I took both springs to the dunes on saturday and ran some tests against our raptor. The bottom line is the pink sping did not help or hurt perfomance. I could hear the engine revving more but that's about it. It may be that at this elevation there's not enough oxygen to run at high rpms effectively. I haven't given up yet. I'm going to experiement with some different jetting/airbox mods to see if I can get any benefit from the pink. Maybe there is a better spring for high elevations.

 

Have you tried the pink yet? If not you can try mine. I'm there every saturday on the back side. I've got some new photos. I bet you recognize this bowl WHen my group takes a rest I run up sand mountain, cause it's close to parking and I wont go far on my own.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder....lder_id=328850look

 

If you can get a stock Scrambler 400 spring, give that a try. I am very happy with this spring set-up. It engages about 200-300 rpms more then stock, and has no flat spot at all. There have been times where i'm going about 1/4 throttle, then give it a little more, and it feels like I'm hitting the power band like a shift quad. It just takes off. I just got back from a jamboree, and race a stock DS 650 and beat it twice. Not by much, but I beat it. Then a piped and jetted Raptor asked to race, and he beat me both times, but only a half lenth. Then I did 2 time runs of 250', and I did a 5.09, and a 5.08. This was done at about 3000-3500'. By the way, other then the spring, I'm all stock.

 

3TV... wouldn't a size or 2 taller tires work better, not only giving you a taller final gear ratio, but added floatation with the bigger tire diameter...WAM

 

I tried a vforce vforce 24" paddles. It was faster, but I dont know if that was just becuse he had duels and I have a slip on. But it wasn't a huge difference. I raced against my own machine and switched drivers with my cousin. Being 50lbs lighter (he's 15yrs old and built like a twig), he won on both vforces, but had a better margin with the 24" tires and duals. I guess the best mod is dropping 50lbs.

 

This is all based on observation and not on any hard data but when I put in my pink spring it was the first mod I did and I noticed a significant difference at a similar elevation (about 4200). I race my friend (DS650) everytime we go out and this SEEMED to help me keep up much longer than without it. Since then I have modified the airbox and put dual pipes on and rejetted. Perhaps if I had done these first the small advantage the pink spring brings wouldn't have been noticed.

 

Hey skurj, with those mods how are you holding with other quads in say 200-300ft?

 

No BS, I was blown away by the difference these mods made to my machine. At first I just took it out alone and was amazed by how much more powerful it felt. I then took it out with my friends and we dragged on a gravel road. The Z400 and the KFX400 were not even in the contest, I just rained down gravel on their sad faces. Both of these were jetted and piped. I was suprised the Raptor didn't do better, it too was jetted and piped but performed not much better than the two previous...maybe he didn't have the jetting right. My main contest has always been the DS650. Previously if I got a good start I could pull ahead for less than 100ft then he would breeze by with a big smile on his face. Last week out of 6 races he took two, and I blame those on bad starts. I wasted him off the line every time, he could start to gain midrange but then that V kept going to eventually leave him in the dust. I found that even when he had a slight lead I could catch up and pass him within 200 feet. The DS has an aftermarket sprocket, jetts and its piped. I am not saying I am unbeatable, but in my little world of contestants I am now king of the hill.

It also helps a ton to have more power in the sand and believe it or not I think It improved my gas mileage. My only guess it that I don't have to have it maxed out all the time anymore. 3/4 throttle was all I needed last weekend on the smaller dunes; I rode longer than usual and my gas light never came on. I can't wait to try it out at St. Anthony.

 

I'm more interested in climbing hills than drag racing. That's why the pink spring disappointed me. I never tested it in a drag race. I was pretty scientific about testing it against our Raptor on sand mountain. We did rolling 10mph starts. I was testing raw climbing power. With or without the pink, I had the exact same results. It's quite possible that if I tested drag racing, I would have found some benefits.

I'm currently using the stock spring.

 

[quote]
Originally posted by: Skurj
but in my little world of contestants I am now king of the hill.



Feels good doesn't it?