Picture: 85' 250R in Dumont Dunes

[GPracer2500]

Pretty nice shot....

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d133/gpracer2500/Dumont/P1120075Large.jpg

[dansvan]

Man I wish there was some place like that in Alaska. Nice pic.

[edog]

Man I wish there was some place like that in Alaska. Nice pic.

Shur there is...it's only a few hours south east.:naughty:

[dansvan]

ummm, no. Beaches and 65 degrees dont count.

[Rustytinhorn]

uuhhhh....Wish I was there.:drool: :drool:
Are those 22" you are running? What tires are you running on there and how do you like them? Can you turn and drift with them? Good hook-up? I was thinkin of trying some straight paddle, probably like you are running on there. I was hoping a little less aggressive paddle tire would let me turn and play around more than just straight shoot hills. Yes, please report on them if you will.
BTW-Nice pic. Makes me restless.

[Tri-ZNate]

Very nice pic. Works well as a background :Bounce

[GPracer2500]

uuhhhh....Wish I was there.:drool: :drool:
Are those 22" you are running? What tires are you running on there and how do you like them? Can you turn and drift with them? Good hook-up? I was thinkin of trying some straight paddle, probably like you are running on there. I was hoping a little less aggressive paddle tire would let me turn and play around more than just straight shoot hills. Yes, please report on them if you will.
BTW-Nice pic. Makes me restless.

They are "comp cut" 20x11x8 Sand Sharks on Dick Cepek ~0.125 wheels. In my experience, unmodified Sand Sharks are a low performing tire. After cutting them down they are significantly faster. Never underestimate the differences in performance potential between tires! The following is a copy and paste of what I've posted (at another site) about my tire cutting experience:



Here's my experience with cutting sand tires. I bought one of these hot iron tire groovers. I think it was under $100 delivered with 2 different sized blade/head packs.

http://www.cometkartsales.com/store/tools/images/tiregroover.jpg


I had been doing some paddle tire testing with my 250r and found that less (traction and paddle tire weight) is more (speed) when it comes to my riding (aggressive style on a 250r, equal parts dragging and snaking) in my conditions (ISDRA). The difference between a 6 paddle Hauler and an 8 paddle Sand Shark was dramatic. The Haulers allowed for a full gear higher in most situations. On Olds this made the difference between 4th gear non-competitiveness and 5th gear competitiveness. 5th gear pulls were just not possible with the Sand Sharks (although barely possible with the 6 Haulers--the run had to be "perfect" to get into and stay on top of 5th going up Olds).

New tires (ideally comp cut 6 Padla Brats, second choice BB or 3x buff 6 Haulers) are what I really wanted. But I thought I'd experiment with trying to improve a crappy tire I already owned first. I learned a LOT and wound up with a tire that was much improved (if not quite the 6 Hauler performance I was shooting for).

So I started with a 20x11x8 Sand Shark on .125 rims. One of them weighed 17lbs 6 oz, the other 17lbs 11.2 oz. I started by shaving the carcass down by removing strips of rubber. The learning curve is steep! I used a (I think) 3/4" wide blade at first. The cut depth is adjustable. The first "panel" turned out ugly. My groover (250w) just couldn't put enough heat into the rubber to make long, smooth, consistent cuts at that width. So I resorted to using a narrower blade and making more cuts.

Here's a pic of the first panel I did and the last panel I did on the first tire. You can see how bad the first attempt turned out--irregular and ugly. I got better after each panel competed. Ergonomics is important when doing this. It takes a lot of muscle and time! I ended up wearing a brace on my wrist to help with fatigue.
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/3554/p11900931ii.jpg

http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/1822/p11900840fa.jpg

Here's another view of the same tire showing only the better panels.
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/391/p11900864qk.jpg

The depth of my cuts. I went a little deeper on the second tire and would just barely hit cord here and there.
http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/5609/p11900793mo.jpg

I ordered a medium width blade before I did the second tire. Less cuts needed but still narrow enough to make clean, consistent cuts.
http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/2414/p9040069dj4.jpg

The side walls were VERY hard to do neatly. On the first tire I experimented with different types of cuts and methods but nothing was coming out nicely. Besides a few experimental cuts on the second tire, I left those sidewalls alone. The tire where I tried to do the sidewalls looks like crap.

At first I left the paddle blades themselves alone and had what's shown above with the tire next to the box. Then I shortened them to this:
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/6854/p2110177mediumzx7.jpg

I ran the paddles at Gordens Well like that and they were an improvement. But there was too much traction. All the weight reduction improved performance. But my first paddle blade lowering cuts basically brought them back to the same height I started with before dropping the carcass down. And they started out with too much traction.

I made two series of paddle blade cuts after that with testing in between. At first I just took some off. Eventually I cut the blades to Glider-type height and had this. You can see the ugly first tire in the background:
http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/5186/p2110186mediumzu9.jpg

Then I was really getting somewhere. I tested again and was satisfied. They nearly perform in a drag like a 6 Hauler. The difference is they don't have the initial bite of a 6 Hauler at launch (perhaps the V-design is to blame?). They're still workable and I can launch "fine"--but the 6 Haulers are better all around.

After my final cuts I had the tire/wheel combos down to 12lbs 9oz and 12lbs 14oz. That's almost 5lbs less per tire!

Perhaps the greatest benefit I've taken away from doing this is what I learned about paddle tires during the process. Judging differences in tire weight and traction in progressive stages really highlighted what the effects are on performance. If you've got some tires you don't really care about anyway then I'd recommend it. It is a lot of work though. I spent many hours on each tire. I'm sure a better cutter (500w or more) would make the job easier, faster, and better overall. But don't expect your first set to come out all that great. I tried making my first cuts on a junk tire to get a feel for it but the rubber was hard and it didn't really translate into what the groover did on the tires I actually wanted to cut.

I've got a set of straight paddled 8 Dune Hoppers that I may cut next. I expect those will come out a lot better because of what I learned with the Sand Sharks. I've got another set of uncut Sand Sharks on 10 inch rims that I only use as loners now. The thought of having to run them on my 250r just doesn't seem like fun once I learned how big a difference an appropriately matched paddle tire makes.

[Threes company]

About the only sand I ever see is what they dump on the roads around here after a snowstorm! lol. But i have to say..... very nice job on the tires. Thats an art I didn't even know existed, thanks for the lesson! Oh, and sorry EDog....... you've just been bumped off my pc's background, lol. :beer

[edog]

About the only sand I ever see is what they dump on the roads around here after a snowstorm! lol. But i have to say..... very nice job on the tires. Thats an art I didn't even know existed, thanks for the lesson! Oh, and sorry EDog....... you've just been bumped off my pc's background, lol. :beer


Will any of these work???Top of mount Washington.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h196/edog_02/100_2939.jpg
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h196/edog_02/100_2941.jpg

Neat looking machine there!

[Rustytinhorn]

Good info, thanks for the advice. I looked a little closer at your pic, and I can see that those are infact "v" paddles on the rear. I thought they were straight paddles at first, probably cuz I got my brightness turned down on my computer.
So I assume you have a set of 6 paddle haulers? That is about what I thought was on there. Might give those a try this spring. Got me wondering how much my Sand Star's weigh now.

[wad]

Thats a excelent pic

[GPracer2500]

Good info, thanks for the advice. I looked a little closer at your pic, and I can see that those are infact "v" paddles on the rear. I thought they were straight paddles at first, probably cuz I got my brightness turned down on my computer.
So I assume you have a set of 6 paddle haulers? That is about what I thought was on there. Might give those a try this spring. Got me wondering how much my Sand Star's weigh now.

The 6 paddle Haulers were borrowed from a friend. If I owned them I'd be running em'. They're not quite as light (6 Pad Haulers std buff 20x10x8, 8x8 DWT Red .190 = 14lbs 13oz) but a better overall tire then what I'm running now. They grab better out of the hole but still spin up well in 4th, 5th, and 6th. A 6 Hauler with a BB or Ultralight buff on a .125 rims would be the ticket (or Comp Cut 6 Brats or 8 Gliders).