Today sure was a great day...off work, blasting down one of my favorite trails, not a care in the world, and I caught myself with my head up my a$$. I was haulin around a tight corner and looked away for one second, only to look back and see a tree dead in my path. I overcorrected and ended up nailing the tree with my left rear tire, nearly sending me for a trip over the bars. This wasnt a love tap either i squared it in third gear just piping. Anyway, after straightening my freshly bent t-9 with a log so the tire would hold air, i hopped back on and as soon as I started moving i knew something wasnt right. Needless to say, the AXLE, along with the wheel, was bent. After cursing myself for being a moron, I limped it back to the trailer and loaded it. To make my day even better, one of the bearings on my trailer detonated on the way to my house, and the damn wheel fell off! No luck with axles today. I ordered a Durablue X-33 with billet hubs. Does anyone own one? I dropped $469.00 for it, so if anyone has opinions on these axles, I would like to know now thanks

 

 

I've got one on my rap, great axle. Lightest you can get and pin drive hubs. I've been racing on mine for over a year and crashed many times and the axle is straight as an arrow. It even held up perfect when I ripped my front shock mount off and blew both left side tires off their rims from a very hard landing.

I just bought new billet hubs for it to replace the original cast ones for a better look and because one hub was able to wobble a little. You will need to make sure you tighten up the hubs to 60-90 ft/lbs to keep them from wobbling.

 

right on its nice to hear somehing good about them. I did a search before starting a new thread and saw "durabent" a few times, had me a little worried. that stocker seemed to bend a little too easy- I figured that the wheel would be destroyed, but the axle? I know earlier models had some axle bending problems, but this seems to be BS. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the hub was bent too- I could hardly pull the wheel off of the studs. Do ya think it would be worthwhile to contact suzuki and see if they will do anything for me? I callled my local dealer and they werent very helpful, and the quafd is out of warranty. Damn my luck-lets hope the durablue holds up a little better

 

I wouldnt hold my breath on any corporate help. Out of warranty and not a defect, no chance.

Most of the guys who badmouth durablue dont even have first hand knowledge of them, they've never had them on thier bikes. Others had a friend or a friend of a friend who had/saw one break. All aftermarket axles will break, but if you bust an aftermarket one you are trying pretty hard. The durablue heavy duty is also very common and considerably weaker than the eliminator and x33 and other alternatives. Many people went the cheap way and ended up breaking these axles from bad wrecks or nasty landings, and usually the axle isnt the only thing broken. And the only people that I have heard of breaking more than one durablue axle have also broken at least one other brand of axle as well and routinely subject the bike to very harsh landings from large jumps.

The axle is one of the things I never worry about when I ride. As long as everything is adjusted and tightened down I have complete faith in it and its never let me down before. My family has been running these axles since the 3 wheeled days without any major problems.

 

it was worth a try. I know that suzuki is usually pretty good in the customer service dept., but I know its a waste of time whining to them. Mabye I should give them a friendly call and suggest they find someone other than fisher-price to make their axles(heheh). I ride mostly fast woods trails and hills, and occasionaly jump but nothing too crazy. And another thing I dont get is why does the stocker taper down so small at the end of the axle? This is where mine bent, and it seems so be a big time weak point. I just dont feel that my quad was abused to the point where it should have bent an axle. My buddy checked his 2 week old 05 Z's axle tonight while lubing the chain and saw that one side had about 1/8" of runout already. 2 WEEKS OLD, and he doesnt ride near as hard as I do. What the hell- I wonder how many other people have this happen and never realize it.

 

oh and he's ridden the quad MABYE 3 times in 2 weeks......weird huh?