i currently own a yamaha banshee, a yamaha TRI-Z, and a RAPTOR. My good riding friend got a new DS 650 for a real good price. he called me and invited me to go riding and i was exited. i dont usually believe the stuff the mags say about quad testing. and i was anxious to see about the DS. I found out quick what they meant about twitchy handling. every time you hit a bump on the DS the bars are almost jerked out of your hands. when you turn it sharp it turns wayyyyyy too quick. and the powerband reminded me of a banshee it sorta has a lightswitch feel to it. dont get me wrong i like the DS it looks cool and looks like it is built to withstand world war 3 but the handling is aweful. and we raced across the cornfield and i repeatedly won. but i didnt say anything for making him feel bad. i would own one but not while the raptor or banshee were in existance.

 

TimmyBoy Upper A-arms correct the lack of adequate caster, fixing the DS twitchiness. Works shocks fix the rest. CDI units without rev limiters are available from Team Pami, and Ron Woods. The Kenda tires suck. We like XCT's 22" in back and 23" in front. Fix these problems, like Bomb did with the Baja, and you've got the sweetest handling machine around.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

 

I don't want to start an argument, but I have both and my ds is the new baja. It is much improved from what I here, I have never ridden a regular ds.

The baja is a very nice bike, but so is the raptor. For most of my type riding, sand and desert, the baja is much better. The raptor though is much better in the woods. I think the baja is much, much smoother to ride. The travel provided, just seems to soak up everything handed to it.

As for racing, I let my buddy ride my raptor, and I rode the baja and from a dead stop the raptor would pull out about two lengths, but from a roll the baja would be even and then start pulling away about third gear. Now, he is a good rider and has ridden my raptor many times. He is also about 60 pounds lighter than me, so I was expecting the raptor to just walk away from the baja and it did not.

I am not trying to start a war, but I think the baja is a much better bike than the previous ds and I believe it is much beefier than the raptor. I see people bashing the DS all the time, it is too heavy, but take a look side by side with the raptor and it is easy to see where the weight is. It is built much stronger.

I like both bikes and am lucky to be able to own both, but I do not bash on either one, they both have strong points and weak points and to copy some one elses words "at the end of the day the guy that wins is the one with the biggest smile".

Bat

 

I think the DS is better out west, and the Raptor is better out east. I know if I lived out west, I'd probably be on a DS, Baja edition of course, with mods from Knutz. But I live in Michigan, where Raptor's Rule! The two best machines out there right now, IMHO.

 

Have to agree with 95Warrior, the Raptor rules in our tight Michigan trails. My buddy's got a wider axle and offset rims and its a problem in alot of the stuff we ride in. I'm an old Rotax fan from way back and it hurt not to consider the Bomb for my Quad of choice. I keep looking at it wondering if the width could be modified to suit our trails. Or maybe they'll come out with a TS650 (Trail Sport). A well balanced diet would be appreciated also. Just a thought.

 

Gotta go with the raptor for the all around ride.