paddles worth it???

[m_mcgranahan]

Hi,

I'm taking a trip to the dunes here soon. I have a modded 450cc blaze that I am going to be ridding. I am wanting to get a cheap set of paddles for the trip and I found some locally but am wondering how much better these will be than the 20" Maxxis Razor's that I ran last time.
What are your thoughts? (see attached pic)Thanks God bless...

Mark

[Happyboy]

oh no...those things have way too man paddles. What are those?

If you like to trail ride and such get a v-paddle like a sand start or gekko. if you want a straight line beast get yourself a straight paddle with ~8 paddles. Any more than that and it will be too much paddle for your quad. Haulers are the most popular straight paddle out there and are good tires.

[thedeatons]

What Happy said.... Waste of time going to the dunes without paddles, you will be missing out on so much power you may as well stay in camp.

We ride on ITP Sand Stars because we trail ride and sidehill a lot. The straight cuts do go up the hills faster, but I have heard they have issues with sidehilling and hard trail riding (tight turning with power on)....

Front ribbed sand tires also make a difference, but not worth the money if you are only going once.

[rayspeed]

For where you are going it is a toss up... the area varies from very small dunes to flat sand to hard pack. If you want to drag race and run the racing hill (which is a bit of a joke) paddles are best for hook up but you would be suprised how well a good set of knobbs do.
Stay away from the gekos... those tires you are looking at are interesting if you could get em cheap. If I do or dont make the trip I have a variety of paddles you can borrow or try out.. stars, skates, sharks and haulers. I would not advise the ribbed fronts there but I have a variety of those too if you want to try them.
I would ride knobbs first day and explore the whole area by riding the fence line first working your way in and switch to paddles on day two and you can experience both.
Ray

[claas900]

Yeah if you plan to drag race a lot then get paddles,if not good knob's work well. I have a friend with 2 sets of paddles,he almost never uses them,always knobs he likes to pitch it side ways and with knobs it'll do it for a long time,nice and smooth.

[rayspeed]

How much are those paddles you are looking at? Hard to tell from the pic but I think they might be heavy and have a ton of bite and it is hard to believe but that can be too much of a good thing! But if they are dirt cheap then what the heck, they will wear and with that many paddles they will be smooth and you'd get used to em! Cant tell what the rim and tire size is either which is a concern, 8's I think have to much bounce when the sidewall is tall, 10's can bend rims easy so I would go with 9's if I had to do all over.

Thing about straight paddles for the dunes is that when they hook up and the front gets light you are going straight whether you want to or not, the more power you have the more that comes into play. Drag racing that is a plus but not so much when duning and when doing that lighter is better. Too much bite out of the hole and the first hallf of the race you fight to keep the front down and the second half of the race if it is a progressive hill you will have to be perfect with the up or down shifts to keep from bogging the motor. Straight paddles with 7 or 8 paddles spin enough out of the hole to launch in a higher gear which eleminates the problem of finding neutral and when you get them spinning fast enough the progression of the hill does not pull the motor down as much... if any of that makes any sense.

For all around riding I like a pair of worn v-paddles, sand stars or sharks, drag racing I have a pair of 8 paddle haulers on 8 inch rims they are blazing fast in a race but when there are whoops they can bounce me out of shape.

[Dachshund]

You could tune them with a tire groover. Looks like there are 18 paddles, so take off every other one. If their cheap, it would be worth it.

[desertbound]

those are paddles for a buggy it looks like. If you go with a straight blade Hauler, don't go over 8 paddles. I'd personally go with a sandstar, sand sharks or sand skate II. good all around paddles. Stay away from huge paddles, (22" and over) and geckos. They are bricks.

I's look for some sand stars. They are not very expensive($130 with blue label rims) and work well for all around riding. I run haulers, but I have been riding sand all my life and know the downsides. I also know how to compesate with rimsize, and airpressure to make them handle like a v paddle. So anyways......I'd look for a set of sandstars or sand sharks.

[m_mcgranahan]

QUOTE (Dachshund @ Oct 1 2008, 10:45 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You could tune them with a tire groover. Looks like there are 18 paddles, so take off every other one. If their cheap, it would be worth it.

Hi yeah, they are asking $75 for the rims and tires, so they are really cheap. So the "too many paddles" is becuase they will actually get too much traction? (Seems a bit strange to me, but I can think of wierder things than that)

Thanks

God bless...

Mark

Ps. Anyone have a tire groover I can borrow? ;-)

[desertbound]

Electric planer from harbor freight and a grinder. Doesn't smell good but it works.