With all Due respect, Keep in mind i said "With all Due Respect" Your opinion aint worth a velvet painting of a whale and a dolphin getting it on. You Have proved that you have no knowledge of anything to do with ATV geometry.(I sense the Sarcasm) Your attempt at comedy to hide the fact that you dont know shit was pretty sad. Get whatever swinger you want, but dont base any decision on what this tool says.
I run a stock cut down to -1 and no complaints done some big jumping on it but never cased anything hard enough to hurt it, as far as carriers go, If i could get my hands on a good deal i would go with round.
-1 and -2's are awesome for trails and the occasional hill climbing. But if all you do is hill climb, thats probably not the best choice. Minus swingers are great all around if you know how to ride.
It has been said many many times in this forum that a Banshee Specific front end is hands down better. But if you can spend around 200 - 250 for a complete YFZ front end that it is a big improvement over stock.
X2, I have also been running K&N's on all my quads for over 10 years. K&N W/ Prefilter is the way to go in my opinion. Sounds like a filter falling off is operator error...Put some "Man" Into tightening that hose clamp.
They are a great pipe and i think this is an isolated incident. This is the first time i have heard of this issue with DMC and i love my set of 916's and the plating is flawless. Like GoFast5 said dont let this scare you away.
It makes getting the front end up a lot easier, but by no means uncontrollable, I like the -1 or -2 Set ups much better than stock Handling, Balance, Traction are all improved.