On Paper

At 249cc the Raptor is actually only giving up 33cc to the 282cc 300EX. To its benefit, the Honda features a four valve head compared to the Raptor’s two valve head design. Most motor builders agree that a four valve head is more efficient at flowing intake and exhaust gasses, thus provides more horsepower. By the time you see part 2 of this comparison we will have a dyno chart comparing the stock horsepower of the two machines.

What does have a huge bearing on performance is the difference in weight. For 2008 Honda has not yet announced the weight of the 300EX, however the 2007 weighed in at 372.5lbs. The Raptor weighs in at 313lbs. That’s 59.5 pounds or 16% lighter than the 300EX. So the EX will have to make quite a bit more power than the Raptor to make up for its additional weight.

As far as the other numbers, The Raptor has 7.5 inches of front suspension travel compared to the Honda’s 7.1 inches. Out back both the Honda and the Yamaha share the same wheel travel at 7.9 inches. Both feature front and rear preload adjustability. The Honda is slightly longer with a 45 inch wheelbase compared to the Raptor’s 43.5 inch length. The Honda is slightly wider at 43.5 inches while the Raptor sits at 42.1 inches wide. The Raptor has a lower seat height at 28.7 inches compared to the Honda’s 30.5 inch height. This is partly due in part to the Raptor’s smaller 19 inch rear tires compared to the Honda’s 22 inch knobbies. Smaller tires and a lower seat height indicate a lower center of gravity for the Raptor although the Honda is a bit longer and wider. The Smaller tires on the Raptor mean a bit less ground clearance, 4.6 inches for the Honda and 3.9 inches for the Yammie.

Bonus GYTR Bolt Ons!

A GYTR billet aluminum adapter plate, high flow filter and pre filter let the Raptor to swallow more air. Increased air intake means more horsepower. The airbox lid will live on a shelf unless we plan on riding in wet conditions.

As you can see, the two machines look very close in performance on paper, but now its time to put our $1100 in savings to work for us. Browsing through the Raptor Accessories on Yamaha-motor.com we put together a list of GYTR goodies to improve our machine’s performance and give it more durability on the trail to boot.

Believing, (but not yet confirmed) that the 300EX produces a bit more power than our stock Raptor we snagged a complete GYTR exhaust system, high flow air filter with pre filter and adapter plate and a GYTR jet kit to compensate for our increased intake and exhaust volume. The GYTR performance head pipe features stainless steel construction and an aluminum head shield. The GYTR silencer features a stainless steel inlet pipe, an anodized aluminum silencer body with a trick billet aluminum mount and a stamped oval tip. The exhaust features a removable USFS approved spark arrestor and is reasonably quiet with a 96 db rating. Additionally, the complete system shaves an additional 2.2lbs off the already lightweight machine.

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