Gangrene, I never said anything about converting trannies on Raptors... that was your own quote.. not sure where you came up with it. The Raptors, YFZ's, etc need the manual tranny in my opinion. Manual trannies and auto trannies have their place. I respect your opinion that you think that the old 350's are superior to the new 450's. Because truthfully, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have ridden both and in my opinion, the 450 is easily the better machine. If we were neighbors, we could have some fun and settle it out on the trails. :-) Anyways, I have said my piece on the 450's. I think they are great machines for what they are designed for. Yamaha's R&D team did a great job.
Later...

 

I respect your opinion too. It would be fun to have a shootout between the two[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

However I think Yamaha's R&D was more interested in getting higher sales figures from new quad buyers and novices. And Im pretty sure they will. Just the same way GM puts out Hummer H2 and H3 nonsense. Why try and ruin the original?

 

NICE PHOTOS . PLAYING IN THE SNOW IS AT OF FUN , UP HERE IN NOR-CAL WE HAVE 100s OF MILES OF GROOMED TAILS FOR SNOWMOILES & ATVs (UNDER 1500LBS). BUT YOU ARE 1/2 RIGHT I THINK THAT THE CVT DOES TAKE UP SOME POWER BUT HAVING 70 SOME CCs WILL MAKE UP ANY POWER LOSS . THE KAWE 700 SPORT BIKE IS AUTO AND IT KICKS BUTT IN THE SAND. BUT IT HAS BIG CCs ,IF YOU COULD MANLY SHIFT THAT THING (HOLY SHEEP $#!T) LOOK OUT.

 

KODIAK 660 THAT POST WAS FOR YOU,I MENT TO MENTION THAT BUT FOR GOT TOO. YOU SEE SAT I WAS RIDING AND RAN INTO DEAD COW THAT WAS ON THE TRAIL , IT WAS SNOWING UP BY MTN LASSEN AND I WAS DOING ABOUT 25 MPH AND CAME TO A SHAPE RIGHT HANE TURN ON THE TRAIL AND THERE IN THE SIDE OF THE TRAIL WAS A DEAD COW (FOZEN) HIT IT WITH MY RIGHT TIRE AND THE NEXT THING I KNOW I WAS OFF THE WOLVY AN IN THE SNOW WITH A BROKIN LEFT ARM AND ABOUT 7 MILES BACK TO THE PICKUP, GOOD THING MY BORTHER INLAW WAS THERE.

 

I would have to agree with Ganggreen on this one . I remember reading a test a few years back where they had two Suzuki Vinsons; one manual shift and one belt drive. They stated that in every performance test ( drag race, roll on, etc) the manual shift machine walked away with it. They also stated the belt drive could not keep up with it's manual shift brother on the tight trails. Belt drives are for women and old men.....just kidding. To each his own.

 

Wolverine68, there is no doubt about it, the CVT trannies rob power. Its simple physics. However, comparing the two machines, the displacement of the 450 (420 cc's or something) more than makes up for the loss. I was always fond of the old 350 Wolverine. Was a great machine. But after owning the 450, the choice is easy. But again, thats just me. For out and out racing, I prefer manual shift. For extreme trail riding, hill climbing, etc, I prefer the Ultramatics. Depends on the application I guess. Also, as you can see from my other post (my review on the new Wolverine), don't make the mistake of basing your opinions about the Wolverine on a test ride. The machine literally came alive at about 10 hours.

 

Thanks and I'm glad you didnt get hurt worse......I sent you a PM.

 

So why not just make the 450 with the standard tranny to begin with? Even if you do have the 70cc's more you still have added 40 pounds more weight from the cvt, plus the power loss, so the performance is null.

 

The 40 lbs didnt come from the cvt.. the diff between the manual eiger and the cvt eiger is 13 lbs...water cooling and a few other changes helped adding the weight.

 

Gangrene, I know what you are saying. I think by adding the CVT, they knew they would sell more units for the simple fact that they are easier to ride. In my opinion, it would be perfect if you could choose between CVT and manual. Just like with regular cars and trucks. But its not a perfect world.