Originally posted by ****** Scott is a great guy but the last I heard he does not want to touch anymore dales:cry:
Are you sure? I spoke with him in the winter and he was working on them then. I talked with him maybe a month ago trying to get a part and he sounded like he still was and would be in the future?
I've owned mine for 9 months and still learning. They are a finicky machine, and what should be trivial is a problem for a Dale. Example: I was having a problem tuning the bike to run consistant, I got on here and someone else was having the same prob, I read the post and someone asked how his fuel line was run. It was ran on top of the motor, which caused it to vapor lock. I moved my fuel line from the top of the motor and the problem went away. Trivial little things like that you have learn how to fix and experiment with. When they run right, wow, look out they are incrediably fast. But when they have a hiccup, it may take some time to find the prob and correct it.
I dont believe racing has anything at all to do with how or what problems you may have. If anything the race quads might last longer because they get more care and attention and get fewer hours on them. . Most of our troubles are from poor assembly at the factory,design changes made for the worst for the sake of lower production cost and unfinished R@D which for the most part has been completed by cannondale owners themselves.
I agree with all the folks here.You asked if a 250r is more reliable.Heck no!I had 3 of them and they are reason I bought a welder along with many headgaskets,clutches and even a few tranny gears not to mention the twice a year topend job and once a year bottom end rebuilds.My advice.Buy the Dale change the coolant to evans,motormount update and remove clutch cover and inner hub along with all the discs and check the bolts we will help you through the process.Ride it till winter then have Z400 bearing installed in crank or buy a new one from BlackWidow.When motor is out inspect everything.Then you are set for quite awhile as long as you leave it stock.
Exudus is correct all fuel lines must be routed alongside the motor.Never over the top.
I love my dale far better than any other machine i have owned or ridden including YFZ's, 450R's, 250R's, and 400ex's. First of all, when you purchase any of these listed, you must perform a frame gusset in order to race on them for any period of time. I have yet to hear of a dale breaking the frame unless a head-on colision with an immovable object. They are just so fast stock. Yes, they do need a few updates in order to have trouble-free ride time, but if you look at other quads, they all require something in order to be reliable. I bought my 03 in the fall of 02, and raced it 2 seasons before I did anything to it. Of course, during the winter of 02-03 I pulled the motor and did a crankplate stud update (not stage 8) before I put many hours on it along with a motor mount update and battery tray. After that, that's all I did unless it was to change the oil, and I also changed to Engine Ice when i dropped the motor for the updates. So I went trouble-free racing MX on it until the end of last season when I had Haydug put me in a 450 Hi-comp kit and a Timbo crank. She runs awesome!! I just don't understand how so many people have so much trouble out of these quads unless it's owner neglect. I'm not trying to say that everyone that has problems, is because of the owner, but I can assure you that a majority of it is because of neglect. Just thought i'd vent my opinion.
I have had my dadle for going on a year now. It had about 40hrs on it when I bought it. I have ridden the piss out of it since i got it. I raced it the 2nd weekend I owned it and fell in love with racing. I havn't raced many races, but I have been out to the track on quite a few occasions, an dhave recently started to do well in C classand have put abotu 200hrs on my motor. this weekend it started to puff a little bit of blue smoke, so it is going in for a rebuild. Me and my dad (he was a mechanic for 25+years) we dropped my motor, paid a lot of attention to the MANUAL! and have it sitting on my kitchen counter, head and Crank have gone to Timbo (should have gotten there today) and we are waiting on it to come back (2weeks hopefully)