will it ever pick up?

[MrcsBud2]

I remember from 2004-2009 when atvs and atv racing was just huge! Pro turnouts had 20 riders at the gate, Baja and bitd had tons of entries and just about every type of racing just had stacked classes.

Now I know when the economy took a hit it hurt many, but as of now I feel like most lines are still empty

I see that the gncc series still does fine but out west its hard to see more than 5-10 pro racers at events, yet I see the utv market is getting bigger and bigger! At the primm words race this year we had over 100 utvs racing.

My real question is, will it ever recover? Will more than just Yamaha & can-am produce race ready 450s? It just saddens me that it feels dead, almost all of my buddies are now on bikes while I'm the lone quad.

[matt14c]

No. Too expensive and not enough places to ride for quads. Been on a quad about 20 years and never had a bike. Just bought a KTM 350 couple months ago because more places to ride. Cheaper to ride. KTM needed nothing from dealer. My buddy borrowed it two weeks ago because his CRF was getting forks rebuilt and was competitive in a B class race. Bought a 09 TRX450 in April for $3000 and I've put over $2k into just to run hare scrambles and trail ride. This winter ill deal with suspension which will be thousands more. Motocross is worse. I did it. Loved it. Also made decent money and lived at home. Thats for myself. Couldn't imagine having couple kids plus myself. Not affordable to do and maintain a home, family or life. There are 3 tracks within 30 minutes of my house. Only one allows quads. At its busiest I've seen all this year there was 8 quads. They don't do but a handful of races a year just practices twice a week. GNCC and Hare Scrambles are easier cheaper. Don't need a $10,000 quad to be competitive. I live in Michigan and can do every race of the District 14 Hare scramble series and furthest drive is 3 1/2 hours. Most are less than 2. One day 90 min race. Not weekend long adventures. Don't need enclosed trailers or rv or toy haulers. Closest ama moto track is over 2 hours away. UTV's just have more use. Easier to ride/use. Have more than one use. Also safer.

[Scro]

Things come and go...money isn't the issue. If it were, we wouldn't see everyone and their cousin hauling a 20k Razr.

[MrcsBud2]

I guess I find it upsetting because it was on such a rise at one point, hopefully it picks up more, I heard that the raptor 700 & yfz 450 are still selling well. Shoot my uncle builds utvs for desert racing, 60k easy to make them race ready.

[matt14c]

Yamaha sell because they change them and upgrade. Not just bold new graphics and colors. Be dumb to spend all the money for a new trx. Especially if you're gonna race it since your going to replace half the machine anyways.

[blacknblue#2]

It was a fase, and its done. Yeah a few quads will still sell but not many....Maybe just enough to keep Yamaha producing them but as far as being what it was 8-10 years ago it will never happen again. Bikes have taken MX over again and their aren't enough tracks that allow quads anymore. As for trail riders why would you buy a new showroom 450.......$8000 for a new 450 when you can buy a SxS for 12000. Sure 4000 is a lot more money but when you consider the 450 will be worth 4000 in a year and the SXS will still bring 11000 then its only simple math. Plus if you ride any well desired areas like Hatfield McCoy then you can bring your chick with ya in the SxS. If you wanna go fast and have unlimited places to ride then sell that 4wheeled iron horse and buy a bike. Besides, I was a true passionate quad mx guy for years, sunk my heart and soul into it and its no comparison to Throwing a 55 HP bike around on a single track trail that's along a cliff side and barely wide enough to fit your handlebars thru....man what a rush