Riding has been in my blood since childhood, it is my true passion and is the only place in the world where my mind is clear and focused and I am just relaxed.
First of all before I begin, wear your Helmet, gloves and safety goggles anytime you decide to ride a quadbike/ATV, especially your helmet, as an experienced driver with over 15 years of driving experience. The desert is filled with dunes, slopes, bumps and surprises, you do not know what is gonna happen, one second your riding and the next your on the ground and bike is upside down on top of you. Yes, of course the more you practice, the better you get at it. The only way you learn, is after making mistakes and I know I made many mistakes riding and that cost me damage to my bike (expensive repairs) but thankfully no serious injuries. From all these flips and accidents riding quadbikes I learnt a thing or two about how to stay safe on your trips.
So this is my quadbike that I've had since 2006 (yes shes old), this isnt your regular quadbike that you can rent anywhere. No, this bike is a manual, completely modified, Honda TRX 450cc.
The bike has been modified to maximize performance in the desert, some of the modifications are:
- "4-Snow" tires which are the ones on the back tires of the bike (this is different from the stock tire that you get when you first purchase a brand new quadbike) and you can compare it to the front tires which are the usual tires you would see on any regular bike. This helps by allowing your bike to climb the dunes without issue (basically improves your bikes performance by the mechanics of the spinning tires ) Makes your bike faster, more fit for the desert (even though its called "4-Snow") Yes no doubt, there is specific tires for the desert even different from these ones but I preferably use the 4-Snow tires at the back because I do drive on flat grounds as well and if you use the other specific tires for the desert on the flat ground you will ruin the the tires rubber, hence damaging the tires.
This is the next level sand tires I was talking about, you can see in the picture, it pops out, allowing for it to dig into the sand better, making it a better performer for the desert dunes, but because I do tend to drive on-road and off-road it was never an option for me or else I would have had to replace my tires every month.
- The safety bars you can see me resting my feet on, without these I cant imagine how I would be able to drive a manual quadbike. (thats how important is it) You can also see the safety bars clearly in the next photo. Its one of the cheapest modifications you can add to your quadbike and it only comes with benefits.
Moving on to the more advanced quadbike performance enhancer, we've got the Trinity Racing exhaust system, (yes its for racing and no do not touch it when its hot) This is a widely used exhaust system built for professional quadbike racers and is available for upgrade in most quadbike garages that offer high level of modification. The exhaust yes does heavily increase the bikes performance and makes the bike so loud but at the same it is an exhaust after all and you cannot touch that shit, you will melt your skin.
- Check out the following photo below and look closely to the exhaust system and where it branches out from. You will notice that is it wrapped by a cooling material to keep the exhaust from burning through my pants and burning my skin. (it has happened before and I learnt my lesson :P)
Have a look at the shape of the exhaust, you would notice that it is bulging out from the bike near my right leg. This is a the problem with modifications to quadbikes, even though they are there and can be set up on any manual quadbike, the shape does matter and forces me to wear thick pants when riding (the cooling cloth wrapped around the exhaust is not enough) There is no solution to this problem and it has been there since when I first got my bike back in 2006.
Do not try this at home!
Thats all from me for this post, I hope you enjoyed and learnt a thing a two about quadbikes.
Let me know what your thoughts are, I want to hear them!
- Have you been quadbiking before?
- Have you been in any accidents with quadbikes before?
Remember this forever,
Dont ride without your helmet!
Thanks for tuning in, follow me on my journey as I try to cut you out a piece of my life from my point of view. Let me take you on a journey, and adventure through the desert.
Feel free to follow, comment, resteem and more importantly share your thoughts!