oh, i am not saying that it will mess it up your first time out, or the second or third or for a year or 2 or 3 etc etc. What i am saying is that over the long haul (and if your riding it a lot) it could do a lot of damage on your bike. You will also go through chains and sprockets a lot quicker.

 

I can see chain and sprocket quicker only because of riding in the sand (ie sand blasting), but I don't understand the trans loading problem. Wouldn't you also have clutch problems too? What is it about the paddle that makes it hard on clutches and trans missions other that most of the riding is WOT speed shifting as you approach the hill? Trail riding would be extra hard on the clutch cause you are always using it.

Sand paddle is a must. I've only ridden at Silver Lake as far as dunes (only one around).

Buddy had his CR250 at SL without paddle and he couldn't keep up with the paddled yz125 with us. Plus it was very difficult to ride because the front wheel won't come up and you'll have to fight the sand to keep from falling over.

All 3 riders tried it and all 3 decided there was no way. You may not regret it if you don't get to ride a bike with a paddle on it, but if you do get to ride someone's with a paddle on it, you'll be over at DavidAllenRacing across the street for sure. $60 for tire, $20 to put it on a rim. You have to take the rim off though.

 

Well, its kind of hard to explain. I will do my best, but lets say you have a regular knobby tire on. Your gears will have some slippage in them, which is good. If you have a paddle on it is always "biting" on your gears. Since the paddles are not very close to each other there is a little slippage and the cup hits the sand and it "bites" and it does that over and over again. Especially when you jump, because when your in air your gears spin freely and then when you come down it grabs and kind of binds them up.

that was the best i could explain it, i am not sure if it made much sense or not.

 

I use to ride a CR500 at the dunes...

If you know your bike, you'll know when to re-jet. The oregon dunes have cool air blowing off from the ocean and is cooler than where I ride locally, so I re-jetted for the altitude and air temp. But found that I did have to increase more than what I normally do. The riding style is more wide-open than mid-range. Had buddies burn up a motor pretty quickly because they didn't pay attention to how the bike was running. Run it, and listen to the motor there is a distinct sound. If you can't tell that way, do a plug check. Another way to tell is that if your bike runs better than it ever did before, you'll probably on the verge of a melt-down, check your plug.

Dirt vs. Paddle... Go without a paddle if you don't want to buy one. You'll get around ok without a paddle if you have a fresh aggressive knobbie, like a Dunlop 752 or Michelin M1. Paddle tires help greatly in deep soft sand, but I've found they're not required, but paddle tires make it more fun.

Riding in the dunes is kinda like being in a boat. It plows a little at slow speeds, but speed up a little and it planes out and you float on top of the sand. Takes a few minutes to get use to. Turning... lean it sharply into the corner to plow the front tire in and grab gears and a fist full of throttle. The bike doesn't react like it's on dirt, it will slip and spin at slow speeds.

It's a kick, just don't go shooting off dunes without checking out the other side first...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img].

 

My 85 CR500 has spent approximately 400 hours at pismo over its life time, all of it with a paddle tire. Back in the early 80's you had to have paddle tires specially made. I had one made for my '82 CR480 after my first trip to the sand. I did split the cases on the 500 after about 1600 hours total and replaced 2 of the 6 bearings in the tranny. It is on its 2nd clutch, but cmon, it's a 20 year old dirt bike. And just so you know, mud is much harder on chains than sand could ever be.

 

It also depends on how you ride, how much you ride and how you take care of your bike. Like i said though, you can go for a long time with a paddle, but i dont reccomend it. Plus its way more of a challenge and way more fun to me without a paddle IMO. To me its like stand up jet skis compared to sit downs. The sit downs are easier but the stand ups are WAY more fun.

 

Do you even have a paddle tire for your bike? I cant imagine anyone having a paddle tire and not using it. If you cant afford one, then it makes sense. Other than that I cant imagine some one not reccomending a paddle tire to some one.

 

Isn't that the whole point of the tire? To grab and get traction? Whether it's a knobby on hard pack or a paddle in sand. Thats the tires purpose. It's not gonna harm the tranny gears the mesh tolerance on the gears are very close. If your gears are slippin your missin teeth on them. Unless I completely miss understood what your sayin. Trannys are engineered and made strong since it's the major component of your drive line.