I cover my thoughts on the Spring kit and go over some of my recommended settings and the feel of the suspension in different environments. MTS Speed Tuning: https://shop.mtsoffroad.com/collectio... If you're looking for a new SxS, dirtbike or parts and accessories, support the dealer that made this video possible, Coyne Powersports! www.coynepowersports.com

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What's happening, everybody? It's Nick Olsson, Chupacabra Offroad. Welcome back to the channel. Now that speeds have been out in the wild, a lot of you speed owners have been messaging me, asking me about the suspension, how it compares to the Polaris Pro R, how the upgraded spring kit works, is it worth the money, and then also some questions about tuning and ride height, things that I've learned as I've taken it to multiple different environments and driven it back to back with the Pro R. So, let's get into it.

It was almost 11 months ago that I first got to drive a speed, and I drove a couple of different cars before I took ownership of my own. Looking back on some of those videos, every time I drove it, I learned a little more, and I kept saying, "Hey, you guys, this car handles really good. The suspension's really good." And, fast forward here to January 2024, I still believe that. I think of all the four-seat options on the market, it is the best suspended vehicle in stock form, and I think there are three main reasons for that, now that I've driven it back to back with the Pro R specifically, and in an X3 Max.

The first reason is that the valving and the Small Bump compliance is a lot better than the competition. Most of you guys that own a Pro R or have driven a Pro R know that's a great car, especially the Live Valve. The suspension's pretty good stock, but when you drive it back to back, it doesn't have the sensitivity for sure on the small bumps. I even notice it in the dunes, but it doesn't have near the feel and Small Bump sensitivity that the Speed does. And when I've driven the Speed on the hard pack in the desert as well as in Sand Hollow, Utah, the stock settings are very good. I would hardly ever bottom them, you know, I ran multiple different tires and paddle tire sets on it. And like I said, hard pack, the settings are awesome. The mid-stroke feels great, it ramps up nicely, even if I had two, three people in the car, it felt like it just worked extremely well.

The second reason we learned is that the Speed is a big, heavy car, heavier than the Pro R. A couple of guys have weighed their cars; they're well over 2800 lbs. So when you add a heavy vehicle that's quite a bit heavier than the side-by-side helding before, which is a 2-seat Can-Am, you add some big shocks – 3.25 are the size of a stock Speed – and then combine that with very good valving, it ends up delivering a ride quality that is really good. People mention it handles like a bigger car, like a sand car or a dual sport, and in some regards, it should because it weighs as much or more than some of those cars. That application and the shocks are just as big, if not bigger as well.

The third reason is the combination of the low center of gravity and the geometry. A lot of us Speed faithful that were waiting for the cars to be delivered were really hoping the geometry is something that we'd be able to feel and communicate, and I do think that when you compare it back to back with the Pro R, particularly when you're going in a lot of rough terrain, the back of the Speed doesn't move around as much. I think it's more confidence-inspiring going fast over rough terrain. And you probably guessed it, and I've mentioned it before, but the rougher the terrain, the better the Speed gets. So if you end up in scenarios like that, if you're like me and you like that type of stuff when the conditions are rough, then I think that's where the car really shines and excels.

Talking about how low the car is, well, the first couple of times I drove a car, I drove one of Robbie's cars, drove a couple of different variations, a lot of them seemed low in general, and I've known from doing some suspension tuning in the past, particularly when you have internal bypass shocks, when you're a little bit too low, you compromise some of that ride quality you can gain by being up at the right height. So when we took delivery of ours, our first big event was Rally on the Rocks in May. Here's a clip of it running down the little fence line, and we had the car set up pretty high at 17 inches, which a lot of us thought were high, and I really liked how it felt. Here from the clip, you can see it's performing extremely well, and it felt fantastic. The downside of that is we had the stock springs, and those stock springs really lose ride height quickly. So, you Speed owners that have tried to adjust it, you know what I'm talking about. To adjust the preload collar is a huge pain, and as the car kept sacking out every few hundred miles we would put on it, we end up having almost 3 inches of preload to get the car up to the 17 inches of ride height, which is what I liked.

So for that reason, also the curiosity of wanting better suspension performance, I decided to upgrade and get the iBox spring kit that Speed offers. I think the spring rates are the same; I don't know 100%, I'm pretty sure they are, but once we did get those installed, we didn't notice near a drop. The ride heights remained consistent, and I also think we picked up some performance because when you are compressing a spring that much, you're inevitably going to lose some of the Small Bump compliance, and we were close to being coil bound. So I do recommend upgrading springs. If you think the Speed option is really pricey, MTS Off-Road has started tuning both the four-seat El Jefe and now the two-seat Bandit. Ned, I really like his thoughts and opinions. We have similar taste in how we like to set our cars up, and he's got some opinions we'll go ahead and link him here in the description. You can call him and pick his brain and see what he thinks about spring rates, but they're working on some Shock tuning for the Speed too. So a couple of options out there, but I do recommend yes, you should spend the money and get better springs. Even though the stock spring rate's good, it's just the fact that sacking out on the ride height is so important. It is a pain, and then I think like I said, we lost some performance by with the springs sacking out.

Talking to some other Speed owners, more miles have actually gone up a little bit higher in ride height of the car. So currently, we've got the front end at about 18 inches, the rear about 17 1/2. Now that measurement is with stock 32-inch tires with nobody in it. That looks pretty high, but I think that's where you would want to be. Again, because the car is so predictable, it's never felt like I've got the wheels up on two wheels going around a fast aggressive turn. So take advantage of the valving

getting up higher, more clearance, I don't think there's any downside. So again, 18 inches in the front, 17 and a half in the rear. That's, you know, for the dunes, for hard pack, and I think that's a baseline that's going to get you the most performance in general.

So once you've got that established, let's talk about the dunes and then we'll talk about some of the compression and crossover ring adjustments. Fast forward to Camp RZR, finally had the Speed out in Glamis with some paddle tires on it, and I wanted to see how good the valving was, so I just left the suspension pretty stock. Now most of you guys know that go back and forth between the desert and the dunes know that your suspension will blow through the stroke and bottom out much more easily and quickly in the dunes on G-outs; it's just the nature of sand duning. And I figured that was going to happen, but I just wanted to see how good it was, and it was not bad. It was soft. I think halfway through the trip, I ended up taking the compression clickers and adding four turns on each corner, which helped, but I still thought at the end of the weekend, it was soft, especially, you know, when I was driving it back to back with the Pro R. It just didn't have the firm hold-up of really pushing around bull turns and being able to carry momentum through all the G-outs and bulls.

So for my second trip to Glamis this year, I learned and did what I really wanted to do, which was increase the compression and as well as lower the crossover ring. So for my second trip over New Years, I dropped the crossover rings one full inch over the stock setting and then went from four turns of compression last trip to six, so quite a bit stiffer. I enjoyed it. Over New Years, the dunes were wet, and they were as literally as rough as I'd ever seen them. I still would like to go stiffer, so I think the next time I go to the dunes, I'm going to drop the crossover ring yet another half inch. I think it makes a bigger improvement on the stiffness and not blowing through the stroke as compared to the compression clickers. And I think that's something that all of you guys should be doing if you're Speed owners is get used to adjusting those crossover rings. And for what it's worth, we just dropped our Pro R off at MTS, and I was speaking with Ned. Even though our Razor, like a lot of you guys, does have the FOX Live Valve, Ned also recommends dropping the crossover rings even if you do have a Live Valve Razor when you do go to the dunes. So I think it's one of those things that, if you stay on top of it, you're going to be rewarded with the best handling suspension possible in any environment you're in.

A final thought, as I talk about comparing the Speed to the Pro R overall, particularly on the hard pack, small bump compliance, I like the Speed better. I will say, though, that the Live Valve Pro R is such a nice feature, particularly when you go to the dunes because it makes the car stiff, you have a lot of support and hold up when you're just driving aggressively through the bulls. Like I said, our Pro R is at MTS right now. I'm excited to see what they come up with. I asked Ned to get some more of those attributes I really like with the Speed to see if we can get the Pro R to exceed the performance of the Speed, because that would be interesting and exciting if that did happen. I just want to kind of point out the caveat, it's a little nuance, right? Like the Speed's great here, here, and here, but also, you can't dismiss that Live Valve. And there's been some conversation like, hey, is a Live Valve the ultimate? I've asked Wayne Isom this years ago when he tuned my old race car as well as our Turbo S, and I think both are good for various reasons. So if we could have the best of both worlds, that would be the ultimate. And that kind of reminds me, like me and my buddy talking, I think we think the ultimate side-by-side is a Speed chassis with a Pro R drivetrain, but you know, we'll save that topic for another video.

Thank you, guys, for watching. If you guys like the content, we're tinkering with some of the Speed clutching, clutch adjustments. If you guys like this type of content, comment below, and we'll keep putting out more. We'll see you on the next one.