Like any activity, ATV riding is more enjoyable and beneficial if you're in good shape. I'm not just talking about your weight or your diet.

Do most ATV riders do some basic stretching before they ride? No way. I never seen anyone out there stretching up against their truck... they unload, hop on, and rip. You're less likely to be injured in a crash if your muscles are loose and warmed up. Dirt bike riders seem to be a little better about this.

Being lighter also lowers the CG of your whole vehicle, giving better handling and hill climbing. $2,000 ELKAs might lower the CG by 2 inches, but you could probably lower the CG by 2 inches by losing that 100 lbs.

When you're coming home from the trails or the MX track stop at Subway instead of the burger joints. A foot long Honey Mustard Ham, with no cheese or oil and as much vegetable matter as you want is about 600 calories.

A Double Whopper with Cheese is about 1100 calories. That 500 calorie difference is worth more than 2 ozs of fat off your handles. And that's if you skip the french fries altogether. If you eat the Double Whopper with Cheese AND the Large French Fries (don't lie I know some of you are doing it right now) the fries alone are 500 calories. Are you following me? Every time you eat the Combo meal (all of the above plus a large Coke) you are consuming 1100+500+330 calories. That's 1930 calories. You just consumed 1330 more calories than if you ate the foot long sub. Want to know how much fat 1330 calories adds to that "grab bar" around your waist? It adds 6 ozs of FAT to your body. Almost half a freakin' pound of fat. Know how much that is? It's about the size of a billiard ball.

So to summarize
Eating the Double Whopper Combo with Fries and a Coke instead of eating the foot long ham sub and a diet coke puts an EXTRA BILLIARD BALL WORTH OF FAT ON YOUR BODY.

And this is still in answer to the question "What are the ways to increase the top end on the V-700?"

 

Boy, you are no fun at all! Actually, I lost a bunch of weight a couple of years ago, and I DID notice the power difference on the bike!

 

I had some baked Pollock, a baked potato and a vegi tonight so I don't know what your talking about. What's a burger? Don't they come with cheese? Cheese is extra? Huh. Who would have thought that a restaurant would charge extra for a slice of cheese? It's a good thing Subway doesn't charge extra for olives.

 

Actually, the next time I go to Burger King I'm going to order a whopper. When they ask me if I want to purchase a slice of cheese. I'm going to say no thankyou, I brought my own. Then I'll pull out a pre-wrapped slice of cheese and place it on the whopper. Our Burger King also charges extra for BBQ sauce. McD's does not.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img] Yum. Yes, please do SUPER SIZE it.

 

Hey reconranger how do you like your TRX450? I saw the Yamaha guys talking smack about it, but they sounded defensive. When I first read about the TRX450R before it was released I got the impression it would be untouchable but the rap on it is that it's undertuned. What's your take? A good buddy of mine is in the market and he's been on the V-Force and the DS-650 and the Raptor and he likes them but he's an aggressive rider and he's thinking of getting a TRX or YFZ.

Yeah Yeah this should be talked about in the Honda forums but since we're here...

 

flash-The TRX is incredible! The feel is very LIGHT. Handling reminds me of the Blaster.......just pure fun!. A whole WORLD different from the heavy big bore bikes like the DS or V-force. Power delivery reminds me of the Raptor, more than any other machine (smooth and linear powerband). The machine IS geared VERY TALL. I never rode the bike stock. I got it from the dealer with the HRC kit installed. I do imagine that the stock bike is VERY corked up. The insert from the stock muffler, had a TINY opening in it. I wouldn't even leave the garage without the HRC kit! Who knows what the machine will do with a K&N and aftermarket pipe????

I am setting my bike up for desert cross country. But as you know, the desert isn't just wide open washes and fire roads. There is plenty of "trail" riding out there, and this machine is the FINEST FAST TRAIL MACHINE I have ever been on. (It is NOT a technical trail bike however. It's geared to tall and the engine likes to rev, not lug down.) The stock suspension is excellent, and it soaks up the big desert whoops like a bike with aftermarket suspension.

I have put in several hours riding a freinds YFZ (bone stock at the time). I think Yamaha made more of a purpose built MX machine, and Honda built more of an all around/trail machine. The YFZ is a very good freestyle jumper. It does well in the dunes and eats up big desert whoops very well. It is however an absolutely MISERABLE trail bike! The suspension is stiff, and the powerband is real pipey with no low end, and a big hit in the middle (reminds me of the Banshee).

 

Something to think about......This post is about RIDERS keeping their weight down. Well, what about their BIKES???? I see you ride a V-Force, which is the heaviest "sport" bike at 516 lbs.! The 450's weigh a svelte 350 lbs. THAT IS A WHOPPING 166 lb. DIFFERENCE!

Shouldn't what is true for the rider also be true for the bike???? My personal opinion is that there is NO EXCUSE for a manufacturer to market anyting that weighs over 400 lbs. And, 350 lbs. is the new standard they will all have to live up to in the future. As consumers, we need to boycot these heavy machines, and force the manufacturers to get their R&D act together!

And don't even get me started on the huge heavy clunker utility machines, which get bigger and heavier every year. Once you reach a certain size, you might as well just be driving a Jeep.

 

I ride to the burger joints.....OOOPS!

 

A large chocolate shake from BK contains more fat than any other fast food item on the market.

I don't want to get anyone started on the weight thing, but what about the SP700 being a little heavy, or is it just about right for an over-weight utility clunker? (j/k reconranger)

 

if I lost 100 pounds,,,,my rappy would kill me

I like being able to flick it around (putting all your weight on the pegs keeps the cg pretty low regardless the weight)

I totally agree about the stretching part