ATV DIRT: YAMAHA

Our spies are telling us that Yamaha engineers are currently working on two new models that are said to be close to ready for release as early as 2007. After emissions regulations forced Yamaha to kill the Blaster and the Banshee, the Blue factory will be slated to lose two very big sellers.

While there has been speculation that the new Raptor 700 is the replacement for the Banshee as well as the old Raptor 660, there is recent dirt that is saying otherwise. Our spies tell us that there has been some testing of a twin cylinder 500cc machine that is said to be a 12,000 RPM screamer of a street bike engine. Aimed at the dune lovers who made the Banshee a hit for 20 years, this rumored machine is said to be only in prototype stage and our Yamaha contact is telling us there is nothing to it. But our spies contend there is considerable man power working on a prototype. Well keep you tuned in.

However, the same cannot be said for the rumored YFZ250 that is supposed to drop is early 2007. Based on the powerful YZ250-F dirt bike engine, the YFZ250 is said to be a ready to pop entry level racer with a 44" wide track and a 325-pound dry weight. Rumors were not confirmed by Yamaha but they were not denied either. The fact that it is supposed to carry the YFZ badge and not the Blaster or Raptor badge should tell you all you need to know about this little screamer. It is said to use a modified version of the Blaster frame, much like the Raptor-350 uses the same base frame box design as the old Warrior.