[1Bad1000Xxc]

Well I took my Gade to an ATV park today about an hour and a half away. I hadn't ever been there but will be going back. Hopefully the enxt trip won't be so expensive.

They had a lot of trails and a lot of tracks and it was a blast. I did however decide that I hate the X shocks more than I thought I did. They bat me to death and bottomed out on 2-3 foot jumps.

Anyway, I took my trusty new Go-Pro trail cam and got some excellent footage for you guys. I also wore my brand new Oakley glasses that were about $190. Sometimes in the sun, I would wear my oakleies under my goggles, other times I would put them in my storage bag on the back of the quad. At the end of the day, I went to grab my GoPro to take some more footage and realized, SHART, it is no longer in my bag. The bag was never unzipped while riding and I haven't a clue as to what could have happened to it unless at some point I was getting something out of the bag and left it sitting on a fender rather than replacing it to the bag. DAMN!!! So, not only did I lose it, but also lost my footage on the 4 gig memory card. Since we road 40 miles, there was no chance I would be able to back track and find it.

After dealing with that frustration, I went to get my new Oaklies out of my bag to put them on. DAMN! They were gone too. I'm at a loss and very pissed.

Not to mention that when I put the gopro in my bag last night, my wife told me I best not break it since she loves taking underwater videos of our 4 year swimming. So, now I gotta find another one cheap like I did that one and get it before she finds out I lost it.

A free day's ride at the ATV park, $0, a $199 Go Pro camera, a $190 pair of new Oaklies and the now realized need to buy Elkas. Realzing you're a dumb ass is NOT priceless.

:club:

 

[Gunny]

HOLY CRAP !!! .... THAT SUCKS !!!!

I don't even know what to say ...... I know what I'd wanta do however ..... :sad2:


Later ....
:seesaw:

 

[1Bad1000Xxc]

Holy crap ain't the exact words that have come outta my mouth but to keep it family-friendly, I'll let you use your imagination.

I'll let you in a little on what I'm doing to curb my anger......:beer"

::

We need a smiley for "Here's your sign".....

 

[Gunny]

Holy crap ain't the exact words that have come outta my mouth but to keep it family-friendly, I'll let you use your imagination.

I'll let you in a little on what I'm doing to curb my anger......:beer"

YEAH BUDDY !!!! ......ccasion14:

::

We need a smiley for "Here's your sign".....

How about one for each time a guy stops & gets something out of his ruck / box / coat / ... whatever ... a "Pre-Flight Checklist" ....... lucky for me, I've only taken off & lost gloves or beanies !!! :BangHead:

Now I'm gonna be EXTRA careful about leaving a spot after a stop & digg'in thru all my "Stuff" !!! :toothy5:

Later ...
:seesaw:

 

[GRIZZLYWIZARD]

You need to start carting all your stuff like us grunts used to do in the .mil. I tied everthing off yo me when I went to sleep. That way it there was in-coming, or the SHTF happened, all ya had to do was jump up, run to your bunker and everything was draggin behind you.

Sorry for your loss dude! :beer"

 

[stray]

that sucks, buster. hopefully, you will find a suitable replacement. i still think you need to get those kyb shocks tuned in. i've been 4-5' feet in the air, and mine won't bottom out. initially, they were stiff, then loosened up and i had to increase the compression and play a bit with the rebound. only made small adjustments on the preload.

 

[GRIZZLYWIZARD]

Well, I rode an X yesterday that was all stock aside from flex bars and some racing apparatuses. The stock shocks (X type KYB) I thought handled like a dream, especially on the higher jumps. Another guy told me that they get better after about 500 miles of break in.

Buster, you are either not adjusting yours properly, or you have something wrong with them. Either way, I cant see how, after riding one some on a track you could justify 1G for Elkas unless you were competing...and then I would have to seriously question the necessity.

The one thing I have noticed is how this bike wants to nose dive on the longer jumps. This has to be the way the weight is distributed between machine and rider.

 

[stray]

hey GW, i had the nose-diving problem, too. i attribute it to the engine braking on the can ams. i was used to letting off of the throttle while getting some air, from past bikes. with the renegade, i must maintain a certain amount of throttle to keep the bike level while jumping. maybe 20% or so, depending on the angle of takeoff. it lands like a dream if i set the rear end down a few inches before the front. however, too much throttle and it's a wicked landing!

::none::


Buster, what exactly are the KYB shocks doing (or not doing) that is not to your liking? if they're still stiff, you need to put some hard, aggressive miles on 'em. by the way, how many miles do you have on Project X now?

 

[Mack450]

Sorry buster....do I have to give it back.......?:confused2:

 

[GRIZZLYWIZARD]

hey GW, i had the nose-diving problem, too. i attribute it to the engine braking on the can ams. i was used to letting off of the throttle while getting some air, from past bikes. with the renegade, i must maintain a certain amount of throttle to keep the bike level while jumping. maybe 20% or so, depending on the angle of takeoff. it lands like a dream if i set the rear end down a few inches before the front. however, too much throttle and it's a wicked landing!

::none::

I hear what you are saying Stray, with only a little over an hour seat time, I had just started getting used to the machines weight distribution and lack of HP :rotfl:. Just kidding about the lack of HP. There is plenty, and when riding in a XC type setting yo never truly get a chance to use all of the power available. My biggest complaint to the machine and the type of riding area was the IRS, a SRA would have been a better compliment to what I wanted to do with it. But, I did find a sweet combination of brake and throttle in order to manipulate the best control.

 

[Gunny]

Hey B-Dub .... have ya ordered the new Go-Pro ?? ;;t;; What about the the little woman ... does she happen to know yet ?? .... BTW .... what's yer home phone number ?? ;;s;;

Are ya gett'in some new shades as well ?? Man .... that has got to hurt to even think about ...... :crybaby2:

Later ...
:seesaw:

 

[1Bad1000Xxc]

Yeah I ordered another GoPro and it shipped today from PA. Should be here wednesday before the misses finds out. I already have another 4gig memory card waiting for it to arrive.

As for the shocks, I have my spring height set to the same as yours stray based on what you had PMed me just sitting on all 4 and no rider weight on them. However, I don't know what you have all of your high and low speed compression and rebound set to.

Mine beat me to death on rough stuff unlike the elkas I had and again, bottomed out on slipe jumps. I never had a problem with nose dives unless a jump snuck up on me as I've always, on everything I've ever ridden, given a slight boost of throttle just before I lauch from the jump.

Currently it has 150 miles on it and the 40ish that I put on it this weekend was some constantly pretty rough riding. I've also read from other that they "brake in" over time but I don't want to waste the mind-gruelling wait of them braking in and beating the crap out of myself in the meantime. When I bought the Elkas, they were tuned right out of the box for my weight and ride style so that spoiled me. So, it is enough justification to me to start from that baseline with another set of Elkas and just tweak as needed.

Thus far, the only adjustment I have really made is screwing with the preload/spring length and compression. Since it was so rough at 0-15mph, Elka suggested that I adjust the slow speed compression all the way soft on them and then stiffen them until they felt right. However, going all the way soft appeared to make no difference in ride comfort at slow speed. I think they are currently at about 1 full turn harder from the softest setting on low speed compression, which could be why they are bottoming out but I dunno. Since they were bottoming out so easily going 0-20mph, I was not comfy taking a high speed larger jump.

I don't doubt that they could be tweaked but my patience with them knowing nothing about what to adjust for what problem is very frustrating. I understand low and high speed but don't know the cut-off between the two and I understand the concepts of compression and rebound. I'm guessing the root of my bottoming out poroblem is either preload or compression as they seem to recover from being compressed fine. Since they seem to receover fine, it SEEMS like rebound may be OK for now.

Any input is welcome!

Buster

 

[GRIZZLYWIZARD]

Yeah I ordered another GoPro and it shipped today from PA. Should be here wednesday before the misses finds out. I already have another 4gig memory card waiting for it to arrive.

As for the shocks, I have my spring height set to the same as yours stray based on what you had PMed me just sitting on all 4 and no rider weight on them. However, I don't know what you have all of your high and low speed compression and rebound set to.

Mine beat me to death on rough stuff unlike the elkas I had and again, bottomed out on slipe jumps. I never had a problem with nose dives unless a jump snuck up on me as I've always, on everything I've ever ridden, given a slight boost of throttle just before I lauch from the jump.

Currently it has 150 miles on it and the 40ish that I put on it this weekend was some constantly pretty rough riding. I've also read from other that they "brake in" over time but I don't want to waste the mind-gruelling wait of them braking in and beating the crap out of myself in the meantime. When I bought the Elkas, they were tuned right out of the box for my weight and ride style so that spoiled me. So, it is enough justification to me to start from that baseline with another set of Elkas and just tweak as needed.

Thus far, the only adjustment I have really made is screwing with the preload/spring length and compression. Since it was so rough at 0-15mph, Elka suggested that I adjust the slow speed compression all the way soft on them and then stiffen them until they felt right. However, going all the way soft appeared to make no difference in ride comfort at slow speed. I think they are currently at about 1 full turn harder from the softest setting on low speed compression, which could be why they are bottoming out but I dunno. Since they were bottoming out so easily going 0-20mph, I was not comfy taking a high speed larger jump.

I don't doubt that they could be tweaked but my patience with them knowing nothing about what to adjust for what problem is very frustrating. I understand low and high speed but don't know the cut-off between the two and I understand the concepts of compression and rebound. I'm guessing the root of my bottoming out poroblem is either preload or compression as they seem to recover from being compressed fine. Since they seem to receover fine, it SEEMS like rebound may be OK for now.

Any input is welcome!

Buster

As I said in a previous post, you either have and issue with your shocks or an issue with how you are tuning. Either way is sux cause I know how frustrating it can be.

For the jumping, the pre-launch boost of throttle is near necessary on any utility. I was noticing the nose diving on one particular 90 foot TT. The approach sucked cause you had to negotiate a 10 foot kicker and then only had about another 30 yards to align your approach. I was only jumping about 15 feet off the ground since the machine did not belong to me.

As for Elkas, they are nice shocks I won't deny that. However, I have heard more people complain about the Elkas not being ready out of the box and requireing adjustments prior to getting 100% right.

 

[1Bad1000Xxc]

OK, so when you say 10-15 foot jumps, do you mean your launch off the ground was 10-15 feet or in distance was 10-15 feet. If distance was that, how high in the air.

Do you think the person that owned it would mind telling me his shock settings since you and I are the same size, assuming you know how to call or email him? I would need spring length, and how many turns up from dead bottom low and high speed compression and rebound are to his current setting. Then I have something to work with.

I can deal with it banging me for awhile if I have the same settings as the one your road that worked OK for a good jump with no bottoming out if I see an end to my frustrations.

Thanks!
B

 

[1Bad1000Xxc]

Don't get me wrong, I know KYB are supposed to be good shocks but my results with teh Elkas were much better since they were already tuned for me for my riding style and I had to do nothing from the time I put them on.

I ain't looking for an excuse to blow a butt-load of cash on Elkas if I can make these work. Just need some assistance from a proven setup with a rider that is as much of a lard as I am. No offense.....

 

[Gunny]

Dang .... that's a lot of shock talk ....... :blah:

Later ....
:seesaw: