Kiwi:

I am hearing Yamaha will put their 426 engine (will be a 450 next year though) in the Raptor and the 660 Raptor will no longer be a production quad. Bombardier is going to come out with a 400 as well.

Looks like everyone wants a piece of Honda's market.

Honda has a great name, makes a great quad in the 400 and is still living off the sucess of the 250R. Do you think the market would change if the pro-class had to be of current models in production? And even further changed to four-strokes? You can't tell me Honda won't fight this kind of a change.

I can't say anything bad about the 400. I would just bet that many of the people buying them today are new to the sport. Which, in reality, the 400 is better than a Raptor, DS, Cannondale, etc. for the newcomer to the sport. I'll also say some of the guys I know that are the better riders among those I know seem to ride the 400's. I sure like the 400 better than my wife's warrior (wish she didn't need reverse.)

 

The difference between the 400 and the Raptor is essentially the motor. I said the first day I got my Raptor, that it's like a 400 with *****. (I also owned a 400 at the time).

Wait until you ride an 'uncorked' Raptor.

I ride a dirtbike in the summer and the quad in the winter. Today I broke my decomp lever on the bike and had to take the quad.

I am still amazed at how much power it has for a quad. Ripping along the trails, you can easily loft the front wheels in 5th! Hillclimbs in the sand are a blast with power to spare.

I can see the pure mx riders wanting a 250R or lagers framed quad, but for the mixed environment rider, the Raptor is hard to beat.

RM

 

thefasterthebetter yeah that sounds right

 

thefasterthebetter,You can't possibly believe that Yamaha is going to discontinue the Raptor after 2 years. They have way too much money invested in R&D, Tooling, Advertising, ETC to discontinue it. Raptors will be around a long time!!

If they come out with a 426 based quad it would probably be built to compete with a C'Dale Moto440 not the Raptor or 400EX. But I wouldn't hold my breath!!

There is a pro production class. You must use the stock motor (with mods of course) & the factory frames. This is to get riders to get the new models out & race them. Honda would be the first to support these rules. They don't make a single Yen from pros racing 250R's!!

These new rules are our only hope of getting the YZ426 & CRF450R in a quad this decade without building one ourselves.