I had the chance to ride with a group of Pierspeed riders this last weekend at Turkey Bay Off Road Park. When I pulled up I saw a group of people with their buggies on trailers so I went over and checked them out. There was a one seater and 3 two seaters. They looked pretty cool, especially the engine and rear suspension. If you haven't seen one, they have 2 drive chains with independent rear suspension. I thought this would make it corner poorly but on closer inspection, I noticed an anti-sway bar linking them, just like a car. Lots of cast aluminum on the rear and front suspension, very cool looking motorcross style shocks on front and back. Engine is 250cc and is water cooled. This buggy is huge compared to my little twister double seater. The outside to outside wheel width is 63" I believe, with a 76" wheelbase. It definetly wouldn't fit in the back of my truck. Its about a foot wider than mine. Anyway, the guys said they were going to start selling these and were testing them out. They said this is the second time they had taken them out. They were very nice about all the questions I had about them but didn't take the hint that I wanted to drive one to see how it did. Anyway, I got to go down some trails with them, they didn't get the single seater out, I just followed the 3 doubles for a while. I had my 40lb son with me and they each had 2 adults riding in theirs. One of them had a pipe they had put on it but they said they were working on getting a pipe/jet kit for them. The one with the pipe definetly sounded better.

Anyway, as I followed, I at least got to see how they performed compared to my little 150cc buggy with pipe and jet kit. It appeared that at least with my light weight son sitting by me, that my twister could keep up no problem, and even seemed to climb better. They had no trouble on the trails, but I found I could go through tight sections with trees where they had to go around. I definetly drive mine pretty hard so I can't say whether they would leave me in a drag race situation, but they seemed to be driving a little slow. The suspension seemed to work great, and with proper jetting and a good pipe I am sure it would climb better than mine, however, I did have to go slower than usual when following them, especially up hills. It looks like they have a true 6" of travel, compared to my measured 5" of travel on my buggy. The pierspeeds have to be quite a bit heavier since they are so much larger, and they also have alot more engine/transmission related stuff and 2 gas tanks. I think the one with the pipe on it was leaking oil onto something and burning which I noticed as I followed it, probably something minor though.

Without actually driving it, my conclusions are, if you are a larger adult and want to be comfortable, it is definetly something to look into. I will stick with my twister though, it seems much lighter, and turns tighter with narrower wheel track. I still love my buggy, it can go just about anywhere I want it to. My twister is also a lot simpler, with less to go wrong. I don't think it would be a big deal to keep 2 chains adjusted, but all those extra bearings and sprockets with the transmission and water cooled stuff etc. is something to think about. If I had the chance to get one of those 250 engines I would do it in a heartbeat though, it looks so much cooler than my little 150. If you haven't been to Turkey bay, it consists of some of the best off road riding around, anywhere! You have dirt, mud, gravel, large rocks, tight trails, fast trails with jumps, killer hills etc.

Kell

 

Here is the website if you don't know what a pierspeed is:

http://www.peirspeed.com/252.htm

Its probably produced in the same factory as mine because of the identical tires, wheels, steering wheel, fenders etc.

 

Awesome information. Thanks a bunch for your views. The peirspeed website shows some pretty good videos as well.

I agree... I'd love to do something with one of those engines. I believe they are a honda clone of some sort???

the weight difference is huge between the smaller Twister and the Peirspeed variety. So I bet you are correct that the twister does well compared to them. I believe you are also correct that they are from the same factory. In fact, one of the yahoo groups mentions that they are, along with Kasea and Dazon, and the carter brothers Talon line.


If you ever get to ride one of those beasts, let us know!!


-Steve

 

Good review.

BTW - Just for curiousity, I did a power to weight comparison between my KPX's versus the Joyner 250 2 seater's the other day. And if you go by the rated HP and weight ratings stated by the manufacturers, the 150 has to pull 46 pounds per HP. And the 250 has to pull 43 pounds per HP. So I can see the 150's doing nearly as well as the 250's performance wise.

 

Exactly.. though the 250s likely have greatly increased torque which can help in climbing.. Either way, I think the 150s are a good bang for the buck range. Doesn't mean I wouldn't appreciate a water cooled 250 though. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Not familiar with Joyner yet... I'll have to look them up.

 

Ahh Raptor. You have a propensity of mentioning things that I've recently been looking at. What's called the Joyner 250s are on Ebay now and I saw them there as of about 3 days ago, but the name Joyner isn't mentioned. So I didn't connect the name to the cart. Those are mean looking carts, no doubt! I love the seats. Similar to what is in the Sand Rover brand of 150cc carts. Very cool

Did you see the Joyner in person? What did you think?


-Steve

 

Yes, I've seen them in person. They're WAY too big. They're nearly double the size of the 150 karts. They're about the same size as my Dad's CBR1000 powered mini-rail, but with 1/6 of the horsepower. And at $3500, you can almost buy (2) 150 karts. Their build quality and design is about the same as the 150's as well. So I don't think they're worth it.

 

Yep, looks like the joyner is roughly the same size as the Peirspeed as far as dimensions.

I tried downloading the video at peirspeed but got cut off at about 90%.
I got to see little 2 second intervals as it downloaded though.
they were definetly flogging them harder than the guys I was riding with. When you are climbing steep hills though, everybody has theirs pegged, so this is what I based my opinions of power on. They just looked huge, almost car sized compared to my twister. I kept thinking, you're going to get stuck between some of these trees. Also, I saw them try to get it sideways coming out of corners a few times. My big concern with the rear suspension is coming down off a jump sideways and putting a lot of side load on the rear swingarm. Seems more prone to twisting, which puts a lot of load on bearings which wouldn't be that bad until you ride it in the mud repeatedly and pressure wash it.

The ones I saw where updated from the website. They had fenders, tires like mine, slightly different rollbar to allow for an extremely huge mirror! Seemed like the exhaust wasn't at an angle like that either. They definetly had a LOT more room for 2 adults, mine with 2 large adults looks a little odd.

If you are thinking of getting one of these, I would definetly download the video, it looks pretty cool.

I wish I could have rode one of these to give a better evaluation, I guess I wouldn't want someone like me riding my new buggy either! They were very nice to talk to and I spent a lot of time looking the buggies over (although I let anyone flog mine if they want, if it was going to blow up it would have done it with me)

 

According to a site selling the peirspeed, the singles weigh in at only 400 lbs dry... which is actually pretty darn good. Sounds like a good combo.

 

If you believe what they say, i think they say my cart weighs 475 and the single twister is 450, I am sure there is more than a 25lb weight difference between a single and double seat.

Have you seen the kasea 250cc for sale on ebay?
I read a magazine review on that where they said it broke on them but the little 150 didn't.
looks pretty cool, I'll have to see what it goes for.