smokinwrench
02-14-2006, 12:06 AM
My riding buddy and me took out a new Outlaw and his 05 Troy Lee today. For a good side by side test run down the river (dry sandy bottom, high speed riding with lots of whoops and small drop offs).
We rode the crap out of it for about an hour this afternoon. I have got to say it did not impress me that much. After reading all the hype on the net about it I was expecting to trade off my Troy Lee today.
It does have a smooth ride but it has a heavy feel. I can pick the front end off the ground on the Predator at any speed to help smooth out whoops, can't do that on a Outlaw. We did jump it a bunch on some off camber jumps. It lands perfect everytime, but feels heavy when it lands. I'm sure the suspension needed some fine tuning and he adjusted on it before I got there to soften it up a bunch. Seemed like when you got into a long set of whoops it was some what uncontrolable on the rear. One time the back would sling left then the next whopp it would sling right. Then next whoop the rear would try and pogo you clear off. The Troy Lee is very predictable on how it handles, pretty much does the same thing everytime.
I'm sure it can be tweeked to run very fast and smooth. But I'm not willing to trade off my 05 Predator. I can tell you this if I still had my 400ex and test drove this Outlaw I would have bought it today. I think you will see the other quad companies have a IRS sport quad very soon, because it offers some very good features, but it's just not for my style of riding.
We rode the crap out of it for about an hour this afternoon. I have got to say it did not impress me that much. After reading all the hype on the net about it I was expecting to trade off my Troy Lee today.
It does have a smooth ride but it has a heavy feel. I can pick the front end off the ground on the Predator at any speed to help smooth out whoops, can't do that on a Outlaw. We did jump it a bunch on some off camber jumps. It lands perfect everytime, but feels heavy when it lands. I'm sure the suspension needed some fine tuning and he adjusted on it before I got there to soften it up a bunch. Seemed like when you got into a long set of whoops it was some what uncontrolable on the rear. One time the back would sling left then the next whopp it would sling right. Then next whoop the rear would try and pogo you clear off. The Troy Lee is very predictable on how it handles, pretty much does the same thing everytime.
I'm sure it can be tweeked to run very fast and smooth. But I'm not willing to trade off my 05 Predator. I can tell you this if I still had my 400ex and test drove this Outlaw I would have bought it today. I think you will see the other quad companies have a IRS sport quad very soon, because it offers some very good features, but it's just not for my style of riding.