Thought my quad had a pretty good suspension until I hopped on my friend's raptor 660 and it is SOOO much softer, absorbs everything. So I bought my bike used and I know the kid rode it pretty hard... willing to put a little bit of money into it but not buying $600 shocks... any ideas?

 

Start by being sure the shocks you already have are perfectly adjusted!

I have WorksPerformance on mine, and 10 years later they have still not needed a rebuild. This thing eats huge desert whoops for breakfast....

 

yea make sure yours arent shot. biengs you said it may have some hard hrs on it. honestly i ride pretty hard and i think the stock 400s are decent if in good shape and adjusted properly. are your on the hardest setting? and if you dont wanna spend a fortune you can always grab some shocks on ebay. like some 450 shocks. depending on which 450, could be stiffer than other 450s. whats your weight? if your on the slim side than you prob need to soften them up or vice versa! good luck!@

 

Yeah I'm going to get a bushing kit for a-arms and shocks as we put it on jack, jiggled things a bit and at least 3 of the a-arm bushings along with the shock bushings are cooked. Since I weight 240 I pretty much want to make sure shocks are adjusted for stiffest on spring, stiffest on compression and stiffest on rebound, right?

 

You must always consider that the raptor shocks are smoother but not necessarily better the new 08 and 09 have good shocks but previous years are nice to ride but when push comes to shove they bottome out and are a pain so just consider what kind of riding you do

 

i weigh 140 pounds and i bottom out on my 07 400ex shocks when jumping.i had some 450r shocks on my quad while i didnt bottom out on jumps they kicked my @ss everywere else like trail riding.so i put stockers back on and sold 450 shocks.i think you should try the 450r shocks they are super stiff on a 400.you can get them on ebay for about 200 bills.and they have to be modified just a little grinding not enough to hurt the strength.the 450r shocks i had were 2006's

 

I have some 2004 honda 450r shocks on my 400ex which are much softer than the newer 450r shocks. I bought them on ebay for around 250$. After i bought them i found out that with some minor modifications (the 450r fronts need some modifications to fit) you can get much better YFZ 450 front shocks which perform flawlessly compared to 450r front shocks. AND!!! the YFZ fronts are a little less money. they respond to adjustments very well. im 220LB and used to bottom out my 400ex stock pogo sticks. with the 450r fronts its a much plusher landing and no bottoming

 

You could probably snag a set of works for 300 or so, I think I paid 379 for ours a couple of years ago and they seem to work well. Not like race shocks but not the money either.

 

i have a pair of 450r shocks on my 04 400ex and they are great and they look aggressive also.