Looks like I've fell into the Red Sea.

[kthesandman]

Last week /weeks had a lot of time off cause of the big snow storm's we have encountered this winter here in the Reno NV. area. It has been great. Lots of time to ski. Great snow conditions on the mountain. I drive a ready mix truck and concrete deliveries are way down. I ski hard and fast, mogul's being my speciality. We'll I injured my back and hence rellegated myself to couch duty. No such thing, I'm going to search the web for my new suspension for, dare I say, my Raptor. It's a 2004, piped, jetted,K&N, bigger oil tank,AC nerf's, razor FT's, V- cut's back. The wife ride's a Z-400, and I just bought my daughter a Blaster, she was on a Honda 90. We are kind of new to Quad's, my first being a used 2001 Raptor in Novemder of 2001. We all know about the 01 Raptor,hence the 04.
I,m a duner.I'm not a hill shooter,or a racer. I grew up in S. Cal.,San Diego, driving Sandcars. Sand is not puzzling to me. I read it and I'm not fooled buy it's nuance's. Once you know the lay of the sand,no matter the size, it all lay's the same. What was new to me was the Quad.
I surf,not the web, the ocean, I ski,motorcycles, mountain bikes, sand cars , I know a thing or two about picking a line. I chose a Raptor not cause I'm a Honda guy or a Yamaha guy, I chose a Raptor for the big CC's/4-stroke/park it when your are done. I have enough to do keeping all the other toy's on line. I do maintance,cleaning, on the quads as needed/ after every trip.
What I know about running sand is it is all about momentum. Use it to your advantage. For me the Raptor, as it is, works well for me. Where I have concerns is at places like Dumont and other fast mountains where speed is a dig part of the equation. G-outs. Mistakes. Woops :eek: . I need a better suspension.
I need a sand suspension. Maybe more H.P. after suspension , but suspension is tops on my list now.
What really works in the sand? Long travel A-arms,linkages for the back suspension, +2 A-arms/stock lenght shocks. I all ready know the stock shocks,all the way around, are land fill material. I took one look at the frounts shocks and thought what a joke right out of the box. JC Whitney makes better than those :o .
I've figured out the stock set up, I'm ready for the next step. This is a great sport. We should always keep in mind that there are people out there that would like to see all the Hondas, Yamahas, and for that matter anything that has the word fun associated with it put on the shelf, close it all down, and put our ***'es on the couch to watch old videotapes of how it used to be.
What suspension set up works in the sand?

[wilkin250r]

A fellow rider from Reno!

Much like anything else, your riding style should dictate your suspension. Do you plan on doing anything else other than sand? Are you a big jumper? When you ride sand, what type of riding do you do? Do you like pulling a couple G's through the bowls, heading out to remote washes and trails, or shooting the hill with your buddies?

In sand, you're generally not limited by your width, so I would suggest +3 inch A-arms, and a wider axle. For the Raptor, I would also suggest a longer swingarm. The Raptor is pretty tall, with a narrow wheelbase, so your goal will probably be to get the entire machine low and wide.

If you like riding the sand washes and streambeds, extra width will be your enemy, so you may not want to go +3's if tight terrain is your thing. This also applies if you want to ride the same machine for sand AND for tight, technical trails closer to home.

I'f you're not a big jumper or racer, then Long Travel probably isn't worth the extra money. Same with a different rear linkage, like a No-Link or other fancy setup. I still recommend a longer swingarm, but I imagine the stock linkage will suit your needs just fine.

[MY450R]

kthesandman...are you on any pain killers or something
just asking because you sound f ed up
oh yeah welcome to the site