going to the drags 8/11/07 updated info

[98warrior]

Well guys, theres gona be drag racing in a surrounding county august 11th and I'm gona be in it. One of my neighbors is taking me because I dont have a truck and another neighbor is paying my way in lol. My one neighbor is an older guy and he's all excited haha. I'm gona be in the 4 stroke 350-400 class obviously and hopefully I'll have a good chance, becuase all the 400's I've raced couldnt keep the front end on the ground on take off and by that time it was too late for them. My uncle is gone be in it too with his warrior, but I hate to tell him but if I have to run against him unless I miss a gear its gona be all over lol. He has a 2000 model with only a k&n filter and hmf exhaust. He's also running his 2007 680 rincon in the big ute class. Anyone have any tips or anything I can do to the suspension to make it more race ready or anything else to modify? I was thinking of taking off the heavy heel platforms or w/e you call them to lighten it up a bit. I have no problems with the front end coming up, rev it up close to half throttle, second gear, and kinda feather out the clutch, works perfect.

 

[97warriorrider]

take anything off that adds extra weight. skids, bumper, grab bar, heel things, what ever else you dont need..your gunna drag with your super swampers? Ask DWS about setting the suspension for drags

 

[98warrior]

No, the swamps are done wore out. I was practicing this evening and taking off in 2nd im still spinning in 3rd which is unacceptable. I'm getting some kenda klaws. Was getting them from rockymountain because there only 50 a piece for 22-11-9's but there are outta stock till august 22. I checked motorsport outlet and they are 7 bucks more a piece! You guys know a cheaper place to get them? I dont know many more good websites cause I usually buy everything from rockymountain.

 

[97warriorrider]

Just pay the 14 bucks more..taking it your motor has plenty for the 22's

 

[98warrior]

Ya right now with stock gearing she's got more than enough to take off in 2nd without bogging at all.

 

[dswwarrior350]

Alright drag racing isnt really that tough to set up for. First off make your front shocks as soft as possible, this lowers the front end the rear shock should also be as soft as possible yet also not so soft that when you sit on it that it squashes way down. So you sorda have to find a happy medium, also you dont want it springing back up right away. This reduces weight on the tires. So if you can set the compression sorda low.

You want your gearing to be optimal speed, what distance are you racing? If its 300 feet then that sorda sucks, it really doesnt do anything to compare actual power, its all in who gets a good holeshot even someone with a worked banshee wont be able to beat you by much if thats how short it is. What you looking for here is precise gearing, when you break the lights at the end of the strip you want to be in sixth at about 3/4 throttle. This is pushing your motor to its limits on the strip. You dont want to be full out wide open before hand then your just losing time and you dont want to be too low in the rpm's as the motor with your parts is going to pull harder on top than down low. 500 feet is what a true drag race is, its a true test of power and speed.


One last thing, one huge mistake i see that you said was your going to be 22" kenda klaws. Huge mistake because one they are way too heavy, two they are 22", and three they are 6 ply. An amazing drag tire would have to be 2ply and in a 20" or 18". Klaws make an 18" tire thats 4 ply... that would make an alright tire. Lots of people have a certain tire they like, lots of people run cut turf tamers, which are great, they are super lightweight. What exactly are the conditions at the track? You have to do your homework before going there, trust me that sport is takin just as serious as the rest. You may think you have a badass machine but i can bet as soon as you pull into the place your going to see some worked... and i mean worked machines. And people do cheat... in there own little ways, some people know tricks and etc. But dont cheat, if you get caught you most likely wont be allowed to race there anymore not to mention they will tear down your motor.

You need to work on your holeshots, balancing your weight between excellent traction and a wheelie is what you need, if you can find a point that you can pull the front wheels off the ground a slight amount but still stay in the gas wot is excellent. That not only means excellent traction but also great power delivery with just enough slippage in the wheels to not flip you over. Also work on your shifting, you want to have the clutch in as little as possible, dont try not using the clutch, although possible, the rpm drop between shifts will kill your time. So from start to finish you should never let off that gas at all, shift fast enough it isnt overrevving, and still getting into gear. So its like dropping the clutch in every gear. Even if you come up against something worked over well. You shouldnt lose too bad, but it doesnt matter how bad you lose, its either you win or lose haha.

 

[98warrior]

What about 20 inch klaws ds? I know there still 6ply but would the smaller size make a difference and make for a better drag tire? Again I'm not just buying the tires for the drag, I need new ones anyway. I think my uncle saids its gona be around 300ft, which is about how far my grandpa's yard is and thats where we drag, although we have never actually measured it, just playing it by eye. Anyways I'm gona try to find out some more specific details suchs as the length and how they are gona set up the track. Not sure if the track is gona be hard packed or soft and loose. Far as gearing, if the length I practice in is actually 300ft I only get into the top of 4th or just get into 5th. So dropping to some 20's in the back should get me about where I want it?

 

[dave76]

6plys are just kinda heavy, the old Holeshot is 4 ply and is a lite tire. Basically I would just chalk this up as a learning experience being your first time, you'll have some good ideas what you want to do next time you go.

 

[dswwarrior350]

Well i would suggest getting the 20" over the 22". I had 22" and when i put on 6 ply 20" tires it was easier to predict and also just gave the whole backend a lighter feel.

If your racing 300foot drags you should do quite well, the warrior is easy to bring out of the whole and still keep the front down, so most likely you should woop up on everything in your class with a good holeshot. Its just that in 300feet by the time anything would have a chance to really blow you away the drag will be over, anytihng with too much horsepower is going to spin or hook up and wheelie, the warrior shouldnt do either. Although depending on conditions it may. Since you dont know the track conditions take the tools neccessary to take your rear wheels off. If its soft you can flip the klaws to the soft direction, hard go to the hard direction.

 

[dswwarrior350]

One last thing play around with your tire pressure... id say maybe 2lbs should be good. But test it out. On my current tires they get more traction with about 5 lbs than 2lbs. So you may want to play around with airpressures a little bit.

 

[98warrior]

Thanks for the help ds. I'm hoping to find out the track condition before hand so I can get my tire pressure just right. I'm gona take off the heavy heel platforms, not sure if I wana take off the bumper though, just because it will look dumb without one. When the tires arrive I'm gona set my front shocks to the softest setting but I'm not really sure what to do with the rear shock. Do you adjust the rear just like the fronts with a big pair of channel locks? How do I adjust the compression lower? Hopefully the max size quad in my class with be 400's because I think I stand a good chance but even if I get beat it will still be a lot of fun, just hope if I do get beat, its not by a girl lol...would never live that one down.

 

[dswwarrior350]

The warrior rear adjusts with 2 big lock nuts on the top of the shock. The compression is adjusted by the little screw on the back of the rezzie. However i never could honestly tell all that much on it when adjusting it. Just play around, find good settings, and stick to them. Take some tools, the ones neccesary to adjust the shocks, tire pressure, other minor things, clean your airfilter, check your jetting. All those little things can help a great deal. Remember practice makes perfect, so practice them holeshots.

 

[jasonp]

I would tie the front shocks down.

 

[98warrior]

So that would keep the front from coming up and in a way make it more rigid? A neighbor drags his 300ex and he does that but never really asked him if it made a good difference or not.

 

[dswwarrior350]

You can look at that 2 ways... the warrior front end is hard to even make come up on any type of loose condition. You should be able to set your pit up the way you want it... so have a pit man.. If not i wouldnt race there. Take loose dirt and make little humps of lose dirt to put your rear tires on... this will allow you to spin isntead of hook up right off the bat. you can tie the front end down... but its going to reduce the traction on the rear end.

 

[jasonp]

You see all bikes do this at the start where they pre load there front forks and they have locks that lock there front forks down to get a better holeshot.

 

[98warrior]

Well called and got some info on the drag race. Talked so some lady that did'nt sound like she knew too much but got some needed info. Said the track is roughly 400 feet, now if thats counting the part of the track needed to slow down idk. Also I might be f-ed not sure, she was telling me the different classes and only 1 of them I can definately be in and 1 of them is a maybe. The class I could definately be in is 0-450cc 4 stroke, that would suck if I have to race in that class, even a 450 with a horrible rider is gona smoke my warrior. The other class is 0-400cc sport-utility. Now my uncle said thats what we would be in because warriors came with racks way back in the day or you can buy them for it something like that... You guys think I could enter in that class or if the officials or w/e would make me race in the 0-450 class?

 

[98warrior]

If the people had any brains at all you'd think there would be a 0-400cc 4 stroke class.

 

[97warriorrider]

Get some racks..or your screwed