How To

By the staff of Dirt Wheels. Photos by www.stephentripp.com and the DW staff. HOW-TO: WINTER PREP IN 10 STEPS Many off-road riders are fair-weather fliers. They might just hang out in the house when it is too hot or cold. Or, perhaps they choose a more appropriate sport for the temperature; for example, wakeboarding in the heat and snowboarding when there is slippery white stuff hiding the ground. If you decide not to take the easy way out, you have to be prepared. It is possible to ride in reasonable comfort when…

By the staff of Dirt Wheels TIE-DOWN SOLUTIONS. Every person who spends time off-road on four wheels faces challenges when it comes to transporting the machine. Even if you ride on your own property, or have legal riding right out of your driveway, at some point it is likely your machine will need to be hauled somewhere. The ideal situation is to haul the same machine with the same truck or trailer every time. It is relatively easy to set up your hauling situation in that case. The absolute best method for…

By the staff of Dirt Wheels with Josh Underwood, Photos by Stephen Tripp/www.stephentripp.com ICE RACING BASICS There is nothing Dirt Wheels loves more than a letter or an e-mail with a radical, high-quality photo included. Some relevant info is just a gilded frame on the shot. And then there are exceptional days like when we hear from photographer Stephen Tripp. We heard from Stephen out of the blue after the 2018 Daytona SX quad race. He was wondering if we wanted to use any of his photos from the event.…

HOW-TO RESTORE OLD PLASTIC When you see a shiny ATV in the showroom, it’s like love at first sight. The light gleaming off the carefully sculpted curves of the plastic bodywork is like art. Then you ride it, and two weeks in, it looks like a tired old mule. We may be exaggerating that last part a small amount, but every machine we test ends up with scuffed, scratched, and beat-up plastics, no matter how careful we are with it. So instead of dropping hundreds of dollars on brand-new plastics, why not repair your old…

HOW TO INSTALL A STRONGER ROLL CAGE We say it time and time again—protection is the most important factor when it comes to off-roading any machine. Wearing the right helmet, eye protection, switching out the stock UTV seat belts with harness systems—all of these are great ideas to keep you riding longer. If you ask one of our editors which UTV accessory you would purchase after the helmet and harnesses, they would tell you to get a stronger roll cage. Rolling a UTV is a serious matter, and the harder you drive one,…

By the staff of Dirt Wheels MUD RIDING SECRETS CAN-AM PRESS RELEASE: The thrill of powering through the deepest, gnarliest mud holes on earth doesn‘t come naturally to most people, but Dustin Jones isn‘t most people. Born, raised, and based in Shreveport, Louisiana, his passion for challenging himself and his machines has led not only to S3 Power Sports—but a growing trophy case as proof of all the hard work. We sat down with Dustin and asked him how it all got started—and how you can dip your toes into mud riding to…

By the staff of Dirt Wheels with Vic Meymarian of Bear Trailersports HOW TO TOW SAFELY AND LEGALLY Some of us are lucky enough to ride on our own property or are able to carry our machines to a riding area without utilizing a trailer. But, a large number of Dirt Wheels readers rely on trailers to get our machines to our favorite ride spots. We do enough towing that we don’t always give it the conscious thought that we should. Some of our staff cannot keep trailers at home, so they must store them remotely, and…

By the staff of Dirt Wheels HOW-TO: CHANGE A YFZ450R HANDLEBAR Virtually any component of your favorite ATV can be exchanged for a part that was designed to improve your riding experience. Yamaha spent countless hours making sure that adding a 1 1/8-inch fat bar to their YFZ450R would improve its overall handling and ride quality, and it certainly did. However, the aftermarket innovates and adds products to our world of off-roading that can considerably improve the handling of our favorite machines. One such…

By the staff of Dirt Wheels QUAD TECH ATV SEATS Nothing makes a quad look neglected like an ugly rip in its seat. Putting duct tape over it doesn't help much. No, sometimes you just have to replace that old seat cover. There are several companies that specialize in that. Quad Tech is one that the Dirt Wheels crew has used regularly for project quads. They can provide you with a stock-looking replacement or one that has a special custom look. Quad Tech's covers not only have fancy color designs and stitching, but they…

TROUBLESHOOTING AN OLDER UTV Hey Boss, My mom has a 2004 Polaris Ranger 700 twin. It won't start unless you hold the gas pedal about halfway down. Then it will start and idles at about 450 to 500 rpms, but after about 30 seconds, it dies. If you start it and just put it in gear and go, it does fine until you try to idle. I changed spark plugs but made no difference. I wonder if the injectors aren't working right. It has plenty of fuel because it has pressure in the pressure valve. It will actually leak a little so…

 By the staff of Dirt Wheels, Photos by Pat Carrigan -- PROJECT YAMAHA YFZ450R Duncan Racing International (DRI) is a company known for building great products and building up ATVs to handle the harshness of racing in all different disciplines. One well-known racing series on the West Coast is WORCS. The Grand Prix-style courses offer rough desert terrain, sand dunes, asphalt, motocross tracks, and more to battle through, which means your quad must be tough to take the abuse and win. Mike Sloan (#3)…

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