I recently bent the frame on my warrior so now i am looking for a new ride. a friend of mine has the DS, seems like a great ride. I am looking to either buy the Raptor or the DS. What is your opinions of them, does the Raptor have tourqe like the DS does. How do they compare to each other. Thanks for the help.

 

Feb. issue of Dirt wheels compares ds650 - raptor
both are close but I think the rides opted for the raptor ,, for handling....

 

They both are great bikes. When I bought my DS last month, there was a raptor right next to it...it almost came down to a coin toss. Anyway, I decided on the DS because I am about 6'2" and 260 pounds, and the DS felt like it could take a bigger rider. When I sat on the Raptor, it felt kind of narrow and high. I not trying to knock Yamaha. I was trading in a '96 Warrior that never left me stranded. The Bomb seemed to have all the things alerady on it that I wanted to do to the Raptor if I was going to buy one...extended a-arms, ext-axle, .530 chain, douglas aluminim rims, etc...As far as the torque goes, the Raptor is a torque monster. I rode a friend's and I couldn't keep the front end down. (You think the Warrior was a wheelie king!) We did race on the street. My friend could not even take off from the line because he always would end up on his back. We did go from the punch in 3rd, and I did pull from him pretty hard, and kept pulling from him through 4th and 5th. He is also about 40lbs lighter than me too. I wish he could have gotten a good start, because it probably would have been a pretty close race. As for the Feb issue in Dirt Wheels: I have it right here in front of me. (...nearly all of our test riders preferred the raptor over the bombardier...of course, that probably had something to do with the raptor having a quite few more dollars in it- the shocks, a-arms, ans axle all added up to around $2,800...) It is obvious which one I prefer, but they are both great bikes, and you probably can't go wrong with either one.

 

Personally, I like Yamaha but I would probably buy the DS. If the DS had reverse it wouldn't even be a question. The DS has a few problems and so does the Raptor but from what I've read SOME people are having pretty serious problems with the Raptor like tranny troubles. Besides, since the DS came out it seems like most of the problems have been corrected. I had a chance to ride a DS a few weeks ago and I did like it a lot. It's great if you are a big guy too.

 

A ds isn't only for big riders. I got one and i am only 170lbs. I have no complaints with it. I'm not telling you what to buy because i have never driven a raptor, but keep in mind that you don't have to be 220lbs to own a ds.
I know a lot of people are having a hard time making a choice between these quads. My friend is trying to make the same decision.
Anyways good luck and I hope you find the bike you want.

 

Stats; Drag Race(Read and Observed), usually Raptor but not by a large margin, definatly no "blow away".

Top Speed, very close

They are 2 different Quads, the DS was designed as a Desert/Dune King and appears to be so,
but that is not to say it cannot be ridden elsewhere and do just fine.

The Raptor is made to be a "Jack of All Trades"
and dose that as good as any, in the Sport Quad field that is.

Y2K

 

The DS was designed as a Duner. The Raptor does it all and wins. Can't imagine riding a DS on the trails. can't tell you how the other machines perform til i install a rear view mirror.

 

I chose the ds. Yesterday i had an experience to ride w/ a raptor. My ds is outfitted w/ only an ENDCAP That we custom built (0.00$) and a K&N filter. IN drag races in sand the ds pulls out ahead right away and i beat it by about 3 lenghts (many races), then on the road the ds pulls out at an early lead (2nd gear start) and never looks back. At the end of the Blacktop race, the ds was ahead about 2-3 lenghts. Top end the ds has more w/ the endcap and filter. The ds tracks much better everywhere also. More stable. The ds also shows better suspension in rough stuff and in the jumps. THe raptor owner was very supprised of the ds. I guess WHen you throw somone on a Ds that knows how to use the power and is use to it, then the story changes. (mags say ds is behind in everything)

 

Maybe the guy on the raptor did not know how to use the power.......

 

Or maybe i was using the ds's power instead of not knowing how to ride it?