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I made the switch the all
new Polaris Outlaw 500 at the beginning of the
2006 GNCC season after racing for years on $12,000
chromoloy frame CR500 rear link masterpiece, which
was race proven. This 4 wheeler was very similar
to the one Barry Hawk & Bill Balance won 11
or 12 GNCC Pro ATV Championships, so why would
I ever consider going back to a stock quad? After
all, the production rules don’t apply to
senior classes. The abbreviated version is that
at 60 years old, I am just old and about worn
out.
I first heard about
the Outlaw 500 in articles describing how plush
the new Polaris Outlaw 500 was to ride, and
I was excited to finally have a chance to test
ride the Outlaw 500 at the 2005 Ironman GNCC
for myself. Afterwards, I was thoroughly impressed
with the Outlaw and it appeared to live up to
its media hype. Fortunately, Polaris offered
me the opportunity to race the Outlaw 500 in
the 2006 GNCC race season, and with my ATV racing
career seeming to be coming to end because it
was just becoming too painful and difficult
to get out of bed Monday morning anymore, which
was no longer acceptable. I decided to take
them up on there offer because I figured that
I didn’t have anything to lose.
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| John
Gallagher only made very minor modifications
to his Polaris Outlaw 500 besides the
normal aluminum accessories, kill switch,
steering stabilizer, hand guards, exhaust,
wheels, and tires. The only major modification
was the replacement of the stock front
hubs with custom modified Lonestar Racing
Honda bolt pattern hubs, which narrows
up the Outlaw front end by 2 inches.. |
Now one year later, I
captured my third Super Senior GNCC Championship
with the Outlaw 500 and raced numerous local
races and spent many hours practicing, and I
am pleasantly surprised with the machine and
my ability to get out of bed Monday morning
without the pain. Maintenance was minimal and
extremely easy on the Outlaw, and to my amazement,
for the first time in the 12 or so years that
I have been on quads, no engine work was necessary
and the engine was still going strong at the
end of the season. The other nice thing was
that I didn’t need to make many changes
to the Outlaw for it to be GNCC race ready.
All four shocks remained stock with only preload
or spring changes; the $2500 many racers find
necessary to spend on after market shocks is
still in my wallet. Of course, I added the many
bolt on extras most woods riders have come to
consider necessities: DG nerfs and bumpers,
Scott’s steering stabilizer, Flexx handle
bars, Hiper wheels, and Maxxis tires. The only
major modifications I made to the Outlaw was
to narrow the front end, so I custom engineered
some front Hubs, which narrowed up the front
end two inches bringing it down to 46 inches
wide. The extra two inches of clearance makes
a huge difference when weaving through the trees,
but besides this modification everything else
remained virtually stock.
Most importantly with
the independent rear suspension the ride was
plush enough to get through one more racing
season without the use of Vioxx. My back feels
years better and I did say Vioxx not Viagra!
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KTM
Powered Outlaw
525 |
Enough about the 2006 Outlaw,
the new and very much improved model is here,
and I had a chance to ride it at the 2006 Ironman
GNCC. After the Polaris guys humored this old
man and handed over the new KTM powered Outlaw
525, I made quick work of swapping over all my
personal accessories from my Outlaw 500 to the
Outlaw 525 (flex bars, front shocks, twist throttle,
custom front hubs, and Hiper Tech wheels), and
I was off to pit race and a quick photo shoot.
Being a veteran racer,
I should have known better, but in my excitement
and with an audience, I started riding, clowning
around, and feeling out the new ride. The first
thing I found out was the torque and power of
the 525 KTM engine is nothing to take lightly.
After a few practice turns and starts, I came
around a corner, grabbed a handful and all but
lost control. I narrowly missed my truck, a
stack of tires and 3 or 4 guys watching my first
ride.
During the race, the
engine continued to impress me. My jump at the
start was not as good as usual, although I am
sure we will be able to improve on jetting for
better dead engine starts, but I was still able
to drive around other quads with the twist of
the throttle and entered the woods in 2nd place.
The field sections were long and fast, and the
KTM 525 engine was up to the task. As fast as
I could shift, I was at top speed with no hesitation
in 4th or 5th gear without waiting for the RPM
to build to shift. I hardly think the average
racer is going to have to modify this engine
as it’s plenty fast right off the showroom
floor.
For 2007 the Outlaw has
changed to Ryde FX shocks, but I didn’t
get a chance to test the front shocks because
I switched them out with the shocks that I have
setup on the Outlaw 500. I raced with the stock
rear shocks, which worked well, but they were
stiffer than I prefer, but we all know how personal
shock setting are and are we ever 100% happy
with are final choice of settings? Compared
to a solid rear axle ATV the race would have
been another 2 hour ride in the park except
for that one tree I failed to avoid, which ended
my day with a bent tie rod. You would think
by now a racer of 33-years would pick and choose
when to pass more carefully, but when some squid
boy slams into your quad it never ceases to
elevate your blood pressure.
Even though my race day was shortened, I couldn’t
help but notice the significant difference between
the weight of the Outlaw 525 and the Outlaw
500, which I have been told is just about 35
pounds difference between the two. The quad
has a lighter feel and ride, which makes it
much easier to ride and use the extra power
to lift over logs and ditches. The front end
lifts easily with the twist of the throttle,
no body english or pulling on the bars is necessary
to clear objects, other added extras are a hydraulic
clutch and duel piston front calipers, which
makes for easier lever action on both sides
of the handlebars and greatly improved stopping
power.
The gas tank on the
Outlaw 525 has also increased in size from 3.25
to 3.8 gallons, which should allow for racing
a 2 hour GNCC without stopping and from my observations
that engine didn’t appear to be really
thirsty beast. The one feature of the 2006 Outlaw
that will be missed is the vacuum carburetor;
it was great for dead engine starts.
In conclusion, all I
can say is good job Polaris! I can’t wait
for the 2007 race season to begin, and too think
that I thought my racing career was going to
be over after 2005.
John Gallagher SR.
GNCC #209
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