OK, first I didn't come here to get a Honda/Yamaha thing going! I've owned and ridden a bunch of bikes form both manufacturers. My philosophy is to do your homework, then buy what is best for you. FOR WORSE OR FOR BETTER, WE ALL DESERVE TO RIDE THE BIKE WE PICKED!! Enough about that.

The Raptor is going to get some big changes next year (suspension, transmision, etc.). My question is, do you think Yamaha rushed the Raptor into the market to counter the sales of the DS, without quite finishing the R&D? Those of you who are old enough, will remember that the Banshee originally came out with J-arms, then got a change to A-arms. Did Yamaha leave some of the R&D to be done by the customer? Bombardier also made a lot of changes to the DS after its original run. Everywhere you hear not to buy the first year run of anything. Is this just plain wise advice?

On the other hand, MX dirt bikes get big changes almost every year, and nobody blinks an eye. In fact, the customers expect it, and nobody views this as a bad thing!!

 

Same thing with the warrior. They upgraded the front end geometry and gave it a bigger carb after two years. And I believe the wolverine had an upgraded carb after one year because of carb issues. Now I'm hearing that the new grizzlies have issues with the front diff bearings going (with no replacements yet!). I don't know. And the raptors weak axle, and weak tranny. The grizz 600 had a list of upgrades after one year that was a mile long! These seem like basic things that you would think they would discover on the prototype model testing when they are still in the design stages of the quad's development. I think it is good that they are upgrading their product, but why don't they discover all these issues before releasing the vehicle initially? But I don't think it is only yamaha. Look at honda and the initial issues they had with bad welds on the ranchers. And remember the 87 quadzilla lt500 with the most messed up jetting you could ever imagine. These aren't problems that are arising after riding the vehicles for a couple years. These problems are happening within weeks of being new. Don't these companies have any quality control?

I don't mean to sound like I'm bashing yamaha anyway (i've owned 2 warriors, one blaster, and several 200 and 225 trikes).

 

I think they somewhat rushed it to market. I heard a rumor that they didn't want to put the R&D into the trans at first because they didn't know how good it would do in the market. That would explain why it got the trans makeover for 2002. My only complaint about mine is the big gap between first and second and the clutch overheats once in awhile because of this. Other than that I haven't had a problem. I'm originally a Honda guy myself. I've had all Honda streetbikes and a 250X back in the day and NEVER had a problem with any of them. If Honda put out a quad like the Raptor I would have took it over the Yamaha anyday. I also had a Warrior and Mojave with no problems at all.
As for Suzuki I had a quad racer and quadsport and they were complete junk IMO. If Honda came out with something really cool I would have to think about a trade in. Later

 

Hard to tell if they rushed it out to counter/contend DS sales. Maybe they were over on their R&D budget/costs and so released it early? Or maybe they didn't do enough "extreme condition" testing. If so then quite possibly a portion of their R&D is as you say now being provided by the customers (sad if true). For expensive purchases I make it a rule never to buy the first year of a new or completely redesigned item. I figure I don't want increase the chances of having to deal with manufactures and their bureaucratic warranty departments. I came real close to buying a Raptor for my wife when they first came out, but decided to wait awhile and see how they fared. Since then other new sport ATV's have come out and so I've been waiting for them to work out any bugs they might have before I make a decision.

Rude Dog

 

I do make it a rule never to buy the first year of anything (most of the time). I dont think all the testing they do can compare to "real world". It usually takes a year watching the product to work out the weakness's that creep up. Minor changes are one thing, but a whole new bike is different.

 

Is it posible that the raptor was going to be a 400ish quad? yammie is making a sweet handling quad to stomp the 400ex and all the sudden... uh oh! those dang canadians have a big bore! oh well, lets just through the mz engine in, I bet it has really similar mounting points to a 426... Someone should check gear ratios, I bet that the rapor has stock mz gearing!