gbcap
08-20-2007, 08:07 AM
Overall it was a good time. It is an interesting change jumping from a 450r to a grizzly with very little practice time on the machine before switching. I had a few slow trail rides and some pavement riding to break it in and then one ride at Somerset, pa before my first race. The track the race was on was NOT a utility friendly track. It was WIDE open and fast. No rocks and lots of off cambers.
The difference in handling is night and day. It dives in the corners, wants to roll on you constantly and pushes like crazy. But in the rocky, muddy stuff you can make up that time. When you come up to a dip in the course there isn't much way to get the front up and glide over it like you can on a sport bike. I tried a few times but it actually made it worse then just slowing down and creeping thru it. I think when/if I do clutch mods and power mods that might make a difference.
Going up hills is a dream. 2 or 4 WD I could barely tell the difference. Its like this thing has traction control but it doesn't. It just claws for the sky. The tires (maxxis all traks) just keep on grabbing. The rear squats and puts all the power to the ground in a heartbeat. The cvt trans is nice. Not having to make sure you’re in the right gear is very nice. On the other hand not having the clutch to pop to get the rear to spin or the front to lift is kind of annoying. i only put it in 4wd once that I actually needed it. A guy was stuck in front of me and I tried to push him out of the way. What is with these guys that come race an xc race with mx tires on the bike? I tried my damndest but I couldn't get the guy unstuck and I wasn't getting stuck to get him out of my way. I put it in reverse and made my own path out.
The open field sections where fun. A lot of people were looking at my like I was nuts when I came blazing thru WFO, I almost went over the bars once but I didn't thank god. I hit a REAL big kicker but the suspension just soaked it up. These shocks are nice and with simple compression and rebound adjustments I wouldn’t move to aftermarket stuff. i would keep these. But I will probably end up moving to be able to speed up compression and slow down rebound just a hair. I would also like a slightly stiffer ride. Keep the body roll to a minimum.
The power is nice but leaves a tad to be desired. The throttle response is ok, but the cvt transmission lacks the off the line pop I wish it had. I hope putting the filter in and messing with the onboard computer will help with that.
Ergonomics are great. The seat is nice and wide and cushy. It soaked up a lot of the bouncing I did and I didn't need to stand as much as I do on my 450. I know that might have slowed me down a tad but I walked all 6 miles of the track earlier that day and it kind of wore me out. I need to stop doing that and just walking the start to look for alternate lines. After making my mod to the foot pegs they were pretty bad arse. With the protection from the fenders I had little to no mud in the foot well area and the Rath pegs grip the boots like none other. Being as big as it is, it is hard to move around a lot without hitting the fenders, if i get too low on one side or the other my knee hits the front fenders and won't let it go any farther. i know they designed this thing around work and no around play/racing.
The little bit of riding around here and our property in WV; this is an awesome trail quad. The power steering is crazy nice and you don't have to work to steer it at all. It takes little to no effort to point it where you want. On the race track I am still on the fence about the power steering. It does act like a dampener but it also is really easy to turn the bars. So when you get into a rut, and the tire grips the side of the rut, it wants to turn the opposite way. Well the power steering doesn't know if that is input from the bars or the tires so it assists the wheels going the wrong way. I had to fight that quite a bit this weekend. It was unusually rutted because it looks like the past 874 races have been on the same path as this one. But overall the power steering is nice for sure. I think the benefits will overweigh the downfalls.
If anyone has any questions don't hesitate to ask.
The difference in handling is night and day. It dives in the corners, wants to roll on you constantly and pushes like crazy. But in the rocky, muddy stuff you can make up that time. When you come up to a dip in the course there isn't much way to get the front up and glide over it like you can on a sport bike. I tried a few times but it actually made it worse then just slowing down and creeping thru it. I think when/if I do clutch mods and power mods that might make a difference.
Going up hills is a dream. 2 or 4 WD I could barely tell the difference. Its like this thing has traction control but it doesn't. It just claws for the sky. The tires (maxxis all traks) just keep on grabbing. The rear squats and puts all the power to the ground in a heartbeat. The cvt trans is nice. Not having to make sure you’re in the right gear is very nice. On the other hand not having the clutch to pop to get the rear to spin or the front to lift is kind of annoying. i only put it in 4wd once that I actually needed it. A guy was stuck in front of me and I tried to push him out of the way. What is with these guys that come race an xc race with mx tires on the bike? I tried my damndest but I couldn't get the guy unstuck and I wasn't getting stuck to get him out of my way. I put it in reverse and made my own path out.
The open field sections where fun. A lot of people were looking at my like I was nuts when I came blazing thru WFO, I almost went over the bars once but I didn't thank god. I hit a REAL big kicker but the suspension just soaked it up. These shocks are nice and with simple compression and rebound adjustments I wouldn’t move to aftermarket stuff. i would keep these. But I will probably end up moving to be able to speed up compression and slow down rebound just a hair. I would also like a slightly stiffer ride. Keep the body roll to a minimum.
The power is nice but leaves a tad to be desired. The throttle response is ok, but the cvt transmission lacks the off the line pop I wish it had. I hope putting the filter in and messing with the onboard computer will help with that.
Ergonomics are great. The seat is nice and wide and cushy. It soaked up a lot of the bouncing I did and I didn't need to stand as much as I do on my 450. I know that might have slowed me down a tad but I walked all 6 miles of the track earlier that day and it kind of wore me out. I need to stop doing that and just walking the start to look for alternate lines. After making my mod to the foot pegs they were pretty bad arse. With the protection from the fenders I had little to no mud in the foot well area and the Rath pegs grip the boots like none other. Being as big as it is, it is hard to move around a lot without hitting the fenders, if i get too low on one side or the other my knee hits the front fenders and won't let it go any farther. i know they designed this thing around work and no around play/racing.
The little bit of riding around here and our property in WV; this is an awesome trail quad. The power steering is crazy nice and you don't have to work to steer it at all. It takes little to no effort to point it where you want. On the race track I am still on the fence about the power steering. It does act like a dampener but it also is really easy to turn the bars. So when you get into a rut, and the tire grips the side of the rut, it wants to turn the opposite way. Well the power steering doesn't know if that is input from the bars or the tires so it assists the wheels going the wrong way. I had to fight that quite a bit this weekend. It was unusually rutted because it looks like the past 874 races have been on the same path as this one. But overall the power steering is nice for sure. I think the benefits will overweigh the downfalls.
If anyone has any questions don't hesitate to ask.