Prepping a race quad

• Day of race

During the day of racing you get muddy, hit a few trees usually and hopefully get your quad to the finish line. Once the day is over you are physically beat and washing your quad is the last thing on your mind for the day. After a couple of day you begin to get it washed, to properly wash it you need to take your plastics off. Scrub it with a cleaner of some kind and really get it as clean as you possibly can. The cleaner you have it the easier it will be to access any damage you have racked up from the weekend.

Usually the first task you have is to start looking over the quad, checking for any cracks to any of the parts. You want to make sure that nothing has any kind of damage because, the amount of power the quad puts out if anything was to break while you are riding it would be disastrous. If you find any broken parts you start making a list of everything you need to order. This kind of puts you on hold from starting to do repairs. You will usually have some choice words and throw a little bit of a fit because that means you have to put more money in.

• few days after the race

From here you follow up by checking your fluid levels and changing the oil. Typically anyone who rides hard for two hours or more will change the oil and filter every 2 hours. This will help keep your quad in top running condition. To do this you need three different socket sizes a 8mm, 10mm, and a 12mm. Once you have your oil draining you want to make sure and check for metal flakes. This will be in the filter, and make sure your oil isn't a milky color indicating coolant is mixing in. If you see more then just a few flakes of metal, you should start looking into it to avoid completely destroying your engine. Then you fill your oil back up to the recommended amount, their are so many different brands to choose from its more of a personal preference.

If you have any broken parts you are kind of at a stand still here until, your best friend the ups guy shows up later in the week. Once the parts arrive you get those put pack on and make sure everything is back tight. You will want a manual, so that way you have the bolts torqued to what is recommended from the experts. Once you have everything back in place you want to go ride it around for a few minutes to make sure everything is in place.

• race week

A few nights before the race you will want to go back out and check every single nut, bolt, and clamp on the ATV. This way you are fully confident that you will not have any bolts come loose, and that it is all put together properly. This will then bring you to race morning, when its the morning of the race you want to check the conditions, did it rain is it dry? This will help you determine how much tire pressure you should run. Make sure you have your quad full of gas, it would be the worst thing ever to run out of gas. Along with making sure the quad is all ready make sure you are well hydrated.

This is typically how i get my race quad ready to go in the mornings, and weeks leading to the next race. Hopefully this is helpful for some people who are new to racing. I have learned this from guys who have been racing for many years and it hasn't seemed to fail me yet.