How to lighten a ZX ?

[Wade]

Homemade hood. huge difference
Homemade seat. big difference.

Was seriously considering making timbersled type of skid, then I weighted it. Came to the reality, that a new XP was 30 pounds lighter stock, than my ZX with all the work put into it. I still have it though.

I liked the 16" wide track also.

Great little sled.

Yha, it had a barbecue grill on the tail too.

 

[LB_]

Has anyone tried the BrTech Thrasher hood for a zx? Should provide significant weight savings.

 

[shankster]

Tunnel

Just curious as to what the tunnel on these things weigh? It would appear that the back ends of these sleds are really ignorantly heavy? I have an 02 800 and I am looking for a different tunnel to put on it as the revs seem way lighter on the back ends but the zx's are just so much fun to ride!!!

 

[Motley Doo]

I really don't think you can loose a lot of weight off the back, when I removed my stock 01' tunnel it was as light as you could make it(or within a pound!). You could loose some weight off the back with a lighter skid, but a LOT of the weight comes from the tank being mounted farther back, along with the motor.

I'm looking into doing a rider forward position on mine, when I go home for thanksgiving, I'll update my idea, looking at moving the steering hoop forward a few inches, removing the airbox, and sliding the whole tank and seat forward. Should get quite a bit of weight off the skid and more forward like a Rev. I'm NOT the first person to do this, there WAS a sight where a guy had taken his, done almost the same thing, and was running a 670 motor in it........but the site is no longer available...

 

[deboer]

so how much #s do you loose with those other hoods???

 

[Fasterrbyfuzzy]

light weight

Here is what I Have done
03 800 zx 159 800

dyno port can
custom buitlt seat (4 lbs lighter than Boss wich I still have)
light weight trailling arms (wich i BUILD AND SELL CHEAP)
titanium botls in the hole front end
alum. controll arms with alum. hemis
alum heims on all the steering
lost all the bogie wheels
light weight (2 wheel) 8" rear wheels
led brake and tail light (FOUR BAR)
fabric hood
no gages
removed all the solid steel bars in rear skid and put in alum. (cross bars that hold rear rails apart)
simmons skis (may not be lighter but are well worth it)
punched extra holes in the running boards for snow loss worked good maybe 1/4 pound of alum. but no snow build up on boards any more


Had nitrous (COLD FUSHION WET KIT) Loved it but needed the HP all the time selling the nitrous installing turbo.

 

[HANDSOME]

Lets see some pics . I know the stock hood with every thing in it weighs 28 lbs and the stock hood gutted weighs 14 lbs and I think the mountain fit hood weighs 7 lbs.

 

[HANDSOME]

My buddy Jakes sled with dynoport pipe ,head, v force reeds, timbersled front and rear suspension boss seat and mountainfit hood

 

[shankster]

Here is what I Have done
03 800 zx 159 800

dyno port can
custom buitlt seat (4 lbs lighter than Boss wich I still have)
light weight trailling arms (wich i BUILD AND SELL CHEAP)
titanium botls in the hole front end
alum. controll arms with alum. hemis
alum heims on all the steering
lost all the bogie wheels
light weight (2 wheel) 8" rear wheels
led brake and tail light (FOUR BAR)
fabric hood
no gages
removed all the solid steel bars in rear skid and put in alum. (cross bars that hold rear rails apart)
simmons skis (may not be lighter but are well worth it)
punched extra holes in the running boards for snow loss worked good maybe 1/4 pound of alum. but no snow build up on boards any more


Had nitrous (COLD FUSHION WET KIT) Loved it but needed the HP all the time selling the nitrous installing turbo.

What turbo's have been working with these? Love the Turbo's Let me know how it works for ya???

 

[Idaho Slim]

On my 01 ZX ................

01 800X – Stock weight 501 lbs.

Remove all lower Bogie Wheels / Add Hiperfax: -10lbs.
3 to 2 big wheels Kit: - 3 lbs.
Remove Hood Vents & Foam, add Screen: - 3 lbs.
Remove Speedo Gauge and cable & bracket. Screen over hole: - 6 lbs.
R&N Mesh Hood: - 11 lbs. additional
HPS can: - 9 lbs.
Sway Bar: - 5 lbs.
Pipe Insulation: - 4 lbs. (Must ceramic coat it to retain heat.)
WAVE Rotor: - 1.6 lbs.
Rear Suspension cross bracket/ lose adjuster strap: - 5.2 lbs.
Rear susp shaft: - 1.6 lbs.
NO oil injection - must pre-mix, 40:1 ratio ( -5.5 lbs)
Fabcraft trailing arms - 6 lbs.
Boss seat - 6 lbs.
Slydog ski's - 2.0 lbs.

Final weight reduction = lost ~ 74 lbs.It ran well.

There were many more performance mods I did, but this was the weight loss reductions.


p.s. I looked at your original post, if on a budget, then doo the following;
Cost you about $500 ish. and you would lose about 40 lbs.
On those old zx's if your can is not a HPS, you are losing performance.


Remove all lower Bogie Wheels / Add Hiperfax: -10lbs.
3 to 2 big wheels Kit: - 3 lbs.
Remove Hood Vents & Foam, add Screen: - 3 lbs.
Remove Speedo Gauge and cable & bracket. Screen over hole: - 6 lbs.
HPS can: - 9 lbs.
Sway Bar: - 5 lbs.
Pipe Insulation: - 4 lbs. (Must ceramic coat it to retain heat.)

 

[Krazy8]

Oh, man, I've got some work to do, hafta call the boss and see if there's extra work ta pay for parts, again! ...

Oh, well, fer now, fu-gg-it, I'll be servicing the clutches, adding snow elliminators, throwin some (used) Simmons Skis on there and lubing some zirk fittings.... and lookin fer some lighter parts until the snow flies

Thanks for the ideas on where to cut weight and on your set-ups, gives me a lot of ideas on where to go from here. I actually kind-a "like" tweakin on my sled btw so this is great

I'd really like to do a drop and roll and lengthen the track a bit too but a guy's got to draw the line somewhere right?...right?

Really can't shed the lights as I do find myself out at O-dark-thirty from fairly often.

Now, another brewski

i put a couple fog lights(wally-world special) and put them on the bumper but that didn't work out so i put them on the handlebars and it works out great.

 

[heynagel]

Is this a pic of the WAVE brake rotor you guys are takling about?

 

[jwill302]

i do not see that many people using light weight trailing arms. why?

 

[heynagel]

If I had to take a guess I'd say $$$-Price but im a newbie to sleds so IDK. I guess strength may also be a factor.

 

[boozman]

here is my 01 summit 800 425 Ibs

fabcraft tunnel
fabcraft custom u cooler
fabcraft lightweight alum. trailing arms & radius rods
fabcraft rear skid 144 with walker evens float res.
boss hightop seat
cmx belt drive ( 10 th wahl bros drivers )
br tech lexan hood ( koso north america gauge )
fly 5 " riser pro taper bars fabcraft mountain bar
(custom doughnut style ) dynoport pipe black coated.
mbrp silencer
fox floats in front
simmons skis
good luck this took me about 6 to 8 years to build finally but it is worth it very nimble sled

 

[heynagel]

Very nice sled Boozman!! Hopefully I can post a pic of mine soon, it's still torn down

 

[chuckychoadcheese]

What I've done to my wife's sled.

Removed factory seat and replaced with Skinz seat. That shaved about 10-15 lbs.

I cut a series of holes in the running board starting at whole says size 3-7/8" down to 1-7/8" that lost about 1/4lb in material but significant weight loss from snow/ ice build up.

Cut away material from where the running board meets the bulk head. two reasons. getting feet in and out easily and minor weight loss.

removed the factory steel bars and replaced with aluminum bars. Even with the additional riser block and pivot riser it is still a loss of about 1lb

removing material from the hood and adding light weight vents. serves two purposes, keeps the motor and clutches running cooler which means better performance but also ditching that plastic hood weight. Lost at least another 1lb there.

Porting the track. That can easily add up to 5lbs

Remove anything that's not absolutely necessary. I cut away any extra lengths of plastic, bolts, cable, etc.

Ditch the speedo, who cares.

delete the headlights, replace with vents. there are lightweight LED options that mount on to your bars or helmet.

 

[cubby]

I like what you have done. I would like to find another ZX to modify. I enjoy those sleds and would just use this one for around home. I'm looking to buy one rather soon.