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Yamaha Raptor 250 ATV Links |
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| 2008
Yamaha Raptor 250 |
Long Beach, CA - In 1988 when
the Yamaha Blaster 200 made its debut, it quickly
became one of the top selling quads of its time.
However, with today’s emissions standards
becoming more and more restrictive, its two-stroke
power plant has become less than desirable to
many consumers, so Yamaha decided to stop production
of the Blaster, and released the new sportier
electric-start, Raptor 250 4-stroke in its place.
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all-new Yamaha Raptor 250 styling &
ergonomics has dramatically improved over
the Blaster, which is very apparent even
in side by side visual comparsion, and
amazingly it is 15lbs lighter than the
Blaster ready to ride at
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2006 GNCC
Sport Class Championa
Joey Margaria
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Yamaha recently invited ATVRiders.com to come out
to Long Beach, CA and test ride the Raptor 250
to see what we thought of it, compared to the
old Blaster 200. We figured it would be a good
idea to bring along someone who could give an
expert opinion on this new quad, and who better
to give their point of view than someone who regularly
races a Blaster, so we invited GNCC Sport Class
Champion, Joey Margaria, to accompany us to Long
Beach, CA to test ride the Raptor 250. Margaria
not only won the Sport Class Championship, he
also is the only person to finish first overall
at a GNCC on a Blaster, against hundreds of 450
machines, therefore, he seemed to be the perfect
candidate to give his opinion on Yamaha’s
new machine.
We met up with Yamaha’s product development
specialist, Patrick Biolsi at Queen Mary Park,
which is located along the waterfront in Long
Beach. We were greeted by an incredible view
of the Long Beach Harbor, and the Queen Mary
docked in the background. Yamaha had a track
specially set up for our test ride at this location,
which was a wonderful scenic variation from
other SoCal desert tracks. Eager to get our
hands on Yamaha’s new product, we didn’t
waste any time getting out on the track.
