My opinion is someone out there will and can blow up a tranny on any bike. I have a 01 as well as 2 other friends and we've had no problems. I think everyone is getting mislead and caught up in the 'Newer' model illusion. Face it we all can't stand to see "improvements" made to a bike that we all just bought and thought was perfect in every way. We wonder and psyche ourselves out that we need the latest and greatest version. Sure it sounds great on paper and you hear the horror stories, but who knows if the 02's will be claimed to have worse problems than the 01's did. The 01 may in the end be the preferred model to have. Ride it, enjoy it. You hear all the bad, and not as much of the good so the percentages are skewed as a whole.

 

I must be one of the lucky Raptor owners, because my Raptor hasn't even coughed, let alone did all those mechanical failures that's posted on this form. My Raptor is completely stock... Why fix something if it isn't broke. I thought about upgrading my bike for more speed, but decided that I would get the most by buying a Suzuki GSX-R750!!! Enough said!!![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

My raptor blew off the carb boots. The dealer chaged me like 20-30 bucks for new ones. So they took care of me the best they could on those. Then the tranny went (2nd and 4th gear went). When it happened it broke the chain, the outer casing, a sprocket, a piece off one of the inner casings (i didnt replace it because it only holds on that fake chain guard). The damages cost just a little under 400 dollars in parts and about 8 hrs of my time. (again the dealer gave me a pretty good discount on parts i got that outer casing for like 166 dollars) Now the real problem I see with being a raptor owner is that i am responsible for damages I really didnt cause. I am presently selling mine. I hope to sell it for about 5800. Its all back together and looks fine. I have all that gytr stuff on it. (belly pan, swing arm skid, exhaust, heel guards, sunset atv front bumper, pro taper bars, new style pro flo intake with jet kit and some other small goodies. I feel yamaha really gave me a raw deal in even selling me this product.
If you want to know more about it, post.

 

I think all the talk about the problems with the 01's is blown out of proportion, I got mine sept last year and have never had any of the problems we keep hearing about, neither has my riding partner who go his right after mine. No reason to trade in or sell off a perfectly good bike. My raptor is a great bike, I sold off my 400ex this year, and my banshee the year before, both had more problems than my raptor

 

Hey nrm660, WHAT IS YOUR VIN NUMBER?
There are two tranny issues, actually three. There must have been some quality control issues, like hardening, tempering of the gears in some of the early Raptors. I still have not heard of one Raptor over 6,000 vin # with a problem. I too believe the gap from 1st to 2nd is too large and reverse is way too high. Yamaha must have fixed the quality control problem mid-stream. And now for '02 they have changed the gear ratios and evidently increased the size of the "dogs" that engage the gears. But Reverse is still too high isn't it? They just added a rev limiter for reverse, right?
We love our Raptor. My 13 year old son rides it like a pro. vin# over 20,000. We even comtemplated waiting for an '02, but that was 6 months ago, and we would have missed out on a lot of good riding if we'd waited.
I think about buying the extended warranty, but no-one seems to have any problems with the later '01's so why bother?
I have overhauled many dirtbike engines and trannys. If this one has any sort of problem, like starts missing shifts, I think it would behoove us to tear it down and put '02 tranny parts in before it blows and gets expensive.
[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

I dont have the vin with me but can post it later over the weekend or monday. I can allready tell you though that the vin is going to be real low. I got my raptor last sept. I was the 2nd person to get one from my dealer. Incidentally the new gears and old gears look identical. Which isnt to say there wasnt some sort of problem with the hardening process. After reassembling it though, I dont believe the hardening was the problem. The tolerences between 2nd gear and that shim/bearing (whatever they call that part it rides on is called im not looking at the manual now) just looks to sloppy for the application to me. This looks like it could be fixed through strengthing the gears, but i dont think thats really addressing the problem. Just covering it up.