beaware on new apex chromoly swing arm

[reed19889]

we recently bought the new swing arm off apex since our swing arm broke during practice After receiving swing arm discovered that the the following problems

no taper for dust caps where swing arm mounts to frame

no clearance for shock on bottom nount

chain tensioner not fit right

no grease fittings

apex told me to take swing arm to shop and get ends tapered so i could you dust caps or put on without them

stated i should cut off my top shock mount and relocate it in a different location

told me to put a grease fitting in

before i bought this swingarm i called and asked them if this was a stock upgrade and they said it would all match up

you would think they would have all these problems fixed before selling this item as stock upgrade i think it should be there problem not mine so beware

so pay 400 plus do all the things to get this item to work

[KLCRACING]

Boy I'm glad I made the (sounds like) right decision and went with the Dave Carter swing arm and carrier bearing (100% happy). Kudos to DC for making a great product!!!!! I would be PEEOOHED if I spent that kind of cash and got that kind of customer service especially after buying more than one Apex. Just my two cents!

[dazed&confused]

thats why we run the DRR ,customer service means alot!!!

sounds to me that all apex wants to do is make money ,any way they can.

[reed19889]

i was going to get the dave carter one but there was a 3 week wait and we had the nationals coming up so i was kinda stuck

[reed19889]

where did you get your dave carter set up from and how much did it cost you

[gorpracing]

I found the same problems with mine. I notched the frame and plated the area to make room for the shock. I was told to cut the shock mount also seemed like to much work so I did the frame. Had the boy ride it and had no problems.

[reed19889]

Thats funny you say that i have been calling apex about every day complaining about this swing arm asking them how they could tell us that the swingarm is just a stock upgrade and everything will might match right up when it doesnt. i said to them all i wanted is what i ordered a swing arm that is reinforced and will match up to all my stock items.
Today they told me its the first complaint they have heard of this.
i said thats funny i have called several times this week with my problems and the guy says i dont know who told you that because there is only two of us and we never told you anything like that isnt that funny
i told him all i want is what i ordered a swingarm that works

he then said i can send it to them and they will fix the problem


why would i spend 400 for the swingarm then get it pay someone to taper the ends for the dust caps then remount rear shock mount and put in grease fitting that sounds like a great deal pay all that money and then pay to fix there mistakes what a deal

[reed19889]

with the dust caps did they tell you to go get it tapered or run it with out caps you run with out caps and tighten it to much and your rear end of bike doesnt move and thats no where near torque setting imagine that

[gorpracing]

I made every thing work caps went on with some work. I was worried about the swing arm not moving. After we were done he rode it and it was ok. Scott was the guy I talked to at Apex. Hes not at the races or working with the bikes. Greg the owner is the guy to talk to. Hes at all the worcs races. He has helped us a ton so I cant say anything bad about him.

[KLCRACING]

We ordered our DC swing arm and a-arms from DC Motorsports through one of my sponsers ATV-World. We talked to Dave himself and was impressed with his knowledge of mini racing. He also told us he was three wks behind, but it only took 1.5 wk to get it in. Shout out to DC for everything he has helped us with, we're in third overall in TQRA and finishing better and better each time out.

[redonkulousruntsracing]

Alls I can say is, welcome to owning an Apex. Once you buy it you are on your own. Greg and Scott and West Coast Quads which is run by Greg's wife Teri and Scott, only care about getting your $$$$. That is highly unfortunate, because these are the best race ready quads you can buy. I absolutely love my son's '09, but if I ever need a part for it Apex is the last place I would try to get one from. This thread is just one of thousands just like them.

Greg boned my son out of the first 5 weeks of the '09 race season. I didn't want to get into it, and I haven't told my story yet, but this just chaps my ***, the way they treat customers who all they want to do is get their kids racing. Here is my story. Sit back and enjoy, its a long one, so grab your popcorn.

I ordered my sons '09 Pro MXR 50 on March 16th from Hetrick Racing after finding out that the AMA had approved it for the 4-6 50 Limited class. I wanted to drive down and pick it up on April 4th. They didn't get it until March 28th, 2 days after Hetrick's ordered it, they get a call from Apex saying that the 50 they ordered was shipped with the wrong pipe and carb on it, so it followed the quad a couple of days later. After another week Hetrick's had the thing all together and did the clutch mods I had asked them to and they shipped it to me. When I got it off the truck on April 2nd, I noticed antifreeze on the frame, I thought no big deal, just splashed around during shipping. Well it snowed here after that so Seth didn't ride it for another week. Finally on April 16th the snow was gone and it was dry enough for him to try it out. He rode it for 5 minutes before it started leaking antifreeze from the cylinder. I thought maybe one of the studs was loose, so I reached down to check it and I pulled the entire stud out of the block, threads and all, I call Hetrick's immediately, who then called Greg and told them of the problem. Greg immediately called me and wanted the motor back. Rather than send it back to Hetrick's, he called a local shop who had just become an Apex dealer and asked them if they would look at it. They agreed and it I took it to them the next day. Greg told them to Helicoil the block and give it back to me. I said hell no!! This is a brand new quad and I don't want it rigged together. So the dealer yanked the motor and sent it back to Apex, UPS ground, from NY to Arizona. Greg finally gets it a week later and after a couple of days of not hearing anything, I call. He informs me that they have the engine apart and the cylinder had been modified, there was silicone for a base gasket and 2 studs were stripped out. He then accuses me of pulling it apart and getting in there with a Dremel an grinding on the cylinder. I tell him that Hetrick's never touched the motor and neither did I. But, remember this is the quad that was sent to Hetricks with the wrong pipe, carb and jetting set up, must have been the Mystical Cylinder Porting Fairy. I spoke to Hetrick's and Chris and Greg had quite a few conversations about what to do to resolve this matter. Greg even called Rich Hetrick himself asking what to do. From all the conversations with Hetrick's it was clear that my sons bike was a dyno tester, to this day it has stuff on it that I haven't seen on any other 50. And that explains why it came with a box of parts when Hetrick's ordered it. So after totally pissing me off, Apex has the motor there for a week "fixing" it they put a case half in it rather than just swapping the engine. After me calling multiple times and my son missing race after race, they finally send the motor back. UPS Ground, another GD week!! The local dealer gets it and puts it back together and I go to get it on May 5th. When I get there they charge me for labor stating Greg had told them to, and for me to send my receipt to him to get a credit. I have sent it to him by fax and email more times than I can remember, do you think I ever got a response, let alone my money back? Any way, we get it home and my son is begging me to ride it. I try to start it and no dice, finally after dinking with the carb for an hour, I get it to run, and run like absolute crap it did, but my son finally got to ride it. I immediately notice the clutching is way off, after looking on my invoice and calling Hetrick's to verify what they had originally done to it, I pull my cover off to see what was going on. Every part Hetrick's had put in there was no longer there, so I had to buy every thing again. Must be Apex needed a bunch of Koso springs and rollers. But, Michelle was very good to me helping me get this this back to how it should have been. Just last week, July 17th, I finally got this thing running the way it should have 4 months ago when I bought it. So that is my story.

The worse part of it is that my 5 year old is the one who got screwed here. This was all for him and that is what I feel makes it so totally unacceptable. I'm a big boy and I can take it when someone messes with me, but these are kids they are messing with. My son asked Santa for his Apex for Christmas. It's just plain wrong and they should be ashamed of the way they run their business. Ya know, to here my kid crying because he is missing race after race because his brand new quad is in pieces really sux!!

But any how, I have met a lot of good people along the way who totally get my story and have helped me get his quad preforming the way it does now. I tell him to ride the ever living crap out of it, and he does and it has held up well. Apex makes a great piece, they have the absolute worst people I have ever dealt with and I will never speak to anyone at the company.

I wish everyone dealing with them the best of luck and I hope that what happened to my son never happens to any one else. Cheers and keep it pinned!!:)

[glntamu90]

Sorry about your troubles, and I am not trying to belittle them at all, just offering my experience with the same mentioned folks.

We ordered ours in early 2007 and it arrived quickly and worked perfectly right from the start. Over the last 2 1/2 years we have upgraded parts and replaced broken parts from different sellers including Greg and Scott - and they have always been very fast, helpful, and friendly.

[Arctic Cat Dad]

Welcome to the Apex world of Junk! We have had a ton of trouble with them .Won't return the calls or help with what to do. We have blown 5 belts in the last 5 GNCC Nationals. They say he's to heavy and to aggressive. Heck ya he's agressive and he weighs 114 lbs. You don't win 2 National Championships by being a little sissy. Good luck geting any help from them,I can't! They got your money that's all they need.

[Logan #34's Dad]

I don't mean to crash in this one BUT - If you read the forum just about everyone will say to go with the DRR and the main reason is because of customer support. Lets face it, the quads are basically the same anyhow. But one thing I know is that if the DRR dealers recommend a change - they will do everything they can to get it changed. I've got a few changes I'd like to see but.......:devil:

[marsrace2]

I have to say we love our Apex and have great luck with it, with my sons size and the type of racing we do it was way better for us than a DRR would have been. That being said the company SUCKS!!!!! We used to get good service from them and now we cant even get someone to answer our calls. We recently picked up a sponsorship from an Apex dealer here in Minnesota and it has really helped to have them to go to when we need help instead of calling west coast. Apex could rule the racing world if they gave the support and had the dealer network that DRR does. Most of the help we have gotten and most of our parts have actually come from DRR dealers like Hotquads and G-force who I must thank for keeping us in our winning ways, yes we love our Apex quad but it is the DRR dealers that we thank for our success.

[jetmedic]

If DRR would have made a long chassis frame like the one access makes (which is a DRR) I would have switched a long time ago. I am just so *** deep in apex I cant afford to switch now. I too have horror stories about apex. Absolutely no support. I was the only one to put apex on the podium last year in the 70cvt nationals and still nothing. I pray Greg would show up on the east coast he would def get an earfull from me.

[reed19889]

here is a pict

[reed19889]

here is another pict

[reed19889]

where is everyone else having issues with the shocks at with this new swing arm ours is bottoming out and hitting the bottom shock mount which in turn just bent our rear shock (nice huh) i dont see how adjusting the top motor mount is going to fix that problem to anyone else having same problems

[bignasty]

We broke ours if half this past spring at the start of the WORCS season in Pheonix only to be told he didn't have a spare with him at the track...Wait isn't Apex out of Pheonix??? Go figure.:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Wow isnt that a nice set up? Thats why you should use SNYDER stuff and there wouldnt be any problems right? Good luck with those.:D :D :D :devil:

[reed19889]

Thats because they dont have any that work right
they are all messed up everyone is having troubles with them
you might want to get one from dave carter unless apex fixed theres like in this forum we have had alot of problems with ours
no grease fitting, shock mount wrong , no taper for dust seals we found out the hard way about the shock hurry up put it all together for nationals to race and find shock did not have enough room to move which in turn bent our rear shock i am sending it back to apex now to get fixed hopefully they kkep there word and will have in back intime for our next race will keep everyone informed

[qcitytile]

we run dc stuff on drr all the way around. No troubles. 2 weeks ago my son cased a 45 foot triple. Bike sucked it all up. Hes put it thru hell no breaks or cracks. We run the best Thanks DC

[bignasty]

tg,
We are running Shawns stuff. If you look at the quad of the month section you'll see it for your self. Only thing it doesn't have his new swing arm, waiting for it from powdercoating. But it will be installed before the next race. Gotta agree with Daves stuff seems he has also done his homework on the minis.:) :) :) :)

[KLCRACING]

As I've said in past posts, we run DC swing arm but we also had to modify the upper shock mount. A few of us have had the shock mount come off all the way(a must check for cracks) so we rotated the bracket approx 1/8-1/4" down. Our 08' was a standard travel and I don't know if there's a difference in frames and the way they're gusseted. Good Luck

[brooksjet]

we bought an 06 and after the first year i put dc lt stuff on it with elkas and have been very happy it was expensive but worth it now he can do this
http://i352.photobucket.com/albums/r323/crystylephotography2/Capeway%207-19-09/90%20Mod-90%20Lim/DSC05970.jpg:)

[markp95]

Grandson got a new Apex. He races GNCC and Mid-East. Has been to 5 races. 4 wins and a close 3rd. Is the swingarm issue mainly motocross?. Took his apart and couldnt find any issues with it.

[gorpracing]

my sons 70 is mostly mx. He trains in the desert on some mx track out hear. Just some stuff people have put together. He is realy hard on his 70. The 90 he rides in the worcs races witch is a cross of open off road and mx. Hes not as hard on this one as the 70. Hope this helped.

[FISH ON!]

The new APEX swingers have a gussett on the upper AND lower side. Don't know that it is the total cure but should make a difference. Watching our closely and no issues so far.

Todd