[Guest]

I own a 2003 Foreman ES 450 that I bought new. It has about 3,000 miles on it. I change the oil with synthetics at least once a season. Begining at 30 mPh I begin to hear a mild rattling noise. This has been the case since I bought it. Any thoughts on what this noise is? I also put a set of mud tires on recently. It seems like the gas mileage has dropped 50% since the installation. Is that normal?

 

[dirty4man]

if the bike has never been sunk. u have two item to check, valve adjustment and timming chain, also Honda does not recommend using synthetic oil with the wet clutch, it lets them slip and the synthetic will wear them out faster. the bigger tires will cause the atv to burn more fuel

 

[flipstick]

If you run synthetic oil make sure it contains no friction modifiers and it is the correct API- SF OR SG rating .
Oil containing friction modifer will cause wet clutch problems .

 

[scooter350]

check your choke plunger if the mileage sux, there's an article under atv detailing FYI