Ds650

[Modded660R2fast]

I was thinking of upgrading my Girlfriends trx 300ex to a DS650 and i really havent heared much about the pro's and con's. How good are they for trail riding or racing. How easily are they to handle cause she's not that strong. Plus how whellie happy are they. I know there about 500lbs but they make around 38 hp. How soft of a ride are they cause my Raptor has a really stiff shaky ride and She doesnt like it. How durable are they because i want them to last for a long time.

[zeus8807]

their pretty much a cadallac of sport atv's, they got power, and their a great atv as long as *Edited* dont plan on doing any mx or stuff like that on them. their a great trail quad, and i;ve heard their decent on dunes too, but dont know since we have none around here. pretty smooth ride for a sport, handles pretty well, she wont have any problem on it keeping up with your raptor. i havent heard anything about any serious problems with them. they wouldnt be my first choice in a sport, but for someone that just wants a comfortable ride and wants to be able to keep up with the pack their a good quad. my only worry thou is, watch where *Edited* take it, with all that weight, take it to the wrong places and she could have a heard time handling it, i mean that as in places with steep hills or trails that *Edited* realy have to put your weight into it to keep it from tipping.

also a very new quad to look into thats suppose to have very soft suspensionis the new polaris outlaw, seems like it was more designed for the gncc boys, but i would check it out, has a first of its kind rear suspension, havent heard much about them at all so im not saying itll work or not, just that i would look into it.

[250r'en +TCB]

They are excellent machines. Fast to..... The one bad, REALLY bad thing about them is they are HORRIBLE in the snow!!!!! Weighing a lot and haveing those small tires on the back just make them useless in the white stuff.... If you don't live in the north you have no worries though!

[200xman]

There biggest drawback for the trails is their width. One of the guys (Bill) had his at Trikefest and it would keep up with anything but he really had to pick his lines in the woods. The only time the weight should be an issue is if she rolls it. My wife rolled her 500 Scrambler(475#) and it took her and her friend to get it back on the wheels.

[MTS]

IMO i wouldnt get it for her, to heavy to handle for her if she gets in a tight situation, i would look at a 400ex with some mods possibly, or a raptor(quite a big lighter and better handling than the DS IMO)

[90nut]

First hand experience here. They ride like a cadillac, just stay away from the first 2 years they were made. They had som handling issues but resolved that. Wheely happy? No, I have to try to get it to stand up, you can do it but it is not like your raptor. It will keep the front end planted most of the time. They weigh a ton, I think 498 pounds or so, and no reverse!! You get this thing stuck and it is a mother to get it out by yourself. The grab bar is up so high you can't really pick it up and the suspension has so much travel you have to lft like 8 inches before it thinks about coming off the ground. Lots of suspension sag. Really wide and stable, like said above you need to pick your lines in the woods carefully, it is comparabile to the width of a 'zilla. Only real maintanince done to it was adjusting the valves once and a change of tires. Paddles on it were kinda fun in the snow. Other than that just changed the oil and cleaned the air filter. Personally I would not ever have another. I would rather have a stinkin 400ex (can't believe I just said that!!)

[RedRider_AK]

300EX to DS650? Pshaw, why waste displacement? Just buy her a 1000cc drag bike! (sarcasm)

Seriously, though. You're not going to give her any sort of learning period on a bigger machine, you're just going to dump something over twice as big/twice as heavy/twice as powerful in front of her and hope she manages?

As for what you're talking about: DS650 is big and heavy, so it handles like a bear. About it making 38hp, it's actually closer to 30 stock. It's hard to steer (for a girl), and will be uncomforable for her to sit on unless she's quite tall. Not very wheelie-prone.

My suggestions: get her a KFX700, if you want to get her something big. If size doesn't matter, get her a Z400/DVX400/KFX400.

[zeus8807]

i wouldnt get her a kfx400 or z400, not that their hard to handle, i have one and 4 of the guys i ride with have them, and they can be touchy, have the habit of wheeling when least suspected, wanna tilt backwards going up hills, have already had mine hit the top of the hill and try to bounce me off down a very steep and narrow hill, they are nice machines, but unless *Edited**Edited* very fast thinking and prepared to be hurt often they arent the best quad to be stuck on, and everyone one i have ridden is like that, and all the guys i ride with say the same of theirs, no weight in the front has alot to do with it. they can just be hard to predict without a crap load of suspension mods

[MichiganRedneck]

in my opinion, i wouldnt recomend the ds 650. i have ridden one through the trails and i was not impressed with their handling compared to my honda 400ex. i never cared to much for the ds's in the trails. their a blast in the dunes but terrible on the trails. just my opinion

[TimSr]

Ive ridden two of them, and I couldnt recommend one either. They ride really nice, and would be great in wide open spaces, but if youre riding in the midwest where we have trees and mud, I dont care for them at all. Heaven help you if you get stuck because they weigh a ton and are incredibly large. Especially for a girl! I do have to admit that I was shocked at how well they jump considering their weight. I was also surprised at how weak low end was in the mud. If the 300EX isnt getting the job done for her any more, its time to move up to the 400's or 450's. The 300ex with its short wheelbase is incredibly wheelie prone, so any of those would be an improvement in that area.

[Billy Golightly]

The DS650 is a love or hate machine... I like them as long as theres not any tight woods riding involved.

[Modded660R2fast]

She knows how to ride pretty good and she loves the power of my raptor, so thats why i was thinking of getting her the 650. I dont want to get her the kfx700 because its a automatic. I want her to stick with the clutch because everyone else i know rides one and if she wants to switch up bikes i want her to be able to ride everyones. I think i might go with a 440ex with a stge2 hot cam 12:1 compression Jetted with a full yoshi exhaust. I found a 2000 for $2300. The guy said it should be able to hang with my raptor and my brothers kx250f dirtbikes. I just wanted to get her a bike that she could handle and that she could keep up with us when we go to the dunes and trail this spring. Thanks for your input but the new 450s are to expensive for me and her we only have around 1500 to spend and we think we can get $1000 for the 300ex. Also How durable are the 440 kits are they high matinence or just install and ride forever.

[250RNUT]

I just bought my 02 ds baja last week after wanting one for about 2 years. I am a pretty big guy and the ds fits me perfect and has plenty of power. The problem with the ex's to me is that they are way to slow and small for me. The ds is heavy but only if your under it,It does not ride heavy at all.I have ridden mine on the trails and have had no problems negotiating obstacles but in 04 they narrowed and shortened the ds650 to be more user friendly. I guess it all comes down to personal preference but I love the ds's size and power and resale value. You gotta admit those ex's dont hold any value at all even with some mods.Good luck with your choice.

[smokinwrench]

I rode a DS last week. Nice ridign machien but way to dang big. It steered very hard also.

I just sold a 400ex. All it had was a 10:1 wiseco piston, stage 2 hot cam, velocity intake, W/B slipon pipe. It would run with any 400ex out there. It had plenty of power and I could run with anyone in trails. Only problem is I rdie lots of wide open dunes and have started racign some and the suspension is terrible compared to the newer race bikes.

If it was my money being spent I would buy the 400ex. My wife rode mine and she liked it.

[TimSr]

Thanks for your input but the new 450s are to expensive for me and her we only have around 1500 to spend and we think we can get $1000 for the 300ex. Also How durable are the 440 kits are they high matinence or just install and ride forever.

The DS650 is probably not in your price range anymore than the 450's are then.

Why does it have to have a tricked out 440 kit? Shes on a 300ex now. Why not let her get used to the new larger quad and find out what its shortfalls are for her before spending a lot of money on stuff she may not need or want. In many cases, mods for racing are bad for trail riding and the other way around. With any bike, trike or quad, you should ride it long enough to identify its shortfalls for your type riding before spending money to correct them.