this is for all the raptor owners out there that hear how poorly their quad handle in the woods. this is my first year of racing harescrambles and cross country and all i've seen this year is a sea of red and yellow. well sunday this 37 year old ,gray haired man cracked the top ten at a wnyoa race. i was 3rd in the vet class (had the holeshot, lead 1/2 the first lap smacked a tree, got the lead back and got stuck, settled down and rode clean the rest of the way)and 10th over all out of 69 riders during a 1 1/2 hour race on a 6 mile course through some of the nastiest terrain in northern p.a., so don't believe what you read and hear. you can smoke a lot of other makes and models in the woods on your raptor, you just have to learn to tame the beast. sorry to blow my own horn ,but i practice with guys mostly on 400's and all i hear is too much power and their tippy. well this old man on a rappy put a thumpin on a lot of them this weekend. God bless and keep it shiny side up... oh ya plug your ears when your fellow riders start yappin [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Congrats,you are so correct,the raptor rocks in the woods.Went riding with my buddy with his 400ex this weekend.We switched quads for awhile and he couldnt believe how my stock raptor handled,he liked it better than his 400ex.

 

Yes, the Raptor is an awesome woods rider......don't have to lean on the motor all day to keep up with fellow riders either.

 

Hey 660BigDaddy
Hey, how do you like your Works Triple Rates? I am thinking of buying a set for myself and I also race in the woods. How do these compare to other aftermarket shocks?, how do they handle a tough beat up harescramble track? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

GO BIGDADDY !!!!!

 

i ordered them from shock connestion along with a steering dampener. these are a must for a harescramble. i ordered them with 2" of sag in the fronts to lower the front and for 190 lb. well i found that they increased shock travel by about 2". also i didn't consider the gear i wear when riding + the 10lb of mud you carry sometimes, so i adjusted them to be a little stiffer , and now i don't bottom out so much. the bike really takes a beating during one of these races and so do i. the longer you can hang on, the better you will finish.

 

I ride the trails near Lake Arrowhead in my local (San Bernardino) mountains. These are though, narrow, and fairly technical (but no mud), and are one of the precious few places where we have real single track here in So Calif. You have seen them often before in the magazines, because they frequently do bike tests and shootouts there. Anyway, I ride up there every weekend that I am in town (both Summer and Winter), and I have to say I don't EVER remember seeing a SINGLE RAPTOR, but the place is always crawling with 400EX's!! With its relatively narrow stance, it's obvious that the trail bike market was what Yamaha was aiming for.

It's just an observation. I'll let you readers decide what it means?????

 

So you saying all the 400ex's have retreated into this one area? j/k

I would say if I were in calif, and on a raptor, I would rather be riding sand or somewhere else I could use the full motor. But I ride woods back here in pa, well, because thats all we have and it works out great.

 

I right woods here in North California, because I don't have any beaches that are close. Anyway, the Raptor kicks butt in the woods. I am running totally stock, and have only found a guy on a banshee that can keep up (Plus the dude is the craziest sob I've ever seen. I ride hard, but I also have a family), the rest of what I run into are 400ex's, some Warriors, and a lot of 4x4 quads. Oh, there's also a guy on a 250R that I chase around. I don't think it's the bike as much as he rides so damn good. I'm not the greatest rider in the world, but the Raptor seems to be made for tight trails. Granted, you don't get to use all that motor, but I like that I have more motor than I need.

 

Hey BigDaddy, with a better handling quad you would have missed that tree that jumped in front of you and finished 1st in your class.lol