P500 improved ride quality possible?

[dpnorth]

Im in the same boat. Love my p5, and hate the idea of trading it in at this point. Mod'd the crap out of it. 906UP gearing increase, 27" Zillas, yadda yadda.... Noticing my back was sore for unknown reasons come Monday, finally figured out it was the weekend ride doing it--not my mattress.

I actually ordered the WE fronts last night, but the CFO made me cancel that order....

From what I read the WE are huge improvement, but a few guys mention low speed not so noticeable. That is my concern, most of my riding is with the kids RZR170 behind me. Bouncing through everyone else's ruts.

 

[dpnorth]

Then again....

 

[jamesh]

Then again....
View attachment 144730

This will be my end-of-the year Pioneer upgrade.

 

[Chooglin]

Im in the same boat. Love my p5, and hate the idea of trading it in at this point. Mod'd the crap out of it. 906UP gearing increase, 27" Zillas, yadda yadda.... Noticing my back was sore for unknown reasons come Monday, finally figured out it was the weekend ride doing it--not my mattress.

I actually ordered the WE fronts last night, but the CFO made me cancel that order....

From what I read the WE are huge improvement, but a few guys mention low speed not so noticeable. That is my concern, most of my riding is with the kids RZR170 behind me. Bouncing through everyone else's ruts.

For me , the W.E. work great at lower speeds. You need to find someone that has them installed on a 500 and take it for a spin , I think you will be impressed!!!

 

[dpnorth]

You need to find someone that has them installed on a 500....

What happened to that Craigslist set you had...?

 

[Chooglin]

What happened to that Craigslist set you had...?

Lol..... they are on my machine!

 

[JWB]

Just to add to what @pFive brought up.. I wonder if removing the teeth from all the control arm pivot points would improve the ride with the W.E.'s too. I have air shocks, and I've never ridden a machine that has the W.E.'s . I just changed to long bolts that go all the way through both mounts, instead of individual bolts in every control arm mount (I had to make them), and found that where the hubs attach to the control arms were causing some drag, so I removed a little more material where the teeth were and was able to get 'thrust washers' in those too. Now all four control arms move completely freely with no drag at all. That made a noticeable improvement again. I thought I had done that a long time ago...

 

[Russ989]

You have pretty much done all you can do, without spending more money. Is your spring preload set to the softest setting ?

X2, but keep in mind that money can fix almost anything.

 

[Russ989]

the 700 rides rougher than the 500. you can get a nice ride out of the stock shocks just not using the stock springs. honda built these more utility wise rather than sporty rzr wise. to get a better ride probably look into dual compression springs and weigh the bike with the standard load out and get springs that fit the length and weight. other than that. your kinda stuck. 1 thing i did notice with my 700 is after i put a lift on it the ride smoothed out.

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Have you ever had a 500??

 

[Alan_Vander]

nope but had a good test ride last year. me and a guy swapped bikes for a few hrs out riding he wanted to know how the 700 rode and u wanted to know how the 500 rode. he was running 2 inch lift and 26s mine was on 2.5 and 27s. 500 was definitely smoother to me.

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[Russ989]

nope but had a good test ride last year. me and a guy swapped bikes for a few hrs out riding he wanted to know how the 700 rode and u wanted to know how the 500 rode. he was running 2 inch lift and 26s mine was on 2.5 and 27s. 500 was definitely smoother to me.

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My 500 had 26s and was rough as hell, my 700-4 is way better.

 

[Alan_Vander]

i can say this though tire width has alot more to do with ride smoothness than air pressure. since i swapped to the 32x8.5 r16 from my 27x10,12 r12. pretty good bit rougher now.

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[Rustneversleeps]

this what i use to improve ride quality on the cheap..
Like night and day may look like crap but way better on the back and the arse.

 

[Russ989]

this what i use to improve ride quality on the cheap..
Like night and day may look like crap but way better on the back and the arse.

View attachment 152794 View attachment 152795

It surprisingly looks pretty good.

 

[Alan aka Davinci]

What can I do to improve the ride of my P500 without spending a ton of money?

So far I've upgraded to 27" radials, tire pressure is set at 6psi, I disconnected the rear sway bar...what else can I do? This thing rides like a little North Korean tank LOL

I'm coming from the world of Yamaha, and as far as SxS's, my last ones were Rhino's and a Wolverine. I know it's not fair to compare them, but to be honest, the only reason I sold my Yamaha and bought the P500 was its small size. Had I known it rode this rough I might have made a different decision.

Again, money is a key issue, as I don't have much of it

Pic for attention...

View attachment 143502

Not much more you can do without spending a bunch on new shocks, mine is all stock but as with anything else it just a matter of getting used to it. We ride a lot of 50" trails and you can't go very fast so the firm ride is not usually an big issue, faster speeds yes but you get used to it and I have had 2 back surgeries.

 

[Lilred500]

Not much ore you can do without spending a bunch on new shocks, mine is all stock but as with anything else it just a matter of getting used to it. We ride a lot of 50" trails and you can't go very fast so the firm ride is not usually an big issue, faster speeds yes but you get used to it and I have had 2 back surgeries.

I think wider tires removing sway bar is about all I’m gonna do maybe shocks in the future but can’t justify that price when I hardly ever go past 10 mph on our trails here in wv

 

[uconn411]

I now have Walker Evans with 200lb springs front and rear, huge difference. I also love being able to set the suspension softer when trail riding with a kid and then set it firmer for faster trail riding with a simple twist of the dial. It is a noticeable difference for both slow and fast trail riding, no bottoming our anymore either. Highly recommend.


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[Alan_Vander]

this what i use to improve ride quality on the cheap..
Like night and day may look like crap but way better on the back and the arse.

View attachment 152794 View attachment 152795

that actually doesnt look bad at all. almost want to crawl up on it and take a nap by a creek or river somewhere

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[trigger]

Rode areas of heavy chop at speed this weekend and the WE's were eating it up. Glanced over at the wife and without saying anything, she said I love these shocks! They were expensive as hell but well worth it IMO.

 

[Chooglin]

Knowing what I know now, the W.E. shocks should be at the top of the list for anyone that has a 500!!!