Every Grizzly 700 owner that truly rides their quad
to it's potential has one thing in common at some point in their
ownership. They want more power in the low to mid-range, and
wouldn't mind adding a little more top-speed. Since the majority of
the folks on our review crew ride Grizzly 700s, we are on a constant
mission to gain as much as we can in these areas. With our extensive
experience with this particular machine, we're able to identify
where the problems with it lie from a power standpoint. The problem
is finding a manufacturer that is building a product to alleviate
the problem by improving upon Yamaha's original design or just
replacing Yamaha's design with their own.
Due to the rapidly growing popularity of the side-by-side
market, many after-market product manufacturers of are focusing the majority of
their R&D time on that industry. What this means to the quad owner is that
getting aftermarket performance products is becoming increasingly difficult, as
is our search for more products to improve the power of the Grizzly. So, with
this in mind, we looked to the parts available for the Rhino since the drive
train is virtually identical to that of the Grizzly. We ran across a growing
concept with the Yamaha Rhino as a power improvement that caught our attention.
The concept was to redesign the clutch sheave to give the much desired low to
mid-range gains. It seemed that along with this also came top-end gains. Never
before have we found a product that would produce BOTH results in one product as
generally there was a trade-out. If you wanted more low-end power, you lost top
speed, and vice versa. The potential of this was very exciting, so we began
researching the top names in the business. while some of the companies building
a sheave for a 700 Rhino promised only top-speed gains, we found that Rhino's
that were fitted with a sheave from Fix
PowerSports, saw the just the results we had been searching for.
Upon
initially contacting Fix
PowerSports, our idea was to try to get a sheave designed for a Rhino
and put it on the Grizzly. After telling them our thought, they told us in the
next few days they would be releasing to the public, a sheave they had built
specifically for the Grizzly. Holy cow! We couldn't have contacted them at a
better time.
Fix
PowerSports is known for, amongst many other performance modifications,
their clutch work in the Rhino arena and have been doing R&D on a
clutch sheave they've designed specifically for the Grizzly 700.
Installation of the Fix PowerSports Clutch Sheave
Fix
PowerSportsprovided an excellent set of installation instructions
with the product. Although they did not have any pictures included, they were
written in a very descriptive manner so as to leave no question in your mind as
to what your next step was to entail. They also provided a baggy of an ample
amount of grease for you to lube the new sheave and rollers. This is great so
you don't have to go buy a overpriced tub from your dealer in a quantity so
large that you will never use it all. This installation was a breeze and took
approximately an hour and a half from start to finish after allowing time for
the lube-work. Here's a si gouggestion though when you get to the greasing portion:
Latex gloves, cuz that grease is nasty.
Prior to our test ride after the install, we were excited to see
the extremity of the gains from a machined
clutch sheave as we've heard very good things about the
improvements the Fix
PowerSports sheave makes on the Rhinos.
Ride Report
My first impression was WOWSER! I had to give a few minutes of
break-in and settling the fresh grease into the sheave and around the weights
before I noticed the substantial gain. After that, it was quite impressive. It
gave some unreal low-end to mid-range additional power.
Let me give you an example of where I really noticed the low-end
gains were not some marketing ploy but were indeed facts. Although at times my
neighbors don't care for it, I use my street as a test track for certain
products. Strap on a helmet, make a quick pass or two and see what I've gained.
If it was good, then on the trailer and out she goes for a real ride. Well, on
this street there's a flat area that I used to be able to get to a max speed of
50 MPH before running out of room. Well, in the initial phase of testing, I made
the same pass in the same area and held it for as long as I could before I had
to get out of the gas. What I found was that after installing the sheave, I was
able to obtain a speed 4mph faster than with the factory sheave. So what does
that say then you ask. Well, it says that the quad is now pulling harder through
the low to mid-range so it's able to get to a higher speed in the same distance.
After that, we were convinced it was time to suit up and hit the
trails. We ran through a bit of tight cornering areas as well as areas that has
some short stretches where we could feel the pull. Getting out of the corners
seemed much snappier. At times we had to adjust our riding style as we found the
front end coming up more than once by applying throttle as we were accustomed to
when exiting a corner. Was this a bad thing? Absolutely not. It was just
something we were not accustomed to this often and we had to adjust accordingly.
as for top sped improvements, at the time of writing this review, we've not been
able to take the quad out to a location as of yet to allow a top speed run.
However, we will be doing this soon and update the review accordingly once that
final stage of the review is complete.
Conclusion
All-in-all, we have to say that with the Fix
PowerSports
clutch sheave on our Grizzly 700, it seems as if we've finally
gotten something out of this quad that could make it a serious machine to be up
against in a race situation.
From the entire ATV Torture Team, we say thanks to Fix Powersports
for giving us this opportunity.
Upon
initially contacting 