From personal experience, I think that sickman is completely irrational. In theory everything he says makes sense. I do not believe you need to be nearly as conservative as you say though. Back in 1986, My Dad bought me my 3rd Quad. It was a Suzuki Quadsport. We bought two of them from a dealer who was 60 miles from our house. Guess what? We rode our old quads there and rode the new ones home! Guess what else? We rode on gravel and cement back roads and varied our speeds from 30-60mph every 5 minutes or so.(i.e. ride at 30, 5 min later ride at 50, 5 min later back down to 40, etc... Thsi was not the smartest thing to do (safety, legal issues, etc...) To make a long story short, I traded it in March 1999 for a 99 Warrior. The only thing I ever did to it was change the oil, spark plug, and replace the stator coil. No piston, rings, etc...Moral of the story, Pre-Law degree obviously more intelligent than Engineering degree, or Suzuki makes the most bulletproof product ever and Honda builds junk. I do not agree with premise #2.

 

To anybody,
I said I gave the way to break in a motor and know for sure it's broke-in. Oh yea and I did say it was on the conservative side for a 4-stroke, but I personally like to be sure, you don't win races by breaking down in the middle of it. I have re-rung a motor only a few hours before a race and it was fine, because the piston was not replaced, all I had to do was seat the rings, which only takes 15-20 to minutes of running time.

By the way hakmazter, I run a 2-stroke now, they require periodic ring jobs, any stock 4-stroke should hold up as well as your quadsport did. Also, who ever heard of positive camber (Suzuke LT250R) it works for race cars, not quads.

TRX430ex, what gave you the impression I was, in your terms a smart A$$ , or the right to say so, you don't even know me. I just gave somebody looking for ideas my thoughts on the subject. You don't have to get all worked up if you don't agree, everybody does things differently anyway. Also I am still in college, but I have worked for Rockwell Collins, basically the same as working for Boeing, you have heard of them haven't ya. I have also worked with Boeing on some projects, ever heard of the unmanned aircraft, I designed parts for the radio system. As only a sophmore, they offered me full time job. I will be back there in January doing another co-op, and I may take them up on it, eventhough I still have 2 years of school left. How dumb I must be.

For the record, I am not your typical engineer, I know nothing about computers, but I know enough to use them for my job. I'm not some super smart genious either, I just work really hard at it, probably harder than most.

So next time, don't be so quick to judge others unless you know more about them. This is all about exchanging ideas, not stupid comments anyway. If you don't like the idea or advise than don't use it, you don't have to get all bent up on it. Hackmazter I'm sorry about my opening comment, but I wasn't saying it to you, I was wondering who would give advise to just run it like you want it to run right away. You should take it a little easy at first.

If you are wondering why in the heck you may ever want to consider any of my ideas, I have been around motorcycles and ATV's for many years and I do race and talk to a lot of people in the process. My best friend in Cedar Rapids, Iowa was Nationally ranked #2 Open B, #5, and #3 Open A, so he knows alot, and I ask him alot of questions myself. I have worked for a motorcycle shop, and I do all my repairs myself, with my own money, not Mom & Dads like the people I race with who are in highschool and have two $15,000 quads. I did win a the Season Championship for District 22 (Iowa) and even placed 9th at Red Bud (only because I crashed in the main) in my first year racing with only one unforseable break down, spark plug boot died. So I may have an opinion on most everything just like you probably do. I feel I know enough about it by now with doing all repairs by myself and asking as many questions as I have, to give others advice. So you can take all, part, or none of my suggestions, I don't care. But don't try bad-mouthing me, unless you know me, and have a very good reason.

If your ever in Iowa, stop on by Hawkeye Downs Raceway in Cedar Rapids and say hi. We get 40-50 quads on a fast supercross style race-track, so its at least something to see.

Sorry about the long post, but as you can see I don't like people bad-mouthing other people just because they don't like their idea. I hope I didn't give any bad impressions about me either, I just wanted to get my point across.

 

Finally, I now own a 2000 400EX. I here people saying a lot about loc-tite. Is there something in particular that people are seeing come loose? What places should i look at? Is the throttle prob. near the carb or the thumb control. There doesn't seem to be very much play in the thumb control?

Jera '00 400EX

 

If there isn't much throttle play, your's is probably fine. As far as lock-tite, your machine will probably have some nuts and bolt losten up because its new. It's always a good idea to lock-tite fastners, Honda does from the factory, but again its brand new and some things may losten up. Your best bet it to check every nut and bolt to check for loosness after a few rides, you should on any machine every-once-in-awhile. If you want to add a little lock-tite to any loose fastners, go for it. Use the right kind though, don't use the stuff you have to heat up to get off on body plastic fastners for example.

Hope this helps,

Sickman

 

SICKMAN!!! Guess what? Well first of all, I too want to apologize for my second commentary back to you. It was not nice. Anyway, the guess what part. Are you into car stereo stuff? Just wondering if you knew the guys at Ultimate Electronics (Audio King) I am the asst foreman at the Des Moines store. My best friend works there too and has a very modified 300ex. Of course, I have a 2000 400ex. I think it would be fun to go riding sometime. There is a place called Sandcastle Raceway that we ride at (only legal place in DM) So we are into MX riding. Bussey sucks in my opinion because it is washed up and muddy.

 

Hakmaster,

Its a small world after all. No I'm not in car stereo stuff right now, because other than school my money goes in the quad. Mainly because I started MXing this year and I really enjoy, and I'm good at it. I am actually hoping to get to go to all the National GNC's because a top pros are planning on going from Cedar Rapids. That's only if they would be kind enough to take me with or I can get enough sponsors to help, because I don't have the money to do it. We went to Red Bud, and I was the only one to even place, and Lenny Mumm (Mumms The Word Racing)wants me on the team, so maybe they will be able to me out. I am also thinking of getting another, hopefully cheaper quad, to just ride and practice with so I don't tear up my race bike. I am maybe going to see what I could get a 400EX for so I could run more classes at the Nationals. So if you see TRX250R's or possibly 400EX's for sale let me know.

I have been in Ultimate Electronics (are referring to the one in Omaha, I'm from Council Bluffs, or is there on in Cedar Rapids also), maybe when I'm back I'll have to say hi to your buddies. Right now I am in Rapid City South Dakota attending college. I have been offered another job at Rockwell, so I will probably be back in Cedar Rapids in January. Do you happen to know John Gland, I'm good friends with him now. He's from Des Moines, rides a 250R with a Suzuky 500, he races mainly National Cross Country events.

If your from Des Moines, then have you been to any of the races at Hawkeye Downs, if you have I am #80 and I won basically every B class race, except one I broke a swing-arm and ended up second.

I go through Des Moines all the time when I visit home from Cedar Rapids. I am hoping to get a CD player for my S-10 sometime, because my Pioneer tape player quit working, so all I have is the radio. When I'm back I'll have to say hi, and see what you got for CD players.

Talk at ya Later,

Sickman

 

Whoa,Sickman relax for a second.Where in my post did I give you the impression that I was insulting you??I was merely expressing self centered scarasm.So RELAX!