Opinions on cam mod for XC YFZ

[SoonerYFZ]

I raced a whole season of XC last year on my YFZ w/ cam mod. I see alot of people suggesting to not have the cam mod done on a XC YFZ and just wonder if thats the general opinion and if so... why?

I am so used to riding my YFZ with the cam mod I really can't say how its affecting it any more.

[jshtex]

Scott do you have any trouble starting yours after the cam mod.

I asked this same question on several boards and the common theme was that it "might" be harder to start....

I am considering doing it on my sons because he pretty much spends all of his time at the top of the rev limit and I am hoping for a little more top end. But once people (who had done it) started telling me they had starting issues I decided against it.

[jbplayfz450]

Scott,
Nice to see you post again!

I'm not running the cam mod, just dont see the point. It's as fast as I will ever need running harescrambles now.

However, we all know how important the holeshot is in XC. Have you been getting your share of them this year with the cam mod?


Scott, How do you like your LT Houser/Axis setup for XC? Was it a worthwhile mod, or would you suggest something different?

[SoonerYFZ]

My starts have been pretty good... any bad start I get is due to me being too quick on the button. It starts up right away anytime but the start of a race and thats just because sometimes I want to get going so fast I barely push the button.

I also have the Honda CBR600 battery like Chad Duvall talked about in a dirt wheels not too long ago.

I had trouble with hole shots until I started doing 2nd gear starts. Not only did shifting slow me down but it seems nearly everyone has issues shifting from 1st to 2nd and finding neutral instead on the YFZ. That cost me a good start on more than one race I can tell you that. Once I started doing 2nd gear starts I got the holeshot every race but there were no other 450's in the over 30 class... just stock and built 400's.

Hey Jb good to see you again too! I love the shock setup although I'm not sure how much the long travel helped since I wasn't able to ride on new shocks with the stock a-arms. I am just now starting to mess with the setup on them... I left them just like they came for the last 3 or so races that I had them. But I can tell you that I cut my total race time (in an hour and a half race) by over 2 minutes just having the new setup. Thats about 30 seconds a lap better than before and I'm really not that aggressive of a rider... If I had a little more balls I know I would like them even more.

It still sucks to see a 20 yr old kid on a bone stock 400ex leave you in his dust but older guys that didn't start riding/racing till they were old (like me) can't expect a miracle out of any thing you put on the quad.

I will really put the setup through the ringer this season since I will have it from the start and I am bumping myself up to intermediate to push myself.

[bstuart]

I bought a decked out YFZ (stock engine)from the pro class champ of the mid-south series a couple of months ago. He thought the cam mod hurt him in XC. Said they're harder to start and have a tendency to die more often at low rpm, chugging thru the tight stuff. He had the cam mod done, ran a few races and put it back to stock. I've raced it four times and certainly don't have any complaints. Man, its nice having a quad that has had all the tiny little things done by a pro caliber racer. On my old quad I had to have something fail, usually during a race, to then come up with a fix for it. Leave it stock, if your going to continue to XC, but I think for about any other type of racing or farting around its a good thing to do.