90% rider, 10% bike. And no I don't think I'm the best rider in the world, but unless you're talking a drag race, I'll keep up just fine.....

 

Funny cause I have sent every other one of my bikes to the same shop and the 440 is the only one who gives us ****. The shop my **** goes to does some PRECISION work - I mean damn man. When they O-ringed my cylinder and made my copper gaskets I was like :-O; very-very fine good work. They built my Warrior motor as well so they seem to know their ****! I mean mod for mod your right dude but like I said it’s usually the person with the deepest pocket. How many Warriors like mine exist? Probably a handful in the world... But that’s what makes it cool! The one time the 400 top end blew up the motor was still stock… so it hadn’t even had been through a performance shop yet. But I think it’s funny that as you question most major performance companies on the 400 and even the 300 top end they go into explicit detail on needing hardweld rockers even in stock form as well as other problems related to head bolts, valve train components, heat, and so on…. Why do you think the 416 kit is so popular? – Reliability…

I also never said a warrior will compete with more recent bikes mod for mod - but how many YFZs and Raptors do you see? Ok they are already fast.... Then take a warrior and make it beat them and you have people scratching their heads - its just an awesome project and original. I plan on getting another project quad soon since the Warrior is reaching it's limit running TRIPPLE it's stock HP!! - not to shabby...

 

I totally agree with D3athShad0w. I think some riders forget what has made Yamaha ATVs what they are. Their stock designs are rock solid with lots of room for improvement. This is why the Banshee and Warrior motors were made the SAME way for almost 20 years. Right now, you could walk into a dealer and pick between a 200 2 stroke, 350 2 stroke, 350 4 stroke , 450 4 stroke 660 4 stroke 700 4 stroke. All sport models. Now in truth they could just have the rap 350 as the "normal" sport quad and the 450 as the race grade motor. They don't do this because they know people have their own modding style. I love it when 400/450EX riders say they smoke stock 660s but when you bring up that they make 727 big bore stroker kits, they don't say much. The fact is, the Raptor/Warrior 350 is Yamaha’s sport/tank ATV. They know people who would have owned a Warrior in the past will know and trust the same motor on their next quad or even their kid's first ATV. If you look at Yamaha's level of engineering in their new products: Apex and Phazer snowmobiles, The 2006 R6 sport bike and the Raptor 700 ATV... do you think they would keep stamping their name on that 350 motor if it didn't hold up? In its stock form, the raptor/warrior 350 will not win you many races but, it can be the same case across the whole lineup.