Just to give you an idea of the performance of my new quad, I was able to pull the holeshot against a Sr Pro on a KTM 525 with a 540 kit and a Pro on a YFZ at the Speedworld ITP Quadcross! Yeehaw! :)

I will do a complete writeup on my new race quad a little later, but for now you can check out the pics! :)

OK, with my new '07 Outlaw, I have the opportunity to again reinforce the seat. At first I was going to cut a piece of tubing in half and using that as the seat feet holder. As I was looking for some clamps in my welding box, I saw a couple of u-hooks I had bent to use as tie down hooks for my trailer. These would be perfect! I trimmed them down a bit more and then welded them on the frame as you can see in the photos.

The long end I welded on top of the frame and the short end was about halfway down the side of the frame tubing, this is to allow the seat feet to be able to slide into the cup this hook forms when you put the seat in, otherwise you'll have a heck of a time getting the tongue of the seat in its slot and getting the feet into their holder.

This solution is much more elegant than my first round I did on my '06, it is also more heavy duty than it needs to be, you can use rod that is not nearly so beefy, in fact that would be a better solution as I had to file the rod down a bit in order to fit the air box back in after I welded these up.

I transferred the tongue tang from the '06 to the '07. I had to work the holes a bit as the bolt pattern for the '07 is slightly smaller than the '06. A new tank was used in the '07 to accomodate the KTM motor.

You probably won't have this issue with casual trail riding, but racing...oh yeah! When I first started racing, I would always end the race and have a gouge in my right knee (sometimes left, but mostly right). Didn't even have a chance for the scabs to heal before I had another one sometimes. It was from the bolts Polaris used to fasten the plastic to the quad, poor choice of location! The only thing I could do was grind the edges off of the bolt (or screw) and wear knee support pads from Under Armor. That took care of the issue! They may be a little bruised now, but no more loss of skin or bodily fluids.

a) The upper a-arm on the rear suspension gets loose quickly due to a poor design of the attaching point on the hub. The fix is to go to the '07 model where that issue was remedied.

b) The lower bolt that connects the lower a-arm to the hub can shear leaving you with a poorly handling quad. This is not something you can readily find at your local hardware store before a race, not even if you are in another state that is known for it's motorsports! In case of emergency, an SAE bolt will suffice. Ask me how I know! :)

Understand that you will go through several CV boots a year and you should stock one each of the inner and the outer. I have gone through three inners and one outer this last year. The normal position of the axle is to be at an already large angle from the main hub or wheel hub. This puts a lot of wear on the CV boots, just the way it is, accept it and get good at replacing the CV boots!

Opps! Make that four inner boots, I just replaced one out in the field before the Snowflake race. Here are simplistic instructions, if there are gaps of logic or process, please let me know.

Inner boot replacement.

• 1) Get a good assortment of paper towels, clean rags and maybe even surgical gloves, this can get messy!


• 2) Get rid of the old boot! I generally cut the middle part away with a utility knife then grip the part that's still in the hub with a pair of pliers and pull it out (remove the big C clip first)


• 3) Wipe away as much grease as possible just to keep the chaos down.


• Inside the hub, most likely covered with grease so you can't see it, is a c-clip that prevents the cv joint from coming out of the hub when the suspension flexes. The first time you pull that out is going to be a royal pain. I use a dentist pick sharpened to a very fine point so I can get an end under the c-clip and pull up enough on it to slide a screwdriver under the clip and slowly pry it out.


• After you get the c-clip out, grind or file the ends down to put a bevel on them as shown in the pictures below. This will greatly facilitate taking them out next time, for there WILL be a next time :) you can send me $5 and a thank you card every time you do this later on.


• Once you get the c-clip out, the axle and cv joint easily pulls out from the hub. The next step is to wrap the cv joint in a rag. This is important to keep the ball bearings from flying everywhere as the next thing you will do is pick up a big hammer and thwack the cv joint very firmly to knock it off the end of the axle (may need repeated attempts). There is a flex c-clip holding the cv joint on, but it will compress when you hit the cv joint and allow the joint to slide over it and off the axle.


• Clean the axle up and slip the new boot on. Disassemble the cv joint, clean the old grease out and then put the inner race/cage and ball bearings back together (noting proper orientation of parts). Slip CV assembly on the top of the axle. The inner race hasa beveled side and a step side, the bevel side is the one that slips over the axle end first as it will allow the cv joint to slip over the spring c-clip when you tap it back on.


• Get the big hammer and a large socket, I use the one for the axle nut. One or two hits and the cv joint is neatly on the axle. You will be able to see the spring c-clip on the inside of the step part of the inner race when this is done.


• Roll the boot back so you will have room to re insert the inside c-clip after you put the axle back into the hub. Liberally fill the cv joint with grease, make sure to work it into the entire joint. Now insert the cv joint back into the hub.


• Place the c clip back into the groove to retain the cv joint where it's supposed to be. Unroll the boot and seat the flange into the hub, make sure to press it in tight as you will need to insert a new clip to retain the boot. Make sure the c clip is fully seated with the new cv joint.


• Attach the boot clamp to the base of the boot and you are done! I use very large pliers to make this job real easy.

Clcik on the pictures to make them larger.

What can I say on this one, it's plastic! It can break. The first time mine broke was just from me putting too much thumb pressure on it. Don't freak out! It was an emergency situation. One of my wheels had just stripped off of the hub and passed me by. I was gripping the handle bars VERY tight and apparently the thumb throttle could not cope. The second time was when I rolled the quad, it happens. Polaris only sells a complete replacement throttle. Buy one now for about $33 and keep it handy.

You can read the list to the left and see what I have done to make my quad better and some of the issues I was faced with from the factory. Keep in mind you will always find things that aren't quite right with your quad regardless of brand and almost everyone that races has to upgrade certain parts of the quad, namely suspension.

After my Yamaha quit running, I went back to the Outlaw for the next GP. After riding it I realized I had forgotten how smooth it was in the rough stuff. That's when I decided I would try and work with the Outlaw instead of the Yamaha for racing. The Yamaha had more power, was lighter and cornered better. The Outlaw was smoother. I could work with those other issues, but I couldn't make the Yamaha an IRS, it just wasn't going to be as smooth.

In my world, being smooth equates to expending less energy which allows my to run faster, this is important to me.

Now that I'm in the Expert class, I don't get the holeshot at starts on the track, the entire engine, intake and exhaust are still bone stock, but I last, I run the other riders down. I think my solution to better performance is to upgrade to a 525 Outlaw IRS, so I have a lighter package, hot motor and still have the smooth suspension. With that, I believe I can consistently run at the top of my class and even mess around with a few pro's :)