Freeride big air XP suspension - need ideas

[06-800RR]

I have a 09 146 Summit X and jump the sh!t out of it in the mountains. I need some advice from the short track racers to correct my suspension changes.

I first changed out the front X shocks and put on some new Walker Evans race shocks. (they were new but originally for a 2005 IQ racer) I had them valved to the Polaris 2008 600RR specs as the dealership was a pain to get even that far.
Then I installed a Nextech Fox float kit for the rear. The front track shock is stock and seems irrelevant of spring tension except for ski lift...

Both changes have helped as the stock setup was softer than soft!!! But I don't think I have a very calibrated setup. The front is brutally stiff for the first half of the travel and then levels out to full compression. The back is slow to react and kicks through the whoops. Big drops still bottom out the whole sled but now not as brutally.

And of course the most obvious suggestion would be to spend some quality time with my local dealer and shock expert - nobody good where I live

 

[KAWGRN]

sounds like you want a long track snow cross sled ???? Call kurt at goodwin ferformance

 

[PooSlinger]

On the front, what are you running for springs, and are the shocks the correct length for that application? I didn't think the Poo racer shocks would bolt right up to an XP chassis. I think they'd be too long BICBW. If they' are too long, that would explain why they feel so stiff at the start of the stroke.

On the rear, you should ditch the XP skid and buy yourself a race skid and stretch it. You'll crack rails and torque arms like it's going out of style if you jump a lot with the XP mountain skid in there. It's just not meant for that sort of abuse. Another good option would be a Poo Assault skid, but you'd need to have custom shafts made up for it to mount it in the wider Doo tunnel. That thing is built like a brick chithouse.

But if you can't swap suspensions... what do you mean by slow to react? Is it not rebounding quickly enough and packing up through high speed whoops? Is it not compressing fast enough when you hit a hump? Kicking through the bumps can be caused by a number of things. Speed, bump spacing, rider weight, suspension type, snow conditions, bump type (hump, washout, moguls), and shock valving are all parts of the equation. It's not any one thing and what works great in certain situations may not work so well in others.

 

[PowderProject]

Fox floats all around and you're set.

 

[steel town]

We had Tim Zacharias from "Enzo suspension" revalve the front and rear shocks on one of our shop demo's last year (2009 summit x 154). He put stiffer springs( way stiffer) on the sob and revalved the stock kyb's with a totally different valve stack, it works awsome, I can blitz waist deeps trail whoops like I can on my kx 250 f, and air the sob out where I would crush the stocker. Tim said the internal valving on the stock X ,if you comapired it to a modern dirt bike, would be like a 1983 xr 400. NOT MADE FOR GOING BIG

FYI Tim(Enzo) was Blair Morgan racings suspension tech for many years and also worked for team Yamah of Troy factory supercross team, his suspension work is world class.

The riders who hepled him develop the settings are Cody Borchers and Julian Cerny, anybody who sleds or races motocross knows those dudes are not pussies.

Enzo Canada is in Calgary area