oh400ex

haha I didn't even notice the cut frame! That looks like he put the bike in a drill press with a large metal hole saw to me 😂 These bikes are such a fun project if you are ready for a little fabrication and modification. Looking forward to seeing what you end up with. Also when you get a chance take a shot of the lever. Thanks for sharing!

That is criminal! Depending on what company that came from you might be able to make that worth its weight in gold. Send the company that sold you that filter an email. Attach an invoice for engine repair and a few pictures of that sunk foreman you are working on lol Just see if that ruffles any feathers 😅 Edit: Fram bad wix good

Bonded is not an option for me. I would go the Vermont route before going down that road. I will do whatever is easiest

This is not a video but an entire YouTube channel Project Farm A guy in his garage who likes to test things. Products, hacks, "what-if's", engine failure, and much more. His product comparisons carry more weight with me than pretty much anything else when it comes to media. People joke in the comments that they need a "Project Farm Approved" sticker on stuff at the store and that would sell products. I agree. If you have never seen this channel and have a few minutes to look at mechanical or product videos... check him out! Thank you for looking!

The head deal is sure something I was not expecting. If someone could mill off a bit it would look great but Idk how else you would cut it and not make it look terrible. If you were able to mill the head a bit to accept the tube it might tilt the whole assembly enough to help level the carb a bit. Ultimately it looks like you will need to cut the intake tube in half in the middle. Rotate the tube pieces so that the carb will be level and weld up the cut? Definitely not leaving you much room to work with on that frame lol Mine did have a boot but nothing like that. It was way closer to the engine and had more of a traditional boot. If you rode it around on a wheelie the angle is perfect! 🤣

Quick update... Vehicle check came back clean. Nothing listed for theft in any databases and no claims of record. I have been told there are several ways to get this bike back on the road (clean title) in Arkansas. Let me preface all of this by saying that I do not have the title in-hand and until then this is all conjecture. Process goes like this... I take my information to revenue office and fill out a form. A judge does some judging, declares the bike good and makes it official that I am the owner. I can then apply for a lost title like normal. If for whatever reason this does not work or there is some other reason it can not be registered in AR... It can be done digitally in Vermont without ever setting foot in the state and without being a resident. You would then transfer the Vermont title to AR. Again, BIG grains of salt until I get anything in my hand but what I was thinking seems to have been confirmed at this time. Thank you for reading! --- From the Spyder forums... And my response...

Used it way back but never on plastic. Thanks. I will

Since the subject of wasps has been brought up I thought I would share a trick... Permethrin Some of you may have seen it as Permethrin10, NIX or some other variety. I would bet a few of you have it already and don't know how good it is for wasps. This is the best thing I have ever tried for wasps hands down. No contest. Mix hot water, dawn and permethrin. The ratios are not very important from my experience and a little of the concentrated stuff (35%?) does go a long way. Lets say a gallon of water, cup of dawn and splash of concentrated permethrin. Shake well and put this mix into a standard sprayer. The soap and water alone will drop them out of the sky and kill on contact (unless raining) but with the permethrin added they all get got. If you spray this mix on the area where they go in-and-out... they will stop using that entrance. Under barn metal, eves, inside bricks, etc THIS MIX IS NOT SAFE FOR CATS, BIRDS OR FISH! DO NOT USE THIS NEAR WATER! Dogs are fine with it and is an active ingredient in some topical flea and tick treatments. Don't use it on your dog anyway lol It would theoretically be OK if your dog smelled or rolled in an area that had been sprayed. Give it a shot sometime if you have wasp problems. I used to...

I really appreciate you are trying to keep me from going down this road. Just know I do hear you. This isn't my machine to make the call on either way but I really hope I don't get to feel the feeling of "well crap...now i gotta rip my new project all back apart !"

Well here is a good example of what not to do... Do it right or do it twice applies. If this was my bike I would likely be starting over as it didn't come out to my standards. Luckily my wife has fully decided that she does not want it. Too fast! My mistake (that you can avoid) is not taking the time to remove all deep scratches before moving onto the next grade of sandpaper. I got into a hurry and the results suffered because of my impatience. I've been down this road before I don't know why I turned here again but here I am. Shortcuts... The photos are going to show the difference between the fenders. You can see that the factory shine is back and it looks awesome compared to the other side. Start looking closer and the imperfections get more noticeable. I could have arguable done a better job in the same amount of time as this... When finishing plastic, don't try and skip forward... it ends up taking more overall time when you get to the buffing step. I'll do a separate thread about plastic restoration hopefully someday but here is a general overview of the process. My method is tried and true but even knowing better I tried to get in a hurry and pain was the result. Start with the 90 degree razor blade and 80 grit and get out all the large scratches and shape any panels. Then move up through the grits using as many steps as possible. The more grit sizes you have available the easier the sanding is each time. Start each grit dry and switch to wet-sanding before moving to the next size up for fastest results. Air hose and water are needed to clear plastic dust. 80>120>240>400>600>1000>1500 then finish with a dry cotton buffing wheel. Sanding sponges or foam backed paper is the best thing since sliced bread when it comes to getting certain angles. Heat gun will soften the plastic and make it brittle... this is the only method to restore plastic that works. Make sure to do it correctly to avoid the pitfalls I spoke about in this post. Thank you for reading!

Love the juxtaposition of the painted frame looking beautiful and the mud caked parts in the back 🤣 Is that a tiny bit of silver overspray on the left rear axle I see? 🔍 Tried frog tape yet? Looking great!

Something I was thinking and wanted to add to this discussion... I would ask yourself these questions if you haven't already. What determines the recommended oil change intervals? and Is there any disadvantage (aside from cost) to changing oil more often than recommended? The intervals are determined by cost per hour (cost per mile) Manufacturers want to design their engines in a way that they operating costs are lower than any competition. Everything else being equal if one machine needed the oil changed less regularly it is therefor less expensive to run. This drives the manufacturer to use additives, synthetic blends, and recommend longer intervals to avoid having the high operating costs. Tin foil hat on here but any smart manufacturer would want you to run the machine just long enough to feel like you got your money out of it and then buy another. What is their incentive to make a machine that lasts forever? Nothing. They make it last one day longer than the competitor at a lower price and they get all the money. Many people sitting in a boardroom having cost/benefit conversations from a shareholder perspective. Rotella T6 5w-40 can basically be ran in any machine and bought by the case is a reasonably priced option. I feel great about having fresh oil in my machines WAY more frequently than recommended. Lots of trouble free miles behind me so I'm good with it. Changing oil more often than required is a pay for it now or pay for it later deal to a T.

It might be time for me to empty out the old stuff and go get some "fresh"... These are still available to me with a bit of wait for $8/box (50ct) They are reloads but done by a craftsman. I have ran several boxes without a failure... Before anyone asks they are not available... I am truly sorry. They sell to their current customers only and are busy enough...

My buddy who turned 71 the other day rode this 400 on his birthday. He used to ride HD but never been on a sport quad and never owned a quad of any kind. Told him some basics and asked him to be careful... remined him how bad hitting the ground hurts as he was getting ready to take off. He was only a drink or two in at this point so was not impaired but had some of that "liquid courage" going on. Everything he did was textbook. Rode the way he wanted... goosed the throttle just enough for the back to come out a few times but mostly just enjoyed the low rev Harley-esc nostalgia for few minutes. Had a really good time and didn't do anything that I would consider dangerous. Great experience. With reason and caution pretty much any age rider who is physically able to "mount-the-saddle" and has a bit of experience with a clutch can jump on a fast ATV and have a blast.

Looks like the ones I got from Home Despot. Great totes. I have several 27s. Pretty UV resistant compared to some others but all plastic dies in sun. https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-27-Gal-Tough-Storage-Bin-in-Black-HDX27GONLINE-5/205978361

Hey everyone can ride their own pace. Nothing wrong with doing what you like! Take it however fast or slow makes you smile the biggest! I say just be safe whatever you are doing. This kind of riding comes with years of practice on smaller machines and experience with this trail.

Hello again everyone! We have (in a few threads) had discussions about softening and restoring rubber parts. The secret ingredient is Methyl Salicylate (Wintergreen Oil) Process as with most things is the most important bit. There are several different ways that the softening can be accomplished but each with advantages and disadvantages. The video attached to this post is excellent! This individual tested many different methods and was able to restore rubber using several. I think that he got very close to describing the ideal setup but without actually getting there. Long and short is this... Heating the part in water and MS is the best way. The trick is to control heat and consistently integrate the oil. Best way I have tried is with a hotplate stirrer and immersion blender. Set hotplate to a very low simmer and high stirring while the part is being treated. The part in solution step usually takes me under an hour before it is softened enough but not too much. The immersion blender is used after adding the MS to water. What we are trying to do is create a temporary emulsion type of effect so the small oil droplets stay suspended in the water for longer. A TINY bit of soap makes this smoother. (dip a toothpick tiny amount)(not even a full drop) I plan on doing a full tutorial on this process in the future but wanted to share this video with anyone who was curious about the overall chemical process. He does a great job! This is just the summary but back it up and watch the whole video if it interests you! Thank you for reading!

I hear ya. Hitting the ground or even just falling over really is no fun. Broke my first bone on a Razor scooter lol If you come up here I could show you... otherwise I'll just have to keep to my chest lol Let's just say that riding on public backroads (that most would consider trails) is a grey area here... The community use ATVs and SXS like cars. It is just how people do things here because it is rural.

As you can likely tell... I may have ridden here a time or two lol This is my back-of-the-hand trails. Always wear a helmet when riding fast.

Hello everyone! I recently got out the GoPro and took off for some wide trail riding on the 2000 400ex. The bike is stock engine but modified jetting and exhaust. I am riding fast but not racing or anything... just having some fun. The front comes up many times throughout the ride as I just find that fun lol For context, at some points when I am going faster it would be +60mph (at around 2 minutes) and check out around 5 minutes in where I go down a really rough hill at speed. This shows the real difference between sport and utility suspension because if I tried that on a utility I would have ended up in the ditch. Thank you for watching! ~ 6 minutes

Stove black is super old school but think of it kind of like whitewash for a fence. Temporary but can be easily reapplied without stripping anything off. Usually a more temporary solution until you get some greying but just reapply every so often and it looks beautiful forever. Easy to patch if scratched compared to paint as well. I'm no expert but someone with more experience will likely chime in on the advantages/disadvantages. I love the look and a tub of the stuff will last forever when it comes to reapplications.

Any reason you are going with paint over stove black? Brand doesn't matter in my experience but I have never used the one below. Just linking for demo purposes https://www.amazon.com/Imperial-KK0059-Stove-Polish-Paste/dp/B07G2PPLJ1

Beautiful! Fall colors are just amazing

Well this disqualifies me but I'll give some thoughts anyway 🤣 Change the oil. It does more than pick up debris as you know and moisture plays a huge role. If never ran, the bike would have no miles and no hours but could potentially (in the wrong conditions) pick up moisture in the case. I'm not saying that I think you have water in the oil or anything but just as it doesn't cost much and is an easy job... go ahead and change. I will change oil 3-4 times if riding hard and change the filter less regularly as a personal preference. To answer your original question of do you need to change? No. Probably not Would I and should you? Yep. Feel good knowing you are running on fresh oil!

You both post great stuff and I appreciate that you bother to even care about someone's internet points.