Have heard reports of 400ex's beating Raptors up dunes. Has anyone had theirs on sand? Do they shred the dunes or what.I like to get down in holes where there's not much of a run. Would the sprocket thing fix this?

Waiting on blue raptor

sandaddict

 

Sand

Where do you ride at???? I got a trip planned to Florence next wknd with some friends.... My Raptor should be here any day....... I figure that will give me a week to get it broken in Anyways let me know.... always looking for new people to ride with

 

As soon as I find out what you are asking I will let you know, I plan on going to Glamis almost directly from the dealer after I pick up my Raptor. I already have some brand new Sand Skate IIs waiting to mount on it.

Blake
Riding ATVs for 18 Years

 

Sandaddict, My buddy got his Raptor this weekend and we took it to the dunes. He couldn't climb the big dunes in second gear. He rode my 400 and said that mine pulled up the dune in second with no problem. He told me tonight that he ordered a lower front sprocket. I am guessing that it will fix the problem. I wonder if that will make him slower off of the line?

 

It amazes me that the Raptor does'nt tear up any sand hill it is pointed at. Assuming it does'nt, this is definately a gearing thing and it sounds like the Raptor will need more than 1 tooth lower for the front sprocket to be competitive in the dunes. Don't be surprised if the aftermarket comes out with front sprocket sizes as low as 9 or 10 teeth.

 

My dealer is telling me not to do anything until after the Yamaha aftermarket exhaust is available. He is saying that this is going to wake up the low end. I do not always believe what I am told.....so you know.

 

Sounds like someone isn't using the throttle to its fullest extent. Seems like with sand you could go wide open without any stumps, rocks or roots to get in your way. (never been in sand though) Maybe if there is no way to get a run up it then I can see not making it all the way up or just digging in. Maybe you have to ride them with a bit of a banshee-type attitude....

 

Nope, there's dropoffs that are hard to see, whoops, and some rough bumps. You still gotta take it easy on sand. But you can open it up quite a bit more, just be careful, i wasn't and broke my arm...dang dropoff!

 

I wouldn't use anything less than a 12 on the front, the diameter of anything smaller puts a lot of stress on the chain and adds a lot of drag.

There's a good reason you see most bikes' stock countershaft sprockets hanging out in the 13-15T range.

If a person felt it necessary to lower the gearing any more than that, a combination of smaller front & larger rear sprockets would be a much more wise choice.

 

Morvac, yep, that's what you'd think looking at pictures. Sand is a lot tougher & tougher than it looks and it really sucks the power. It's rarely very smooth where people ride; it gets tore up very fast. Now if you wake up at 6AM and hit the sand before anybody else it can be nice if there was some good wind to smooth it out.