To start the year I had some Honda shocks up front that lowered me 6", I reversed the rear shock bracket which dropped me 3-4" in the rear. I ran a home-made sway bar in a neutral position since we make left and right turns. New tires set up this year also.
I was having problems in the tight corners with the back end letting loose but figured I had to live with it. I can scream thru the straights but get ate up in the corners so I started trying new things and taking suggestions from the guys that were faster and have been doing it longer.
#1 The old pro said to scale my bike to see what my weights were on each tire. I was amazed to see that it was 80lbs heavier in the front than the back with me on the bike! Time to lift the front and drop the back. I went back to my stock shocks (reservoir shocks wouldn't fit with the sway bar) and strapped them about 3" lower. I then built a lowering link for the rear and dropped it another 3". It weighed out at +20 in the rear with that change. I still lost traction in the tight corners but it was better.
#2 The fastest quad rider out there followed me around the track and said I should lose the sway bar. (he doesn't run one). He said that a sway bar shouldn't be solid but should have a torsion bar in it for a little give. So I removed the sway bar.
#3 The old pro followed me around the track and told me that I'm not throttling thru the corners so my tires aren't grabbing. This made a big difference. You need to load the tires for traction but it's a hard transition for me since I'm pretty old to be learning new tricks.
(I hit 44 this year).
I took some time on the track last night alone and tried a few things to see what helps and what hurts. We're heading to FonDuLac Wi this Saturday to run so I wanted to maybe get a better stick before going to a new track. (we do road courses mostly)
I ran the bike to start and it seemed better without the sway bar but still sand tracked the corners way too much for my liking.
I started with air pressure in the rear tires. I'm running C/S tires with Kanadian studs (pretty aggressive). 14PSI is what I was running because it created the flattest surface across the studs. I'm having problems getting the back to stick so I tried going extreme and put in 20PSI..... It was loose as hell! Next I dropped them down to 10PSI and it was much better. I'll try 8-9 this weekend and see if that makes it any better.
I also un-strapped the front shocks for more weight in the rear. It looks stupid and I lost a bit of grab up front so my next move is to build some lowering brackets for the stock shocks, and run my piggy-backs with the compression set a little higher. I'd like to see my front dropped 2-3" from stock. I'll also have my new rear link done in a few weeks so I can adjust my back end down even more if needed
With the tires I have I should be grabbing like mad in the corners and I'm not so any other suggestions would be appreciated!!