I AM HAVING A PROBLEM BOTTOMING OUT ON MY NEW 2002 RAPTOR. I WEIGH 175 LBS AND LOVE TO FLY. MORE TIMES THAN NONE, I HIT SO HARD THAT MY UNDERCARRIAGE SLAMS THE GROUND (THANK GOODNESS FOR GYT-R SKIDS) NOT TO MENTION THE SHOCK UP THROUGH THE LEGS. THE FRONT SHOCKS SEEM OK. BUT IN THE REAR IT'S A DIFFERENT STORY. ALL THE SUSPESION SETTINGS ARE STOCK PER THE MANUAL. HAS ANYONE HERE HAD THIS PROBLEM ? AND IF SO, WHAT ADJUSTMENTS HAVE YOU MADE TO THE REAR SHOCK TO SOAK UP THIS HITS WITHOUT MAKING IT TOO STIFF FOR CRUISING. NOW I KNOW YOU GUYS LAUNCH YOUR RAPTORS. PLEASE GIVE ME SOME GUIDANCE WITH SOME CLICK ADJUSTMENTS OR PRE-LOAD RECOMMENATIONS. THANKS GUYS ! P.S. THIS IS MY FIRST POST AND JUST FOR THE RECORD, MY NAME WAS GIVEN TO ME BY MY RIDING BUDDIES. SORRY FOR THE CAPS.....

 

Mine does the same thing,But I wiegh 240lb.I set all the shocks as tiet as they will go.I think the answer is a after market shocks

can anyone else help us?

 

Same problem here, but i figured it out. YOu guys need to preload at the face of the jump. This will make you fly farther and land more horzonile than vertical. To preload you will need to put all of you weith on the pegs and pull back on the bars when going off the face of the jump. After you leave the jumps face, push your upper body forward and lower body backward to a leaning down position. Position the quad so it lands on all 4's.

 

QuadGod,

I ,a 185 lb rider, have been through your current situation. For me, Elka shocks solved my problem. However, you could also have your current shock revalved and a new spring put on it.

Also, I don't recommend that rear linkage flip. It only makes the problem worse.

/Jon

 

quadgod may i ask what kinds of jumps your hitting and approximatly how high your getting. do you land on a landing ramp or on flat ground? have you thought about aftermarket suspension? they build shocks to your body weight and riding needs so they would be great for you.

 

Thanks to all for the replies.....In my opinion (although my friends tell me i go bigger), i'm jumping around 5-10 ft high and about 25-40ft in length and landing on a slight(25 degree) decline and sure enoungh.....slam! The same thing happens (which i expect) on jumps that lauch me straight up (5-10ft) and land on a flat surface. Regardless, i have enough time to pull some tricks out of the bag like no handers or some huge no footers (god it feels so easy to do...lol). Has anyone adjusted the pre-load, compression & rebound settings on the stock rear raptor shock?? i'm not looking to put out the bigs $$$ for aftermarket shocks just yet......thanks guys!!!

 

Yea, I adjusted all the settings without solving the problem. Yamaha even replaced my shock once because the rebound setting wasn't doing anything (bad move on my part because the compression setting was the real issue and later Raptor problems were not covered under warranty because Yamaha is more interested in turning a profit from each and every extended warranty contract).

/NotuRaptor

 

quadgod..i hit about the same size jumps as you. my friend has a 40 foot table top that i like to practice freestyle on. my suspension used to almost bottom out on it if i didn't hit it right but now i turned it up as hard as it will go and i don't have any problems anymore unless i overshoot it.
so your into freestyle huh? so am i. what kinds of tricks can you do? i can do, no footers/handers, surfers, heelclickers, can cans, no footed can cans, candy bars, saran wraps, cliff hangers, nothings, cordovas, and catwalks, as well as a buncha other smaller tricks and variations. you can take a look at some of my pics in my photo album. its in the folder called caseys place.

 

all you need to do is set up the shock right


for starters take a tape measure and measure the distance from the grab bar to the ground then sit on the quad and have a friend measure the distance again .you need to make that distance about 3" tightening the spring preload does this (loosen the jam nut on the spring while someone lifts the weight off the quad turn the spring this will do the trick )then take your quad out to the jumps ride it and go up in the clicks with your comprestion adjuster as needed to stop bottoming ...if you bought the quad from a dealer take it back to him and ask him to help you set it up for your weight if you dont want to do the steps I've listed ....

this is a basic set up ...play with it you'll find that the rear shock will be ok .....your weight and that shock are perfect for the raptor unless you are a full blown mxer .....good luck