Author Topic: Trail riding weekend  (Read 972 times)

airshot

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Trail riding weekend
« on: October 03, 2017, 01:26:41 AM »
  Took the granddaughter trail riding this past weekend with the 450i. Machine performed quite well. We went to perrys forest in ohio, first time there and found the place quite enjoyable. I don't care for fast paced trails, I am more of a technical trail rider enjoying all the twists and turns, climbing rocks and tree roots. We gave the 450i a serious workout, buried it in a mud hole, serious hill climbing and downhill runs.  Sure glad I have the extra subframe support for my plow that reinforces the belly pan (skid plates) as we bottomed out on rocks and tree roots frequently. Had the cooling fan running much of the time but never an overheat. We did wash out the radiator after day one to clean out any mud build up, so that made day two cooler running until the mud built back up again. I will be taking off the skid plates to give it a thorough cleaning this week and will report what I see when I remove them. So far a really great little machine. Had it for 1yr and 10 months and 680 miles with no issues.

poorboy1964

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Re: Trail riding weekend
« Reply #1 on: October 04, 2017, 03:27:04 PM »
Good to hear airshot I hope you get to keep enjoying ever minute of it.

Life keeps getting in the way for me I still only have 27 miles on mine and haven't ridden it in 3 weeks.

airshot

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Re: Trail riding weekend
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2017, 12:26:10 AM »
  " no riding in 3 weeks"  heck that just ain't right!!  You need to get your priorities in order!!  LOL
Finally got the mud cleaned off the machine, boy am I glad I put those mud flaps on!!  Saved a lot of buildup inside...haven't dropped the skid plates yet, plan on doing that over the weekend to check the underside. Did get the pressure washer nozzle down inside to wash the mud out of the inside of the skid plates and clean off the power plant. 2 hrs cleaning time to get rid of the sticky mud, just to bad there was no cleaning station at the ride area, to much time for all that goo to dry made it really hard to remove. Machine still running great so I am sure nothing was harmed in the ride, just want to see underside for my own piece of mind and see if the plow frame helped protect the underside. I will say this...the Kymco sure got a lot of looks while we were there, even got some hand clapping getting up some serious mud slides that others did not make.....Kymco machines are looking better all the time!!

airshot

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Re: Trail riding weekend
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2017, 01:17:47 AM »
Today I removed the skid plates to see what is inside after our ride.  We had bottomed out pretty hard in a few areas and I was anxious to see if anything was bent or damaged.  As most of you already know the 450i is a well built machine but it does have plastic skid plates. At times that can be good and at times that can be bad, the good is they slide over most obstacles and return to there original shape, the bad side is on a hard bottoming out they can give or puncture and then what?  We did some hard riding on a rough trail with lots of stumps and rocks and hit bottom many times, so what happened inside?  Removed skid plates and found lots of built up mud, mabey 20 lbs worth but nothing appeared damaged or bent. If anyone recalls I added two pieces of angle iron running front to back for my plow mount. These attach to the crossmembers on the frame and give added protection and support on the underside and the skid plates also attach to them again creating more support for the plastic skid plates.  Needless to say the skid plates had many gouges and grooves from the rocks and stumps but no damage or bends in the angle iron supports which were my concern. Hitting bottom as hard as we did without the added supports would really have me worried as the crankcase is just inside those skid plates only protected by a crossmember, while being very strong a puncture by a sharp rock or stump could get to the bottom of the crankcase I guess....I am now convinced that my additional supports ad so much more protection to the bottom and extra support for the plastic skid plates that I will be confident to go over or thru most any obstacle anywhere. They also make the plow mount much easier to put on and remove, so I have a two fold gain in the angle iron. Needless to say the 450i is a tough little machine, can go most anywhere and like the old Timex saying goes...takes a licking and keeps on ticking !! 

poorboy1964

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Re: Trail riding weekend
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2017, 02:06:11 PM »
All good news glad to hear there was no damage. The last time I washed mine I left it on the trailer to wash so I could pressure wash the under side better (old man that doesn't bend very well anymore) it made things easier for me to see how much crud was under there.

kickstart

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Re: Trail riding weekend
« Reply #5 on: October 12, 2017, 06:53:23 PM »
Today I removed the skid plates to see what is inside after our ride.  We had bottomed out pretty hard in a few areas and I was anxious to see if anything was bent or damaged.  As most of you already know the 450i is a well built machine but it does have plastic skid plates. At times that can be good and at times that can be bad, the good is they slide over most obstacles and return to there original shape, the bad side is on a hard bottoming out they can give or puncture and then what?  We did some hard riding on a rough trail with lots of stumps and rocks and hit bottom many times, so what happened inside?  Removed skid plates and found lots of built up mud, mabey 20 lbs worth but nothing appeared damaged or bent. If anyone recalls I added two pieces of angle iron running front to back for my plow mount. These attach to the crossmembers on the frame and give added protection and support on the underside and the skid plates also attach to them again creating more support for the plastic skid plates.  Needless to say the skid plates had many gouges and grooves from the rocks and stumps but no damage or bends in the angle iron supports which were my concern. Hitting bottom as hard as we did without the added supports would really have me worried as the crankcase is just inside those skid plates only protected by a crossmember, while being very strong a puncture by a sharp rock or stump could get to the bottom of the crankcase I guess....I am now convinced that my additional supports ad so much more protection to the bottom and extra support for the plastic skid plates that I will be confident to go over or thru most any obstacle anywhere. They also make the plow mount much easier to put on and remove, so I have a two fold gain in the angle iron. Needless to say the 450i is a tough little machine, can go most anywhere and like the old Timex saying goes...takes a licking and keeps on ticking !!

The only problem I see with the plastic skid plates is, as plastic ages it also gets brittle and riding in cold weather would make things even worse. Are there any pics on this site of the angle iron location that you added to yours?

airshot

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Re: Trail riding weekend
« Reply #6 on: October 13, 2017, 01:53:37 AM »
    Unfortunately no pics, I did take some during the construction but they were so dark nothing showed up.  I don't have a flash on my phone and my leadlight did not produce enough light to make the pics stand out. When I put the plow mount back on for winter I can try some more pics with a brighter light. I understand your thoughts on plastic, I have been a tool maker for 50 years and spent the first 30 yrs working with plastic. There are many plastics that are difficult to break even under cold conditions, take for example, fuel tanks for cars and trucks.  The plastic ones require a test from a 30 ft drop while frozen without breaking (filled with water,ice) where a steel tank is only dropped 10 ft so plastics have come along way. I have been thru two winters with mine and no issues on the plastic skid plates, besides they are cheap to replace, all three are only 100 bucks, compare that to aluminum which bends easily and does not return to shape. From my personal experience I like the plastic skids as they glide over objects and return to original shape where steel and alum become a bent up mess. The angle pieces I used run from the forward crossmember over the center crossmember and attach to the third crossmember and are 12" apart. That is how wide the plow mount is, they are 1/4" wall x 1 1/2" angle iron. I did weld some tabs onto the angle iron to be able to attach them to the crossmembers. I really believe it adds strength to the plastic skids as they cannot flex nearly as much which gives me more confidence that something won't pop thru the plastic and hurt the trans or the motor. We took some bone jarring hits on the bottom skids on rocks and tree roots and only had scrapes on the plastic for any damage and the plastic easily skidded over the obsticles.

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