that would bridge the gap for the 16+ year olds too big for today's current crop of youth sized quads and the bigger 450 class atv's. More like a higher performance Blaster replacement.
Sorry if my comment was off base, but developing a (125cc/250cc type class to fill the void in the atv world, like in the motocross world) will further the growth of the sport and help families trying to help their son or daughter be a racer, not have to resort to custom building a race quad for them to participate with. Some of these youth race quads can easily surpass the price of somthing produced by a manufacturer, even if you upgrade the suspension and other products to get it up to race specs.
I know I sure would have appreciated a 125/250cc class bike when I was a teen, instead of having to ride my trusty 185s, and sneaking rides on my dad's ATC 250r. (It was back in the day folks, circa 1984/1985.)
By the way, there are also rumblings of Kawasaki looking into putting a KXF 250 into a sport chassis as well.

The Phantom.....will return....

 

well yammi dosent realli have a youth size racing quad the raptor 50 and 80 arnt realli racing they dont even have a-arms