I am looking to upgrade from a blaster to either a banshee or Raptor,i will mostly be doing trail riding,is the banshee going to be too much for trails? I haven't ridden either one so i am not sure which would be the best....any help would be appreciated...

 

I just spent 4 days over this last weekend riding my Raptor, and a Banshee 2002. We had a nice wash to drag in. It was approx 900ft in length. There was my Raptor, the stock Banshee, a stock Raptor, and a similar modded 2001 DS650. The only one to stay with me and win on a few occasions was the DS650. The Banshee hauls azz, and can be ridden in trails. It won't like it in my opinion but with a little feathering on the clutch when needed it will work. I rode the Banshee quite a bit and it likes to be ran wide open. Banshees are a lot of fun but, I don't think it will want to putt around on slow trails. JMO

P.S. Put some tires on the stock Banshee that will grip well and it would have been right there or just 1-2 bike lengths behind instead of 4-6, the tires just spin and spin. JMO.

 

If trail riding is what you like then I would go with the raptor over the banshee, due to the simple fact that the raptor is a 4-stroke so there will be less feathering of the clutch in tight trail riding.( just my opinion)

 

If it's trail riding and if you don't know where you are going. If you need to turn around lots, it's a no brainier. REVERSE IS A MUST. And who is behind you will appreciate your brake light.

The Raptor

 

first how come nobody sad this stuff to me when i asked (lol) just kidding
but the shee got a brake light for 02

 

The Banshees 2 stroke will load up if put-putted around all the time, and will not be very happy.
Go with the Rap.

-Matt

 

if your goal is to stick with yamaha then go with an '02 raptor
the banshee is a lot more work on tight trails and the thumb throttle is tiring after 5 minutes or so
this is not meant to dis the banshee by any means it just that its no where near as trail-specific as the raptor...
the raptor was designed with trail riding in mind thats why it has the reverse...

 

I am a banshee owner so I will log into this conversation. I say I must AGREE with everyone on here to an extint.

I LOVE aggresive trail riding with my banshee. BUT I did do many mods to make it alot more trail friendly than it was stock. The banshee can flat out HAUL AS* on trails if they are big enough. But the Raptor will do better for you in tight tight trails.

Either quad will do you good, but I really wouldnt count out the Cannondale. They are MEAN trail quads.

All of this is JMO...

 

<< The Banshees 2 stroke will load up if put-putted around all the time, and will not be very happy. >>



We trail ride our Banshee's up here and have never had any problems. Still on the same plugs as when I bought it and it runs great.



<< the banshee is a lot more work on tight trails and the thumb throttle is tiring after 5 minutes or so >>



Correct, it's a bit tedious to ride on a tight trail, but my thumb has never gotten tired. Not sure, maybe I'm more resistant than most [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] . My friend has a twist throttle on his so I can't ask him if his gets tired.

Now, with that said I can't really say much more because I have never driven a Raptor. What I can say is that the Banshee performs adequitly on all of the trails I have taken it on. I think the places it has the most problems are, are on steep hills where you can't really get a run on them because it has a very narrow powerband. So, you'll be starting up the hill and it will be bogging, so you crack the throttle and after the RPM's get built up it will give you a sudden power hit and you'll start spinning. Other than that and a few other minor things it goes pretty good.

Another friend of mine has a Warrior, and another has a 300ex and to be perfectly honest I think that the 4 strokes go better in the really tight stuff that is very slow going, but the difference isn't night and day. Since the Raptor is 4 stroke it probably would be a bit better in the slow stuff, but since I have never ridden one I can't say because there are other factors such as gearing and when the engine starts developing power (which is probably down low since it's a 4 banger).

As for Reverse, yes, that is a big plus especially on the trails that you don't know very well or have never been on. Although, you can get by without it for the most part. That is up to you to decide.

Anyway, that is just my $0.02.

-Josh