just thought to share my experiance with my xrider sagittarius 1/4 scale off road bike . i had dabbled with rc bikes in the early 2000's , had a thunder tiger road bike clone , and a 1/4 scale off road bike from hobbyking [ i think ] . the road bike worked well and i learnt to ride with it , the offroad bike though was never a success , disliked the rear wheel mechanical gyro . it was ''controllable '' up to a point , but forget about accuracy to put it where you wanted it . i now have both the losi promoto , [red one painted yellow] ,and the xrider sagittarius , i have had the losi for a couple of months longer than the xrider .
for my set up i used the reciever that is in the losi , mounted in the same orientation , thinking to have all the features of the losi system , namely the extra stability system [ electronic gyro ] , and the different riding modes in the reciever , along with the incorporated mechanical gyro .[ both have ] . however this system is not compatable with the xrider , as it interfered with the steering input , even with a ferrite ring in circuit , causing loss of steering control . big thank you to dave [ holeshot hobbies] , for the phone discussion concerning this issue and all the advise on my set up, is excellent service . my only thought is that the radio frequency put out by the mechanical gyro was causing the interferance , as the gyro's are different on both models . it might be possible to filter it out , depending on how much one wanted the ''ride'' modes on a switch, instead of your finger .
replaced the reciever with a four channel spectrum surface reciever , which fitted in behind the brake servo's , between the frame side plates and ran the antenna out the rear of the bike . fitted the rear brake disc and servo , diddn't like the bmw blue/white helmet , so painted it black . i also added velcro to the seat and rider , to assist in carrying it by the rider . in case of loosing the seat fuel cap and body clip during a battery change , i cut the bottom off a swivel and glued it to the fuel tank [as to turn ] , and made a small trace wire and attached it to the brake cable , a cable tie is on the rear body clip , so they both stay with the bike , and not in the grass .i also put a s/s mesh screen over the r.h.s. motor gear train to stop possible debris causing a gear jam and are running 8mm nylon rod posts on the rear holder with losi wheels , for my lean bars .battery is a 3 cell , 4300 mah , gens ace shorty pack .
i have upgraded the steering with the dual hydralic damper steering upgrade/bearings , and added 2mm of preload , huge improvement . absolute minimum headshake and very responsive . upgraded the brake servo's to 2, kst X15-1809 V8.0 [18KG@6V ] , bit of trimming to get lead in , and a, savox SC-1251MG [9kg@6v] for the steering , drops straight in ,centres better .for more front brake force i re-routed the cable from the caliper straight to the head/triple, over the handlebars, and straight to the cable/servo mount , miniumum bends/friction , and a lot more force transferred to the caliper , better stopping power . i removed approximatly 75mm of the outer brake cable sheath . the seat assembly keeps the cable down . i have removed all pre-load on the rear shock , she sits better and has improved handelling .
she is now very responsive , slightly quicker than the losi , better top end speed . the slow speed handelling is also superior to the losi , being very close to walking speed . the narrow width of the xrider [ narrower than the losi ], gives it another slight edge over the losi , being the smaller turning circle/radius . the bikes physical behavior is more to scale realism than the losi , she sits and turns a bit more stable , the rear slides more realistically ,i think because having only one gyro , there is not the ''fight off'' that is apparent in the losi front forks shake , when the two gyro's fight each other , same when the front wheel is off the ground .
the xrider seems also quite durable , through the set up process i had many a crash , endo's and tumbles ,including one at half , to three quarter throttle head on into a tree , nothing broke or needed replacing , testament to the quality of the product . i am impressed with this model and find i am taking it out more than the losi . i get between 7 - 10 minutes from a battery . also the xrider is considerably lighter than the losi so is easier to carry around and set up .
i noticed on my losi when i was working on the front brake , [ have a few upgrades on the losi ],that the outer brake cable would ''shrink'' at full brake . you can see it , look at the distance between the brake cable and the handelbar , apply full brake and watch the cable get closer to the handelbar. this does not happen on the xrider , why , because the losi outer cable sheath is plastic tube , and it compresses under load , thus stealing force from the caliper , the xrider has metal in the brake outer sheath [ saw it when i cut ], like a real brake cable , and does not compress , just little things that shine .once again quality . i replaced my losi cable outer with a inner core from a aircraft flexable push rod , and made a big difference to the stopping power . sure the xrider takes a bit more work to set up , but isn't that what seperates the avid modellor from the hobbyist . for the quality and performance of the xrider sagittarius , one will not be dissapointed .
yes i was, a bit dissapointed with the xrider's , first runs , compaired to the - whack a battery in in and jump over houses , go through brick wall , ?, l.o.l , with the losi . though now ,a completely different bike , been through the learning curve , and in my opinion the xrider sagittarius is on par with the losi . the ''goods and bads '' of each, cancell each other out , if you are after ''tricks'' , [wheelstand], and extreme conditions , prefer the losi . if you are after a fast , responsive mx track racer , then prefer the xrider . for stay on the ground performance, i think the xrider wins ,depends on eveyone's style . only thing i do know is - MY XRIDER IS A BLAST
