Thread: Quad Advice

Work on (fixing/maintenance) 4wheelers and sxs’s on a daily basis ( well, 3 days anyway), mostly Hondas but also most other brands as well. They all have there good points and bad. They all require regular maintenance. Some are hard on suspension and steering components, others are hard on other components. If you’re looking for something to use on an irregular basis then look for something that is smaller/lighter and doesn’t have power steering or electric shift, 4WD or diff lock engagement. Power steering is nice but not really necessary on the lighter machines. The less electrics you have the less rat food (wiring) you have to worry about. Whatever you go with, if it’s likely to sit for more than about a month, put fuel stabiliser in the fuel. It’ll save you a lot of heartache. I also use Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki brands most weeks on farm and hunting and they all piss me off at some stage over something, haven’t found the perfect machine yet. Just my 2c.

Not wanting to hijack roadtrippers thread but anybody got a cf moto and what are your thoughts

Originally Posted by kingscoatkiwi

Not wanting to hijack roadtrippers thread but anybody got a cf moto and what are your thoughts

Yeah dont do that

Sent from my SM-S936B using Tapatalk

And that's a yeah, don't do that from me too. I used to audit quad bike operators: one went that way and was able to buy 50% more quads 'cause of their price point. Fine for the first year, then it all went sideways and became a self licking icecream for the parts and maintenance dudes.

Originally Posted by kingscoatkiwi

Not wanting to hijack roadtrippers thread but anybody got a cf moto and what are your thoughts

The new ones ie 2022 on seem to be a shit tonne better than their earlier attempts, know a few people that have run them on dairy farms for a few seasons now (500cc quads and 600cc/1000cc side by sides) with no issues and no increase in service or repair costs and they now come with a 2 year warranty which is on par with the Suzuki quads and longer than Honda and Canam at 12 months. Dairy farms are a pretty good torture test for most bikes, high usage, wet and covered in cowshit on lanesways with abbrasive sand etc all the time, some are seldomly serviced on time and ridden by Filipinos and Indians with zero mechanical aptitude or remorse and there is quite a few dairy farmers out there that still treat machinery like its disposable. They're a complete different bike to the earlier ones (which were piles of shit) and now have decent chassis construction, better quality components and bearings etc and they actually ride and handle quite nice. We had one of the older ones bought for the wife just to go from home to the calf shed so it only ever got driven on a gravel driveway, chewed out all it's suspension (suspension is a loose term... it was shit anyhow) bushes and wheel bearings within 10 months and 2000kms, I accidentally hit a warratah with it and cracked the radiator and the dealer wanted $1700 for a new one. Got the shits with them and it's still sitting in the shed now doing nothing 6 years later. Resale on them will be poor but they're starting to light a fire under the bums of the more well known manufacturers.

Originally Posted by XR500

Ha!!
Yes, I have a mate with two of those and ye gods they have got some get up and go. You can really launch yourself at difficult terrain and climb seemingly impossible obstacles with all that power and suspension. But when it all goes wrong, it goes wrong in the blink of an eye and the $$ of damage mount up surprisingly quickly.

Don't ask me how I know

You can look at the history on them including top speed etc. Our runoff manager had his bike in for service so took one of ours for a week, came back and I looked at the history on it... had at some point done 136kmh! Farking lethal they are a quad bike at the end of the day and get very unstable at stupid speeds like that. You could give it a handful on tarseal and get all your weight over the front and it would lift the front end off the tarmac no worries, don't ask me how I know. Bloody awesome for pulling long K-lines and heavy loaded up calf trailers though

Originally Posted by woods223

Work on (fixing/maintenance) 4wheelers and sxs’s on a daily basis ( well, 3 days anyway), mostly Hondas but also most other brands as well. They all have there good points and bad. They all require regular maintenance. Some are hard on suspension and steering components, others are hard on other components. If you’re looking for something to use on an irregular basis then look for something that is smaller/lighter and doesn’t have power steering or electric shift, 4WD or diff lock engagement. Power steering is nice but not really necessary on the lighter machines. The less electrics you have the less rat food (wiring) you have to worry about. Whatever you go with, if it’s likely to sit for more than about a month, put fuel stabiliser in the fuel. It’ll save you a lot of heartache. I also use Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki brands most weeks on farm and hunting and they all piss me off at some stage over something, haven’t found the perfect machine yet. Just my 2c.

Thanks Man! So this might be a silly question but if you were going for a smaller (300) size then is the 4wd absolutely must have ? I can imagine with a bit of push and tug you could get a 2wd with good tyres to some pretty decent spots?

Also bearing in mind will most of the time be with a mate in a bigger 4wd so tow outs possible too..

Originally Posted by Roadtripper

Thanks Man! So this might be a silly question but if you were going for a smaller (300) size then is the 4wd absolutely must have ? I can imagine with a bit of push and tug you could get a 2wd with good tyres to some pretty decent spots?

Also bearing in mind will most of the time be with a mate in a bigger 4wd so tow outs possible too..

Not sure on the availablity of 2wd quads, but having ridden one or two of them, I'll say this:

If you suddenly give it max jandal ( quick full throttle), the rear end can scoot out sideways in a hurry. Brilliant for donuts if you're trying to do that, not so good on a greasy slope when you're not expecting it.

Originally Posted by Roadtripper

Thanks Man! So this might be a silly question but if you were going for a smaller (300) size then is the 4wd absolutely must have ? I can imagine with a bit of push and tug you could get a 2wd with good tyres to some pretty decent spots?

Also bearing in mind will most of the time be with a mate in a bigger 4wd so tow outs possible too..

Don't want this to read like an advert but here's some of my thoughts.
You would be suprised where you can go with a 2WD even with fairly crap tyres, no different to a ute really, But put some good tyres, like Maxi Grip SG-789's, on and you'll get most places. 4WD can be highly overated at times on 4 wheelers and SxS's. You'd be surprised where you can go in a Pioneer 700 or 1000 before engaging 4WD and when you do engage it, in dry to damp conditions, most people will bottle out before the machine gives up. Have tested a couple of Pioneer 1000's on steep hillsides fitted with tyres mentioned. Front starting to lift before starting to lose traction going up and back end getting light and starting to yaw going downhill. Their spec. rollover angle of 34 degrees is pretty accurate too. 4 wheelers are pretty similar but I've noticed most of our insurance rollovers involve IRS machines for some reason. Just remember high traction tyres can suck the power out of some of the smaller ,<300cc, machines out there. Just my experience having serviced and ridden these machines from when the Honda ATC90/110 and Yamaha Tri-moto came out till present day.

Someone else was telling me the same thing about IRS quads a couple of months back - lots more rollovers in the stats with IRS. I didn't think to ask why that would be. Having said that, mine is a crappy old TRX300 4x4, cost me about 950 all up less labour (replacement front diff, front swingarms, front and rear lights and a few other mostly electrical bits) as it had a bloody hard life including a tip over at some stage. Had to patch weld the chassis up - bloody cowshit. After the work it's now utterly reliable and a good machine if a little noisy as the exhaust is buggered.

Currently in the market for a Suzuki/Honda 500 if anyone is moving one on S.I based!

Originally Posted by Hidey31

Currently in the market for a Suzuki/Honda 500 if anyone is moving one on S.I based!

As am I, but being very cautious. I’ve expressed interest in three machines in the 350 - 500 cc range. Two vendors said they would get back to me, but didn’t. Third advertised (fb mkt place) a mint unit and wanted $$ sent before I saw it. Reg flags appeared when I noticed USA plated vehicles in the background.

CF Moto - are they being judged on past performance rather than current models?
Are these improving as fast as Chinese cars/utes?

I know a SBS on muddy hills well that has had problems but all under warranty, and nothing worse than other makes in the district. 4 years old now and still going.

Originally Posted by Roadtripper

Thanks Man! So this might be a silly question but if you were going for a smaller (300) size then is the 4wd absolutely must have ? I can imagine with a bit of push and tug you could get a 2wd with good tyres to some pretty decent spots?

Also bearing in mind will most of the time be with a mate in a bigger 4wd so tow outs possible too..

- 4wd all day we had a 2wd useless maybe okay on flat dairy farm but actually dangerous with a load on hill country for me Suzuki 500

Originally Posted by Tahr

CF Moto - are they being judged on past performance rather than current models?
Are these improving as fast as Chinese cars/utes?

I know a SBS on muddy hills well that has had problems but all under warranty, and nothing worse than other makes in the district. 4 years old now and still going.

During weekend I drove son to uplift his new Yamaha Tenere World Raid adventure bike. Spoke with x2 motorcycle mechanics in self employment. Both said to avoid the Moto range fir various reasons.