Raptor 125 HMF stage 3 engine kit

[ccdhowell]

I finally pulled the trigger on the Stage 3 engine kit that HMF sells for the Raptor 125. I got it in Friday and installed it on Saturday. The kit comes with a Wiseco 11:1 piston, a Hot Cams stage 1 cam, both for a TTR125, an UNI air filter for the stock box, a Keihen 28mm PE carb and throttle cable and an HMF competition series exhaust.

It took a few hours to take the quad apart and install all the pieces of the kit. My daughter that races the quad was my able assistant, eagerly awaiting me to finish her new power mods. Got it fired up about 2:30 in the afternoon, let it warm up and set the idle and air mixture and sent her out to the yard to give it a quick shakedown with positive results.

Today we took it out to my father-in-laws land and she put an hour or so on it, grinning the whole time. I have to say that this is kit gives impressive gains on this little engine. HMF claims the engine will have 11hp with the kit and with the Procom rev box we already had, I'd say it is every bit of 11hp, maybe a touch more. The little quad was really sluggish and didn't want to rev before the kit, now, tho not a free-revver, it's got some getty-up to it. It pulls much stronger and my daughter immediately started taking jumps and obsticles that she wouldn't have done before.

It is easy for me to give this kit a two thumbs up review, great upgrade on a very capable XC quad.

[ccdhowell]

Here's a pic of the exhaust and you can see the new carb as well.

http://i698.photobucket.com/albums/vv342/ccdhowell/CIMG0251.jpg

[quaddad#123]

Thats Awesome!!

[Logan #34's Dad]

Do you believe this engine is capable of competing with the built Honda 125's.

[quaddad#123]

Do you need to run Race Gas with the stage 3 kit?

[jweidner]

Hey ccdhowell,

Great to hear your daughter is having fun with the new product. My nephew purchased one beginning of the year while having his honda 125 Kitaco motor and I must say the honda pulled about a quad length on the raptor and then the raptor started coming around the honda.

Honda had more torque than the raptor, but the raptor has hidden power to be found!!

Thanks,
Jason
Precision MotorWorx

[ccdhowell]

Originally posted by Logan #34's Dad
Do you believe this engine is capable of competing with the built Honda 125's.

I'd say the Honda engine platform is more highly developed right now and would probably have the edge if built to it's potential. That being said, I've just begun to explore the potential of the Raptor 125 engine, I've read that port work makes a nice improvement, that will be next for me.

[ccdhowell]

Originally posted by quaddad#123
Do you need to run Race Gas with the stage 3 kit?

I put 93 octane pump gas in it for now. It probably doesn't need anything more than 91 to be safe with the 11:1 piston, but I had some 93 that I run in another quad so I'll probably just continue to use it in the Raptor.

[ccdhowell]

Originally posted by jweidner
Hey ccdhowell,

Great to hear your daughter is having fun with the new product. My nephew purchased one beginning of the year while having his honda 125 Kitaco motor and I must say the honda pulled about a quad length on the raptor and then the raptor started coming around the honda.

Honda had more torque than the raptor, but the raptor has hidden power to be found!!

Thanks,
Jason
Precision MotorWorx

Well that's good to hear, we haven't raced ours yet and there aren't any built 4-strokes in our series, just those pesky Apexs and DRRs. I'm hoping that because most of our XC tracks are fairly tight the Raptor will be able to out power them in the woods and hold-on on the straights. We'll see.

How was your Raptor modded?

[jweidner]

I built the raptor for my nephew and it seems to be competative with the drr's. We currently race district 6 PA STATES xc youth atv and we are I think 7 wins out of 9 races this year with 0 DNF's.

A fellow racers has the quad that HMF built for their exhaust and is featured on the HMF's web siteand he is second in points . I am currently going to do some work on that next week.

You do not need to run anything other than pump gas with the 11:1 piston, however anything higher will require a 50/50 mix.

Any help let me know,
Thanks,
Jason

[T@AFP]

We just ordered a new Raptor 125 for my son to start racing XC the remaining GNCC's this year and next year.
My question's about this bike are:

Besides a faster motor, what is it lacking?

I know the frame needs some love, how does the sub frame hold up?

Does the steering stem need to be a little taller?

Should the stem be +/- forward or back?

We're developing a new swing arm for this machine for a lighter rider. Should we assume people will want to run the stock plastic skid plates? Or should we build the swinger to accept a after market type? If so, who's



Any other info would be appreciated.

Also, I requested a Raptor 125 thread from the moderators. Hopefully they will comply.

We are developing a full XC suspension package with FOX. I will post some details and pics when they are available.

[jweidner]

Hi T@AFP

Are you racing GNCC Sept 10th?

To answer your question and this is my opinion and speaking from our experience this year.

Center of gravity on this quad is too high. I would like to see a center link in the rear suspension, instead of bolting the shock directly to the swing arm.

Quad likes to roll over on the front end going into the turn, currently working to resolve this issue.

Stock steering stem is OK length, but very weak. Bent one this year already.

Have an aluminum (GYTR) skid plate in the rear and we bent it back every race. Plastic will never last. Like to see a stainless one that is about 1/4" away from rotor and sprocket. Need the ground clearence.

We have not broken the frame yet this year, rider weighs 85 LBS. We check it every race


If you build a swing arm.... Sprocket align is very important and geometry in relation to front sprocket, swing arm pivot point and rear sprocket. Tension of chain must be consistant through complete travel of suspension.



Thanks,

[T@AFP]

Originally posted by jweidner
Hi T@AFP

Are you racing GNCC Sept 10th?

To answer your question and this is my opinion and speaking from our experience this year.

Center of gravity on this quad is too high. I would like to see a center link in the rear suspension, instead of bolting the shock directly to the swing arm.

Quad likes to roll over on the front end going into the turn, currently working to resolve this issue.

Stock steering stem is OK length, but very weak. Bent one this year already.

Have an aluminum (GYTR) skid plate in the rear and we bent it back every race. Plastic will never last. Like to see a stainless one that is about 1/4" away from rotor and sprocket. Need the ground clearence.

We have not broken the frame yet this year, rider weighs 85 LBS. We check it every race


If you build a swing arm.... Sprocket align is very important and geometry in relation to front sprocket, swing arm pivot point and rear sprocket. Tension of chain must be consistant through complete travel of suspension.



Thanks,


Doubt we will make the next one and Lorettas. We have alot of testing and training to do.
I hear ya on a linkage but it would have to be a "bolt on" in order to keep it legal for a "production" model. I'm not keen on using that type of a fix. There could be potential issues with that.
The other problem with the high center of gravity could have been fixed with a custom lower sub frame. But it is fixed to the machine. I still may look at doing something about that one though. I may remove the stock one and make a "bolt on" lower one. But I will have to check the rules on that first. I'm pretty sure that would be ok.
We will make the stems a standard height and perhaps a +1/2 & +1".
When a quad rolls like that it is due to a few key factors. We will be able to fix that with our new suspension along with the Fox shocks.
I hear ya on the correct alignment w/ sprocket to sprocket. That is a must on any vehicle.
The tension has to due with the front/rear sprocket vs the swinger pivot location. Preliminary R&D looks like it should be good through the travel now. the chain becomes looser during compression on this model. Which is common on most Japaneese model machines.
The only fix to that is to run a chain tensioner.....and I want to steer clear of that noise.

Thank you for your input. If you have have any more please let me know.

Thanks,
Tom

[ccdhowell]

Sounds like you're thinking this thing through pretty well. After a year of racing we haven't had many problems with our machine at all. Granted it was down on power, but have fixed that to a degree. I concur that the front end rolls too much in corners and we have HLS shocks. GT Thunders swingarm skidplate is made from steel and fits very closely to the sprocket and rotor, it is a quality piece. IMO there wouldn't be much room for improvement on that one, except maybe for weight, but it offers very good ground clearance and durability.

[jweidner]

I hear ya on the swing arm, we really can't alter the frame (per district 6 rules) when it comes to adding suspension linkage. You can however add a gusset kit, but doesn't help with center of gravity.

I currently run the fox shocks front and rear on the raptor and they seem to work very well, except for the rolling over??

Actually on the raptor the chain tension increases on compression and even more when dropping a tooth in the front. I wouldadd the teeth on the back, but then you have ground clearence. I like your opinion on tensioners.... you are right, don't even get into those problems!!


Good stuff though...

Thanks,

[quaddad#123]

The Tie Rods seem to bend fairly easy, We also bent the Steering Stem. Anybody running a Steering stabilizer? We are using the Streamline 7 click model, its ok for the money.

[ccdhowell]

Originally posted by quaddad#123
Anybody running a Steering stabilizer? We are using the Streamline 7 click model, its ok for the money.

Been thinking a stabilizer is the next thing we need, my girl is getting fast enough to benefit from one now. I've been looking into it and it looks like a stabilizer from a Raptor 250 will work, same frame I've read. Anyway, I have a GPR on my oldest daughter's KFX450 and a Precision on my Outlaw 450. I like the GPR better and it's even cheaper. I did find that Fastway (new name for the Elka) makes one that looks good and I like the mount, they have a picture of it on their website. Don't know which stabilizer to get, I just know that I've had Precision on 2 different race quads and am not truly impressed.

[quaddad#123]

I have a Elka on my son's Suzuki 450, it has been very nice and trouble free.

[jweidner]

We actually just added a stabilizer similiar to the elka 7 way. Had a hard time finding where to fit it into the already small area. Although I like the Precision one, I think they are over kill for a youth rider. I would rather spend the money else where.

Thanks:)

[jweidner]

Thought I'd show a pic

[ccdhowell]

Very sharp looking quad.

Can you post a pic of the stabilizer? Thanks

[jweidner]

Hi ccdhowell,

I'll get the photo on here shortly, thanks

[xcrider]

ok

[xcrider]

Wow Jay, I built the raptor for my nephew????????????????
not surprised. This is what I am talking about.Your full of it...