I just wanted to expand on nate85's comment above. I have never had any intention of painting the plastics on my 230 but I remembered reading somewhere that by using a propane torch you can somewhat bring the shine back your plastics. I tested it out on a small area this morning before work and the results were amazing! As far as the factory orange fenders go it works quite well. You have to apply a substantial amount of heat but it will take care of the sun-fading and to some extent it hides small scratches. Just be careful not to warp the plastic and you should be fine.

 

Well that's good to know

 

I figure if it doesn't turn out like I hoped I can still get maier fenders for it.

 

ya ive been reading about painting because i bought my 230s and it has polaris sport rear plastic on it. doesnt look to bad. i made up some mounts and got the light working. ill have to get a picture so you guys can see it. but the plastic was originally yellow and they painted it white. its all cracked up and i wanna repaint it and make it look nice. im going with a black and white theme. ordering a good amount of parts to get what i want. just ordered a set of new paddles yesterday for 62 bucks shipped. cant wait to get them

heres the link to the paddles: Greenball Sand Shark Paddle ATV/Side-X-Side Tire - TiresUSA.com

ordered mine yesterday 62.38 shipped. by last night there already out and shipped i should have them by thursday next week. im gonna mount them on honda atc 185s 8x8 rims and use them for snow if they work well and hopefully be going to the silver lake dunes memorial day weekend 2013

 

Need a measurement guys if its not much trouble. Can someone measure the width of the inside of where the a-arm mounts to the frame? Should be a bigger than 1" and smaller than 2". Thanks everyone!

 

Ok tom I got the old calipers out and it measured anywhere from 1.52" to 1.58" so just a hair over an inch and a half. Hope that helps you out!

 

Yup, 1.5 is definitely bigger than 1 and smaller than 2 lol

I'm issuing a warning about batteries! Avoid those solid black fancy pants expensive batteries like the plague! Mine left me stranded on the tippy top, highest point, up in the clouds, pinned between rocks and trees at the worst possible spot imaginable on the mountain this weekend. One minute it was working fine and then nothing. Dead just like that. If it would have been a good ole trusty water-filled regular ole battery, I'd had plenty of warning trouble was coming. Apparently I'm not the only one having issues with those batteries. A friend of mine hates them too and has lost count how many he's been thru. Those things should be illegal like lead paint!

And I feel like ranting and tearin honda a new one. I'd like to meet the engineer who thought it would be a good idea to make an atv with no other means to start the engine than HAVING THE THING IN NEUTRAL AND USING THE BATTERY! That means EVEN if you're rolling down hill, you can't start the engine! You can't be pull started, push started, bump started, or started at all unless you have a battery and are in neutral. There is no pull cord, no kicker and significant effort has been taken by honda to KEEP you from starting it at all unless its in neutral. How can this possibly, by any stretch of imagination, be construed as a good idea???

Just to be clear on what they've done here... You can be cruising along at 50mph and turn the key off for a split second, then right back on and the engine will not run again until you come to a complete stop, find neutral, and use the start button. I mean, they had to add significant cost to the atv to accomplish this! As a matter of fact, if someone asked me to rig their atv up like this, I wouldn't know where to begin! Except to say why in the hell would you want it that way? The answer would have to be "to be as big of a pain in the *** as possible".

 

Thanks for dimensions, I only have to cut .25 inches off the spacers for the a-arm which isn't too bad, so it should work out great. I was hoping for no cutting, but im not that lucky. Really, how do you go about not beaing able to push start. I used to pop my old atv in 2nd or 3rd and push it from behind while hitting the throttle and woop I was off, thats when the battery was dead of course.

 

lol that is easily the stupidest setup ive ever heard of. when it comes to batteries on my machines...they dont have em I do however have my eye on a 1986 Honda 250es Big Red with a plow and the elecdtric start would be a nice thing to have...at least I would have a kick start backup if i had bettery issues!

On another note i uploaded my first ever youtube video today! Check it out!

I also spent about 45 minutes working on this today:





I just used a piece of expanded metal and cut it to fit. Then using small zip-ties I secured it behind the grill. Gives it a pretty good look I think.

 

Its all tied into the cdi. They have a diode you have to bypass and a whole big long procedure to follow to get around it. It ended up being a couple lengths of wire and a few spade lug connectors to make the atv think its in neutral all the time without having the green light on all the time. I hate it that every atv I get I always have to reverse engineer everything