OK, my freind has a yfz, and Ive got a raptor.... now of course his is faster and lighter, I understand this..... BUT, this thing just seems to flap invisible wings in the air when he jumps, its crazy! It never seems to bottom out for him. What I want to know is, can the raptor handle like this at all?? It just seems that his bike always comes down so smooth, it might be in part how well he rides it, he's been on a 4wheeler since he was 7, and we're both 25 now. Ive been on mine for 6 months now, and dislocated my right arm once now on it (a true accident, falling rock going up a hill) Anyway, Im sure a lot of my technique needs to be tweaked some, but what can be done to the suspension to make it handle better when making large jumps? I ride the bike a lot on trails, but I have gotten more comfortable with it and would like to ride a little MX... I need a good compromise basicly.

 

stiffen up the preload

 

the yfz has a stiffer suspension that the raptor and it has rezzies.

 

if youre planning on riding mx, either stiffen up the preload, or ditch the stock suspension all together and get an aftermarket setup. this will give you a better setup to begin with, as well as better adjustment to fine tune it to your exact needs. but stiffening up the preload will make it jump better, for one, since a stiffer preload will make the shocks more resistant to compressing, so when you hit a jump, you lose less air because of compression. also, if the shocks have rebound adjustment, you could mess with that as well. that would make your suspension have more um.... "boing". so if you hit a jump, they will compress, but when they are decompressing they will have more force, which can help you get more air.
but messing with the suspension will have adverse effects as well, your trail rides will be far more uncomfortable because the shocks will be stiffer, so they wont want to soak up the little bumps as well. your best bet is to get some aftermarket dual rate shocks and get kind of the best of both worlds, a semi-soft low speed ride, and the stiff suspension needed for big air jumps.

 

I didnt notice any sort of adjustment on the front shocks, other than the springs... but I do think there is an adjustment (or 2) on the rear shock. Do I need to find one on the front to adjust or am I s.o.l. and you can only adjust the rear? Do you even need to mess with the front? Does stiffening the springs do anything or does that only adjust the ride hight with you on it, where should it be? Sorry for all the questions, like I said Ive only had this thing for 6mo now and need all the help I can get. Thanks so much guys!

 

straight offa yamahas site -

Suspension/Front Independent Double Wishbone, 9.1” w/ 5-way Preload Adjustment
Suspension/Rear Aluminum Swing Arm, 8.7” w/ Rebound, Compression and Threaded Preload Adjustment

 

adjusting the springs doesn't effect ride height. Stiffining the front springs will help you bottom out less and improve handleing.

 

Well, either I need glasses or it was covered up in mud, it rained the day we rode MX [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]
The only thing Ive got done to the bike so far is a Durablue Eliminator +2 axle... that made a big diff when cutting turns hard and sliding, got rid of a lot of tippiness. I bent the stocker, and a front wheel, and the handle bars, and dislocated my arm when I hit a falling rock going up a steep hill.

 

it does effect ride height only in that it reduces the amount of suspension sag due to rider weight.

 

sounds like you treat that thing kinda rough. not a bad thing, it just tells me that youd really benefit from an aftermarket suspension setup, rather than just trying to tune the stockers. but if you dont wanna spend close to 1000 bucks for it, you could probably get a noticable improvement from tuning the stock setup.