lol

 

its not that fun to ride at night. i just did the math on hold cold it was while i was riding at about half - 3/4 throttle it was about -15 degrees or so. a 10 minute ride around my neighborhood froze tears to my cheeks. and i think my *** froze to the seat, should sprayed it down with pam so i didn't stick. lol

 

Move south my friend! It still gets cold (24 here tonight, 50 tomorrow), but by march its back in the 70's with flowers everywhere. Toledo is all flat and swampy. In Jan its -10 and by June its 105! And it drizzles rain all the time. Just nothing going for it. Here is mountains, lots of sun, fairly decent temps. Only bad part is never any snow. I'd like at least some snow... Oh well, can't have it all I guess.

Anyway, the places I ride have me blasting up to 3rd or 4th and then back to 2nd. Almost never use 5th or 1st. I pretty much hold the thumb thottle WOT all the time and just fan the clutch. So its either WOT or full-on brakes. With small engines, that's the way you have to do it. Have to stay in the powerband. The raptor is different. I can lug it around or open it up. Don't matter. It has power all over the place. Never get out of 3rd gear with it.

I'm gonna try to steer you away from anything bigger than a 20 inch tire unless you just HAVE to have it bigger for some reason. Bigger is more weight and more rotating weight. It will do little more than just slow you down. I even went as far as to shave lugs off! As you can see here:



If ground clearance is a concern, look at what I have:



I'm pretty much skimming the ground and I can run over a trail full of rocks the size of my tires and bigger. That's all that's on the mountain really... rocks, rocks, and more rocks. But I'm low, I'm stable, can slide at will... can even bunny hop with the engine off! (not sure how that helps, but I can do it anyway lol)

The front tires, that's a different story. I need 23 inch tires there because of the rocks. There's a difference in draggin back tires over rocks and ramming front tires into rocks. Not only that, but the combo of smaller in back and bigger in front makes the quad lean back, which helps in blasting down hills that have jumps (or rocks). Doesn't affect uphill performance. And my swingarm is longer anyway so its a moot point. Another good thing about the balloony tires in front... they're soft! Again the rocks.

Its a single purpose machine designed to handle where I ride and how I ride perfectly. It sucks in the mud and probably sucks in the desert, but in the N. GA mtns its what works best. Your requirements may differ.

The issue of 3rd and 4th gear, man, I don't know. I went as far as ordering a box of 250s tranny parts with the intention of switching the gears until I found a 250s engine. Its bugged me pretty bad. I was always either lugging 4th or revving 3rd. Didn't seem to matter what sprockets I put on.... although the lower ratios did seem to be better. Higher ones just seem to exaggerate the problem.

 

Yeah all the donuts in the 2nd pic is from my truck too

 

thats a pretty cool looking ride there randy. what is going on on the back of the frame under your grab bar? and no rear brakes? is that to reduce drag? did you lower the back by using a shorter shock with your extended swingarm?

lol, i took a video of my donuts. in our courthouse parking lot too.
YouTube - Isuzu Pup Snow Donuts

 

i was out flat trackin around the corners til the cops flashed the lights and i had to disappear. i live on the outskirts of town, not in city limits and the cops still get pissy bout quads. i know who patrols my neck of the woods and he still hasnt caught me. been friends with him for years. he rides also so he really dont care. he passed my house and point at me and laugh.

 

Thanks

That's the airbox... sorta. I'll have to find a pic to explain it.

It never had back brakes. I'm so used to riding without them, even when I get on a quad that has them I still dont use them. Except the raptor... mainly because its hard to downshift when you're still in 1st or 2nd lol. Anyway, I just took all the limb, broken brake stuff off the back to save weight n what-not. And its less to get smashed on the rocks anyway.

Here's the airfilter:







And the sprocket guard... 3/16 steel I think... and it would take less of a beating if it had a minigun firing at it!

 

The rear shock is a 250s shock



Swingarm





Its lower in the back by design. I made a new top mount for the shock with different holes and picked the best one. The shock actually isnt capable of bottoming. Its geometrically impossible. The plastic will go all the way down and hit the tires... which I found out the hard way when I broken a piece of plastic off landing a jump One time I had my buddy (260lb) standing on the grab bar and pushing down off the ceiling in the garage... he bent the grab bar, but couldnt get the shock to bottom.

 

what did you use for the pivot tube? i forgot.

 

An axle shaft from a ford 9inch rearend.



It AINT breaking!