Brandon Kranz' Honda 400EX Sport ATV

"This 2002 Honda 400EX was built for the purpose of being an all around good ATV for all situations. It is used for a lot of different types of riding; from wide open trails, to mud, a couple sand dune trips here and there, and even some light motocross action. I have owned it for close to 10 years now and have no plans on selling it. It is my do all machine that I can always count on.

Since I do a lot of 100+ mile days of trail riding, I built the motor with the intentions of providing reliable, usable power. I started off by boring the cylinder which upped the cc's to 406. A Wiseco 10:1 compression piston was installed so that I can still run pump gas safely, even on hot days. I used an xr400 head gasket, which is thinner than the OEM head gasket. This bumps up the compression slightly. Over the piston I have Kibblewhite valves and springs, to accommodate a stage II Hotcam, which is driven by a CRF450 timing chain. The timing chain is a direct replacement for the OEM 400ex timing chain, but is thicker and adds to the overall reliability. To bring out the benefits of the higher compression piston and larger camshaft, it has a UNI air filter and White Brothers E-Series exhaust. The clutch has been swapped out to a Moose billet basket, heavy duty springs, while using OEM plates/fibers.

The color scheme is something I have always wanted to do. It has a metallic red frame, silver Maier plastic, and random polished parts such as motor mounts, tie rods, and axle. I opted not to run a graphics kit to keep the look simple and clean. Underneath the plastic, the electrical system has been rewired and waterproofed since it is often ran through deep snow. It is not shown in the pictures, but normally a pair of Trail Tech HID headlights are mounted on the handlebars for night riding. They are a great improvement over the stock lamps.

There are other odds and ends such as a greasable dual row axle carrier, AC racing nerf bars, Renthal handlebars etc to make maintenance easier, add safety, and provide a little more comfort. The front shocks are Elka stage 1's, valved for xc riding. I have found the back shock to be tunable enough to satisfy me, however I would like to swap it out for an aftermarket someday.

I made custom brackets to mount snowmobile skis to the front of the ATV for the winter. To accommodate the skis, I run Maxxis 4-snow tires in the rear when there is more than three inches of snow. This set up works very well for deep snow and frozen lake riding.

Most of this quad was built years ago when I was in high school, which also means it was on a high schoolers budget. All of the work was done by myself with the help of my brother. All I have done since then was freshen up the cylinder and piston, but other than that it has taken abuse year after year and still is the best running ATV I have ever ridden. Thanks to everyone who voted, Northwest Cycle Center in Mchenry, Illinois for the cylinder work and I would also like to thank to ATVriders.com!"

-Brandon Kranz