Precision Racing Products Steering Stabilizer One thing that I went without for a while in my racing career was a steering stabilizer. I always thought I wasn’t that fast, I wasn’t that competitive, what do I need a steering stabilizer for? As I began to get faster, I began to notice my competition was running them, and figured I needed one too. For quite a while after that I had it installed and never really did anything with it. I set it in the middle and never changed it again, no matter what the course conditions were. That was until I saw the owner of Precision Racing Products doing a demonstration of his new cutting edge steering stabilizer, at the WORCS event in Taft California. A large crowd of racers and their crews had gathered to see this new stabilizer that looked nothing like any other company had built before. No long rod stuck out the front of your quad, no large dial sat on the top of your handlebars. Instead there was a small black box with two adjustment knobs tucked neatly in behind your front plastic. His demonstration of the product worked wonders on the crowd. It didn’t hurt that Pro Josh Frederick’s quad just happened to be sitting there with a brand new one installed on it. Most everyone headed back to their trailer with a business card in hand.
The most important difference between this stabilizer and the others currently available for ATV’s is the adjustment. Most stabilizers have only one way to adjust them. They have something like 10 or 12 clicks to adjust from the softest setting to the stiffest setting. This new design has two places to adjust your steering - one being an inside adjustment, and the other an outside adjustment. This allows you to make the center stiffer than the sides or the sides stiffer than the center. For example, if conditions are slippery or loose you would stiffen up the center and loosen up the sides. This will help you steer into your slide quicker and then the stabilizer will catch the back of the quad as it goes toward the center reducing unwanted fishtailing.The mounting of the stabilizer is fairly simple. I was worried at first that it might be a little tough to install. I know that the others I have used on Project quads have been a bit of a pain in the butt to install, so I just expected that was normal. But it wasn’t at all.
The stabilizer mounts in front of the steering stem and on the chassis where the upper a-arms attach. There is a cross brace on the frame with three holes already drilled into it. A bare aluminum clamp goes on the underside of this brace and two bolts go through it and tighten into the threaded holes in the bottom of the stabilizer. Another clamp, anodized black, fits closer to the steering stem and fits between two bars of the frame. Two more bolts go through this clamp and into the stabilizer to hold the main body of the stabilizer in place. Make sure at this point you torque all four of these bolts to the amount that is specified in the instructions you will receive.
Next you attach the stem clamp to the stem. A pivoting arm is what allows you to attach to the stem. With the clamp attached snugly to the stem you have to make sure everything is adjusted correctly.
1: Make sure the bars and wheels are pointed straight ahead.
2: Adjust the levers on the unit and the stem clamp to 90 degrees. 3: Check the link-arm connecting the levers, it should be parallel and the O rings should be flat. After all that is positioned correctly you can then install the set screw and tighten the bolts holding the stem clamp. I had to find my own set screw for this step which made the process take a while longer. I contacted the company, and the kit is supposed to come with the screw, but they have had the screw wiggle its way out of the box on a couple occasions. If you find yours is lost in shipping, you can buy your own locally or PRP will gladly send you a new one. Like I said, with my old stabilizer I never used to adjust it much. But with this stabilizer I could instantly feel a difference on the track between settings. I opted to use the chart that was given to me with the instructions the first time, and the recommended settings for the type of track I was riding on was nearly perfect. I did adjust it slightly from what they said, but that’s expected. At first the adjustment of the stabilizer was a little confusing to me. Instead of using clicks that you can feel when you adjust the stabilizer, there are visual notches. I didn’t understand the technical reason for the notches, but then I don’t understand a lot of things. It just took a little practice to get used to how and when to change settings.
The Precision Racing Products stabilizer definitely isn’t cheap, but for only $30 more than a GPR stabilizer, you can get the only stabilizer you will ever want again. There is a reason we saw so many Pros switch to PRP in 2005 – and win with it.
Recommended Settings for Certain Track Conditions
Track Conditions | Center Adjustment | Side Adjustment | MX Track, Average Roughness | 6-7 | 8-9 notches out | MX Rough Track (Glen Helen) | 5-6 | 8 | MX Stadium | 10 | 12 | TT Track | 14 | 12 | Cross Country, Average Roughness | 10 | 12 | Cross Country, Rough Course | 8 | 12 | Desert Racing, Average Roughness | 5 | 8 | Desert Racing, Rough Course | 3.5-4.5 | 8 | Trail Riding, Average Roughness | 7 | 9 | Trail Riding, Rough Course | 6 | 8 |
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Posted Oct 11 2008 01:57PM
