What you guys think of 'other' quads

[marshall100]

I was out with a friend the other evening and he had upgraded from my old yamaha warrior to an 07 yfz450. The inevitable swap of machinery happened with him riding my dale and me on the yam.

My first impression was that while it was easier to ride, I think you could quite easily find yourself having a massive accident and not knowing too much about it. I think his was pretty stock, the shocks bottomed out while jumping, and I could never go back to a carb fed motor or cable clutch. The gearbox felt very loose, but other than that it was quite nice. I guess if I wanted to be like everyone else in this part of the world then I'd get one, or at least one with fuel injection.

Nice enough and a massive upgrade over the old warrior we both had at one point, just felt a bit 'meh' if I'm honest. Didn't blow me away like I thought it might.

I would tell you what he thought of the dale but he got cocky and crashed it comming over a table top!.

I've only been on a few quads so I'm interested what those of you think when compared to the dale.

[themadhatter]

QUOTE (marshall100 @ Sep 28 2010, 11:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was out with a friend the other evening and he had upgraded from my old yamaha warrior to an 07 yfz450. The inevitable swap of machinery happened with him riding my dale and me on the yam.

My first impression was that while it was easier to ride, I think you could quite easily find yourself having a massive accident and not knowing too much about it. I think his was pretty stock, the shocks bottomed out while jumping, and I could never go back to a carb fed motor or cable clutch. The gearbox felt very loose, but other than that it was quite nice. I guess if I wanted to be like everyone else in this part of the world then I'd get one, or at least one with fuel injection.

Nice enough and a massive upgrade over the old warrior we both had at one point, just felt a bit 'meh' if I'm honest. Didn't blow me away like I thought it might.

I would tell you what he thought of the dale but he got cocky and crashed it comming over a table top!.

I've only been on a few quads so I'm interested what those of you think when compared to the dale.

the yfz450 is a good modern day quad, its fast and focused on track, as with almost all bikes in standard form they are mearly bult to be easy for a wide range of people and skill levels to ride.
handling wise i find them a bit vague but the do have a nice power band.
im from the old skool way, im a 2-smoke fan, my trx is quite possibly the most perfect bike ever produced with the best handling characteristics of any quad even to this day. altho it has a complete aftermarket well....everything it out performs even the fastest 4-strokes with ease.
ive not had the pleaser of riding my cannondale offroad or even at all yet but by the looks of it, its gonna be fun fun fun!!

[cannondale27]

I owned a 06 YFZ and rode a YFZ R last week on a MX track and field. Stock while fitting me a little better leg wise than Dale and motor it was noticably weaker on top than my ported stock exhaust, airbox quad. I would choose the Dale. Now modded. Fit Propegs which lowers footpegs and either higher bars or a small riser, Refresh '06 all shocks/revalve front shocks on R and put a pipe, cam mod, jetting '06, 06 cam and tuner new one on both and honestly I think I would choose a YFZ '06 or newer over the Cannondale for everything except highspeed 5th gear trails or tracks. I can get R's out the door for $5400. $600 more or so and its ready for any type of racing out there. It feels 100 lbs lighter and it just fits me perfectly. I am 5'8 and 140lbs so being small its a factor. If I were bigger guy my choice would probably be different and on those highspeed sections I know I would miss my Cannondale. I am heavily invested in Cannondales and the community can't be beat but the prices on all the new ones sure is tempting. But until I either can't afford, don't have or can't get parts I need in a timely manner I am in it for long haul with Cannondales. If Yamaha puts the YZF motor in a quad I will probably find a way to get one since I feel they short changed the quad guys once again by putting old 5 valve motor in new ones. No other new quads interest me as much although I have not ridden a new LTR recently older feels big for me and suspension was way off.

[marshall100]

Interesting 27, I too feel like I'm balls deep into the dale so I'm staying put too. It's slightly ridiculous that a bike as old as mine can keep pace all day and night with equipment that is supposed to be more modern.

I did speak to a local Yam dealer over here about changing both dales to a yam, and while he didn't say no I'd still expect to be handing over some coin to get a fairly old standard bike. Which begs the question, why?

Based on what you've said you'd need to add a load of bits to it to get it where you wanted. I was beating guys last year when I got my dale and the bike was as fresh out of the crate as it was some 8 years before. I didn't have a tether or nerfs on it and they only just let me race.

I also hear that fuel injection is going from yamaha's moving forward ??

[cannondale27]

Well I dont think $600 in parts is a lot of to make a quad work well. We all know that racing is at a minimum 80% rider. If Dale fits you and you are willing and able to work at getting it right yourself instead of a shop they just make sense. Now if you aren't able because of time, tools or knowledge there is alot to be said for going out and just buying a new quad every year or two. After all its about getting out there and riding not wrenching. I never had to touch either my new YFZ or the Raptor other than addons for at least a year. I have never met that goal on any Cannondale yet.

[marshall100]

I'm not so sure. I've had to do minimum work on the dale, to the point of possible neglect. Once Dave identified that it was fouling plugs because the stator was a duffer I've dropped the tranny oil and the engine oil out last week. The first such service all year.

While it's eaten up my time more so than say my yam warrior, which lets face it is a machine not fit for the purpose of racing, but built like you could piss in the engine and it'd still run fine, I'd expect to be doing the same level of service work on any other race bike.

Sure, I've got big jobs lingering like a crank and bearing overhaul etc etc, it's certainly not been the unreliable time consuming machine the world and his dog would have you think it is.

I guess I did forget that I did alot of the major mods before the season started.....

Anyway, with some proper shocks on the front and a few other tweeks suggested by Dave next year should be very interesting.

Any Honda riders on here? In Cornwall there's a couple but most people are using yams or suzuki's.

[themadhatter]

i ride an R' now they are easy to look after and are the lightest and best handling.

im 6' 3 and about 15stone and i can throw that around like a moto-x bike.

the only problem i have ever had with it is i kept cracking the fram on hard landings, but since i replaced the entire chassis with a lonestar one, she is all good.

[cannondale27]

I raced 2 R's back in day. A Duncan and Trinity 265cc. Stock framed aftermarket everything else. They both required alot more work than any quad I have owned since. Stock they are turds compared to any modern 4st and motor mods and all the aftermarket chassis parts needed to make a R competitive makes them not even in the same planet. Seating position is only good for MX, TT and oval. Very uncomfortable for anything else. Not only that but Honda ticks me off knowing what they are capable of and what they give us quad guys. They deserve to fail and only thing keeping people on new Hondas is B.N.G and thier extremely cheap prices for power, parts and quads. Shame!

[themadhatter]

i see were your comming from and yes in standard form they are lame but if we look at it like that almost all quads in standard form are the same. i have the 380ct engine in mine and other than a overhaul every 6months it runs like a dream, yes it doesnt like the cold and you have to clean out the powervalve every race but man it goes like **** off a shovel!!!!
handling is the best because of its featherlite weight.
im tall so i have to have a extended stem but the seating position fro me is great i have a race cut seat foam so yes after a 40min race your bum it rather raw but for the advantages it gives me its definatly exceptable to live with.
at the spec my R' is at and the level rider i am, i have never had any serious battles with any modern 4 stroke they just dont seem to be able to keep the pace my R' can around a mx track.
the biggewst problem i had was from a yfz450 framed trinity 412 banshee, now that was a good combination of speed and handeling!!!.

I would have to say tho, unless i was racing i could not put up with the R' as a road bike for all the reasons above, it would probably kill you in one way or another!!!! ha ha ha

[cannondale27]

No. Most modern 4st STOCK quads with safety mods like nerfs and tether in the right hands can easily win a B class possibly A class race. A stock 250R is only going to win a c class or kids race. Only way you can compare is to try racing one of the new ones yourself. If you are as good as you say I bet you have same results as racing your R with a warrantee, pump gas, little maintainence and a heck of alot cheaper as well.