I find my reverse is a little high geared, not enough to call it a real problem though. As far as performance upgrades, you can buy a jet kit for it, AAEN and Black Magic Racing both make pipes for the 400 as well. Some guys have cut out the inside of the airbox lid to let 'er breath a little better. The filter on it is high flow from the factory, so I don't think it's necassary to go the K&N route. Good bike, mine has been rock solid through its' 1250 miles so far.

 

There is a cure available for the high range only reverse.

 

There is?? Whats the cure Bear, let all us cubs know [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

There's a cure for anything mechanical, how much are you willing to put out to get this cure? I'll live with it if a "cure" means tearing the engine down and adding a grand in parts and labour. Better off to trade it in and get something that has a low geared reverse. I personally don't ride in 3 feet of mud, and if I do, I have a winch to get me free. Thinkin' about a rear winch mount though.

 

One of the members on here has a gear ratio change parts kit. If you pm me your e-mail address I will send you his. What it does is swap out the high ratio gears for a low ratio gear set so you can make the damn thing back up properly.

 

I would suspect the airbox lid mod would not be much help as the 400 and 500 share the same intake system. Rule of thumb for reverse gear in tranny's is that reverse should be at least as low of a ratio as your lowest forward gear. Reverse on the newer manuals 400's is pretty much the same as high range first gear. Should be the same ratio as low range first gear. You don't need to go 10+mph is reverse, but you do need the power to back out of places that low range 1st gear got you into.

 

I agree, it needs to be geared lower in reverse, something I didn't exactly test for before I bought the bike. If I really need to reverse, I haul back on her, and give it full throttle to try to spin the tires. once I get 'em spinning, I can usually keep them going. If they don't spin right away, I'm pushing. I think the idea of the air box mod is to get it to breath a little easier, in addition to the exhaust pipe/mod. AC has a fairly restrictive exhaust on it from the factory, due to emissions concerns. That's the reason the 400 wakes up so much with better jetting and free flowing exhausts.