4/12/12
i sold the old blue raptor to fund the 540i. sad to see it go, but i wanted to pay off the BMW immediately in cash, so it’s nice not to have a payment.
so i picked this up–it’s a newer model than the old one, and a WHOLE lot nicer shape. everything OEM on it, besides handgrip protectors, Nerf bars, and a T4 Circuit competition pipe on it. runs perfectly and nothing is broken, so i’m happy not to have to ride a heap of shit again. the machine was girl owned so it was not beaten to death.
i do have to replace the chain as the current one is sloppy, so i’ll be picking up an O-ring chain soon as well as gearing down the front sprocket for much more low end. i had a 12 tooth sprocket on my old raptor and loved it to death. wheelies in almost every gear.
i plan to take apart the headlights and buff the lenses, MAYBE put some bulbs in there, but might not.
tires are almost gone so i’ll continue to do donuts until they are completely useless (as is tradition)
i took it out last night and didn’t rip on it TOO hard because of the chain slapping on the guide but it is a very well balanced, easy to slide, fun machine. also has a fresh oil change.
it still has the stock intake so i removed the airbox. Might have to jet the carbs, I’ll see how it runs once it’s ready to go.
picture from the CL ad:
i already removed the girl-installed (extremely gay) flame style shock covers and the tribal-style radiator shield. Cleaned up a few loose brackets and zip tied a few cracked body pieces.
I should have taken more pics but I was too busy packing for FL last night.
My girl is in the market for a Honda 250EX sport quad (or any other small, entry level, semi auto sport quad) so we have a very fun summer ahead of us.
UPDATE 4/23/12
I ordered a new lower geared (12 tooth instead of 13) front sprocket and a new chain while on vacation as the old chain was somewhat stretched, and was already adjusted full tight. Also wanted lower gearing for the trail riding I’ll be doing.
Went to install the sprocket and realized that the existing was already a 12 tooth. No big deal, the new one was only 8.99 and sprockets wear out anyhow. Good preventative maintenance. The sprocket hub nut was fairly loose (slightly more than finger tight) so I’m glad I replaced the sprocket as I would have had problems with this down the road.
The factory chain does not have a master link and I don’t have a chain breaker, so 10 seconds of glory with the cutoff wheel zipped through the old chain and it came off.
I went to put on the new chain, which comes with a master link, and found that there was not enough slack to connect the 2 ends with the link. No problem—I just would have to adjust the carrier bearing/chain adjustment to looser to give myself room.
There are 2 adjustment bolts for the chain. One of them came loose with a bit of force—at first I couldn’t find the other one, though. After some poking (it’s been a while since I have worked with this setup) I found the other bolt—sheared off inside the aluminum swingarm. Fuck.
Had the rear up on a stand and found that the rear carrier bearing is shot too. Lots of play. I ordered an aftermarket replacement last night.
In order to get the axle nuts off (50mm, two of them) you have to use special tools, which I don’t have. I did have a set from my old Honda 400EX but they’re the wrong size. You could use a big pipe wrench but I do NOT want to risk destroying those nuts as you would then have to cut them off and risk damaging axle splines ($$$$$). I ordered the wrenches and they’ll be here later this week.
So instead of doing a quick chain and sprocket swap and riding, I ended up dicking around with some broken shit for a few hours and having to order parts. Oh well. This will be cheap maintenance against future problems. The quad needs rear tires too but you guys know how I deal with tires—I enjoy when they’re bald, makes for more sideways action.