Andy,

If you reread my post I said I was running my factory tires and a lift kit as my set up.

The presure is not why it is handleing bad, I've run that kinda presure before and had no problems. Since it's on a smooth asphalt road it's not like the tires are bounceing around on me or anything either.

Gordon also had his bike set up for low end power. He had a 313cc Powroll big bore kit and a Powroll exhaust system at first, but got rid of the exhaust system cause it was made for a top end gain and actually lost low end power with it. Gordon also ran ITP silver steel wheels which weigh twice as much if not more than The_law's stock Rancher set up.

The Law on the other hand has his bike set up for more of a mid-high range power out put. He has an IDS2 Exhaust system with 12 disc in it for maximum exhaust flow(more disc more top end power).

The_Law,

Yea I forgot your cam, but Why the f@@K mention your light kit? I only listed your performance stuff cause we are doing a race, not a "who has the most mods" shoot out.

 

I didn't catch the part about the stock tires. Still, I was running on pavement with 9lbs. in the tires, and it was squirrely as hell. When I dropped down to 6 and 5 lbs. front and rear, the handling improved. If you have moved your tie rods any, that could easily do it though. The lift could also change that angle too. It would seem that way at least with the a-arms extended. Much like that of a Baja truck, or the rear end of a King Quad. I still think that 20lbs. would have some effect. It would make the quad bounce around a lot more at speeds over 30mph.

I do remember that Gordon had the 313 kit instead of the 355 or whatever it is. He did though, tell me a lot about it in a mile long email he sent me back in 1998. This was when I was still looking for a quad, and at the time I was asking him about his 500 Suzuki. He said that the kit lowered his top speed by about 2mph, but his power output gain was enough to keep up with everyone else fairly easy. He didn't ride with any Polaris's though much, and of course we know that they are generally the fastest quads overall. (This was back when they had mainly 2 strokes all in their lineup).

From what you say, it seems like this guy's quad is better suited for winning a drag race than Gordon's old quad. Again, thats what I said. I think he will win. He may not, but it will be neat to see. I've never raced anyone with mine, so I don't really know. All I have to go on is the feel from riding one to another. Honda 300 4x4's are not particularly fast, and in stock form will not have a chance. Seems like the big bore kit and other things might give it an edge though, because AC's aren't really all that fast either.

The fastest thing I have ever ridden is a 96 Warrior. People downgrade them a lot to give you an idea that they aren't very fast, but then again they are comparing them to other sport quads. Against a utility, no chance. My 2wd Honda 300 will do 51 all out on pavement. Thats straight from the GPS. Back whenever, a friend had this warrior and we switched for a while on the pavement. Long paved roads that you can pretty much wind out most of the time. He could wind out the honda, and I could pull along side him on the Warrior in 4rth gear. All I had to do was gun it to leave the Honda behind, and there were still 2 more gears there. All these folks that say a Warrior will only do 55 are nuts. This thing would do 60 in a heartbeat.

The thing that gets me is that my AC will max out at only 1mph more than the Honda will. Granted it takes the honda longer to get there, and on top of that the 4x4 is a slug compared to the 2wd. Still though, with the big bore kit, it may give it the acceleration edge, but you would have to do a lot to give it a top speed edge.

Hurry up and get this thing on so we can have some results to talk about.

 

Good point on the light kit. I liked that one.

 

Andy,

This is the best way for me to show you what happens when you lift an Arctic Cat.

Take a tape measure and measure between the inside of your front tires. Then take a jack and jack the front wheels off the ground. Then measure at the same spot. You will notice that the measurement with it jacked up is about 1/2" narrower than what it was before you lifted it off the ground.

What you described about the King Quad is caster, not toe in or toe out. The lift kit will not affect the caster on an arctic Cat because they have double A-arm front suspensions. Now, on a Polaris the caster is affected, but this is cause they have struts.

I still TOTALLY disagree with you on the psi because there was nothing to make my quad bouce around on the road, no bumps, potholes, etc.

I Think I'll take it on a gravel road tomorrow to see if the gravel gives enough not to effect handleing.

 

I think what Andy means is that the higher pressures make it ride more rough generally speaking. You know, like in car or truck tires, when the pressures are higher, you "feel" all the little potholes or divots in the road more because there is less of a "air cussion" there. When I had my 'Claws mounted the pressures were varying between 9-13 lbs. in all four tires. -And we pay these guys for mounting??? You'd think they'd be able to get the pressure at least the same in all four tires, even if they can't get it at the recommended p.s.i. Anyway, I dropped them all to 9 lbs., and man, it rode like a rock! Now, I'm running 6.5 lbs. up front (to equate for the weight up there) and 6 lbs. in the rear. This balances out pretty well and it's MUCH smoother riding.

Sounds to me though like your tie rod needs adjustment???? That would probably cause the bounce you are speaking of. More of a shimy maybe? My truck was out when I put the lift on it, and man, that thing rode terrible, shaking, vibrating back and forth till I adjusted the tie rod, then it was great.

Best of luck, let us know how the race goes, sounds like The_Law has one awesome machine there!, definately be interesting. Hey, did you ever get to race that guy with the Ruby yet???

Mike

 

cowboy,

I know that the psi would cause a rough ride, but I'm trying to tell Andy it's not the reason in my case.

I know the tie-rods need to be adjusted, but the damn jamb nuts on the tie-rods are frozen or something. I can't seem to budge them.

The_law does have a VERY nice bike. He has a locker it in yet it steers SO easy. This is cause of his High Lifter lift kit(kinda narrow's the stance of the bike in the front), his new narrow vamps, and his 35 psi(they are 27.5" tall- this is a 26x9.5x11 tire). The things I didn't like about his bike when I rode it is was that it was underpowered(his cam and power kit were not enough to power his 27.5x28.5 inch tires{26 vamps/ 27" claws}), tippy(almost fliped it when I tired to ride it on 2 wheels-- he almost $h!t), I can't stand his hard seat, and his above the foot peg floorborads which make it fell like a kiddy bike to me. Makes my knees to high if you ask me, but he dissagrees, yet he is taller.

No the rubicon owner is still to chicken to race with me, last time I talked to him he only had 4 miles on the damn thing. I guess he is afraid to use it period.

 

Ah, I hear ya now. Best of luck getting those bolts to break loose though, some of them are a real pain in the butt! I can't believe how hard it was to break loose the two main bolts for the rear rack, when installing the rear bumper. Man, kept slipping the socket off, and actually broke the ratchet part in the process! It was a little rusty though, so that's probably the problem there. Gotta love Crafstman though, guaranteed for life! Anyway, had to switch to an end wrench, with a cheater bar! When they finally broke, I thought I'd popped the head clean off. Luckily the bolt had broke loose, and was still in good shape.

As for that guy with the Ruby-only 4 miles! Man, what's it do, just sit there and look pretty? Must be nice to have that kind of money to buy things just to look at.

Good luck with the project, let us know how the race goes!

Mike

 

We were GONNA do his break-in today, but all kinda problems. First, last night he realizes that he can't find his intake manifold (part that goes form the carb to the head/or jug as I like to call it). So he tells me this and I knew were it was before he did. He left it on his jug(I didn't see it but I knew that the idot would do that) when he brought it to get bored out and have the guy port and polish his head. So, he calls the guy up last night and the guy finds it. He said he would leave it out side his home/shop and that we could go get it today.

Then he realizes that he don't have the shims or gap things(WTF you call them? feeler guages?) to set his valves. Well I called up my grandfather and got them. After I got off the phone I jumped on my cat and went to his house to get the tool(not but 1-2 miles I bet). while I was there I talked to him about buying a new 250 4x4 to replace his 110 3 wheeler. He wants a Suzuki but I'm trying to tell him that Arctic Cat is cheaper, better, and has the same drivetrain. Well on the way back I passed threw the spot where I took my jumping pictures at(see my photo album). Instead of jumping I took my time going down and decided to keep the rears on the ground. Well I don't know if it's my lift kit, the 20 psi, or the power increase form taking off my claws, but it wheelied the easiest it has EVER before. I mean I wasn't expecting it to come up that high or easy with such a little throttle I gave it. I think it's the lift kit. What you guys think?

Well anyway I got home and told him I had the tool. I told him that untill we could get the valves adjusted to just screw the adjusters all the way untill they hit till valves/cam (not sure what end his adjusters are on) then back them off a quarter turn for now. This was so he could run the bike about 5 seconds( after he got the manifold and the bike put together) to drive it into his truck.

Well I wake up this mourning and it's already 11 am. So I jump out of bed and ask my dad if The_law called yet, nope. So I call him. His mom answers and trys to wake him up, I could hear her trying to wake his "sleeping MUDusa" butt. She could not so I told her I would call back lata.

Well, I call him and this time his mom was able to wake him up. He tells me that he will be over at my house in 30 min. I decided I would go fill up my cat with gas while I waited.

Well, I got on my cat and was keeping it slow cause of the horrible handling with the toe-in like it is. Well, I'm riding along and notice something don't seem right. Seem like when I hit a rock or wet spot it makes a funny noise. I also noticed that it had a big power lose, but I figured that my toe-in was causeing that cause it was such drag on the bike. Well got to the end of my road, crossed the main road and got in a feild. I noticed that 2 of my left front bolts on my wheels were loose(I never learn- this has happen before, but this time i caught it before I lost all my bolts). Well, I figured this should be fixed before I got to the gas station and have the wheel fall off. So I went back home and was planing on just tigthening the wheels and going fill up. Well that plan quickly changed as I started hearing a grinding noise every now and then. At first I was thinking "there goes my front diff", but I noticed that when I would turn to the left the noise would stop. Well, I was thinking that maybe thats my bearings are just TOTALLY shot and they are grinding. So, not so bad since I needed to change them any how. I get to my yard and stop, I jump off and look at the inside of the left front.

First thing I notice is metal dust/shavings inside the wheel. I look up and I see the bad part, and where all that dust came from. It's my disc rubing on the bottom a-arm, it also is rubing on the rubber boot that connects the knuckle to the a-arm. So, I pull my cat off to the side and go call The_Law to tell him that I'm out of the race and ride.

Well, I call him tell him that there is no use bringing his 300 here cause I can't ride. He then tells me he also can't run his bike cause he is missing another bolt. A banjo bolt for the oil line. Well after a few min of talking we decide that we are might as well use the rest of the day to go get the Intake Manifold for his bike. So he comes here(after me haveing to give him directions to go around a wreck that had happen about 2 miles from my house). He picks me up and he deicides he wants to go mud riding in his Z71. So, on our way to the interstate we take a sugar cane feild and almost go in a canal cause we were getting sideways from all the mud. We get to the guys house and guess what, the part is not where he said it would be. AND he is not home, BUT after waiting 15 min he shows up and gives us the part(which was locked up in his shop, not where he said he was gonna put it). He also shows me his nice 392ex that has been bored and stroked. It has works shocks, racing plastic, radial front tires on douglas .190 wheels, rear custom grooved turm tamers on douglas .190 wheels with rings, a Procirit pipe, AC?? nerf bars, a dura blue +2 rear axle(looks freaking strong, about 1.5" in diameter), dura blue spacers and offset wheels up front, 400ex levers, aftermarket handle bars, a dune racing front bumper, and a parking brake block off kit. I drilled this guy for about 20 min and he had a good answer for EVERY question I asked. He told us that he was gonna be getting some arms for a 400ex and was gonna have to run 400ex/250r shocks so he wanted to sell his. The_law jumped at this cause he wants the extra lift of longer shocks, but the $250 price tag quickly put him to a slow down. Well before we left I got some cards so if I ever decide to get a cam installed, get my heads ported and polished, or any kinda work that I will allow a shop to do, he is my man.

Well all and all it wasn't that bad. I ahd a good time mud riding, doing 70-95 mph in 4wd high on the interstate(hince the reason he is the ORIGINAL Team Insano member/founder), and talking to a guy with great racing ATV knowlege that wasn't a stuck up(I don't talk to many, but all of them except him have come off to me like that).

Well sorry for the SUPER LONG post, but I figured it was about time I had one of those post about how my day went, lata.

 

Yeah that handle bar tremor sure sounds like bad tie-rod adjustment to me. My quadzilla used to do that and feel like it was going to throw my hands off the bar especially when I let off the gas. I inspected the front end and all looked good and I couldn't understand it. One day on the stand I noticed that the inner tie-rod where it bolts to the steering stem had wobbled the hole out. Allowing the wheel to drift back and forth when it was rolling but act normal when you would try to shake it by hand. I drilled it and put a bushing in it. No problem since. I run alot of tire pressure, too. Just trying to get alittle extra ground clearance on the Prairie.

 

Roman,

This is what I put a few posts above this one:

I know the tie-rods need to be adjusted, but the damn jamb nuts on the tie-rods are frozen or something. I can't seem to budge them.

See it?