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banshee vs. Outlaw 525


ojcool

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I just bought one of the new Outlaw 525's. So far I am extremly inpressed with this bike. Yes the IRS is a little different espeially in the corners. With just opening up the stock exhaust and putting some holes in the lid and jetting I'm already thinking this bike is going to give my banshee a run. It's hard to really tell which bike is faster becuase they are polar opposites as far as power delivery. The 525 is an annimal out of the box and in the middle, and the banshee it insane up top. Without having someone get on the banshee and just race me, I honestly cannot tell who would win.

 

I bought this bike to ride down at Crumpler WV (hatfield mcoy trail system). The banshee is wicked for the stairsteps but leaves something to be desired on the trails.. Really only due to getting stuck all the time. That Outlaw has 12" of carrier clearance! (springs unloaded). Total trail bike.

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So far all I can tell for sure is the 525 will RAPE a stock predator 500 and not even give the common curtesey of a reach around. At least racing on asphalt with my neighbor on the predator. He talked alot of smack so it had to be done. Not really a fair race though.

 

So far on owning this bike the major drawbacks are as follows in order of annoyance:

 

1) Geared too high for trails, or really anything but strait racing.. Not really sure what Polaris was thinking here, Its geared 14 front and I dont know the rear and it's not on the spec sheet on polaris website. I'm going to put a 13t front on it and see where we are. Right now in 1st gear you cannot let the bike idle it will stall at an unforseen time and it's not like the banshee with 11:1 piston you almost fly over the bars when this thing stalls. And 1st at idle is running alot faster than you want to be going when your trying to negotiate tight areas. Not that you could ride at that speed cause surprise, stall.

 

2) IRS, bottom line is IRS is nothing like a swingarm bike. This bike can be really really wierd around corners and oddly enough on asphalt. Just cruising it just does wierd things, almost like the steering is too sensitive. I think it has alot to do with the wheelbase measurement. Its just too short of a wheelbase, Hopefully someone will come out with an aftermarket rear A arm that will set the rear wheels back a couple inches.

 

3) With that in mind due to the wheelbase setup this bitch wheelies like nothing I have ever ridden, that is a good and bad thing. I almost dumped the bike on Friday doing a little hillclimb that the banshee will destory. I was about halfway up, and this hill is steep, and the front wheels decided to come up, I eased off the throttle and guess what.......STALL. I did the old 4 wheel lockup slidedown which was very exciting due to the bottom being about 6 feet wide and a deep creek at the bottom.. Lucky me It stopped right at the crest of the creekbed.

 

4) Trans is notchy as hell, I miss shifts alot. Its about as hard to find neutral as a banshee, No big deal there but it's just like the shee in that its' amazingly easy to find neutral when you dont want to.

 

5) Word on the street is the aluminum rear a arms are weak and will break if you do any serious jumping. Once again hopefully someone will come out with some aftermarket a arms for the rear.

 

All and all I'm happy with the purchase, it fills a void for trail riding. It's not a utility quad and it's not a swingarm quad, it's a hybrid and it is very comfortable on trails not worring about ruts but still being on a sport quad.

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Funny you mention the Predators Stu...

A guy we rode with had a TON of money into his, including NOS. Got beat, time and time again...by a stock motor 450R with an HRC kit in it.

 

Those Predators are Predaturds..... But, they are ok for trails...

 

After Growing up on solid axle bikes, IRS has got to be really weird to ride and corner with...

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Funny you mention the Predators Stu...

A guy we rode with had a TON of money into his, including NOS. Got beat, time and time again...by a stock motor 450R with an HRC kit in it.

 

Those Predators are Predaturds..... But, they are ok for trails...

 

After Growing up on solid axle bikes, IRS has got to be really weird to ride and corner with...

There is something about the predator I'm not sure what it is, I just don't like. It's a big bike, the outlaw has the same frame (for the most part) under it and it is much smaller. I don't know if it's just plastics or what. The polaris 500 is a decent engine I guess, Ihave never ridden one that was not bone stock so I don't know if they respond well to modification. You just can't go wrong with KTM though. I would never have even considered this purchase if it was polaris powered.

 

I wish Polaris had kept the FOX shocks on the Outlaw thats for sure. All these shocks have is preload and compression dampning adjustments. The rears may have rebound. One cool thing you can adjust preload by hand, no tools needed, thats nice on the trials.

 

I dont' know what else to do as far as mods go. No one really sells much for this bike yet... There are cams availible for the KTM 525 dirtbike and I'm sure they will work in the Outlaw, don't know if they are worth it since they are ground for a dirtbike.

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I owned a pred for a little and they aren't slow bikes at all. I don't care what some say, i had my banshee at the time as well and always had some dick on a hopped up shee trying to race when I was riding my Pred that had an intake and full exhaust. Not a prime set-up but pulled hard and fast through all RPM ranges When I didn't want to get my ass handed to me by a banshee that the owner dumped 10g's into I would here the predaturd comment always. Those bikes moved just like any 450 and responded to MODS pretty damn well.

 

As for the Outlaw, nice bike as well with the 525 in it but sounds like you have some Valve issues by the way you described how it just stalls out of no where etc. Does your bike seem to idle fine then just puff off out of no where and die? If so get it looked at, something isnt right. Also watch the rear wheels, that became an issue with the IRS suspension. When you would jump the arms would dig into the rims on a lot of the outlaws and cause the rim to crack or just completely break. I dont believe it was the arms itself with the issues I believe it was just the rims and spindles.

 

Also could check out predatorowners.com I believe they still have an outlaw section, there were some badass ones over there as well.

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You either had a freak of nature Predaturd, or you haven't ridden or raced a 450.

A piped and intake setup Predator would lose by a MILE to any brand new 450, bone stock...period.

 

They are great trail bikes....they are very comfy and the ergos aren't too bad for a trail bike.

 

They aren't in the same breath as a piped banshee or stock 450 racing wise...

 

A "turd could probably take a piped shee in tight trails...if that's the racing you mean, than I apologize and you're right.

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