2009 Crossfire Standard Ride Quality

[catguy]

Hello, just wondering what other xf owners think of the ride quality of their sleds. i just bought a 09 XF8 Standard. To me it seems to ride rough. I have the ft shock springs set at about minimum pressure to keep top collar on. Rear skid ft shock I turned the spring so that its loose, just enough to take out the slack, rear arm spring cam set on softest setting. Track alignment is proper and tension set with about 2" @20lbs. Looks to me like that is spec. The front a-arm bushings were sortof tight, I sprayed penetrant on several times and then set out for some jumping, seems much better now. Besides the point, I set the ski stance to its widest setting and flipped the rubber bumpers between spindle and ski backwards of normal. That seems to have helped steering effort and darting considerably.

The ski springs are single rate. Has anyone tossed them in favor of a dual rate spring? Possibly off an f8lxr or similar. Not sure the the ft suspensions are the same or similar enough to use the springs.

My past sled was an 02 ZL800 SS and so far, that is a smoother riding sled. A 2004 Sabercat EXT is what sold me on a XF that sled is super smooth.

Hoping I won't have to spend much on a practiacally new sled to get it to ride as good as the 8 yr old one I just sold.

 

[catguy]

Also I weigh 195lbs + gear.

How do you tell the difference between shocks being valved too stiff and springs that are too stiff? Sled jumps really nicely, lands good, its just to stiff for stutter bumps in the trail.

 

[favoritos]

The Sabercat is a much smoother ride.

The shock valving on the CF seems a little strange when you are running a lot in the bigger stutters. It is almost like there is no suspension, they get that stiff. Springs may help, but I would check into a shock revalve first.

Must be some shock gurus here that can give better insight. I'm curious myself, I have the same sled.

 

[catguy]

Thanks for chiming in. The sled only has about 160 miles on it, I bought it with 80. I've never owned this close to brand new of a sled so I don't know if theres a "break in" chassis wise for everything to loosen up a bit. I'm working on getting a hold of Steve at www.deycore.com he sold me custom replacement shocks for the ZL800 when the smart ride ones went south. Hopefully he'll have something in store for me, I'm not super thrilled about spending a whole bunch of money on a practically brand new sled just to smooth out the ride. I understand that my past sleds were cushy trail sleds and I wasn't too impressed with the way they handled/rode when thrashing on them--now I've got the opposite I guess. I bought this over an F8 thinking the versatility would be nice.

 

[catguy]

Rode it some more tonight and then switched with the Sabercat EXT and I'm thinking that its not as bad as I made it seem at first. The Sabercat is too soft on the other hand, also the riding position isn't nearly as similar as I thought. (Saber is completely a sit down traditional sled and Crossfire has a way aggressive position that I'm liking much more as I get more used to it.) Some because the first day I rode it the trails were the roughest they've been all season-tons of traffic now that the temps are warmer, also being overly observant to a new sled and getting used to it. I think the rear suspension is good, I talked to Deycore today and he suggested a revalve. I'll be riding it a bunch more this weekend, I'll make a decision from there. The front sure gets stiff though in stutters, I tried the "can it and skim the tops" but its next to impossible to keep it under control with so little give in the front.

???Any others with similar concerns???

 

[catguy]

I think I found the issue!

I was beginning to summarize the machines and got sidetracked, decided to disconnect the swaybar to see if it was binding the suspension (based on info from another thread in another forum.) Sure enough, once disconnected, if you put a bunch of weight (push down on the ft bumper) on the front, it travels up and down with waaay less resistance--and move several more inches downward; the way I thought it should move with your weight on the bumper. Took the sway bar completely out to investigate and find that I had to pound out the bushings from the pipe they mount into---with quite a lot of force. I'm sure that a snug fit is good, but I don't see why they should for lack of better words be "pressed" in. Correct or not?? Never dealt with a sway bar on a sled before, on cars they're pretty tight in the bushings but cars weight thousands #s more. I think I'll sand them down a bunch, grease and reinstall, then save my money that was going to be for a shock revalve and get some other goodies rather!

 

[ezra]

I took off my sway bar and never looked back.some guys say they dont Handel as well with out it.I challenge any of you sway bar cheerleaders to try to lose me.and once you get to the rough stuff and your bar is working against you and I fly buy my money is at the bar we will be busting out the tool kit.takes a few hrs to get use to but after that I really think you are more connected with the sled movement