Hill Climbing Anyone?

[Blodg]

Still loving the 416EX and glad I modded it instead of selling and going to a 450. I don't ride every weekend being involved in my family and their activities plus traveling for work but I still feel like a kid after getting into hill climbing this year. Huge adrenaline rush and a much greater sense of accomplishment than I get from just trail riding. On my 416EX I am able to do everything the 450's do and even won the novice class of a hill climb competition against other 400's and 450's at 46 years old but of course a lot of that is due to riding ability also. This was not a typical AMA smooth, manicured hill climb that are just drag races uphill. This competition was just seeing if you could make it up the knarly, rutted, hill with turns and covered in tree roots with almost no run. The 5 hills were assigned point values based on difficulty and everyone got two tries to see if you could make it up. If you didn't make it on the 1st attempt you got less points if you made it on the 2nd attempt. If you didn't make it on the 2nd attempt you got zero points for the hill. Anyways it was pretty cool.

Below are a few pics taken from the hill climb competition:

[Blodg]

And here are some pics from just normal riding and hill climbing with some buddies over this summer:

[Blodg]

And here is the link to the build thread if anyone is interested:
http://www.atvriders.com/vbb/showthr...light=decision

I would be interested in hearing if anyone else does any hill climbing.

[KKiowaTJ]

I love to hit hills on trails. If im not going flat out, I like to have a hill to play on. Like mentioned, Only time you can keep pace and semi equal to 450's is hills and some trails if you have decent riding skill or better.

Looks like you hit some good runs, Get a GoPro and record it! 4's are out so the 3 will be cheaper! Looks fun as crap, Plus always fun to watch the near misses and where you need to throttle more and or less etc. Ive lost the love for the tracks and like wide open/trails/hills anymore.

[Blodg]

Yes I told my wife I was going to get a GoPro for my Christmas gift this year. Before I didn't think I was doing anything exciting enough to record but now I am progressing up to some huge hills and it would be fun and like you said you can learn from it also. Of course most of my buddies have them and there are a few different versions of the hill climb competition I mentioned above on Youtube. I could find those if anyone is interested but the videos are really long. Here is a link to a medium hill that we play on that I climb twice on the EX near the end of this 3 min video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDPT5mPMKQM

It is funny how we change over the years. I raced quad MX in my 20's through early 30's and then after a bad injury and starting a family I didn't ride at all for several years. After participating in many hobbies I realized that riding was one of the most fun things I had ever done so I got back into it in my 40's and found fast trail riding was a blast. So I did that for a few years basically XC racing with my buddies but the difference from real racing was when you get tired you just slow down LOL. And then at the end of last year I started climbing some real hills and am now fascinated with trying bigger and bigger hills. I pretty much only go riding to climb hills now except I did take a 3 day trip to Hatfield-McCoy a few weeks ago and I will say that was a blast blitzing trails also.

There are expert hill climbers on 450's that do way more than I do but again that is do to skill level. The reason I can do as well as 450's with equal skill is because of the type of technical hills we are climbing. Of course if we were doing AMA uphill timed drag races a built 450 would beat me or climbing coal or sand hills where HP is king they would do better. As an engineer I study and analyze everything and have determined that for my type of technical hill climbing many riders are actually at a disadvantage on a built 450 because they spin too much. To climb these hills you need some wheel spin to keep the front end down but it needs to be controlled wheel spin. As I climb I am constantly feathering the throttle and clutch to maintain that balance between momentum and wheel spin where the built 450's hit so hard they start spinning wildly and lose momentum and are done. The expert riders can manage that better but even then the better climbers are on '04-'05 TRX450r's with only a cam and pipe and they aren't making any more power than my 416EX. The guy who won the advanced class of that hill climb competition and is overall the best climber I have ever seen has tried several '06+ TRX450r's and doesn't like them because the extra hit makes it tougher to manage on the knarly hills. There are some great climbers on built 250r's who do every expert hill but they are very experienced with 20+ years of hill climbing and they have the skills to do some major clutch work to find the right rpm's as they negotiate the hills.

[KKiowaTJ]

I ended up taking a 8yr break as well. Got back on and found other types of riding and areas that I liked a lot better. I spent a couple summers ago in the river bed almost everyday flying up and down hitting natural terrain, Logs covered in sand etc.

The hills never look bad in a pic, Except for the two you posted standing and the guy sitting taking some pic's. Look like the long cut back type hills! The kind ya blast from the bottom and end up only half way or throttle control and torque blasts is what makes it.
When I took my jeep to Harlan KY, They had some stupid steep hills that had undercuts and some had a 90d 20ft run 'if' you made it that far! I ended up watching guys climb rather than wheel myself. When that trail/run was tamed, They would move over a line or two.

In my area, Id have to go to an old strip mine to find those kind of hills. When I did, I rode a banshee and pretty much pin it! Loose silt/cinder/gravel that some would just slide back down from, From lack or traction and too steep. I never hit the big ones being too wide, But enough that a 4stroke and momentum would be a lot better lol.
The place im describing is similar to the coal piles in Pennsylvania, Just not as big, Half the height. Still tough, But tougher can be found easy.

Id love to make it to the H/M trail system. Now that my son is getting bigger and will be starting on something soon, Might have to take a trip out that way. Family or friends it looks fun to travel through them, But id rather blast lmao! 400/416/450... As long as and seems like you are, Having fun is the key. That's the beauty of the versatility of the 400 and quads in general, Fun will always be had!

Link some vid's if you have time, They never get old .

[Zakradu398]

Heres a rather large hill 5 mins from my house. Was on the shee this day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yKnKdW_JJk

[KKiowaTJ]

Great vids! I also watched more under videos and nice climbs, Looks too deceiving on camera/pic's lol.

The shee is always awesome when you get a good set-up! I liked the fact you could use all throttle and just blow off the rears if the front cant up. Not having a 4stroke, I have learned more clutch control lol but still fan it like a banshee.

[Blodg]

Heres a rather large hill 5 mins from my house. Was on the shee this day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yKnKdW_JJk

Nice, that is a long one.