YFZ450R vs Raptor 700 Buyers Guide

foreign foreign today I thought I would answer one of the most common questions I get on my YouTube channel which is if I could only have one quad which one would it be between the yfcr and the Raptor 700 both machines are pretty unique in their own way and I figured I'd kind of run through some of their quirks and differences here to help you decide if you're in the market for one of these two machines so as we jump into this I figured the best analogy when describing both of these is this is a race car and this is a muscle car no matter what you do to the muscle car it's not going to handle like the race car technically the Raptor does come at a narrower width I want to say they're about 47 inches stock compared to the almost 50 inches of the YFC now I've got both of these modified but I do have a decent amount of seat time on both machines in their stock form and the amount of confidence you feel when you're cornering and riding aggressive terrain like jumps or berms and stuff on the YFC is definitely a bit better than if you're on the Raptor that doesn't mean the Raptor can't do those things but you just feel a bit more confident in yourself and there's just I guess you could say less sketchy moments that could happen with something like the YFC over the Raptor the YFC almost encourages you to be in that attacked style position whereas the Raptor is definitely just a bit more casual it's easier to shift your body weight and kind of hang off the machine on the Y so you could say and I think a lot of that is due to the seat and just where your body's at because it's a bit sleeker and lower of a machine aside from just the basic ergonomics and how these machines handle I'd say the biggest dictator for most consumers is going to be where are you going to use this machine and how are you going to ride it if I'm going somewhere that I've been a few times I know what you expect for terrain there's going to be a lot of features there like jumps and berms then I do tend to gravitate towards the YFC if it's a really kind of high paced aggressive environment now if I'm going somewhere I've never been I'd say 99 of the time I would rather be on the Raptor when you're in a new place you're not going to ride super aggressively you're not going to take more risk because you're unaware of what could be around each corner or over the top of each jump once again when you go to a new place you tend to be there for at least the bulk of the day and it's kind of hard to be on a machine that's this aggressive with a little bit firmer seat a little more textile position than being on the Raptor which has got a little more comfortable seat and a little more relaxed position if you're going to be there all day and you're just kind of putzing around the YFC is going to beat you up more than the Raptor in order for the wives see to be written smooth you need to ride it aggressively and write it fast that's when it really excels so if that kind of makes sense when deciding between which one I would use for the day it definitely comes down to how I'm going to ride and because this is such a on off machine you don't really want to go ride it somewhere where you're going to just be putting and half throttle all day because that's exactly what the Raptor is super good at now before I would dive into all the certain environments that I would use both of these machines and I think we should definitely just touch on the power characteristics between them now like all 450s the YFC is a river I think it revs like 2000 RPM higher than the Raptor does you want to be in the Power Band it has more of a Power Band it's happy at high RPM whereas the Raptor can pretty much be at any RPM range you want and as soon as you get on the throttle it's got that torquey power plant that will take it up on its way if you're curious about your straight horsepower numbers these generally come with pretty much 45 horsepower from the factory and these have about 40 horsepower from the factory but like I said the RPM range is just totally different the way the power comes on I don't really think one feels necessarily way faster than the other I will say you definitely notice the torque of the Raptor if you're going to compare these machines side by side so that kind of brings me into the types of terrain where I would ride these machines I'd say the only spot where they really overlap and I have a hard time deciding would be in the sand dunes if I'm going to be out looking for jumps and I want to get some air I tend to always pick the YFC I think it flies a lot better it's a bit more balanced in the air the Raptor does have that slightly taller center of gravity the taller motor I do think it's a bit front end bias so when you are doing jumps with it it can kind of nosedive at times if you don't take off correctly so just for that straight factor in the sand dunes I do really like the YFC if we're just jumping but if we're going to go out and just do some ripping or just exploring like you tend to do at the Dunes man the torque of the Raptor just makes it so easy to ride because you can be in situations that are unexpected like wow I need to be on the power I need power right now instantly and as soon as you lay into the Raptor you're you're going to get that torquey power plant it's going to pull you up the hills and through the dunes look how I have them set up now they both pound the whoops well but the YFC from the factory is going to pound the whips a little better but you have to be on the gas and you have to attack the whoops it just really depends on how much intensity you're going to have when you're riding just to quickly sum up the other environments the YFC is hands down the better machine to ride on a track I think if you're going to take both machines out on a track you're going to notice right away you want to be on the 450 the whole time that doesn't mean the Raptor can't do it but it's just not engineered for it and you can just tell when you have both of them side by side now if we're going trail riding man it is really really hard to beat the Raptor it is just the motor is so fun for it kind of that muscle car type of motor as soon as you hit a straightaway you comp into some hills and you want to do some hill hill climbs or Hill shoots you can just rock the thing and it just screams up the hills it is just so much fun having all that torque and also when it comes to picking these which environment would be best suited for them it kind of comes down to comfort and how long you're going to to be riding if I was going to go on a multi-day trip I would always generally pick the Raptor as kind of my primary machine for that and I wouldn't really want to be on the YFC for like three days straight especially if it's exploratory type routing because like I said you're just not riding as intensely when you're in a new place and I think a lot of us tend to take our machines places and do some exploring and the Raptor just really crushes that aspect of it and that's why it really suits my needs overall and tends to be the machine that I ride more often because this is a bit more specialized also when talking about environments one thing the Raptor is super good at is high speeds you can pull much higher speeds for longer periods of time out of the Raptor you could have the thing in fifth gear at half RPM and it's just not working nearly as hard as the 450 would be to go the equivalent speed you can run you know fourth fifth gear really comfortably for long periods of time on it without having to wring its neck out kind of like the 450s are you tend to really be in the power band on the 450s and you don't want to just be screaming eight nine thousand ten thousand RPM for long periods of time with it if you're really looking to cover ground fast once again these are kind of stock for stock references once you start modifying these things a lot of this stuff doesn't necessarily go out the window but it does drastically change how the machines perform I am trying to just kind of stay on track with how the stock units compare one other side note difference between these is this doesn't have reverse and this does have reverse some people think that as a total deal breaker to me it does not bother me really at all I don't really use the reverse except for times when it's convenient like backing out of my truck or maybe I don't want to have to lift the back end of my quad up to pull a u-turn on a trail or something if it's a tight Trail yes it's convenient to have but to me it's not a deal breaker I mean we have our 400EX that doesn't have reverse that's never been like a detriment but that is just one obvious difference between both of them is that that one does not come with reverse when it comes down to reliability as with all things if you do a lot of proactive maintenance both machines should last a long time but technically the Raptor would probably have a longer life span overall just because of how the motor is designed and how they rev and how they work the clutches are a bit different this has a slipper clutch in it you could say this has a traditional clutch in it the clutch I want to say is if anything easier to run on the YFC some people may not agree with that statement whenever I'm jumping back and forth between the machines I think the YFC is just it's kind of spongy almost and that's not really a bad thing I kind of like it as far as just the ease of use the clutch pulls super easy that doesn't mean the Raptor isn't but that is there is just a little bit of a difference in how the clutches perform on them unfortunately with the YFC the modern clutch baskets that come in them aren't as strong as what came with them originally when they first started production back in 2009 so a lot of owners commonly now upgrade their clutch basket to a 2009 or 2010 clutch basket style Which is less prone to you could say exploding I don't want to dive into this topic real thoroughly if you go on any forums or just do any searching online you'll find there's a lot of discussion on the clutch basket issue with these yfcrs so that is kind of one of the only mechanical issues that these seem to have from the factory so I know I've kind of jumped around a little bit here as far as just talking about some of their differences I'd say just in summary you do have some pros and cons with both of them at the end of the day this is a trail machine or just a straight recreational machine and this is a very race Focus machine so if you're asking yourself which one is right for me you really need to kind of ask yourself what are you going to use the thing for they can both go where each other can go but in those handful of certain circumstances one definitely will outshine the other the YFC is just perfect for if you're going to go out and ride tracks I really love it for jumping it is the machine I want to go push my abilities on if I'm going to be jumping the Raptor in its stock form can be a little tippy and top heavy but it still handles well just like all machines you have to learn their limits the why 5c if anything has limits Beyond me as a rider so I think that's why it's so confidence inspiring if anything it feels safer when I'm riding at those limits but the Raptor isn't really designed to be that it's kind of designed as just an overall all-around awesome Big Bore sport ATV it's in such a fun recreational category and it really is just kind of the top dog to beat with how long they've been in production how much aftermarket is available for them I'd say most of us since I'm a recreational Rider like the bulk of my audience are going to be better off on the Raptor if you're going to only have one of these quads if you're going to be pounding tracks at all you're going to be kind of disappointed with the Raptors performance if that is going to be the bulkier riding is track riding then you have to get a 450 that is just you're going to be safer on it it's just going to be better suited for the job so overall here I just wanted to provide a fairly quick overview at least as quick as I could of both of these quads and which one might be best for you I didn't want to go real in depth here I try to cover things as quickly as I could but there's obviously more quirks potentially and just more differences you could add everybody's got their own opinions on these quads I really love both of them they're both so much fun I would really really appreciate it if you guys could have some productive discussion in the comments section and anybody that wants to bring more insight feel free to please leave a comment down below because at the end of the day we just want to help our fellow sport quad Riders and future Yamaha consumers also feel free to leave any comments down below if you have any questions about my particular quads or any experiences or just anything that you're unsure of I'd be happy to help answer those questions and as always I want to give a huge shout out to everybody that's been supporting us by buying parts and merch on our website you guys rock we cannot wait for the riding season this year we've got way too much snow to really go out and ride right now which is why I made this video today so I hope this helps some of you guys that are in the market for these machines and as always you guys have a great one hope it's uh dry and sunny where you're at and we'll catch you guys on the next one [Applause]

Channel: Pete Hager

Views: 104,342

Keywords: savesportquads

Id: Mi55WWwTxDc

Length: 12min 34sec (754 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 16 2023