Revive the site.....

[DeadLastRacing]

ATTN: YFM members..........Its been a sad sad last few months for one of the greatest (warrior) forums around, YFM350. I know how much this site meant to me and my lil bro when we first got into quads and started modding our warriors. Its a givin that warriors and raptor 350s are great beginners bikes and eventually people move on but that doesn't mean that this kick ass site should die with it. I heard the talk about how warriors and 350 engines are becoming obsolete in the atv world. I strongly disagree. When ever I go riding in a larger atmosphere I see tons of warriors. If given the change I direct them to tis site but there is more that we can do. Perhaps come up with some stickers or signature banners. Anything to get the word out and keep the site alive. Dose anyone remember QOTM and POTM. Every month I couldn't wait to vote and potentially post. Now its dead. also in the pic section. Every week there use to be nedw ride pics and vids. The only thing I notice now is a lot of action in the problems section and 90% having to do with the warriors notoriously shitty carb. We need to find new members and newbs to the warrior wold to keep this kick ass place booming. If interested in helping. Please post potential ideas of site advertising and hopefull the MODS will get evolved. Thanks all.

 

[jasonp]

Personally I found it very hard to find this site when I first started looking for a place to talk about warriors. When you go to yahoo and do a search now does are page come up? You can even type yfm central and I don't believe it will come up with anything on yahoo. I think this is one of are biggest problems, we need to be able to be found. The other thing is that as years go on this quad is going to become less popular and thus why you will have less members coming on.. there is becoming better and better options rather then sticking a pile of money into the warrior.

So we need to be able to be found on the internet, does any body know how??

 

[dave76]

Just advertise on the other quads sites in the yamaha sections and warrior sections, or leave PMs to the members letting them know about the site.


The problem with the site is basically everyone willing to actually spend money and did spend money has moved on to other quads now or grown up to the point that there not interested in riding much any more. My issue is I have a house that needs work all the time, a wife, work 6 days a week, a baby boy due in a month, and I'm out riding my Harley Davidson I bought. Truth is there aren't many people willing to do what I did to my quad. I've noticed a lot of our members now are in the 15 to 20 age bracket and most kids that age don't have a ton of cash to blow. Couple that with hanging out with friends that have YFZs, or 450Rs and now the Warrior looks long in the tooth because you want a fast quad. You can now buy a good 03-04 YFZ for $2500, it really isn't worth spending $1500 on a Warrior anymore then having to do lots of mods to make it decent. This why people are just parting them out now because they don't sell like they used to, no one wants to pony up $1500 bucks for a Warrior when a 400EX can be had for the same price. I've also noticed most people on here have their Warrior for about a year, do a few mods to it, it still isn't fast and then move on. It's hard to talk someone out of buying a faster quad when they have the money. Ask Yamarider, teamexileracing, bad04warrior, deathshadow, these are dudes that had some of the baddest warriors around and spend ungodly amounts of money. All moved to bigger faster quads. I'm keeping mine because at 33 years old I don't need to be buying anu new quads, plus mine is fast as hell. ;D

 

[griff]

Theres Warriors everywhere still, but since Yamaha doesnt technically make it anymore, there isnt much spotlight for it. Since the current generation is the Raptor 350, thats probably a good thing to focus on. Granted, most of the **** is the same, the name difference alone makes A LOT of people thinks theyre unrelated quads.

From what my friend tells me (he's the sales manager at the local Yam' dealer), Raptor 350's still sell pretty good.

I havent done **** to my Rap' since I changed the tires, and I dont know if I have any further mods planned for it. If I get bored in the future, I may 366 it... but who knows. I got too much other **** going on right now. I'm just finishing up some more engine work for my GSX-R, thats kind of been my priority (even though I cant seem to get it done, never enough time!).

Other than that, I busier than hell at work, and I also have my own website/forum to manage, and the combination is pretty time consuming, lol.

 

[griff]

Its a shame Pro Boards wont allow a database export of this site, otherwise we could move the whole thing to its own dedicated site.

It wouldnt take much to start a new site, and get it distributed in the search engines... but without all the data collected in all these posts here, it would be a start from scratch... which would kinda suck.

 

[itbejake]

yeah, I started up a new yfm site (raptors, warriors, all sizes) so hopefully that will spark a new interest in people, it's already getting hits on google so that's cool. it's vbulletin too =]

 

[dave76]

Funny thing is 2 years ago the site only had a bit over 1000 members and was rolling everyday, we now have almost 3000 and barely any one comes on to bullshit. We probably have 2000 members with under 100 posts.

 

[DeadLastRacing]

I agree with it all. But just because there are bigger better, faster quads out there doesn't mean that the warrior is out the door. Its seems to me like most people I talk to start somewhere and a majority of them start on a warrior or have ridden them. Plus we all know how tough a warrior is and how they seem to be pretty un-killable. So for as long as they will be kicking up the dirt, our site should as well. Am I wrong? I could of by now got rid of the warrior and moved on to something faster but haven't. I instead dumped money and time and sweat into my YFM350 and I'm proud of it. SO if there is one out there, there are more.

I guess it just comes to to the fact that it bummed me out lately to come onto the site and not see any action for weeks, where as when I first joined there was new and cool info, pics and vids every day. Lets take it back to that day, which was not too long ago. The people that move on to faster quads have to do something with there old quad (warrior/raptor) so some ones else and new got a hold of it, so the cycle shouldn't stop with the first person. If anyone understands that.

If every one that does like this site and enjoys visiting it and enjoys the quad that they have, that belongs on this place in internet land, does there part in spreading the news, the site will never die. Just the other day I pulled up to a dude that had a warrior in the bed of his truck at a stop light. Told him I digged his quad and then told him to check out this site. Is he going to? Who knows but I'm trying.

 

[topdwg]

I think another problem is not to many companies make aftermarket parts for the Warrior, or at least compared to any of the new generation ATVs. With that happening really what can people come on here and talk about? Go to YFZcentral .com for example and just do a little comparison. It's sad, but there is a reason why people move on. I did, but I kept my Warrior just because I still like it and like Dave I'm older and riding the Warrior in my opinion is fast enough...

 

[keb]

I am new here. I found the site through another ATV site where someone posted a link to this place. The other site had little Warrior activity so I came over here. I am also an older rider (60 on my next birthday) but I still like to get out in the woods and trails in northern Michigan. My son-in-law has a cabin in the Atlanta, MI. area so we've been riding there all summer. I also live 2 miles from The Mounds but have never been there. We have 6 quads between us at the moment so the trailer gets pretty full when we go north. The grandkids both have 90 Scramblers they like to ride. My daughter rides a 400EX, Son-in-law rides a KFX 450R and I ride a Warrior when we all go out. When just the SIL & I wanna tear up the trails I ride the 400EX. I've ridden the 450R but it's just a little scary for me in the close woods. Actually, my biggest complaint about it is the hot pipe. The pipe is wrapped with header wrap and that helps but it is still very hot on the right leg without wearing boots. here is a picture of some of the fleet. The little Scramblers are not in this shot. The Honda has new OEM plastic since this pic was taken. The old (92) warrior is up for sale.

 

[safooma]

We could start by having the site actually show up in a google search for 'yamaha warrior forums', etc.

I had heard on the atvconnection forums that there was a forum dedicated warriors, but the domain name they kept referring to no longer exists. It must have taken me an hour combing through individual posts until I found the new, correct name.

 

[dave76]

We could start by having the site actually show up in a google search for 'yamaha warrior forums', etc.

I had heard on the atvconnection forums that there was a forum dedicated warriors, but the domain name they kept referring to no longer exists. It must have taken me an hour combing through individual posts until I found the new, correct name.

The site used to be all over goggle and yahoo, but since Deathshadow hasn't really kept the site up and only logs on about once a year( he started the site) we seemed to have disappered from the search forums.

 

[xr600]

I found it pretty easy.I love this little warrior.Its a blast to ride for me.

 

[pelphrey]

And the funny thing is I had the administrator password somewhere. But since I get on a few times a month if I am lucky I seem to have lost that. I would have to look around for it. I still have my warrior and in the last year have probably rode it 3 times. I am working 50-60 hours a week and on the river all day saturday and sundays. I found an 06 R1 street bike with 3775 miles on it for 4500 so that will be my next purchase, then once winter hits I will most likely be buying a boat.

I don't have as much money in my warrior as some do, but I got enough in it not to sell it. I would rather it sit and when my nephews get a little older let them enjoy something I didn't get to when I was their age.

I am just at the point that I am done spending money on it and am enjoying other hobbies right now.

I do however try to login and read up to see if there is anything I can change on the forum or add mods to do crowd control. I know it isn't a lot..

 

[keb]

I am just at the point that I am done spending money on it and am enjoying other hobbies right now.

I assume you mean the Warrior and not the site.
I am an admin on a photoshop contest site and know the woes of trying to keep people active on a site. It can be a struggle. It seems many people will join when they first become interested but then veer off in other directions. It looks like this site is no different. Our photoshop site was started in March of this year and the server space was paid up for 3 years. We really have no revenue so who knows what will happen to it when it's time to renew. The site has 3 active admin keeping it running now. The big difference with this site and that one is a contest site needs a new contest written daily and that becomes a lot of work for someone. It doesn't take long to burn out especially when there is little interest in what you are doing.
Even though this site is well established, it would be a shame to see it fizzle out and go away. There are a lot of people that still love the old work horse and benefit from the information already posted on this site. I, for one, hope it stays around.

 

[missouritrailrider]

maybe we need some stickers someone could sell in classifieds section with the web address, would need a wicked design then people see it at riding parks and would remember it

 

[blonka]

Stickers are a good idea I would buy a few if they were decentley priced.

 

[pelphrey]

Okay, I am going to try to get in touch with deathshadow and get the yfm350central.com domain name from him.

However, if I can't do this. Lets run a contest for a domain name. Short sweet and to the point. Be sure to goto http://www.godaddy.com and see if the name is available before posting it. The name is cheap, I will pay for it and set it all up. Once we have a list of domains we will all vote on one.

 

[DeadLastRacing]

can we drop the proboards31 part? Perhaps yfm350central.com or YFM350world. I dunno. but it would help if we fixed the search. If I google yfm350central nothing but a wiki page about death comes up but if i search yfm350 central, its the first listing. For some reason the space cuts out the site.

 

[dmacevoy]

I just searched on godaddy and what about www.yfm350.com it's available...