Talked to a dealer Sat. and he said that they were having problems with emissions. Then again this is the same guy who told me there was no 700 for 07. The emissions problem does sound like a valid reason along with the shifter problems..

"FLO WHEELIN"

 

My dealer said the same thing, emissions, so did the dealer an hour down the road. Supposedly the warehouse is full of 700's collecting dust waiting for the emissions to get passed by the goverment. Kinda sucks that everybody got all excited June 24th with a July release scheduled, and now we are looking at an early September release if we are lucky. Still hopeing it is worth the wait.

 

ATVs have to pass emissions? Since when did they have to go through that BS? They're off highway after all. Oh I could understand having to jump through those sorts of hoops for Californistan but not for the normal and sane parts of America. I had no idea they bothered with such ridiculousness for ATVs of all things.

 

Got our shipment of 700FI's today, other than the initial one we were sent. only had time to set-up one, didn't even put the skidplates on before I took her for a drive to test it out, here are some things that stood out to me

The Good...

EPS- this is simply amazing, I can basically from a stand still push the bars to turn with my index finger with little effort, very good steering.
Smooth- and i thought the 660 was a pretty smooth ride, this thing makes a polaris feel like a raptor 80(rough ride)
motor- very very smooth it seems alot like a twin the way it drives.
tires-although not great, a definate step up from the old meats.
FI- very easy starts, i thought it worked well.
weight distribution - bring on the wheelies, very easy, and i thought the 660 was a pretty easy quad to walk on the back 2 wheels.
brakes - stoppies on a ute quad??? i think so.
seat - that is the fattest plushest seat in the history of atv, maybe the yfz designers could take some lessons.
suspension - really soft, soaks it up, for young guys like myself, it could be stiffened a couple notchs for more aggressive riding.


The bad...
pull start- where is it, it aint there.
gas tank - good cuz theres not hose danglin around, bad its hard to fill without using a large funnel.
handlebars - suck as usual, taller bend than 660.
battery location-i didn't have a super close look, but from what i see you need to remove 8 bolts, including the rack just to get at it.
eps mechanism-looks very vulnerable because of its placement.
storage - all the extra storage everyone bragged about, ya its nice and a step up from the 660 and others, its nothing especially big.
body roll- still there but it ain't bad, significantly better than the 660

i had a few concerns, but only time will tell if thats just me worryin when there's nothing to worry about or not, as far as driving it, I came away thoroughly impressed and absolutely loved the newest grizz from yammi.

 

Yami450D. So did you need to retro fit the shifter mods from Yamaha or was this actually all completed by factory before shipping. Thanks for report and please keep reports coming. I have over 1000 miles on my new 700 Griz with no problems at all. In my dreams that is.

 

no shifter mods came with it or any other things for that matter so ummm...

the bad...

another thing- the shifter, what was wrong with the old one, this one is hard to shift gears with, very notchy and takes alot of effort.

i will phone my rep monday and ask if there are parts comin for it etc. but as of right now, she is as she is, no retro fitting parts so far.

 

Yami450D, thanks again for all the info, we'd be in the dark if not for you. I'm sure you've sold all of your first shipment already. Anybody else get thier hands on one besides Yami450D? I'm still patiently waiting.......... well maybe not patiently. My dealer got in a new Grizzly 450 on Saturday, and of course dangled it in front of my nose by saying he got in a new Grizzly and then adding that it was a 450... ha ha ha..... not. So if anybody out there gets one, feed us some scraps to keep us hopeful.

 

i really like the gas tank filler. i havent seen it in person yet, but i always use a funnel, so it wont bother me. i have money down for the first blue one that comes in. the lack of a pull start seems dumb, but than again, can you put one on a FI? oh well, ill just sit here and wait it out. im working on picking out my wheels and tires now, so when i get it, they can go right on.

 

that is true yodawagon, from what i know it would be pointless on an efi quad cuz the efi needs the battery juice to run it, and for me, i could care less cuz my yammi's over the years have never made me pull start em'. good ol yamahas. its just thats a concern alot of my customers have with it, but efi is the future and the grizz is it.

 

In all honesty... that pull starter is just a comfort thing anyways... I mean really... How many of you have actually been able to pull start your quad when the battery was dead??

I really can't wait to get my hands on my new 07... It's especially hard, because I've been wanting to mod my 06 some more... but am holding off, cause I'm trading it in anyways...

As for the body roll... If you think it's a step up from the 660 version... just wait til you see how well it performs when you have bigger tires on it...