I noticed that the 02 ZR 600s have different clutch components than my ZL SS 600. I've also noticed that when I race my friends on the lake, that every one of them mops me up. 01 ZR 500, 01 Yamaha SX 500, 02 Polaris XC 500 and an 02 Viper. I really think that the Viper should be the only one beating me, but my sled is a pig out of the hole. Everybody blasts right past me, and I never catch up. We usually race up to 90-100mph, or somewhere thereabouts.

I don't really mind getting beat on the lakes because that's not what I bought the sled for, but what does bug me is that my sled doesn't have enough snap in the throttle to pull weight off the front end. When I'm riding on bumpy trails, I can use the throttle on friends sleds to help float the front end from one bump to the next. With my sled, the front end is down in every hole.

Does the ZL get clutched differently to provide a smoother engagement, or is my sled just a pig for other reasons? it seems that once it gets moving, it's got plenty of power.

your zl should launch fairly hard.my 01 plain zl600 would hang long wheelies on hard pack if i stood towards the back. but i think your ss is coupled, so its not going to pull the front as high.i would look towards the belt.is it sticking out of the back clutch a sixteeth of an inch? is the deflection correct ? is the side gap up front .030 ? the clutches have shims to adjust for the above.

Jim, install 52 gram weights, orange-white pri. spring, and a 62-55 helix.
Your belt should set 1-16" aboue the secondary clutch.
This setup will wake the 600 up, and is trail friendly.
P.S. if your studded the viper will lose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I could even stay close to the viper I'd be happy. He's dusting me so bad I can't even call it a race. The only time I see beatings this bad is when guys in hondas try to race my Camaro. :P

I should also mention that I'm VERY new to sleds in general. This is my first sled and I'm just at the very beginning stages of finding my way around it (hence the ton of recent questions). I've got the Cat service cd to help, but I'm a bit leary of getting into the clutch for fears that I'll be opening a can of worms.

ahhh put the best way to learn in to try it yourself, somtimes its nice to have somone that knows what they are doing there to help, but if you get into trouble with your sled theres enough ppl here that know what we are doing that can help you out....