Project Lone Star Racing LTR 450

Test Riders: Gerrick Lastra, Angela Butler, Sage Baker

When the Suzuki LTR450 debuted last year, we said it was race ready out of the box, and proved it when our test rider Brit Mansell won the +25 class in the opening round of the GNC series at Glen Helen. As great as the bone stock LTR is, we feel it requires a few improvements to be competitive in the pro and pro-am ranks.

So what about the rest of us who have no plans for the pro ranks? Who likes riding a bone stock ATV? For us, building our machines is almost as much fun as riding them.

Who cares if we aren’t as fast as Doug Gust or Dustin Wimmer. The LTR is great in stock form, but thanks to Lone Star Racing our QuadRacer is an all around better racing machine, and pro-level rider or not, we all want something better than stock.

 

LONE STAR RACING

Lone Star Racing is pretty satisfied with the construction of the stock Suzuki frame, but adds some gusseting to the rear linkage mount where there have been a few failure issues. Note the DFR Grip It Kit skull stickers on the side of the frame. They are rough like skate board grip tape and do mildly enhance your ability to grip the frame with your legs.When we built our project pro-am YFZ last year, the machine had been out for several years, and we had a pretty good grasp on what it would take to make it scream. The LTR on the other hand is a much newer machine so we felt less confident about picking and choosing all the exact modification necessary for professional quad racing. The finish product needed to be a well thought out machine that any given pro or pro am rider might indeed bring to the line of national ATV race. With this we could give you readers the ability and confidence to modify your own LTR to be just as worthy.

Lone Star Racing out of Phoenix,Arizona was the obvious choice to help us complete our mission. LSR has arguably one of the largest lines of ATV chassis components and accessories available on the market today and their designs are backed up by continuous track testing by their top-named riders Keith Little, Jason Luburgh and Angela Butler. With Luburgh making the switch from Yamaha to Suzuki last year, we knew Lone Star had their homework done on the LTR, so we entrusted our LTR to them and asked them to prepare this quad as if it were going to be subject to a season’s worth of abuse in the pro ranks.

FROM THE FRAME UP
Lone Star immediately went to work on our LTR, disassembling the entire machine down to the bare frame. They then installed their gusset kit, which had much fewer pieces than the kit they sent us for our pro-am YFZ last year. Lone Star is pretty satisfied with the construction of Suzuki’s frame, however they do add some reinforcement to the rear linkage mounting bracket. There were reports of some of the frames failing in this area on earlier models. Since our machine is a 2006 model, we were happy for the extra insurance. In addition, their gusset kit adds a skid plate mounting bracket to the front of the lower frame rails making it possible to more securely attach a skid plate. After installation was complete, the frame was powder coated with a very cool-looking color called Yellow Mirage. Even though we were originally against it, we trusted Lone Star’s Scott Butler on this color. After seeing the finished product, it appears he’s got a great graphic eye. We received many compliments on the color.

On the front of our machine we installed this trick-looking hood from Generation X. To finish off the looks of our machine, Lone Star equipped it with their black and yellow graphics kit and seat cover.

 

Lastly DFR equipped it with custom number plates and their grip it kit on the sides of the frame and bottom of the rear fenders. The DFR and Lone Star graphics matched beautifully.

Out back our LTR was sittin’ phat with Lone Star’s Axcaliber racing axle. With its lifetime warranty, it should be the last axle you purchase for your LTR. You’ll want to keep the stocker around as a spare, just in case you’re man enough to bend the Lonestar unit. Next, Lone Star started bolting up a set of their DC4 long travel A-arms. The term, “long travel” generally refers to the A-arms’ ability to utilize longer shocks and does not necessarily have to translate into longer wheel travel. However Lone Star’s DC4 arms do in fact offer considerably more wheel travel than stock, bumping our machine’s front suspension travel up from 8.5 inches to a healthy 11 inches. That’s about a 23% increase from stock!

Lone Star’s DC4s also give experienced riders the ability to tune their machine’s front end geometry with adjustable caster, camber and toe in. Constructed of 4130 chromoly, they are stronger and more rigid than their stock counterparts. And finally the chrome plating on the arms gets lots of attention. The finish is absolutely beautiful.

For greater strength and better comfort, Lone Star installed one of their 4130 chromoly steering stems. The stem features rubber mounted bar clamps for vibration reduction and the clamps are available in both 7/8” and 1 1/8” sizes to suit whichever style of bars you run. Once again, chrome was the finish of choice.

At the rear end of our machine Lone Star equipped our LTR with one of their round housing swingarms powder coated Yellow Mirage to match the frame. Although Lone Star feels that the LTR’s swingarm is the correct length, for hard core motocross a chromoly swingarm is the way to go. Besides the added durability, Lone Star’s swingarm is lighter than Suzuki’s stock high-tensile steel swingarm. Championships can be won or lost by a DNF. Though we haven’t heard about their being a major failure issue with the LTR swingarm, we will trust Lone Star on this one.

Our round housing swingarm later got wrapped around one of Lone Star’s twin row billet aluminum axle carriers. Suzuki’s stock axle was then replaced with a Lone Star Axcaliber 4130 chromoly adjustable racing axle. Along with its strength come their unconditional lifetime guarantee. The axle received the same triple chrome finish featured on our A-arms and stem. Since Suzuki elected to make their LTR wide for motocross, you can keep your stock axle as a spare.

Lone Star’s DC4 A-arms combined with Noleen’s J6 shocks increase front wheel travel from 8.5 inches to a whopping 11 inches.

In the rear a Lone Star chromoly round housing swingarm and Noleen J6 rear shock beef up and smooth out the rear end. While Noleen is new to manufacturing suspension components on quads, owner Clark Jones tuned Doug Gust’s Elka suspension all the way to the 2005 Pro Production Championship.

MORE LONE STAR GOODIES
As we mentioned earlier, Lone Star is arguably one of the largest manufacturers of ATV chassis components and accessories. LSR’s one-stop-shopping is hard to beat. Lone Star has a huge line of billet aluminum drive components including front and rear wheel hubs, rear brake hubs, parking brake block off plates and for the LTR they have a combination sprocket hub and axle locknut.

All of these goodies were added to improve looks and certain items such as the wheel hubs and brake rotor hub shaved a bit of weight off the machine as well.

All of our test riders felt the machine’s new suspension set up was pro class worthy. Angela even commented that she felt the shocks were as good as PEP or Custom Axis right out of the box.

NOLEEN’S NEW J6 SUSPENSION
While we like to test new products at ATV Scene, building a pro-am level machine is more about putting the correct pieces together, rather than trying brand new products. Still, when we heard Noleen had jumped into the ATV suspension game as a manufacturer, we had to try their shocks. Although Noleen may be new to suspension manufacturing, they have been involved in ATV racing for a while. Remember the Elka suspension that Doug Gust won the 2005 GNC National Championship on? Those Elkas were tuned by Noleen’s Clark Jones.

After years of dialing in other people’s shocks, Noleen decided to come out with their own line of suspension which they refer to as their J6 ATV shocks. Their J6 shocks feature piggyback reservoirs up front with a remote reservoir in the rear. The shocks bodies are anodized to reduce weight and their gray finish with red accents give them a look all their own.

Noleen’s J6 shocks are full preload, compression and rebound adjustable, but surprisingly, there was no high speed compression adjustability. We were almost pleasantly surprised by this. While there are people out there that believe that they need the fine-tune-ability of hi and low speed compression adjustment, most ATV racers, and even some highly skilled ones, lack the suspension tuning knowledge to deal with that many adjustments. Although gadget minded Americans have a hard time swallowing this, sometimes simpler is indeed better. We will see when we hit the track.

WHEELS AND TIRES

Besides making some of the highest technology tires in ATVing, ITP also has a rapidly growing line of ATV wheels. With dry conditions found out West (where we would be testing), ITP felt that our machine would perform best with their SX line of motocross tires. The SX tires are specifically designed for hard packed track conditions, a common occurrence on most ATV tracks. Unlike muddy or loamy conditions where you need taller knobs that are widely spaced to dig for traction, hard packed conditions require that you get more rubber on the track for traction and longer tread life. Not only did ITP close up the tread pattern a bit on their SX tires, they also use a different rubber compound to help keep the tires biting edges sharper longer.

One thing that we have seen recently is people running higher and higher tire pressure to prevent side wall rollover. ITP addressed this problem by reinforcing the carcass on the SX tires. ITP claims that the tires can better hold their shape when running lower tire pressure. The payoff of running lower tire pressure is better traction and an improved ride.

We mounted our 20×6-10 fronts and 18×10-8 rear SX tires to ITP’s highly polished T9 GP wheels up front and T9 Pro Series Trac-Locks out back. The T9 GP rims start with 190 wall thickness and feature double rolled beads for durability. Out back, ITP’s Trac-Lock rims feature a built in beadlock, which offers a lot of strength with a reduced price point and less weight than the traditional beadlock wheel, — remember less rotating mass means less power-loss.

PROTECTION
To protect ourselves and our machine we installed a battery of products from AC Racing. We started off with their new Black Line front bumper. The Black Line bumper is actually available in black or silver. The Black Line comes standard with a mini skid for better protection below where their traditional style bumpers stop. The coolest thing about this bumper is that you can either order it with a silver mud screen, or you can have any custom logo you choose cut into the center plate of the bumper. That’s tight!

For undercarriage protection, AC sent us their engine skid which protects the entire underside of the frame. Unfortunately, we showed up with this part last second and didn’t have any weather stripping handy to prevent vibration. We did install the skid to see how it bolted up. Absolutely no bending, grinding or tweaking was required. When we get the quad back home to Ohio we will definitely be putting the AC skid plate back on.

AC’s Black Line nerfs incorporate the nerf bar, foot peg and heel guard into one unit. Instead of having a standard solid aluminum heel guard, AC’s Black Line nerfs use netting on the bottom for less weight and better mud dissipation. Unlike AC’s standard Pro Peg nerfs, which use welded on aluminum foot pegs, AC Black Line nerfs use a replaceable stainless steel peg, which eliminates the chore of routinely sharpening your aluminum pegs.

We ordered an AC motocross grab bar for our machine, but they wound up sending us their XC unit instead. AC rarely makes mistakes and they would have been glad to swap us out for the unit we originally ordered, but test day was fast approaching, so there was no time. The XC grab bar they sent us is wider in the back making it easier to wrestle your quad out of a deep mud hole. The XC unit provides you with a place to relocate your stock tail light and both the XC and MX units come with a number plate mounting bracket, number plate and all necessary hardware.

AC Racing’s Black Line nerfs use replaceable stainless steel pegs and utilize netting for the bottom of the heel guard for lighter weight and better mud dissipation. Test riders who ride on the balls of their feet complained about the heel guard area being too cramped so we ended up trimming a portion of the guard off.

 CONTROLS
To upgrade our machine’s controls we started with a set of FOUR Racing aluminum handlebars. From there, ASV equipped our machine with a set of their C5 levers. Generally your levers aren’t the first thing you think of when it comes time to upgrade your machine, the ASV levers offer quite a few advantages over the stock hardware.

The C5 clutch lever comes with a complete lever and clutch perch assembly. The brake side features a new clamp and lever. Both the clutch and brake levers feature ASV’s famous folding lever, which allows your lever to fold back on itself in the event of a rollover. Each lever is attached to a knee with two different chrome steel sealed bearings. One controls the levers ability to pivot for actuating the clutch or brakes; the other provides the hinge that allows the lever to fold back on itself. All of the bearings are replaceable, which means you won’t have to worry about the annoying play that all new levers develop over time.

Since ATVs often roll over onto their tops, a position the folding lever won’t help much in, ASV uses a Delron Teflon coated sleeve on their clutch perch and a half sleeve which works with the front brake clamp. These sleeves allow your perches to rotate in the event of a rollover, while still allowing for tight enough installation to prevent unexpected perch rotation during riding.

ASV’s quick adjust clutch means no more messing with a locking collar and small barrel. Clutch adjustment can be done with one hand on the fly. In addition, these levers have adjustable reach. This allows you to adjust the distance between your handlebar and the lever assuring proper fit for all size hands. The levers are constructed of 6061 forged aluminum and are available in a variety of colors. ASV covers their C5 series levers with a 5 year warranty against breaking. This means you will most likely own these levers longer than you’ll own your quad.

For the utmost in durability and adjustability, we installed a set of ASV C5 unbreakable levers.

COSMETICS
To finish off the looks of our LTR we installed a black and yellow graphics kit and seat cover from Lone Star Racing. To aid in looks and to further enhance our level of control we decided to try a custom made Grip It Kit from DFR. The kit features high traction decals similar to grip tape used on skate boards. The kit came with decals for the bottom of our rear fenders to keep them from getting scratched up and a set of decals for the side of the frame where you grip with the inside of your boots. With its silver, black and yellow design the Grip It Kit was the perfect complement to our LSR’s sharp graphics. The icing on the well-decorated cake is the beautiful-looking Generation X hood with raised “X” grill. The Generation X hood not only finishes off the quad with an outstanding look, it includes a rubber strip around the top edge to protect the cables from rubbing.

MORE MOTOR PLEASE
There are a number of companies out there that can extract more power out of your LTR. Although we are focusing on chassis and suspension mainly in this two part project, we felt the LTR needed a bit more power to put its improved handling to the test. If you read ATV Scene regularly, you know that the easiest way to improve horsepower on the LTR is with a Yoshimura Cherry Bomb. The LTR has two fuel mappings in its fuel injection. The stock mapping, which is set up for super low emissions, greatly restricts horsepower. The Cherry Bomb allows you to access a second mapping that provides enough air and fuel for a piped and filtered motor. If you are considering raising your compression or porting your motor then you will want to consider an aftermarket fuel management system. We’ll touch more on this motor hop up stuff in the second part of this feature.

Gerrick Lastra fell in love with Project LSR LTR. After a long day of testing he decided to race the quad the following day. Here he leads the pack after holeshoting the Plus 25 class at the entry-record-breaking Speedworld QuadCross. He went on to finish third. If you’re trying to wring as much power out of your LTR as possible without going into the motor, the exhaust is the next logical choice. Yoshimura’s RS-5 would give us a bit more power than our Cherry Bomb equipped stocker. The exhaust features a stainless steel header, mid-pipe and tip for the silencer. The body of the silencer is aluminum. One additional piece of good news is that by the time you read this, Yoshimura will have released an updated version of this system which they say performs even better.

All of our test riders are used to riding machines with some extensive motor work, so they felt that the LTR could be a bit faster for the pro ranks. It was unanimous that a little more grunt would be needed for the pro scene and that’s just what we’ll talk about in part two of this project. As for part one, we accomplished a healthy helping of power necessary to test the suspension with the mods obtained from Yoshimura. In part one’s motor conclusion we felt that the machine was like an amplified version of the stocker. Power was smooth but came on hardest from the mid to top end.

If you want a lot more grunt or a harder hitting power delivery, you will need to tinker inside the motor, so be sure to check back soon for part two of Project LSR LTR where we’ll do just that. It goes without saying, we don’t think tearing apart the LTR’s engine is necessary unless you are a pro am or pro level rider, although we are sure there are plenty of C class racers who would love to argue.

RODE HARD
When we rolled our mean-looking LTR out of the truck at Speedworld MX Park in Surprise, AZ, it definitely caught the attention of many drooling onlookers. We were more than prepared to give Project LSR LTR a thorough test. We had several test riders on hand. Angela Butler, (7-time Women’s National Champion) and Gerrick Lastra, (a pro-am level rider from Phoenix) both have plenty of ATV racing experience, but as Lone Star Racing employees, they can’t exactly fairly evaluate Lone Star’s products. For that we had pro racer Sage Baker and Rudy Gonzales, owner of DFR, (Dirt Fiend Racing).

When all of our tester riders went out to get familiar with the machine, they all came back complaining about how narrow the handlebars were and that their feet were too cramped by the heel guards when riding on the balls of their feet. Rudy wound up trimming a bit of the back plate on the heel guards off to make more room for our rider’s feet. Once the heel guards were cut our riders were happy with the feel and traction provided by the stainless steel pegs. As far as the bars go, our riders had to get used to the FOUR bars. Each test rider said they would have liked to swap the FOUR bars out for something wider and a bit less swept back.

WPSA Pro Am Champion, Sage Baker took Project LSR LTR for a few rides. Other than a few minor personal set up issues, he was extremely impressed with the machine, especially the suspension package… Mission accomplished! Since the LTR is 49 inches wide in stock form, we thought it would take a while for our testers to discover the fine differences in performance between a stock LTR and the new LSR LTR, but apparently the differences were much more dramatic than we expected.

The first thing that each rider commented on was the suspension. The stock suspension on the ‘06 LTR is on the stiff side. All of our test riders felt that the new Noleen J6 shocks were pro class ready right out of the box. On the more reserved side, Sage Baker was surprised how well they worked without any setup time and felt he could easily dial them in for himself. Angela and Gerrick were even more impressed than Sage. Angela went as far as to say, “These are some of the best shocks I have ever ridden right out of the box. I think they are easily comparable to shocks the caliber of Axis or PEP.” We think that’s saying a lot.

The J6 shocks handled hard hits from jumps exceptionally well and the Suzuki was able to hammer through the whoops in a straight line with no signs of packing whatsoever. With years of high tech race suspension tuning under his belt, we weren’t surprised that our riders fell in love with Clark Jones new Noleen J6 shocks. We would also like to applaud Noleen for building such a fine shock with a more minimalist approach to adjustment. Yes, perhaps simpler is indeed better.

Lone Star Racing’s DC4 long travel A-arms definitely get some credit for our LTR’s new found suspension prowess. This is one, “long travel” suspension setup that actually translates into more wheel travel, and it was a difference that all of our test riders could feel and enjoy. Racers who are moving up in the ranks will want to at least get their frame strengthened and consider this suspension and A-arm combo. Rudy from DFR applauded our decision to have Lone Star help us develop our machine as he feels they have a solid product that is well engineered.

It seems that no matter how good the OEMs make their new race-ready machines, the aftermarket will keep finding ways to make them even better. Lone Star’s LTR450 is indeed much better. The ITP SX tires traction was excellent on hard packed terrain as advertised. Gerrick was especially surprised how well the machine performed even in the loamy sections off the main racing line. Another aspect that performed as advertised was the tires durability. After several hours of testing and racing, our SX tires still had good edges with plenty of life left in them.

IN THE END
We were surprised how much better Lone Star made the LTR. With its stock width of 49 inches, and our initial success racing the machine at Glen Helen, we weren’t sure how dramatic a difference the aftermarket could make on the machine. Let this be a lesson, no matter how much the OEM’s improve their machines, the aftermarket will always find ways to make their machines faster, stronger and more competitive. We’re here to say our Project LSR LTR proves just that.

AC accidentally sent us a XC grab bar instead of a motocross unit. Either one you choose comes with a number plate and all mounting hardware. Woods and night riders will like the fact that the AC XC grab bar has a place to relocate the stock tail light.

Machine	2006 Suzuki LTR450	$7,299
Motor		$635
Exhaust System	Yoshimura RS-5 Stainless	$595
Fuel Management	Yoshimura Cherry Bomb	$40
Chassis		$3,287
Frame	Stock gussetted by Lone Star Racing and powdercoated Yellow Mirage.	$540
A-arms	LSR DC4 Long Travel	$1,019
Swingarm	LSR Round Housing powder coated Yellow Mirage	$700
Bearing Carrier	LSR Twin Row	$231
Axle	LSR Axcaliber	$420
Steering Stem	LSR Anti Vib chromed	$377
Suspension		$2,290
Front Shocks	Noleen J6 triple rate 25 way compression and 30 way rebound adjustable	$1,395
Rear Shock	Noleen J6 single rate 25 way compression and 30 way rebound adjustable	$895
Wheels/Tires		$1,303.60
Wheel Hubs Front	LSR Billet	$322
Wheel Hubs Rear	LSR Taper Lock Billet	$236
Wheels Front	ITP T9 Pro Series GP	$169.90
Wheels Rear	ITP T9 Pro Series TRAC-LOCK	$279.90
Tires Front	ITP SX 20×6-10	$149.90
Tires Rear	ITP SX 18×10-8	$145.90
Controls		$284.99
Handlebars	FOUR Pro Lock Aluminum	$49.99
Levers	ASV C5	$100 Brake $135 Clutch
Protective		$589.84
Front Bumper	AC Black Line	$99.99
Nerf Bars	AC Black Line	$309.95
Skid Plate	AC Engine Skid	$109.95
Grab Bar	AC Wide Grab Bar	$69.95
Body		$346.93
Hood	Generation X	$149.99
Graphics Kit/Seat Cover	LSR LTR450 Yellow	$129.95
Protective Graphics	DFR Grip It Kit	$24.99
Nnumber/ Number Plates	DFR<span style=’mso-spacerun:yes’>	$42.00 set of 3
Billet		$384
Sprocket Hub/Axle Locknut	LSR	$231
Parking Brake Blockoff Plate	LSR	$11
Rear Brake Hub	LSR<span style=’mso-spacerun:yes’>	$142
Total		$16,420.36

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