Suspension - public

Performance Engineered Products was formed 16 years ago when Wayne Mooradian recognized the need for better "race-equipped" ATV suspensions. His background in motorsports is rather impressive. From the 1970's to early '80's, Wayne turned wrenches for over 30 factory motorcycle racers. Not many motorcycle mechanics can say they were the factory race team mechanic for the Maico, Can-Am, Suzuki, Husqvarna, and Yamaha motorcycle racing teams. Wayne was also part of the research and development team that propelled a dominating win-record for the most successful factory motorcycle racing team of the '80's - Team Honda! His credentials don't just exist in motorcycle racing. Wayne developed all of the suspension components for the 1985-86 factory Kawasaki three wheelers of Jimmy White. In '87-88 he developed the suspension products for the Team Suzuki Quad Racer's of Gary Denton, Rodney Gentry, Jeff Watts, and Jim Putnam. During the same season, Wayne built suspension systems for the Kawasaki Mojave's and Tecate 4's of the Team Green support riders of Jackie Meadows and Charlie Shepherd. In the late '80's he developed the motors, chassis, and suspension for the Honda desert ATV team. As you can see from Wayne's list of accomplishments, there's plenty of proven knowledge found in every PEP shock.

How'd we like them?
We had abused ourselves and our Honda Fourtrax long enough, it was time for some real suspension. We took the advice of Wayne Mooradian he suggested a pair of Limited Mass shocks for the front, and a shock modification service to our stock rear shock.

For an accurate evaluation of the PEP shocks, our idea was to test them on a track with as many suspension-jarring obstacles as possible. The terrain consisted of two huge whoop sections at 100 yards each, a double jump, two small single jumps and one monstrous jump. With two test riders and a stopwatch, we were ready for some serious ground-pounding.

Our test riders rode as fast as they possibly could for ten laps each using the stock front shocks and the new re-worked rear shock. Our riders noticed the beefier rear shock worked better than a stock one, but couldn't get a good feel for the rear since the wimpy front shocks were working so poorly. Out of the ten laps, each rider's best times were taken from their third lap, which was 2:43 and 2:48. An interesting note here was that lap times near the end of the 10 lap sessions consistently got worse. Since the course consisted of mostly whoops, the suspension was constantly being worked. The oil in the stock front shocks would get hot and thin to a lower viscosity, resulting in a "pogo-stick" effect on the quads front end.

Now came the fun part. No other changes would take place except for bolting on the new PEP Limited Mass front shocks. After fighting to decide who would ride first, we were ready to see what kind of difference the PEP shocks would make.

Lap times would tell the whole story. Both riders put over ten laps in with their best times of 2:31 and 2:33! That's a total of 12 and 15 seconds faster from their best times with the front stockers. Judging from the data we collected in our day of testing, we calculated that the new PEP shocks were able to cut an average of 9.8 seconds off of each lap!

The test riders said that they were able to shift to a higher gear in the long demanding whoop sections. The front of the quad swallowed up every whoop like it was only half the size that it really was. And as for landing from the big air jump on the course, nearly every landing with the stock fronts resulted in an extreme bottoming out--near crash experience. With the PEP front shocks, not once did the suspension bottom out! Most notable about the PEP shocks was that the shocks barely even got warm to the touch, while the stockers could barely be touched from severe heat build up.

The price for our new PEP suspension wasn't cheap. Simply put, you get what you pay for. Yes PEP shocks cost more, but we strongly feel that they're well worth the money. Our overall recommendation is to ride a 4-wheeler that has PEP shocks. This article simply can't describe what a "hands-on" experience can. Even though your size and weight will probably be different than the rider whose quad you will be trying, you will get a good idea of just how awesome these shocks really are.