Im in the process of lowering my quad for drag racing, and I wonderd if I could pick some of your alls' brains. Heres what I plan to do-- My rear shock (STOCK) has a 13 inch spring with i beleve 8" of travel. I robbed a spring off of an XR 200 wich is the same thickness coil, but is 5" shorter. Thus only leaving me 3" of travel. In the front im scrapping the stock hubstrut setup, and using a basic spindle setup with a pice of 2" alum box tubing to make it rigid.--- My questions are: 1- will 3" be enough in the rear? 2- should my swingarm be as level with the ground as possible? 3- Should the front be slightly higher than the rear? 4- I assume rigid up front is better than stock? I am in dirt, +5 swingarm 22" holeshots for now. Thanks for any opinions [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

It sounds like you have a pretty good plan there. You could call Doug Nicholas(number on site below) and talk to him about it, he is very open and will tell you how to set up your quad. I would say the best option would be to eliminate all travel, thus the shocks/springs aren't robbing any power, and connecting it to the ground immeadiately. I think that he runs the new fox shocks that are just out. They are just a shock, no spring, and work very well. They are also kinda expensive. Look on his site, under predator performance....and I think close to the bottom it says drag shocks, and those are the ones. Call him up and chat for a while. Great guy to work with. Doug also has a drag sport, and he may give you some advice on performance and ways to lighten it up. He goes as far as grinding all the welds, and cutting all the unnessecary braces out. Nice bike, and good luck.

 

Thanks a lot! If you think of any more sites, please post em for me on this thread.

Brent

 

I did the same thing on the front of my Zilla and I personally didn't like it so I put the shock's back on.In the rear I extended the stock swing arm had an air tank built in it for an air shifter and a Marvin Shaw shock.Marvin Shaw's are lite and only for drag racing and dune riding not jumping or whoop's.This place carry's them Apple Tree Racing 1-800-433-2521.I've tried the rigid set up on the rear totally sucked,not only a rough ride but on a hard pac track the tire's would bounce if you hit a bump and your competitor would gain footage eveytime it bounced.

 

Hey whitedog, try to get the swingarm level with the ground. When the arm is pointing up, it has the natural tendency to lift the front end of the bike. When you get the arm level, forces start working in your favor. The tendency then is for the swingarm to push down in the rear planting the tires instead of lifting the front. It all has to do with the angles. When you draw an imaginary line from the back of the swingarm out the front you can understand how that works. That explains why factory set bikes wheelie so much. If you look at them the arm is pointing up at a fairly steep angle. You can take a stock swingarm bike or even one with a shortened arm and drag race pretty good if you lower it. Lowering the center of gravity helps stabilize when going side to side, but doesnt really help straight line running.Drag cars use that information when setting the rear end and link angles. When you get it right it will push the tires into the ground at launch.

 

Bubba is right on with that one,My ex girl friend had her's llowered in the rear like you mentioned and it launche's like a bullet,and NO wheelie's.

 

Ok good, I can crank the rear down another 2inches or so, and ill still have an inch to soak up a few bumps maybe. Im gonna leave the front a little higher. I read this is better for dirt. dont know how much tho. Im gona go with 1-2 higher.

 

Whitedog,My front is slightly higher then the rear and it work's good at any track.