Saw my first DS 90, not impressed

[markvette]

ok not to bash any quad but i feel as long as i have been around and built race mini quads that i am a pretty good judge of them. i went to an ax race last night and they had 2 mini classes. there was a pretty good mixture of minis. a apex, a couple of lt 80's a couple of typhoons a honda 90 and the ds. it looked really slick. now the bad i saw, the 4 stroke motor is a dog. it could not keep up with any of the other mini quads. the suspension looked like something we had to deal with 5 years ago. oh the shocks looked cool but on the track it looked like the poor kid was on a pogo stick. anyway for the money which from what i have been seeing they go for over 3 grand i just dont see it. you if you are going to race you can buy an apex or a drr for about the same or a little cheaper and blow the ds doors off. ok i hear they are coming out with mods but from what i have seen it will take a bunch of money for it to keep up with a drr or apex. also if you just want a yard atv you can get an eton or some other 4 stroke brand a lot cheaper. anyway just my opinion.

Mark

[hotquads1]

Mark , I think your assessment is right on the money.

marc

[Phugg]

Being an owner of 90x , I have to agree with you. I think they are a bit overpriced , yet we still got one for our lil girl. For the purpose of racing , I dont think its a good deal. It is sprung quite stiff for a light kid ( I am 190 and havnt bottomed it out). The motor in stock form is WAY restricted. We have not had a chance to get ours up in the mountains yet (with the snow in Calif , yeah right) So we will see this spring and summer how she does on it there. With all the work they did with the DS90 VS 90x I think too they should have done a little more motor work. The problem we had was ... we live in California . Where if aint "clean" you cant have it at a park. We wanted something she would grow on and this quad is sure as heck it. We too are looking forward to Pipe and Ignition work in the future , for now she is fine with it though. We will NOT be racing it so thats not an issue here. We didnt have a choice of DRR or Apex in California though , from what I found they cannot be registered out here. Otherwise I think we would have went that way , with a fourstroke.

[markvette]

again i was not really bashing just giving my opinion. the quad really looks cool. it will take a lot to make it compete with the 2 strokes and that includes the motor and suspension. i can understand your situation being in california with the strict rules on quads having to meet their standards. i really think they are way over priced and maybe they will realize that and bring it down some.

Mark

[tlskinn]

I ended up buying one also. We will use it on National Forest and the rules keep tighting. There is not much for racing in our part of the country (Black Hills/S.Dak) so it will be primarily used for mountain/hills trail riding. I liked the width and suspension vs. other major brand options. I am not much good with a wrench and there is nothing much for local support on the APEX, DRR etc... in this area. Price was a bummer, but if I can get 3-4 years out of it the difference is minimal. My son is 7 years old. From what I've read (excluding price), this is good unit for what we intend it for. As for you race guys...sounds like you have a blast out there.

[etondaddy]

I was talking to Justin Hall at the show and the dyno test with the pipe and cdi are showing major hp gains from stock. Rich Hetrick is testing one now and looks very promising.

Actually I was doing a lot of listening to Justin and Brad Lommis there both a little out of my league...... lol but my dad always taught me you learn a lot more with your mouth shut and your ears open....lol


Mike Kozura

[musky]

Etondaaddy the guy that i have been talking with was with you speaking with Justin. He said Justin was pretty excited about the X. Fully moded it should equal or excede a fully modfied trx. I would guess the 90x that markvette saw was bone stock since done of the parts are done with the exception of the clutches. The other quads more than likely had some modifications done to them.

[etondaddy]

Yea that's what it was ........ pipe and clutches...... not sure about the cdi thing I don't want to start anything here............ yea he was saying they were real happy with it so far. So all you Can-am owners hand in there……………. there’s some good stuff is in the works.

Mike Kozura

[markvette]

actually a few of the other quads were stock. the apex was stock and about the same price. do you know how much money they dump in a trx to get them to run the way they do. i guess if you just have to have a 4 stroke then ok. from what i saw a cdi and a pipe still isnt going to get it anywhere close to a drr or apex. ive just always been about dollars and cents when it comes to our racing. may be that we race on such a tight budget. i know this if i can buy a 2 stroke for between $2500 to $3500 that has a pretty good suspension and a good motor right off the bat or buy a 4 stroke for $3000 to $3500 and have to dump another $3000 in it for it to keep up with the 2 stroke then my decision is the 2 stroke. then when the guy dumps the bucks in the 4 stroke to keep up with me i will spend maybe another 500 to 1000 on a better pipe, a good ported cylinder and a bigger carb and be away ahead of the 4 stroke again and i still have way less money in my quad than he does. again i guess there is a place for this quad but it still cost to much and you are going to have to do some major motor work on them for them to hang with the 2 strokes.

Mark

[etondaddy]

I agree with you 100% Mark………. I’m going to have 13+ g’s in Kyle TRX125 this year. I don’t really have the money thank god for mutual funds………. I don’t need a retirement fund….. right….. the sad part is I see everything going four stroke if the tree huggers have anything to do with it. Kyle’s twelve and is going to be forced into going four stroke in a couple of years in the 300 class anyway. So we figured we’d get a jump on it. Believe me he’s beat shifter Honda’s last year on the E-ton. Of course the CVT stuff is going crazy after we get out………. We still have the good old E-ton. ;) ;) Kyle won he's share of races in the last five years.... this year's all about getting used to the shifting and the four stroke.

Mike Kozura