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Originally Posted by MaineExport Well... I agree, but from a business standpoint they had no reason to.
They had two VERY sucessful quads with NO COMPETITION. They had absolutely no incentive to dump more R&D money into improvements because nobody else was out there building sport quads that directly competed for market share. For over 10 years... any buyer going sport quad shopping had almost no other choice besides the Banshee and Blaster... except for a 300ex or Mojave or some other crappy handling, slow, heavy, ugly 4-stroke.
Between the time Honda finally gave up on the 250R, and up until the 400ex, Z400, DS650, Raptor and other respectable 4 strokes hit the market... nobody could touch a banshee in price and performance. Why spend the money making improvements if you don't have to? |
Oh I agree 100% that from a business standpoint it made complete sense for Yamaha to keep pumping out the same thing year after year. As you said, there was no competition. All of the other companies were producing small bore 4 stroke beginner quads. Just think what could have been if the Banshee and Blaster did have competition, though. The Banshee may have gotten a better handling chassis and the Blaster may have become a liquid cooled 250. Who nows, though and now they're both gone.