ATVConnection.com

For the second year in a row, the Mystik Lubricants Terracross Championship will be presented by Polaris RZR. The series, known as rough, tough and muddy racing, invites some of the most recognized power sports and action sports athletes, such as Daryl Rath, Doug Gust, Chris Burandt, Paul Thacker and others to tackle some of the toughest, man-made tracks imaginable.

“Polaris is excited to be part of Terracross for its second year,” said Jason DiFuccia, marketing manager for Polaris RZR. “The Terracross tracks provide an incredible challenge to the racers and are perfect to showcase the capabilities of our products.”

Polaris RZR vehicles will be used exclusively in the “Pro Polaris RZR,” “Hero Adaptive” and “Women’s” classes, with the Scrambler XP 9850 H.O. being the majority ATV in the “ATV” class. Terracross athletes will battle in pursuit of the Terracross Championship at three national events during the circuit’s 2013 racing season. Fans can catch the action live or aired on CBS Sports Network. The 2013 schedule is as follows:

August 10 & 11-Elk River, Minn., ERX Motor Park
September 7 & 8-North Branch, Minn., Hay Days
October TBD-Mystik Terracross Finals

“With Polaris being the industry leader and innovative expert of the Side x Side market Terracross is privileged to have them on board as a partner,” said Joe Duncan, Terracross Sport Organizer. “By building a machine we can take off the showroom floor of a dealer and go straight to the race track it creates an accessible and cost effective way of going racing.”

More information about Terracross can be found at Terracrossracing.com

The warm weather’s here, riding areas are opening by the day and your dedicated ATV Connection editors are still scouring SprocketList for good deals on used machinery looking to be adopted.

That said, this week’s ad takes us to a place called Ripon, WI.

According to the listing, this is a 2004 Kawasaki KFX-700 V-Force said to be a very nice 1st year example. It boasts such goodies as a 2nd air intake, jet kit, Muzzy’s exhaust, DG nerf bars and front bumper, DPI pink spring and clutch weight set, and a billet clutch cover.

The seller is looking for $2600/ best offer and is not currently seeking trades.

Dear ATVC:

I was wondering if you could shed some light on how much oil is normal for a fouled plug in a 1987 Honda 250R?

While it’s difficult to determine what classifies as “normal” when it comes to a fouled out spark plug, we suspect the following chart from Atlantic Jet Sports will answer your question better than we ever could:

Got questions for us? Ask them here!

When it comes to engine break-in, rumors, rituals and horror stories abound. There is no denying that this is a particularly critical moment in the life-cycle of any engine on account of the fact that wear rates are at their absolute highest.

Years ago when machining processes weren’t quite as refined as they are today and oil formulas didn’t offer the type of protection of today’s blends, damage to engine internals during improper break-in were quite common.

We here at ATV Connection aren’t big on instilling a false sense of security when it comes to such matters, but we have undoubtedly witnessed massive improvements in terms of engine break-in troubles throughout the years.

Further aiding this positive trend along, we recently had an opportunity to sample a product from AMSOIL specifically designed to make that break-in period even more painless while providing priceless peace of mind.

Called AMSOIL Break-In Oil SAE 30, we picked up a few bottles of the viscous red fluid from our local dealer at a very reasonable $7 per quart.

So what makes Break-In Oil different from standard synth oil you ask? The answer is high levels of zinc and phosphorus, which are proven to provide additional anti-wear properties.

Piston-ring sealing/ seating is another major benefit to running the break-in formulation as well as increased film strength to coat and protect the rod and main bearings.

If all of this sounds like nothing but marketing hyperbole, think of it like this: A freshly homed cylinder may look smooth to the naked eye but it in fact contains countless peaks and valleys. A strong film of no-friction modifier heavy oil levels it all out, providing the piston/ rings a perfect surface to slide upon. Additionally, providing the rings a tighter seal actually increases horsepower.

We’d love to tell you that we dissected our freshly rebuilt Raptor 660 engine to verify the molecular miracles taking place here but alas, we have to take the AMSOIL engineers’ collective word for it. What we can state with certainty is that the Break-In Oil cost roughly the same as the synthetic we usually run and the break-in on our freshly rebuilt high-performance engine went without hitch. This is cheap insurance!

More info can be found at AMSOIL’s site: www.amsoil.com

Each week your loyal editors peruse SprocketList in the hopes of finding someone out there a good deal on a used ATV.

That said, this week’s find takes us to a place called Adel, GA.

According to the ad, this is 2005 Yamaha YFZ450, adult ridden that boasts a whole host of desirable mods. Among these: a new cylinder and high compression piston, fresh valves and springs, new rear wheel bearings, chain and a lightweight crank.

The tires are listed as fair and the seller says he’s throwing in the wheelie bar, helmets, chest protector, and full Fox riding gear. The seller claims simply to have lost interest and just wants to get rid of it all.

He’s asking $2500 but is also considering a wide variety of trades: Fox or SN95 (or newer) Mustang, hot-rod project (car/truck), jet-ski or a truck camper (but not a topper). Seller says he may even be willing to deliver.