With a little run-in and a competent rider, both machines could conquer the beast with ease. China Wall, the biggest and steepest dune in Glamis, was chosen for the comparison. When it comes to climbing the biggest hills, the Raptor offers a similar advantage. The quicker revving YFZ-R will get out of the hole quicker, but the massive torque and taller gearing of the 700 will slowly walk away from the race-ready 450.
In an all-out drag race, the biggerbore Raptor 700 is faster. New 22-inch Maxxis front tires help it float over dune chop and trail garbage. The long-stroke engine revs out to 9000 rpm and has dual counterbalancers for less vibration. A much taller engine gives the Raptor 700R a roomier layout, and it has a more sedate 10.1:1 compression ratio. The DID T-ring chain was also replaced by the same ultra-durable DID X-ring chain that many of us have been upgrading to for years. Shock changes include a 5mm-longer rear spring that increases feel and comfort through the rough and the whoops. This improved weight bias works hand in hand with new suspension settings, optimizing traction for the power increase. On the exterior, the new Raptor gets a taller 22-inch front tire designed to shift the Raptor’s weight rearward. New cam timing, fuelinjection mapping and a different rod will help the Raptor rev quicker and make more power while still retaining reliability and that super-smooth all-around power curve. The new head features a completely new single-port exhaust design and an exhaust system to work with it. Compression was increased from 9.2:1 to 10:1, and the engineers completely redesigned the cylinder head. Apparently, being the most powerful sport quad on the market wasn’t enough Yamaha engineers pulled 10 percent more horsepower out of the Raptor’s 686cc engine. Yamaha has stuck to its strategy of releasing a great product and then refining it to near perfection over the model run. While the YFZ450R has basically been untouched since 2014, the Raptor 700 received a laundry list of solid upgrades. The YFZ450R is $8799, and the Special Edition is $8999. If you’re looking for a lower overall entry point, the standard Raptor 700 can be had for $1100 less than the base YFZ450R, but it is definitely stripped down in terms of suspension quality and accessories.
If you plan on track or desert riding, you will really appreciate the wider, long-travel front end on the YFZ-R, as it will cost $1000–$2000 to replicate it on the 700.
Both machines come with EFI, upgraded aluminum parts, graphics, etc., and they both also come with truly highend, fully adjustable KYB shocks. If we’re talking apples to apples with the YFZ-R SE and the 700R SE, it’s only a 200-dollar difference in favor of the Raptor. We recently spent a few days with Yamaha in the dunes to really compare these two machines and try to help our readers make that ultra-important decision: 450-class leader or big bore? Which is the better all-around sport ATV for dunes, trails and tracks, the Yamaha Raptor 700R or the Yamaha YFZ450R? To find out, we compared the Special Edition of each machine at Glamis and the surrounding desert.
While Suzuki and Kawasaki are out, and Honda is still pushing the same exact bike it brought us in 2006, Yamaha has continued to invest in improvements year after year. These ATVs have proven themselves in nearly every discipline of ATV riding and racing, but if your thing happens to be the sand, the Yamahas are even more of a no-brainer. The fuel-injected YFZ450R is pretty much race-ready off the showroom floor, and the EFI-fed Raptor 700 is the only other current big-bore sport quad worth mentioning. When it comes to the current state of sport-quad supremacy, Yamaha just might have the market on lockdown.
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