Well to start I highly suggest reading the article "How to make an AC handle Better" in the AC forum. Very informative and to the point.

So, for the 07 Stock grizzly guys like me here is what I did.

First, I went to the dealership and bought a spanner wrench for the shocks (about $5). After trying to adjust them I realized that the shocks have more pressure than the stubby little handle gives you leverage for, so I took the wrench to the local hardware store and bought a piece of steel pipe that would slide over the handle to act as a snipe (cost about $2 for a 24" piece). Last thing I got was 12v tire pump, they are handy to have and makes adjustments on the trail a breeze (about $13).

Off to the trails. I picked a place I had quite a few tight turns where the trail/road was wide (safety) I set my shocks to the second highest setting and went for a run. At factory tire pressures (5psi) I experienced terrible roll-under, felt like I wanted to go over the handlebars. I kept increasing the pressure (front tires only) till this no longer happened. I found 8 psi on the front it stopped (I went to 10 to see if there was a difference and didn't find one, as well the lower the tire pressure the more traction a guy gets *note back tires still at 5 psi*) I then set the front and back shock at the softest setting at went through the turns. Now it felt like the bike didn't want to turn, it plowed (still better than before). I increased the shock settings till this stopped, which was the 3rd setting. This all took me about 30 mins. Although it took another hour seeing how fast I could now go through the corners *Grin*

Following another post in the same topic and to check my settings I went to an open field, dropped all tire psi to 5 and put the shocks at 4. I drove in a big circle (maybe 50yrd diameter) a number of times as fast as felt comfortable. Then adjusted my front tire pressure until the bike no longer dove hard (tire roll-under). Again I found this to be 8 psi. Like before I set all shocks on the softest setting and tried again seeing how fast I could go around the circle comfortably. At first I plowed and I adjusted the rear shocks until I found where I could go the fastest most comfortably. Yet again, setting 3 was the ticket. Since I had time (this only took about 30mins anyways) I tried my shock settings up and down on each and tried more and less air pressure in the back. Once you get that nice comfy feeling it only takes one circle to see whether you like the change or not. After about 20 minutes more of farting around I found that my original findings of 8 psi in the fronts and 5 in the back with shock settings of softest on the front and 3 on the back was king.

Now I am a 215lb guy with 35lbs of gear on the back and 2 gals of gas on the front. If you have substantially less weight (rider and gear) on the back you may find a softer back setting to your liking.

Benefits: Well the first that comes to mind is cornering. I now feel like i am on rails going through corners. I can actually hit them way to fast have the bike slide all 4's when Icornering hard (gravel) then punch the gas when I hit the apex to straighten out. SOOO! much fun.

Second, with these adjustments the bike feels incredibly more stable in off camber riding. Also with the shocks set soft it doesn't take much lean to get the bike to level off.

Not only is it fun finding where your bike rides best it is also easy and fast. Probably take you longer to buy the spanner wrench than it will to tune your quad. When you are finished your going to be amazed at how well the bike handles in all situations. So much so you'll probably get that same shyte eating grin on your face that you had when you first jumped on your Grizzly.

Thanks again to Buckaroo50 for his most enlightening thread.

*DISCLAIMER* When you get your bike tuned your going to start feeling so comfortable that you will start going faster, and faster, and faster. Eventually your almost going to feel invincible and start hitting things at such high speeds that accidents can happen. So if they do sue Buckaroo50, it is his idea in the first place and I am in sue-free land (Canada) LOL!

Have fun.

 

Like you I've been playing with the preload settings on my stock shocks. I come from a sport quad background, so I'm used to power sliding with just a twitch of my hip/lean and throttle,...not the case with the 700 Grizz. I found I had to use an excessive amount of body english to make this beast corner well, till I started playing with tire psi and shock settings.

Given all of the above, I must say your tips and the treatise on tires/shocks/physics and geometry found in the A/C thread you mentioned were great. I currently have my front and rear preload settings at 4 and front and rear tire pressure set at 8psi. Given the fact that you and I are approximately the same weight and carry roughly the same amount of gear, I'm going to give your suggested settings a try!.

I'm heading out for a ride on Sunday, I'll let you know how it went after that.

Cheers

 

Better tires help as well. Pretty much any aftermarket tire you choose is going to have better handling than the stock 2 ply tires do.

 

I added 27" XTR's and 14" wheels which added over 4inchs in width. No tippy feeling here. Come to think of it I never did notice any tippy stuff. Your a lot bigger than me so that might have something to do with it.
I asked about a spanner wrench at the dealer and they looked lost. Had no clue where to get one or how to use one. I put tape around the part on the shock and let the vise grips do the rest.

 

I have 27" xtr's as well, I've never had too much of a problem with the tippy feeling, more of a problem with power sliding around corners, thus the playing around with the preload settings on my shocks.
Also the Yamaha wrench for adjusting your shocks is a piece of KaKa, I just use a large set of channel locks.

Cheers Guys

 

Dang, we're the 27" XTR and 14" wheel crowd, aren't we. Thats what I've got as well, and mine handles good. Those stock tires roll under so bad in the turns that the Grizzly 700 feels like a whole other machine with some decent tires under it.

 

DesertViper,

Ihave to admit I've never ridden the stock tires for the 700 Grizz, I bought it with the 27" XTR's. Since you've ridden with the stock 25's and then moved on to the 27's, do you find there's much power loss with the bigger tires.

 

Yes there is some power loss. The Grizzly 700 still feels like its got lots of power with the big tires on it, and I am more than happy with the power aspect of this Grizzly, even with the big tires on it. But if you want an eye opener some day, find yourself a set of stock tires and wheels (we still have ours stacked up in the corner of the garage) and bolt them on the Grizzly and take it for a ride. It will surprise the hell out of you. It feels like someone just supercharged the motor, but it wallows and plows in turns really bad. So there's good and bad with the 27" tires ... good handling, ... less power.

 

You can fix that with a few simple upgrades... I'd start w/ the Dalton Clutch kit... If that's not enough, perhaps a power comander or dobec tfi upgrade. Then there's the ebay exhaust tip... or a full blown exhaust setup... cruise on over to grizzlycentral.com There's plenty of information there...

 

Hey Hebs,

I've seen you over at Grizzly Central. I've got a 2 Bros. Racing Slip-on exhaust on the way (been waiting two months, almost thinking about going with the LRD pipe if the other doesn't show up soon), as well as a PC 3 controller, so I hope to get some of that power back. I'm also looking at the EPI clutch upgrade.

Also, Desert Viper thnx for the advise.

Cheers

Jeff