Brakes - Wheels - Tires Technical - Off-Road.com's SportQuad.com - - ATV at Off-Road.com

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Brakes - Wheels - Tires Technical - Off-Road.com's SportQuad.com

Publish date: Oct 1, 2005
By: ORC STAFF
Source: ATV at Off-Road.com

How do I choose the correct brake shoes for my quad?

Add Some Trick-looking Billet Wheels	Yamaha Blaster Hydraulic Brakes
How do I get my old tires off my rims to put my new tires on?	Reline Your Own Brake Pads

How do I choose the correct brake shoes?.... Choosing the correct brake shoes can be a pain in the ass. The trick is to find the right pads for your application. All brake pads are NOT the same. Brake pads are manufactured from different materials that range from metalic to organic to kevlar. Each material has it own properties and characteristics. I will list a few below just as an example,this is NOT a complete list. My advise is to visit your local bike shop and talk to them about the brake pads they carry. I hope this will give you an idea of what to look for.

BRAKE MATERIAL	Organic	Semi Metalic	Full Metalic
STOPPING ABILITY	Very good stopping ability under most conditions. Even under wet or muddy conditions.	Average stopping ability under good conditions.Slighty less reliable when wet or muddy but still ok.	They work well dry,untill you get into the water and mud,then they start to slip.
DURABILITY	They are very soft so they won't last 2 weeks if you get a little mud or sand in them.	Good durability,they can take a little mud without doing a dissapearing act while your riding. Should last a season.	These puppies will out live you! If you get a little sand or mud in them,no problem. Sticks,no problem. Gravel,no problem. You get the idea.
PROS	Very easy on the rotors	Will last a long time without being to hard on the rotors,	They will last longer than your quad.
CONS	Need replacing often.	?	You WILL replace rotors more often than the brake pads. REALLY!!!!

How do I get my old tires off my rims to put my new tires on?

I am open to suggestions on this one. I just run down to the tire store where a friend of mine works. If someone has any good suggestions on how to do this easily at home, let us know!

So You Want New Tires...

I have found that after a period of time almost everyone wants to start making changes to their ATV. In my opinion tires are the first place to start, not the engine.

My reasons are #1) most ATVs already have enough power for people that are new to the sport, #2) the correct set of tires for your style of riding may not only add to the comfort of riding, the correct tires may also mean a safer ride.

To choose the correct tires for you,you must first ask yourself what kind of riding you prefer to do, and what kind surface will you be riding on. Will you be trail riding on a nice easy soft clear path ? Will you be riding in lots of mud , sand ,or snow ? Will you riding fast or slow? Or how about some kind of competition riding, MX racing ? Hillclimbs ? Flat track racing ?

I guess my point is with all the different kinds of riding ,tire selection can be important. It is not uncommon for experianced atvers to have more than one set of tires.

Things to consider when purchase a set of tires and why:

If you're going buy a set of tires and put them on rims you already have, make sure you purchase the correct WIDTH tire for the rim size that you have because if the tires you buy are to narrow they WILL come off the rim.
Do you want a flat tire or a round tire ?If at this point your thinking WHAT ? Walk around to the back of your ATV ,squat down and take a look at the top of the tire (fully inflated to its correct pressure), is the top of the tire flat or is it rounded? Most of the people I know prefer a flat tire. WHY? Because a round tire has a tendancy to roll under during HARD cornering. A flat tire tire puts more rubber to the road, so to speak.
Do you want a tall tire or a short tire? If you need to have lots of ground clearance you will need a tall tire,a tall tire will lift the ATV higher off the ground and give you a softer ride, but on the other hand a tall tire has more sidewall flex which will give the atv a feeling of being loose during hard cornering.If you choose a short tire you get more stability during hard cornering and high speeds, but you loose ground clearance and the ride may be a little more bumpy.
Tread pattern .There are so many different tread patterns to choose from for different kinds of terrain that if your working with a limited budget (like most of us ), try to choose a tire that will work under general condititions. If you have big bucks and you can afford to buy mud tires, trail tires, sand tires,etc.. then go for it.

Please submit any technical questions to the bulletin board.

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Comments and Questions from our Readers

motorheaduk / Rothes, ZZ, UNITED KINGDOM
Posted Jul 19 2008 08:25AM
How do I get my old tires off my rims to put my new tires on? If someone has any suggestions on how to do this at home, let me know please!