My journey of getting my new raptor 700! I am IMPRESSED! *long story inside*

[r00st]

* Warning Long story below! *

Alright...so some of you may remember me asking question about the raptor when I won this auction on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=017&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&viewitem=&item=270248303841&rd=1

So I had plans to pick the rappy up with my buddies duramax as he gets free diesel through work. It didnt plan out as he got in an accident. We then went down to Atlanta to visit family and passed right through kentucky where the raptor was. I had no way to haul it as I couldnt get a trailer hitch in time! Fast forward to this last week. I was then going to take my OTHER friends duramax and have my other friend fill it at his work (hey..not my 5.00 a gallon!). This does not work because his transfer tank has a bad leak! I finally end up asking my girlfriends neighbor if we can borrow his truck (hes a friend of ours) and he says yes. Its a 1991 S-10 with the tiny v-6 in it (5 speed). Granted its 17 years old, but she ran perfect the whole trip! I got 22mpg average over the whole trip (not bad if you ask me!).

I finally get down to kentucky to pick up the quad.  Of course it had to be a horrible storm the entire way down (we left at night) and being in a 91 s-10 with semi-sloppy steering is not the most fun thing in the world. My girlfriend was a trooper and rode with me! (she is hot as it is...but the fact she puts up with all BS I put her through to work on and play with all my TOYS- makes her even hotter!

The seller is not there, but his wife is. She tells me to go ahead and look it over and take it for a spin. She warns me about a slight rattle coming from the quad (I never knew about this). I said ok and ride it. At about 4-5 rpm there is a horrible metal rattle. She said it was from the metal skid plate, but I stood on it and could not get the vibration to go away (making me think it was in the bottom end of the motor). I go to take the skid off but the bolts are in too well. I then pull the airbox lid off and find a HUGE mouses nest with wet leaves! The only bonus to that was there was a brand new pro design pro flow kit in there, but still I had just ridden it with a big wet mouses nest in there.

After seeing this im pissed and ready to walk away from it... The seller finally comes home and we agree to not do the transaction and he even gave me 100 bucks toward my gas/hotel (very honorable thing to do in my book!). He buys/sells atv's he gets at auction for a living and offered to find me another raptor and sell it to me for just over cost. At this point I didnt even care and wanted to drive the 7 hours back home to illinois. I get about 10 minutes away and think to myself...if he is offering another quad at near cost I wonder if he wants to move this one for cheaper (thinking if it needed motor work I could pay for it with the difference). I call him back and ask him his cost... he said with auction fees and all he is 3900 into it... he said he would take 4100. I said ok I will take the deal ONLY if we can get rid of the rattle- otherwise NO DICE.

I drive back and of course the skid bolts wont budge so we weld nuts onto the bolts and finally get the skid off...and WAH LAH! No vibration! I am still a bit worried about the intake and the mouses nest...so we pull the box and intake off and clean it up really well.

Sooo... I end up walking away with the quad for 4100! He also had a set of razr MX fronts on wheels and holeshot (regular) tires on wheels. I ask what he wants for them and got them for 150... So I end up going home with an extra 400 in my pocket and a beautifully running raptor! Does not seem to bad for a pretty much mint condition 2007 raptor 700 se with pc3, full exhaust system and a pro flow intake. I got the original papers from the repossesion and find out that the guy who had it paid 8900 out the door! I am guessing the mods were install at that price (at least I HOPE!). He only had the quad 5 months before it go repo'd! And his purchase date was the end of september 2007 (meaning this sat in a dealership show room for quite some time).

I already had some red label barkers sitting in a box at home waiting for the quad to get here, so I pulled the yoshi pipe off that was on there and through the barkers on. So it officially has the GOOD big 3- barkers - the pro flow intake (might get FCI when it comes out...this filter is pretty small!) and the pc3 (came with the quad).

I just got back from my buddies house where I FINALLY got to open her up! This is the first time I have been on a 700 (bought it blind!) All my buddies have ltr's now (used to be yfz's) and I sold my 70+ hp DS730 to get this (I was a bit worried going from a FULLY decked quad to a nearly stock one!)

needless to say I am ecstatic with it! The power is phenomenal. I race my buddies ltr with the cherry bomb, lid off and the dasa pipe and I had a 5 lengths on him by the middle of 5th gear (had to shut down after that, not enough space). We did a rolling start 2nd gear race and I think I was shifting early too! I have a trailtech vapor going on soon so I will be happy to know what RPM I am at.

This thing handles well, the suspension is AMAZING (on par with the fully adjustable elkas I had on my DS) and the power is great! For the first time in years I was able to ride wheelies down the field with just throttle input (no tugging on the bars and trying to get the balance point only to drop it!).

the ONLY complaint I can say I have is the width...feels a tad tippy to me, but that is probably because it is what..just shy of 47 inches? I am thinking some + 2 arms in the front and an adjustable width axle (or just some spacers) on the back will solve that. Also gives me a reason to put some new shocks on the front!

I am seriously impressed with the barkers too...they sound amazing. Very deep and a very nice tone. Loud, but not OVERLY loud like my DS was (almost borderline annoying, and this is coming from a guy who likes loud pipes).

Being able to lift the front end at the bottom of 4th gear is crazy... The front end (hell the whole quad) is light as hell! My 730 weighed over 500 lbs wet so going from 70+ hp at the tires on that to 50-55 hp at the tires on the raptor (weighing what 400 wet?) feels almost the same...if not quicker!


Ok sorry this was so long but I just wanted to get this all down! I was seriously PISSED when I left his house the first time with no quad in hand thinking about all the parts I had in my basement waiting for a raptor 700 I was not bringing home.

Anyway...rock out with your raptor out! This quad is a beast... I should have made the switch long ago!
-R00ST-

[r00st]

With the new barkers and the billet sprocket cover my girlfriend bought for me!

[FoundArealQuad]

Good story and write up. I would have been a little leery of that too. Good buy

[Peelz]

welcome to the madness.....

[devildog108]

Nice ride, I was going to say, since you came to ATL, you should have checked out Craigslist down here.  I was going to go look at a 07 700se and the guy called me once last Thurday at 10pm to come look at the bike.  We had discussed already looking at it somewhere around 2 p.m. Since there was no way i way going to that side of ATL being in sound mind at that time of night, i said, OK, I'll check it out Saturday.  He never called.  I sent him an email and asked him if he still had it for sale, and he sold it for $2900.00.......I had 39 in my pocket.  Oh well...... The guys are going nuts trying to buy homes and gas for their rides and are basically giving away new machines.

[socalrappy700]

Glad everything worked out great.  Now give me a buzz when your ready to ride!   

[Krandall]

 

That was an awesome read!


Glad it all worked out in the end. Sometimes ya have to go through the bad to see all the good!

You saw the light and came over to the dark side. Welcome aboard. Now you just have to explain to the woman why you're riding the rappy more than her.

[socalrappy700]

And don't forget to think about silver lake for the rally.

[GregKJ]

Sounds like you got a good deal.  That color scheme is one of the best.

I'd try not to worry too much about the nest because it sounds like you rode it just a short time with it in there.  As long as the filter was properly installed, you shouldn't be any worse off than riding in really dusty conditions....which I do every weekend.

[r00st]

Thanks guys! I will just have to balance what I ride... Everything in equilibrium    

When is the rally? I have not been up to silver lake in quite a few years (got a taste for sand, went out west and never returned to silver lake lol). But I would come up if I can get some of my buddies to go.

And ya the nest in the filter I was not really worried about because the pro flow K&N Had an outerwear too. I looked way up in the intake tube and did not see any dirt really at all, so that was the decision maker.

Socal, thanks again for the offer of letting me ride yours! We will have to ride together sometime for sure. O...and want to sell me your front end?

I do love the orange scheme too (another reason I was going to be PISSED if I had to walk away from the drive empty handed). I decided on red label barkers, I have some red grips and a red billet gas cap on the way. Now I am wondering if I should have gone black on everything... ? I was thinking about having the heat shields and sprocket cover powder coated black. I Love doing stuff in black, so I dont know what I was really thinking when I ordered red stuff lol

[socalrappy700]

The silver lake rally is september 12-14.  I'll be going and I may have room on the trailer, but I'm waiting on a few replies.  Let me know if you ever want to make it up this way for a ride.  And no....the front end stays.   

[r00st]

I might take you up on that depending on what school is looking like this semester. It is my last semester though so half of my classes are with the likes of bowling and Ag 101 (how to mow your lawn!)  :grin_nod:

Hopefully I can get a few of my ltr buddies to go too so we have more quads to beat up on!

[Flynbyu]

You got a sweeeeeet deal. Great find!

I had the same ssue with my skid plate when I installed it. I went and got some gasket making materia;s and made strips to go around the edge of the skid plate to fix it.

~Brian

[Krandall]

You got a sweeeeeet deal. Great find!

I had the same ssue with my skid plate when I installed it. I went and got some gasket making materia;s and made strips to go around the edge of the skid plate to fix it.

~Brian

+1

I took some 1/2" foam (the stuff that has the sticky tape on one side. and I put that on the bottom of my frame where the skid would normally touch. nice and quite! :grin_nod:

[kyledvor61]

glad to hear everything worked out ok!