Rocky Mountain Dirt Riders

Picked this up last night



Just curious if anyone can offer advice on some radiator guards, linkage guards and what gearing to run.

Some of the radiator protection options seem more expensive than new radiators. I ran Emperor cages with the optional grill on my 2012 350 - which offered great protection but was no featherweight.

For link guards, I'm considering the obie or Emperor racing guards (since I'm not dropping $350 for a fastway when I don't need to lower the bike). Obie is a little cheaper and looks easier to install. Anyone running it?

Nice bike, congrats.

Thanks I'm pumped

Get an Obie. For the price they're great and if you ever have to replace it, no big deal.

I went to order, but there's no options for a 2016 with TMD skidplate... Guess that leaves the Emperor.

Are these 4CS forks really as bad as the internet makes out?

I keep reading about harsh midstroke and easy bottoming. Is this going to require an expensive bottoming control and revalve?

I had revalved CC forks on my 2012 that I was pretty happy with.

cerealkiller wrote:I went to order, but there's no options for a 2016 with TMD skidplate... Guess that leaves the Emperor.

Call Mark at Obie, he likely has the correct guard to fit your TMD.

Check out the bullet proof designs rad guards less putting together more install and go.

congrats on the new ride.

I have ran the BPD rad guards for the last few years and don't feel they are worth the extra money over the KTM hardparts or the emperor ones. When I upgrade to the 17 I will not buy them again. I have wrecked/tweaked rads with both set ups.

for skid plates you have to check out http://www.sxslideplate.com this is an integrated skid plate and linkage guard. I have ran one for this season so far and am very impressed by it. I have wrecked fastway link guards and alway manage to break and bend the mounts off my emperor skid plates. I have yet to have any issues with this new skid plate and it is way cheaper than individual parts. I have had good luck in the past with the KTM aluminum skid plates, but would not run another KTM or Acerbis plastic one. They seem to fall off.... I have an Obie link guard in my garage that I bought for a KTM skid plate but never installed it. I found the full piece instead. I would give you a good deal on it if you want it (the kids used the stickers....)

Suspension. I struggled with multiple sets of 4CS forks for years and have ridden forks tuned from a large number of shops locally and US based. I had never had found that sweet spot that was as good as my closed cartridge forks. That changed when I started working with Ken at TNT suspension in Langdon. I had the latest testing tweak installed last week and was blown away with how well these forks worked at Mclean and Fallen Timber. the roots and rocks in the barwell ridge were no match for them. The final ingredient has been cleaning up the bottoming, without installing some fancy expensive system in the bottom of the fork. Feel free to give me a call to discuss further if you want.

lastly, ride the beans out of the bike. No amount of bling and bolt ons is going to provide the edge and advantage that burning gallons and gallons of fuel through the beast will

congrats on the bike Jared

i installed a Kreft shim kit ($300usd) in the 4cs i swapped on my 570 and its made a major improvement, but try springs and oil levels 1st - my 14 TE had great performance once sprung and oil level raised

my TMDesigns skid and obie are holding up well on my old YZ - buddy got an obie to work on his 16 350xcf with that skid so should be ok

Dobi, did you get the SXS shipped here? i've called and emailed them to no reply? for the 270 the cycra is disintegrating

Thanks for the advice everyone. My plan at the moment is:

- Obie link guard
- probably trail tech rad guards (I like the idea of easier install. These look BDP-style, but cheaper ($175 USD shipped)).
- I'll probably just modify the fan from my 2012 to fit the new radiators
- try swapping the 14t front sprocket to a 13, see how that works out gearing-wise
- I think .50 fork springs and 5.2 rear.

Getting mixed advice on the spring rates. I've seen multiple posts that KTM spec'd a shock that was too stiff (4.8) versus the stock fork springs (.44?). I had .48 on my 2012 CC forks and thought that was a little light for my weight (220). Worked great for tight single-track, but bottomed pretty regularly on the moto-track or endurocross course despite increasing the oil level.

Get all that sorted and I should be set to stomp Marco in Vega

Those sound like battlin words! remember this course is longer than the 15k loops your used to

malcolmzilla wrote:congrats on the bike Jared

i installed a Kreft shim kit ($300usd) in the 4cs i swapped on my 570 and its made a major improvement, but try springs and oil levels 1st - my 14 TE had great performance once sprung and oil level raised

my TMDesigns skid and obie are holding up well on my old YZ - buddy got an obie to work on his 16 350xcf with that skid so should be ok

Dobi, did you get the SXS shipped here? i've called and emailed them to no reply? for the 270 the cycra is disintegrating

I found my SXS on kijiji. second best purchase to date from Kijiji (first was a $40 ez-up)

I have heard that the guy is not very good at responding. There was chatter on KTMtalk about it a while back.

Touche Marco. I prefer the smaller circles.

Are there any simple fixes for the 4cs forks (ala JBI pro perch for the WP CC forks)? I saw the MX-tech "huck valve" but that looks to exceed my install abilities.

I may have answered my own question. Supposedly Zipty has a "4CS hydraulic bottoming system kit" that's aimed at alleviating harsh bottoming in 4cs forks. Word is that it retails as a DIY kit for $140.

My understanding is that it was just released a few weeks ago, so there's no much information on it. Not on their website yet either. I emailed them for details. If anyone is curious, I'll post what I find.