Just been qurious lately but does anyone know why they went with a detuned version of the srx engine when the viper came out? And why did they change out the srx to begin with . Imho that was truely a winning sled in all ways!!!
You make a very good point.Actually the viper isn't a detuned srx engine. It's more agressive than the srx engine. It was just the single pipe that brought the hp down. It was more of a real 700 class sled at the time. A well set up viper is no slouch even with the stock pipe. Don't let the hp numbers fool you.
And it was going after a completely different type of rider. The muscle sleds were dieing. Sales were leaning more towards longer travel big bump capable sleds. The Viper was a top of the industry sled in 02.
In my opinion they wanted to make the 4 strokes look good to get everyone to buy them instead. Not as easy of a decision for people when you have to pick 2 stroke or 4 stroke when they have about the same hp. Just my opinion.