[2015 Z Force 800 53/Trail EPS]

One of the things I like to do besides mountain trail ride is ride in the desert, especially in dune areas and hills.  And it's been my experience with most machines that you need speed and velocity mixed with the right amount of traction to make it over the top of some of these. The required a mix of things that cause the engine to stay in or slightly above it's power and torque band in high range. And no machine had the speed or velocity it took in low range...they just buried themselves so I never tried it in low.  To that end, I tried many different clutch settings to try to get this out of my Z800 but to no success. It just didn't have the power and no matter how I set the clocking and/or weights, it just wouldn't backshift correctly. Then the additional weight of the plates and doors...and windshields  also played-hell with it. So, I decided to go back to B2 with the 22 gram weights because at least it was OK on the trails, not overkill on RPMs. I gave up on sand hill climbing and focused on the trail, exploration and ride comfort.

Well, ..the other day while out on the desert with my brother I was faced with some sand hills and thought just for fun I would try one in low range. To my surprise it shifted out far enough to get the speed and velocity I needed yet stayed in the power band very well..well enough to shoot over the top like...well.. like a machine built for the dunes. At least far better then it ever did with any other setting in high range. And it did this with two 210+lb guys in it. We looked at each other and said "WTF".  So..I found other dunes, taller ones, steeper ones and tried it. It did the same! Amazing! Actually got my heart to race a little. 

So,  I had what I needed the whole time and didn't know it. Next time I'll get a video of it.

I found back in the fall when I was fighting the Hi elevation performance issue the "legs" in low range surprised me. Ending up running low range much more than what would normally be anticipated. Then of course belt life, cooler clutches blah blah.

Another bonus was down hill descents, long runs, much better engine braking in low range. Long legs again.

My plan is to go back to clutching again in the spring, we need improve tuning components.

[2015 Z Force 800 53/Trail EPS]

I did manage to catch the first climb from inside the cab. Not spectacular or all that exciting...and the hill in these shots doesn't seem all that steep..but it is more then it looks...but you can get a sense of the RPMs and speed of the climb and considering I didn't need to floor it...I was pretty happy. I was even happier when she climbed even steeper ones with deeper sand just as easy...

https://vimeo.com/247872000