Im finally in the market for a sport quad and it looks like most manufacturers have dropped the line.

When did the Suzuki Quad racers go exstinct??

Anyway, looking around I've narrowed it down to two models.

Yamaha RAPTOR 660R and the BANSHEE 350 Twin. They seem to be the biggest and baddest on the block.

Im torn between the two so Id like to hear opinions on both machines from "you" who currently own or have ridden these machines.

Thanks in advance!!

The best ever???

The Honda Fourtrax 250R. Hands down. They stopped making them in '89, but they are still out there, either restored or one you can restore yourself.

More aftermarket parts exist for this quad, than for the AR15 series rifle.

Here's a pic of me, on my old one...


[img]http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid14/paa5a7617c76b5c30a4875571cf5ef712/fde07173.jpg[/img]

The trails were VERY muddy that day.

OK, OK, from the two choices you mentioned....

...depends on what you plan to do with this quad.

If you are gonna ride primarily woods, rough terrain, hilly areas where you'll need down low grunt power to pull the quad out of tight spots, get the raptor. Its a four stroke, and has a more forgiving power band,

If you'll ride primarily dunes, open fire trails, and teeth grittin', hair on fire high speed terrain, you can't beat the Banshee. Its power band is a sort of on / off power. When its off, you ain't goin' ANYWHERE. WHen its on, yer goin' places you may not wanna go. You NEED open, more forgiving spaces for this quad. Trust me, other than these types of open areas, you DO NOT want a Banshee. But for open areas, this IS the ticket.

Of all the GNCC pros who race, maybe one or two ride banshees. (GNCC = Grand National Cross Country) Almost all the rest of 'em got variations of teh Fourtrax 250R. [:D]

Seriously, if you are handy in the garage, DO NOT over look a used 250R that you can restore.

Interesting,

The terrain will mostly consist of open land and logging trails. Im sure my life will flash before my eyes on either machine.

Back in the late '80s I had two Banshees,  One for sand drags and sand hill-climbs,  the other for flat track racing.  I occasionally trail rode but the Bsnshee was just too high strung to be much fun on the trail and it was also very high maintance.  It seemed like every other time I took it out trail riding I had to strip it down to bare frame and rebuild it. I have not kept up with the quad scene in ten years so my info is dated but there were several weak points on the chassis and engine that needed to be taken care of before any serious riding could be done.  The "J" arm would always bend (the upper control arm for the front susp) so I fabricated an "A" arm to strenghten this area.  The rear axle was butter soft and prone to bending so I updated to an Axecaliber axle in +2 width. The axle carrier bolts were too weak so I upgraded them to 1/2" titanium aircraft bolts.  The stock wheels were buttery soft so they needed to replaced with a high grade aftermarket wheel. I also lowered the suspension and built an anti-roll bar for the front susp. (for racing) For sand dunes action I fabricated a head light from a car that was far better then the stockers.   The engine has very little low end in stock trim so that needed to be addressed in several areas.  I put on FMF gold series midrange pipes, Boysen reeds, carb rejet + fabricated "Ram-air" with K@N filters, milled and bored and a little port work by Darcy.   These are just a few of the things I did to these quads to make them better.  One other thing you will want to consider is in the engine compartment you have two of everything to deal with.  The Banshee was a great quad but needed a lot of help to get there.