My thoughts on the V-Force (spent some saddle time)

[Wickedfinger]

Yes, its a miracle, I actually found some time this last Sunday to go riding. Lets just say running a retail giant whos garden department is in season can be a real draw on your time. That and the whole 2 weeks vacation away from it all in the caribbean have given me almost zero saddle time in the past 8 odd weeks. Anyway, I was cruising around my local ride area on the Scrammy and rounded a blind turn when I ended up face to face with this giant green muddy monster of a Kawasaki V-Force 700 on one of the forest trails. We both pulled over and it turned out the rider of the machine was one of my old riding buddies Kip that I hadn't seen in a few years. He used to fly around every other Sunday on an FMF preped LT500KR Zilla. I say every other Sunday because the ones in between he spent fixing it of its frequent break downs. He told me he sold the LT a couple of years before that and ended up buying a 4X4 Quad. He never got used to riding it and soon found himself with the high performance itch again. Thats how he ended up with the new V-Force. It wasn't long before I talked him into swaping quads - I wasn't leaving that day without riding the beast. I put her through her paces pretty good and I must say I was very impressed. I really couldn't believe how well it handled for being such a huge quad - it corners like its on rails. The thing just takes off like a rocket ship off the line and truely has zero lag time in the auto tranny. I'd have to say, the thing, even in stock form from 0 - to say 30mph, might be the fastest ATV ever made. I was pretty worried by the time I got off of it, I was going to be losing the inevitable drag races that were about to happen. I was a little relieved when we changed back up by Kips comment of "... I forgot you really know how to make those Polarises fly, don't you". So we pulled onto the old rail bed and had at it. Even though I was brake reving the mighty 53hp 400's Hypershift clutch to point of stalling it so I could get a minimum engagement lag, he leaped me off the line and took a quick 3 quad length before I was able to match speeds. Right at the 35mph mark on my Trail Tech spedo, I had gained back the lost ground to even beside him and by sign off at 67mph, I was at least 3 - 4 spots ahead. When we slowed down, I was a little afraid he would be pissed off I beat him on his $6000 machine, but he was grinning ear to ear. He was just happy he had done that well against a pretty well modded machine (38mmTMX flatslider carb, FMF pipe/stinger, Boyesen Rad valve, Twin-Air filter and the Hypershift clutch kit). We ended up prowling the trails the rest of the day in search of fresh meat to eat up. By the end of the day a gaggle of Z400's, a nice White Bro's preped 400EX, several Warriors (those guys never quit) and a 04' Raptor had fallen. The guy on the Raptor simply refused to believe he was beaten by a Pooolaris. Oh well, it was good to be back out riding ... to say the least.

[BigGreenMachine]

cool to hear

[REDMAN225]

i know what you mean.. my buddy has a lava red one. i love it. now if they'd put a front drive shaft on it...........

[ATC crazy]

Congrats wicked! I'm also dying to ride one of those beasts.

BTW: I heard that some company is working on a chain drive system for them (check out the latest Dirtwheels mag.)

[TravEX]

that's cool to hear that ya'll met up after all these years and still have the same interests,,,that's about the best looking Scrambler i've ever seen, very nice, clean look,,,later

[Wickedfinger]

Thanx Trav. Shes getting there. I won a slightly used AAEN 10hp top end pipe on eBay and I'm waiting on it to arrive. The AAEN has some slight surface rust (AAEN ships their pipes with just a covering paint - not Hi-Temp), and I will be taking her to the sandblaster. After that, several coats of Rustoleum black 1500* BBQ paint. I took the FMF off her the other day and started detailing the engine and subtransmission. Its covered with this wierd, burned on clay like stuff (from the previous owner - he didn't take care of her). Its a trailprotrailprotrailprotrailprotrailpro to get off. Only steel wool is making a dent.

[Killer_Shee]

The KFX is my current mount. I have added a 6* advanced timing key, Pro Circuit dual exhaust, K&N Filter, CC Performance dual intake and host of other non-motor related mods. It is a great quad and while it's not the fastest quad/trike I have ever owned, it could just be the most fun. Here are some pics :)
http://webpages.charter.net/derekandjanel/KFX7001.JPG
http://webpages.charter.net/derekandjanel/KFX7002.JPG
http://webpages.charter.net/derekandjanel/KFX7003.JPG
http://webpages.charter.net/derekandjanel/KFX7006.JPG

[Wickedfinger]

I love that orange plastic ......... reminds me of my old '90 LT-R. Nice ride man.

[BigGreenMachine]

Have you see the new prototype chain drive system for the 700?

[Killer_Shee]

Yes, that chain drive is being developed by Skat-Trak. Greg Stuart is campaigning that KFX in the BITD series. It is a really cool setup, but the conversion is cost prohibitive. It really performs nicely though, better suspension action and easy gear changes. There still isn't a company making a ring and pinion set for the KFX, so we are all stuck with stock gearing.

[BigGreenMachine]

Yeah until that kit gets produced for the masses you are stuck with stock gearing which sucks bad but with all that lowend grunt of those machines it should work fine for you in the dunes.

[trikerider2oo7]

that bike is awesome Killer Shee

[BigGreenMachine]

yeah very awsome indeed. how did the 22 inch tires handle when u first got it?

[Killer_Shee]

Coming off of a Banshee, the entire bike took some time to get used to. The 22" tires have a little too much side bite, and when they are wore out a set of 20" will be going on. I ride a lot of sand, so I don't use them all that much anyway. The few times I have taken it trail riding, the extra ground clearance offered by the 22" tires was nice.

[atvpsycho]

Yes I did like your story WickedFinger. I think that if Polaris could find out to have their tranny engage quicker they would be a hundred times better. Thanks for the review on the Kawai, I have wanted to hear a review from someone who rides a CVT tranny quad all the time like yourself. I do like what you have done to your Scrambler also.

Austin