Sandhopper-Go to www.off-road.com and look in the desert racing photo archives. Do you see any bikes with stock tires??? If they are so good, why doesn't anybody run them??? Sorry, but over the years I've rescued more flatted riders than I care to remember, and stock tires on ANY BIKE are less durable than good aftermarket tires. The stock Honda tires are better than average though. Raptor rears seem to be pretty vulnerable.

Check out my post "I Nailed a Cactus" in the "Drivetrain, Suspension, and Tires" section of the forum. On our sport bikes, we run nothing but Holeshots with fix-a-flat in them, and we've never had a tire problem so bad that you couldn't ride the bike home. Most of our bikes have the same bolt pattern, so I carry a spare set of tires in the truck when we do long rides. It's a pain to haul them around, but if a bike were unrideable, you just send somebody back to camp for a fresh tire.

 

Yzguy - If I was a desert racer, I wouldn't run stock tires, either. Of course aftermarket racing tires are going to be better than stock tires - what I meant was that for STOCK tires, the Honda's hold up better than most. I race with mine (because I can't afford to get my Shredders yet!) and they get me around the track just fine for now.

And if Mudmunster is getting a brand new bike, with brand new stock tires, and doesn't plan on desert racing right away - my advice to him was to spend his money on something else; those stockers will get him around for a while! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

By the way, I was considering getting Holeshots, too, but had heard rumors that the tread wears pretty quick on those. How are yours holding up? How would you compare them to Shredders? Good idea with the spares all ready to go!!!

 

Sandhopper-There are 4 different kinds of Holeshots: MX, Standard, XC, and XCT (see www.itptires.com). The standards do wear rather quickly. We run these on the 250EX and Blaster, and never expect to get more than a year out of them. The XC's and XCT's seem to wear better (harder rubber compound I think), and these tires are virtually indestructible!!

 

I'm getting a 2000 EX but it has hardly been rode and those thin rubber nobes things are still one them. as for desart racing I live on the east coast Florida no desart for me.
Mostly trails and a little MX.

 

Yzguy - thanks - I'll check out their site!! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Mudmunster - if those tires still have the fuzzies on them, then it sounds like they'll last you a while. No cacti in FL I suppose! They do pretty good on an MX track if you run about 3.5 pounds in the rear (I'm 130lbs, so running them low has never resulted in a busted bead - you might want to run a little higher if you weigh more than that, just to keep your tires on your rims). I actually ran them at 2.75 the last time I practiced, but I think that's pushing it.

Also, when I DO change out my tires, I am going to put the new tires on my stock rims. Those rolled rims seems to be alot stronger than some of the aftermarket rims I have seen at the tracks. I may be way off, here, but I have talked to several other 400EX owners who said they wished they had done just that. So.....just some more info for you!

 

Sandhopper, you are right. Straight eged wheels will bend where Rolled wouldn't even start to. You could go with rolled edge Douglas' though.

Fourtracker14, Aside from drag racing, and straight, flat fields, when do you get your EX into 5th gear? Well nevermind, it's a 400EX.. I could probably get it into 5th in my driveway[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

 

I will have to disagree with more power doesn't equal more speed. (at least in the 400EX's case). The stock 400 will not pull top rpm in fourth gear, let alone fifth gear. After doing extensive mods to my 440, it will now pull high rpm in fifth, thus allowing me to go faster with stock gearing. My wife has a 400 with a few mods and I can easily beat her quad in top speed with stock gearing. I also have a speedometer on my quad which proves it.

 

norcalatver

Ok I have to bite, what mods have you done and what speed diff's have you seen in your bike.

I own one also and am looking at mod'n it. So what I am interested in is difference in speeds in the gears?? Like was 1st 10mph and now its 20mph..and so on..

Thanks

 

Like I said, unless you can rev your bike higher, or change your gearing, you will not gain any top speed. The 400EX was designed to cut out at a certain RPM. Now that you have altered the cut-off point, your engine duration will be shortened.

 

I still want to know I don't care what "theory" says... I like real world numbers from people who have done it.