Give me some info on the Suzuki Lt 250r's and the 500

[soon2becomeaowner]

Give me some info on the Suzuki Lt 250r's and the 500. I was wondering, how are those machines. Give me some basic info on htem how do they handle, are they reliable, do they have speed? Post some pics if you can. If i were to buy one what years to look for, what years not to look for.Thanks

[Wickedfinger]

I recently sold my '90 Lt250R and years ago I had a '85. I have a pretty extensive history with Lt500's via a few friends who owned them and have spent many an hour riding and racing against these beasts. As far as the LT500's go - all the common hype you hear about them is pretty much 100% true. Yes they were and still are the Quickest, fastest production Quad/ATV ever made. They are big and realatively heavy for a race quad. They are not the best handling race type quads out there. They are prone to mechanical break downs no matter how well you baby them (my buddies was in the shop more than out of it) and theres nothing you can do to stop it. The engines just seem to "shake" themselves to death with all that power and the engines materials quality is to blame (I've read that Suzuki's Aluminum is of an inferior quality). You need to choose your tires very carefully with a Quadzilla - too easy a tread and you will spin the tires far too much, too aggressive and heavy (like in mud style), and you will burn the clutch out. Hole Shots work well, Spider Trac's are about as "muddy" a tire you can run without worry - Black Waters are the worst tire.

LT250's are great quads who were pretty much right with the TRX250R in quality. Stay away from the early, non-powervalved models ('85 - '86). Pretty much '87 through '92 were all the same with the '91 models doing away with the "Full Floater" cantilever style swing arm and using a simpler under style linkage (the Z400's rear is an almost exact copy of the '92 LT250R's). Quadracers handled great, were very light, had an exhaust powervalve that gave the engine a nice low end power boost - this, combined with a pretty low gearing from the factory (12 tooth c/s sprocket) is the reason they make great woods type quads. Their top speed stock is somewhere near 70mph but with a gear change and a pipe 78 - 80mph is very possible. Quadracers do have a few faults, the water pump design is pretty junky and tend to need a rebuild every year or so, the frames were very lightly constructed with the front end being prone to tweaking near the rear lower a-arm joint in a hard crash, particularly from a tree hit to one of the tires. If you have a modified engine, you can run into the same clutch problems as the LT500's although you can put heavier springs on the 250's clutch basket. If you go to look at a LT250R - ask if the frame is bent even before you look at it. If you do go to see one, sit on it and see if the bars are turned to one side while the front wheels are straight. Stand the quad on its end and eye up the frame also, if you see any over done welds, it was bent and repaired. If it is bent and its not too bad, the quad will still be ok to buy and you will just need to play with the tie rod adjustments to get it tracking forward. You can use the bent frame issue to your advantage in lowering the price significantly. You wont however, be able to locate a straight one in a salvage yard no matter how hard you try.

Well I hope this helps - good luck.