PROJECT HONDA RACER XR650:
GREG STUART & NIC GRANLUND BUILD A LONG-
TRAVEL RACE-READY HONDA

(1/24/2008)

PROJECT “STUPID
BIKE”

Southern Californian Greg
Stuart’s wife Jamie had a catchy, if not
flattering, name for their project Honda 650
racer. “Stupid Bike was what she would call it,”
recalls Greg.
“It was no secret she was not
happy with the amount of time, money, and effort
myself, my dad Ken (whom I call Big K), our pit
crew, and fellow racer Nic Granlund, would spend
on this machine,” said Stuart. “Pretty soon, all
of us began calling it that too,” laughs the
34-year-old racer. Greg and his dad Ken Stuart own
Skat-Trak, which custom builds paddle tires for
the sand-slinging crowd of off-road duners
throughout the country.
“This was a project
where we wanted to create something that Honda had
not, at least not until 2008, anyway,” said
Stuart. “We wanted a truly big bore Honda for the
high speed desert events we like to ride, where
power, handling, and top speed are keys to
victory.”

CREATING PROJECT STUPID
BIKE
“The idea behind the ‘Stupid
bike’ began at the ’Best In The Desert’ 2006 Vegas
to Reno off road race,” recalled Greg Stuart. “We
started twelfth off the line and had our work cut
out for us. Trying to catch and pass competitors
on the same quad, with the same horsepower, on a
long graded road, was frustrating.”

“You could literally see
the guy in front of you, follow him for ten miles
and not pull an inch closer. We needed more power
and top speed,” said Stuart.

The
Honda XR650 engine is basically what Honda will be
using in their all new TRX700XX. That machine is
set to debut later in 2008.

THEIR
SOLUTION
“We thought about it for
a while and came up with a solution. A tried and
proven powerplant in the desert races is Honda’s
XR650R dirt bike motor. This motorcycle powerplant
had easily won the last ten straight Baja 1000
races,” said Greg. “All we had to do was figure
out how to get this thing in a quad frame. As it
turned out, that’s easier said than done.”
In
the past, a few inventive riders had tried to cram
this huge powerplant into an existing ATV frame.
This took a lot of cutting and hacking to an
already poorly designed OEM ATV. As many of you
know, you cannot show up at a race and expect to
win with OEM A-arms, stock shocks, stock axle, and
a stock motor. Greg Stuart and his crew needed to
design this quad from the ground up.

LAEGER
CHASSIS
“Our first call was to
Laeger Racing. My father has a long history with
Mark Laeger. They met each other in the early ’70s
at sand drag racing events. Mark always had exotic
Jeeps, drag cars, and three wheelers that he drag
raced. His craftmanship and designs were always
cutting edge and ahead of the competition,” says
Stuart.
“We had done many projects with Mark
in the past. He had built the first Pro Trax front
end for us in 1991 for competition in the Mickey
Thompson Stadium Racing events. His chromoly
frames were always superior to any others on the
market at the time,” added Greg.

(Left) Fast Flexx
handlebars are like adding extra suspension to
your quads off-road abilities. They are a popular
and useful addition on any quad. (Right) Almost
everything on the “Stupid Bike” project has been
custom built or fabricated. The Laeger swingarm
and Elka shocks were dialed in for a lot of race
sag and travel.

“With an empty
canvas, we were able to design the suspension,
shock length, geometry, travel, etc…to meet our
needs for desert racing. I contacted one of the
best in the business, Mike ‘Krash’ Hallock, to
help with the suspension design. He helped us
figure out our pivot points, upper and lower shock
locations, and swing arm length to get the perfect
ratio for optimal travel. We rounded out the setup
with custom suspension from Fox Racing
Shox,”

BUILDING FROM SCRATCH
“From this
point, it was a matter of plugging in all the
missing pieces, and trust me,” said Stuart, “when
you are building a quad from scratch, there are a
lot of missing pieces. Brakes, foot pegs, skids,
bumpers, cables, electrical, air intake…the list
goes on and on.

A
set of Laeger Racing A-arms, swingarm, and chassis
gave the XR650 long legs and a stable platform to
add the long travel suspension. “You can just pin
it in the whoops on this thing,” says
Stuart.

THE STUPID
PART
“This is where the Stupid Bike
comes in. As many racers know, there is a lot of
time, effort, money, and energy spent on building
and prepping a race quad. This means less time,
effort, and money spent with your significant
other. My wife Jamie would ask me ‘When is the
stupid bike going to be done’ or ‘are you working
on that Stupid Bike tonight? That’s how the Stupid
Bike moniker began,’ recalls Greg Stuart.
”You
don’t run down to Honda and order an air boot for
a Honda FourTrax 450R that adapts to an XR650 R
motor…you make it. There are many custom parts on
this quad, and many of them were fabricated by Big
K (my dad). He literally has hundreds, if not
thousands, of hours on this project. Weekends were
filled with designing oil reservoirs, battery
boxes, and billet skid plates. Every week we would
get one step closer.
“We initially bought a
brand new 2007 XR650R motorcycle in October of
2006. By May of 2007, once we dialed the motor in
at CT Racing, things began to fall in line.

“My race teammate, Nic Granlund, understands
suspension setup like no one else I’ve ever met.
It took two months of testing, changing spring
rates, lengthening the shock, and revalving, but
it was all worth it. We ended up with 13 inches of
wheel travel and butter smooth suspension with the
Fox Shox setup. Once we had it dialed in, I think
this is the best handling desert quad I have ever
ridden. It soaks up the rough like a trophy truck.
We can actually sit on the seat and ride it
through medium size whoop sections. It’s that
good,” recalls Stuart.
Once the testing was
complete, it was off to polish and paint. Stuart
and Granlund finished up the race look with
Fullbore fenders, a Quad Tech hood and seat cover,
and CT Racing graphics.

WHAT ABOUT THE 2008
HONDA 700XX?
“We think it’s great
that Honda is stepping up and releasing a long
awaited big displacement quad,” says Stuart. “It
seems like they are a little late on the market.
Yamaha, Bombardier, and Kawasaki have had big bore
quads out for a while. They do not seem to be
dominating the desert racing scene, though. Most
races are still won on Honda FourTrax 450R
quads.
“We have built a 450 killer,” claims
Stuart. “We are not worried about the new Honda
700XX. Like any other quad on the market, it will
be limited in suspension capabilities and handling
performance.
“The 500-pound dry weight is also
a disadvantage too. Once that quad is set up for
desert racing, it will weigh between 550 and 600
pounds. Most race quads need aftermarket shocks,
swingarms, axles, linkage, and A-arms as a Bandaid
fix for a poor design. You can get it working
better with the aftermarket products, but is it
the best it could be? Our XR650R was designed with
one thing in mind…To be the best-handling and most
powerful desert quad in existance.”

STUPID BIKE
PRICE PROJECTIONS
To duplicate
what Greg Stuart and Nic Granlund have done would
cost, they estimated, at right around $20,000 to
$25,000. “Many of the parts on our ’Project Stupid
Bike’ were bartered, sponsored, or custom
fabricated. There is no way to determine the exact
price,” says Stuart. “Let’s just say it’s
priceless!”

Specs:

Wheel base

51"

Wheel width

50"

Dry weight

440 lb.

Displacement

650 cc

Egine Type

Single cylinder, liquid-cooled SOHC, 4-valve,
four-stroke

Bore & Stroke

Stock

Cam

Webb cam

Ignition

Rev max by advantage Performance

Stator

Stock

Piston

JE 12:1

Porting

CT Racing

Exhaust

CT Racing

Carburetor

Keihin FCR 41 CR Flat

Throttle Cable

Terry Cable

Oil Reservoir

Custom Skat-Trak 3 qt. cap

Radiator

PWR YFZ 450 w/integrated oil
cooling.

Air Box

Stock Honda Trak 450 R

Air Filter

K&N Precharger lid with UNI Foam
main filter

Horsepower

58 on wheel dyno

Torque

44.2 ft. on wheel dyno

Drive
System:

Transmission

Stock

Clutch

Hinson

Clutch Cable

Terry Cable

Chain

Tsubaki Alpha Gold 530

Sprockets:

Front

Stock 13T

Rear

Stock 41T

Shifter

Skat-Trak billet

Frame:

Frame

Custom Laeger chromoly

Foot Pegs

17-4 Stainless custom, Skat-Trak with
turn-ups

Skid

AC Racing

Front Bumper

AC Racing

Rear Grab Bar

AC Racing

Front End:

A-arms

Laeger +3 Pro Traxa, adjustable
caster

Spindles

Laeger billet Honda Trax 450
R

Hubs

HardKor

Tie Rods

Skat-Trak 5/8 4130 chromoly, Tie rod
ends

Outside

Chromoly 12 mm ball joint
end

Inside

Stock Honda Trax 450 R

Front Shox

Fox float X evol 13"
travel

Steering Stem

Laeger +2

Steering Stabalizer

Precision

Handle Bars

Flexx handlebars

Rear End:

Swingarm

Laeger 450 Honda +1 No
Link

Rear Axle

Laeger

Bearing Carrier

Skat-Trak custom

5 bearing

Rear Shock

Fox Shox Dual

Rate 13" travel

Rear Hubs

17-4 Stainless

Skat-Trak custom

Skid Plate

Custom Skat-

Trak 6061 T-6 Billet

Tires/ Wheels:

Front

Maxxis Razr 2, 22x7x10, DWT 10x5 4 on 144
4B+in, offset DBL IR
BB

Rear

Maxxis Razr 22x11x9, DWT 9x8, on 110 3B+5N
offset DBL IR BB

Brakes:

Front

Stock Honda Trax 450 R, Caliper & master
cylinder, Streamline discs & brake
pads, streamline steel braded +3 brake
lines

Rear

Stock Honda Trax 450 R
caliper, streamline disc & brake
pads, streamline steel braded +1 brake
lines,  stock Honda XR 650 R master
cylinder, stock XR 650 R brake
pedal

Fenders/Tank:

Front

Fullbore Innovations, YFZ 450, Quad Tech
Hood,  radiator\Scoops-full bore,
innovations YFZ 450,

Rear

Fullbore Innovations, YFZ 450, Quad Tech +3
desert foam with seat
cover

Tank

IMS Raptor 660 R with dry, Break 5 gal.
cap

Topic: Tests

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• SPORT
TEST: LONESTAR/QUADTECH YAMAHA YFZ450

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