Preparing a Quad for Weston


	Weston beach race means the off road season is nearing the end so nearly a 1000 quad ,side cars and solos merge on the sands of Weston for one of the biggest meetings of the year for the Enduro and motocross riders of Britain.I will be competing again this year on the Saturday on a quad and for the first time I will be riding a Suzuki so this is how I get there .This year I decided the best quad to ride was the all new Suzuki LT- Z 400 but unfortunately Suzuki GB Ltd don't start importing this machine until the race has finished so I had to get one from one of my contacts abroad so only 3 weeks before the race a couple of them landed to my shop .
As you can see the quad comes nearly complete with only the bars and skid plate to put on , engine oil to change and acid to put in the battery .It wasn't long before the petrol was put in the tank and I was riding it

Unfortunately for me Mike one of my mechanics is not too good with a camera so he volunteered to put the new Suzuki through a few simple tasks

This quad copes with all types of terrains with ease and is very agile .

To jump one of these new Suzuki's is so simple and you are in control all the time , if the quad starts to nose dive over the jump just give it a bit more throttle and it will level its self instantly.

Once we put the 2 + 2 rear axle in it was off to go try it out ,as well as fitting an axle we put a set of 10 ins bead lock Suzuki wheel rims on and a pair of dura blue 5 stud hubs making the overall width of the rear end 5 ins wider than standard . The reward for our work was we lost all the good handling, in fact the thing just would not go round corners and one of our testers finished up in a holly bush !.Back to the workshop, juggle the spacers on the axle making the overall width of the rear end only 3 ins wider than standard and we carefully tried again !What a difference the quad was, stable, in control and drifted round corners with the greatest of ease. It felt good .
Its only a week before Weston Beach race so I thought it a good idea to try out the new quad so it was down to Telford where the Cotswold club were holding a round of the QRA championship. There approx 30 quads entered and as you can see they were mainly Yamaha 660 Raptors with a couple of Banshees , a Honda 450 and me on the Suzuki .Well it didn't stop raining from the minute the flag dropped, the whole 2 hours were entertaining with riders pitting for goggles and gloves all the time , in fact it was so wet we put the camera back into the camper and left it there ,so sorry no pictures of the event . As you can see most of the other quads had wide a-arms fitted and lot of other trick bits but all I had was the wide rear axle and 10 ins wheels

I did say it was muddy as you can see. it got in everywhere but 30 minutes with the pressure washer the quad looked like new again, in fact it was the easiest quad I have ever washed , there were no marks on the plastics from the rough soil and stone either .Even better news was that I got 5th place, not bad for a 46 year old who hasn't done a enduro for 5 months. Although it was thick mud and raining all the time the quad handled ok ,it turned on the tight corners really well and was very stable over the rough parts but it did lack a bit of power in the deep mud. bearing in mind it was giving away 260 cc to the Raptors .At the end of the race I did not feel tired at all, the quad had been the easiest I had ever ridden and I felt like I had been in full control all the time .


Now it has turned wet and muddy you can always get someone to film instead of riding. never mind it means I get a bit of practice cornering in the wet and as you can see it still steers in well and has plenty of grip in the loose wet stuff on the way out of corners.



		The Suzuki copes with all obstacles with the greatest of ease .
Now we have tested and raced it is off to the Weston beach race .