Stories tagged: links

A few more sites have ride reviews out.

ATVScene's review does a good job of laying out all the cool technical things about the 700XX.

ATVRiders review does a better job, in my opinion, of telling how they felt about the actual ride of the 700XX. They also have 2 video's after the review. One interviewing a Honda rider, and the other footage of them riding the XX.

I think both are worth reading. I find it interesting that they totally contradicted each other on several points. ATVRider felt it was the fastest quad they'd ever ridden, while ATVScene felt it was slower than the raptor. In the video interview the Honda rider said it was awesome in the whoops, while ATVScene complained about how it handled whoops. I guess a shootout will help settle those points. It's hard to say how good something is when you don't have anything on hand to compare it with.

Both agreed it would make an awesome desert racer. They both also complained about low end power, which they figure an aftermarket CDI will fix.

In the ATV section of off-road.com they have a ride review of Honda's new 700XX.

It is a very intriguing quad. For my type of riding I think it is still a little heavy, but for most people it sounds like it has a lot to offer. Here few things about the 700XX that I found interesting.

It has dual springs on the front shocks. Hard to tell from most of the press photo's I've seen, but you can see it in the photo to the right. This is supposed to accomplish what a progressive-rate single spring would but in lighter and more compact package.

Honda really wanted longer A-Arms in the rear to help reduce camber changes. They did a few things to alleviate this.

First, it has 11" rear wheels. This allows the hubs and knuckles to reach further into the rim. It's weird seeing a quad with a larger rear rim than front rim, since it usually goes the other way.

Second, the chain and sprocket are located very close to the center of the quad (33mm to the left to be exact). However the countershaft comes out of the engine in the same place it does on all quads. So Honda designed a compact set of gears and shafts that allowed them to place the sprocket as close to center as they needed.

<http://www.atvillustrated.com>

Their new site looks pretty good. Their ticker is totally fubar in Camino, but seems to work in other browsers. They have an RSS feed which is pretty nice. They also seem to turn off ads when you are logged in which is an awesome touch. So if you are looking for another ATV news site, <http://www.atvillustrated.com> is a pretty good place to go.

I was watching At Your Leisure the other day and they had an episode on Invert Sports. It is a cool way to go boating if you don't have a boat. Basically you rent a boat and a driver and a ski/wakeboard instructor for the day. They teach you how to waterski or wakeboard and do all the driving. So you can be in the back with the camera filming your kids and not worrying about driving. Sounds like an awesome idea to me. They seem to be a Utah only company. So if you are from Utah and want to go to the lake, then this sounds like a much cheaper plan than buying a boat.

Disclaimer: After watching the episode I found out my cousin is a partner with the owners of Invert Sports.

Over at <http://z400central.com> I'd been told a lot of good things about GTThunder as an alternative to buying new shocks. So when my dad asked me to rebuild his 400ex for my brothers I decided to give GTThunder a shot.

I bought a set of 450r shocks off ebay for $300, and then sent them to GTThunder with the stock rear shock. The turn around was a little under 3 weeks. It probably could have been faster but I sent them slow shipping on a saturday. It was about $30 to ship all 3 shocks.

The service rebuilt the shocks, set them up for a 235lb rider, made the front shocks dual rate, and provided a new rear linkage for a little under $780. That put me just over $1100 for a new front and rear suspension setup.

When I got the shocks back and tried to install them I noticed that with the new linkage the shock touched the swingarm. This freaked me out. So I sent GTThunder an email, and within an hour I had a reply explaining that on install this would happen and was normal. When I asked how to get the shock on they told me that the spring had enough give to make it fit. I decided to trust them since they are the experts, and got the shock on.

A little note on customer service. These guys replied quickly and helpfully to every email I sent. They explained that the rear shock touching was normal, and would be OK once the shock was on, but if I wasn't comfortable with it they could change the shock so it didn't touch, it just wouldn't be as comfortable. I was really impressed with how prompt and helpful they were. A+ for customer service.

This past weekend Jim and I were able to go to this little track to try it out. Remember I set it up for my brothers, so the shocks were a little stiff for me, and I'm sure very stiff for Jim. I have really liked the shocks on my Z, and have been quite proud they they are nicer for jumping than the EX's and even Jim's Raptor 700's shocks. We hit a few jumps at the track, and I can't wait to upgrade the Z. This track had some pretty crappy landings, and the Z would land hard and bounce on landing. The EX landed smooth and set you up for the next jump. You can find more pictures and a few short clips of us at the track here.

I'm very pleased with the quality of the work. I will definately be sending my rear shock off the Z into them to get rebuilt. I was going to do the fronts as well, but I found a deal on Elka's that I can't pass up. This does mean that we'll be able to see how 450r rebuilds compare to Elka's.

If you are looking to upgrade your shocks I'd definitely recommend GTThunder. Their service and quality are awesome.

<http://www.atyourleisure.info>

Not just for 4 wheeling. But there is a lot of that too.
It's just a TV Show about cool things to do in and around Utah.

Like Ten mile or their 250ex review. It almost always has cool stuff every episode.

So Joe just showed me this pretty cool website. <http://www.atvtv.com>. It's some TV show, and they just started showing their shows on their website. Pretty cool place to get more reviews and trail ideas.

Mike

Heres a sweet new website to check out. <http://myquadvideos.com>. Our October vid has been uploaded there. Now we just need to go riding so we can upload some more.