OZ ATV :: The Australian ATV Forum

[ReD HeaderZ]

Guys, I just bought my quad and have ridden it twice.
I used to be an MX rider and rode daily and have not ridden a quad before except for the ole farm atv's.
I bought it and it seems pretty standard suspension wise.
When I made the purchase all the suspension was set to the hardest settings, maxed out be be exact, hit the sand and rolled it on the first day chucking donuts (thought it may of been too hard).
Now I have set it to pretty soft but seems to want to tip probably even more.
I want to get the best overall setting, I am 88kg, I ride on the sand and a bit of trail riding. Just recreational riding.
I am using Kenda klaws and set to 4psi, any suggestions, your help is greatly appreciated....

PS, I know the standard suspension is not the best... but want to get a few hours on it before I start pouring money into it.. I want a head and legs in the meantime.

thanks

Last edited by ReD HeaderZ on Wed Oct 04, 2006 10:31 pm; edited 1 time in total

[gothev8]

Firstly, 660's are notoriously tippy so doing donuts is asking for trouble, I know mine is! For your weight the suspension should be reasonably soft but there isn't much you can do with the stock suspension. A cheap option for better stability is a wider rear axel, JMC has just brought out their own brand and they are really well priced @$575.00.

Just my opinion though.
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2012 Polaris RZR XP Turbo
2009 Polaris RZR 170

[Ozzy84]

i used to run the front on the hardest setting, and rear about half way, but yeah there pretty tipp at te best of times, alot comes down to weight distrabution (spelling) aswell

[ReD HeaderZ]

thanks for the replies..
I appreciate it...

[lout]

Hey mate
I have an 01 raptor stock and very hard to corner with out tipping. I widened the front by just turning the rims around and drilling new valve stems in was very easy and made lot of differance, because the front is wider you have to run the shocks at there hardest. the back i bought a jmc axel for $570 I think, It feels alot better now but because I widened the front the easy way there is more stress on the tie rods and if you hit a rut to hard they like to bend or brake.
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It's not broken.. It's just a Raptor....

[Ozzy84]

and it will steer like "profanity removed", not a good idea in my opinion..... axle will make alot of difference

[OZ_450]

you widen the back without widening the front you have a worse problem the quad will want to tricycle around

always try to keep front same width as rear or front wider then rear

never have rear wider then front i found was like riding a 3 wheeler when we tryed that idea
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black covered in 5.7 powered oversize quad
model vx ss 350 hahaha
enough bass to compensate for lack of skills
Empty Wallet Racing proudly on track for GM Motorsport

[Ozzy84]

mines wider at the rear and it handles like it is on rails.... never had a drama

[OZ_450]

like it is on rails? hmmm ok never seen any trail or mx riders have em wider at rear but if your happy with it good luck
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black covered in 5.7 powered oversize quad
model vx ss 350 hahaha
enough bass to compensate for lack of skills
Empty Wallet Racing proudly on track for GM Motorsport

[Ozzy84]

well maybe not rails.... more like a bumper car......


nah i havent seen anyone else with it wider at the rear either, it would be better if it was equally as wide in the front but it doesnt at all handle worse, infact a "profanity removed" load better.


Seems to happen alot in our sport were people get told something is no good and without trying it themselve assume that must be gospel..

[OZ_450]

i tryed it on the banshee and wifes blaster we tryed a banshee axle that made it wider and it cornered like a bucket of crap made it even more tippy so went back to wider front then rear found it alot better
_________________
black covered in 5.7 powered oversize quad
model vx ss 350 hahaha
enough bass to compensate for lack of skills
Empty Wallet Racing proudly on track for GM Motorsport

[ReD HeaderZ]

I have made it softer in the rear and the front, it seems much better, have done some more adjusting with the dampening, will buy a front lowering kit to make a bit wider to start with, will see how it goes...
I am slowly getting used to it, only came off once on the weekend !!
8>) thanks guys

[discodanz]

lowering kit wont help if your riding sand dunes and trasils as youll lose ground clearende my opinion is to spin the wheels and get a steering dampner you can also spin the rear wheels this should help no offence but you dont sound like your riding at the level that you will really notice the small diferance in steering also when you turn or do doughnuts you should be hanging of the inside of the bike as far as you can with out being silly ie turning left hang to thye left and i mean hang to the left drop your but right of the side of the seat ,, im sorry if this is already common knowledge to you but sometimes changing your riding style can do nearly as much as spending mega bux on upgrades let me know how you go ben

[ReD HeaderZ]

Ben,
thanks for the advice, I know where your coming from, I always try to help out where i can too.
I have thirteen years experience on dirtbikes.. but a quad is a different story I know, well i know now anyway.
yeah I am hanging right off the bloody thing as far as I can, big bike little man, little legs does not help me.
Donuts only done on sand and at low speeds for a bit of play at times.
My mate is 6f7", 130kgs, even with him hanging off it is a weapon trying to buck him off.
He has a 700, he said my 600 is scary for him to ride as it's stability is very different from his seems to have a high centre of gravity he said compared to his standard 700.
Thought a lowering kit may lower enough to make ita bit wider at the front to help in my stability that little bit more.

[Ozzy84]

not only will it widen it (not by much though) but it will lower your center of gravity aswell which will help.

Reversing your rear rims will make the bike narrower so dont bother doing this, stiffen the front up a bit if i was you.

the beauty with sand is you can get away with lowering your bike a fair bit without worry, just dont jump with one of those kits on.

[Ozzy84]

not only will it widen it (not by much though) but it will lower your center of gravity aswell which will help.

Reversing your rear rims will make the bike narrower so dont bother doing this, stiffen the front up a bit if i was you.

the beauty with sand is you can get away with lowering your bike a fair bit without worry, just dont jump with one of those kits on.

[discodanz]

yeah i thought you said you had experince on two wheelers but as you say quads are differant ,, i didnt know the raptor came out with the wheels on the wider way , was going of the old banshees sorry for the crappy info not much help ,are the shoks on a rappy preload adjustable , if so you may want to try winding all the pre load out of them , hence lowering the bike and seen as your only a little bloke it might also make it a smoother ride, the only other thing i can suggest is to bight the bullet and spend 5 million bux on suspension ha ha ha good luck though hope you sort it out

[ReD HeaderZ]

thanks for the advice though, yeah i have adjusted the shocks and dampening preload, everything, will see how it goes on the next run, got nerfs to get my body weight a little further out, will see how it pans out...

8>)

[OZ_450]

i would double check that as the 700 may have wider style rims but raptor has been out as long as banshees and i think they fit all model yamahas anyways so would check the offset of them for sure as i spun my banshees rims only draw back was landing wrong seemed to want to buckle em on me dohhhhh
_________________
black covered in 5.7 powered oversize quad
model vx ss 350 hahaha
enough bass to compensate for lack of skills
Empty Wallet Racing proudly on track for GM Motorsport

[ReD HeaderZ]

Well, with the adjustments made, nerfs made a hell of a difference to my ride, now can stretch my little body out far enough to stop the tipping, did not come off this time, nerfs make a hell of a difference I have found.
thanks to www.explosiveracing.com.au.
Got the front lowering kit but will not fit it, as I have been told ot to jump with em, even though I am not getting much air at the moment, still don't want to wreck anything.
Will leave it for the flat tracks as suggested.
cheers

[rapmat]

i ride a 700 raptor .. widened at front by 6" and the rear by the same amount ... the front shocks are on the hardest setting and the rear about 3/4 there too ... i weigh about 95kg i foung the handling pretty good ... actually excelent compared to standard , initially i only had the fronts widened and that alone was a great ride eliminated the tippiness of it


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[ReD HeaderZ]

rapmat, how did you lower the front end....
did you put a lowering kit on it...
sounds like it is much better...

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Guys is it true that the front lowering kits bend and break if your jumping, I would say i would not jump more than say 3 metres high at the moment, do you think that the front lowering kit would bend and break with that ?

[rapmat]

g day rider not lowered as such just widened by 6" the kit i got from the states ..(diamondjcustoms.com) sell all the cool bling to "rod" up atvs the rear was also done with one of their kits instead of being a extended lug you screw onto the existing lugs it is a 3" wide aluminium ( or alooominnum) as the yanks say that you bolt to the original lugs then the wheel attatches to it by way of new lugs suppied with the kit. the front kit actually extended the frame essentially and all the original a arm set up bolted straight back on .... took about an hour to do both front and rear