I have a question for all Raptor owners. I have a lot of negative and positive thing about the Raptor. I am thinking about purchasing one and was wondering how reliable is the Raptor.

 

AS reliable as any othe biike out there.

 

I have 1050 miles on mine with no problems.

 

I have had mine almost a year and haven't encountered any major problems. (hopefully stays that way)

Mine unit wasn't setup correctly from the dealer and after the first few rides the left shock fell off. Checking the rest of the bike I found nuts missing from the other shocks, other loose parts. But I don't blame Yamaha for this, just the dealership dropping the ball and not earning the 75.00 prep fee they charged me. The lesson I learned was to make sure you go over everything carefully no matter what kind you buy.

Spongy rear brakes. (need to try rebleeding & adjusting pedal height maybe based on my research on this forum)

Love the Raptor overall and wouldn't trade for it for anything... Well almost anything.

I'm sure the following comments will start pissing contest but I'm just speaking from my personal experience over the last 10 years w/ ATV's and really am not interested in getting into the "my quad is better than your quad crap",

so please don't bother!

If Honda made a similar quad w/ reverse and 660+ I would strongly consider.

Having owned many different quads and watching what friends go through with theirs, I would have to say Honda is best overall for Price & Reliability.

No major complaints about the Raptor, it has been a great purchase. I must admit, little scared w/ all the stuff I have been reading here and wish I purchased the extended warranty. (Carbs Blowing Off, Axle, A-Arms, Tranny)

I think a lot of it has to do w/ your individual riding style and if you plan to take care of your ATV or beat it up.

If you are going to run through 4FT of water save yourself a lot of headaches and buy a jetski.

If you are going to soar 15-20ft in the air on a 400 pound ATV (don't get upset if you bend axles / wheels) buy a dirtbike or consider getting an airplane.

The parking brake is strange, has a rev limiter and will cause the ATV to backfire when its on and prb. part of the cause of people saying carbs are blowing off along with valves out of adjustment and the idle mixture/settings.

Just my 2cents...I currently have about 300+ miles on it.

Try to test drive anything before you buy if your dealers will allow, made my decision much easier.

Goodluck with your decision!

Jason

 

I have had mine since december 15 no problems at all

 

Once you buy the raptor, I agree Go thru the bike Double check all bolts nuts etc....
I had a similiar problem with lots of loose stuf..
Luckily I went thru the bike before riding the first time. OTher than that i had mine 2 months now. And ride 3-4 days a week. I love it with no problems. Wishing i had more money for mods
(( don't we all ))
Machine will be as dependable as long as you maintain it. I bellieve thats true for any bike.

 

I have had my raptor since sept. 16th 2000. I have had only 2 problems with it. 1 a bent my axle but that is normal cause i bent one on every other bike i have owned. (they dont like 90ft triples The only other thing is i snapped my chain twice. If you ride hard this happens due to the fact that 520 chain is only rated for 400cc's. Thats why bomb's have 530 chain. I will be upgrading my chain to a 530 before my next race. Realy is bad getting towed of the track by a EX. ACK! any way great bike the raptor is. The only problem you will be having is all your buddies wont want to ride with you cause they ll get sick of being beat buy your raptor.

 

I prolly shouldn't reply to this, cause I have not been on a Raptor but here are my opinions (like %$^ everyone has one hehe):

I have been looking to buy my first quad for over a month. I have been all over these and
other msg brds researching quads. I have seen so many "well my cousins brothers wifes nephews sisters friend had a raptor and it was junk, get a honda" or
"my friends neighbors babysitters boss bought a honda and it blew up as soon as he started it", it made me sick!

I am sure there have been a few Raptors/400ex/Polaris with problems, as well as every other ATV out there.
*stuff* happens!.

Do you really think yammy would put a junk quad out in a market that is taking off, I doubt it.
Remember they are competing among themselves. A bad Rep in a quad will hurt current AND future sales.

And if for some reason they did, you would see the boards FILLED with post after post of the SAME problems and many
a irate rider. A pissed off customer will scream louder than a happy one. Also, Sales on the bike
would suffer as the word got around. And you wouldn't see all the posts about how much these guys love
their quad.

While I opted for the 400ex, the Raptor is a damn sweet looking bike. It just looks mean hehe.
The ds650 is a nice looking bike too btw. Rotax engines are used in high end racing carts btw and yes
they kick ***..

In the end, its what YOU want to lay that hard earned cash down on. I went for the 400ex, as I felt I didn't need all
the ds650 and Raptor had to offer. I mostly trail/river bottom/wood etc ride.

Best thing I found to do on these boards is to siff through all the BS and take a general consensus
about the particular bike your researching. Read everything you can from multiple places by multiple people.

 

Well after another day of riding my 2nd problem showed up!

Don't know if it will turn out to be a major problem at this point.

See my other post for details http://forums.atvconnection.com/thre...B=1&Tid=270900


Jason

 

So far in 4 days since i've had mine there has been only one major problem: I had a rear shock leak all of the oil out. Had a bolt come out of the headlight assembly but that was mostly my fault for not tightening things up after I bought it. Also can't wait to replace these tires. They are pretty good..but will get flats if you live in rough stuff. (yes i've had one already).
Plan to get Holeshots or Razrs and see what happens. All in all as long as the dealer doesn't give me fits with the shock i'm very happy.