Saturday night in the 3rd lap of practice I faced what I believe every Mxer's worst fear is; my quad cut out at the top of the jump. It is a miserable feeling of helplessness as I flew across 40' or so of dirt between 2 doubles. As I am hurling for what I know will be a nasty wreck, I try to hit the throttle to bring my front end up and out of it's 45 degree flight pattern, but there's nothing there. I know I should jump off, but I can't; I'm frozen. As my front bumper takes a Tiger-sized divot out of the top of the landing I fly off and it seems that I'm watching the events in front of me unfold thru a helmet cam. I have no idea of where I am on the track, or how I'm flipping thru the air, or most importantly, where my traitor of a quad is. As I finally come to a stop face up on my ailing back, the last question is answered as my mean DVX rolls gently into me. After a quick systems check of fingers, toes, and bodily fluid seals, I get up. My left wrist and left heel hurt incredibly, but with help I push my now bent ATV off the track. Of course I walk back on the track to see the point of impact, 'Damn, 4 more feet and ....it wouldn't have been as bad.'
About an hour after I finally got back to my truck, my wrist, heel, and now back are throbbing, but I'm still focused on what the hell happened? Since I never could get my DVX to fire again, I thought loose wire. Unfortunately I was right. In the FAQ section you can see a picture of where I used butt connectors on my killswitch, well one of them came loose and it shut my quad down just before takeoff.
The good news was it was quickly fixable and even at 3rd gear+ speed, all it did was bend my subframe and I still had my straight but unpainted original subframe at home. The other good new was thanks to my Flexx bars, my arms didn't have to absorb all of the brute force applied to me upon impact which I 100% believe is why my arms are not broken.

Bottom line, CHECK YOUR WIRE CONNECTIONS OFTEN and sauder if you are capable. Also, $300 sounds ridiculous for handlebars....until they prevent a broken bone. They are my new best investment.
As for me, I have 2 severely sprained wrists, a very bruised heel, a bruised shoulder, upper thigh contusion, twisted back,a bruised ego, and a re-evaluation of my passion for racing and the costs involved.

Wow,that is some story.I am glad that in the end, you are all right You have a very good tip there also.Hopefully it isn't too long till you are riding again,Good luck

Damn glad to hear your alright!

Glad to hear your alright. Similar thing happened to me a whiel back but it was from my cdi. It kinda sucks how it always shut's off at the worst possible time. Never once have I read about that stuff happening on the flats of a track it's always on takeoff. Anyways my crash resulted in a broken wrist. Maybe if I had the felxx bars I could have avoided this o well.

Is that the reason your selling your quad?

I had the same problem w/ the same wires out on the dunes late one night. Thankfully I wasn't jumping though. Hope you have a quick recovery and get to feeling better.

Thanks for the concern everyone, I'm looking forward to the end of the pain. suz z400 2003, it's not the reason I'm selling it, but it definitely put the nail in the coffin. I was thinking about getting the new r450 because my dealer made me a great offer, then when I wrecked I decided I needed to sell it before I really mess it up!!

ohh alright, just wondered if you were getting out of the sport or if you were going to get the new Suzuki.

"After a quick systems check of... ...bodily fluid seals..."
LOL!!

You're a good writer, though your story is of an unfortunate event, I enjoyed reading it!

Yup... your story is similar to NormalZ's. He had a kill-switch of which the wires started working their way loose, but the bike ran normally MOST of the time. But it seems the mis-firing was occuring more on take-offs. I suspect the g-forces helped the wires to not connect properly for a moment. Once he addressed the wiring of the kill-switch, no more problems.

I just want to include a pic of both of us at the local track where his situation is due ultimately to the interruption of the ignition due to the kill-switch wiring. He experienced so much "cutting out" that he didn't want to attempt the double fearing loss of power when he needed it most.

Good kill switch wiring on left (me), interrupted ignition due to loose kill switch wiring, right (NormalZ)

very good writing and thats an a+ story it almost feels like i was in your shoes

Thanks for the compliments guys, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Douggie, the jump I wrecked on was almost twice as long as the one in your picture, but I don't think I'm any higher than you're rear wheels. Beautiful pic btw, I would love to visit Arizona someday.

Yep. Poor wiring cost me a day of riding this past Sun. My friend actually did a great job of making a solid connection between wires, but didn't insulate them properly. One second the quad would be running, and the next it would die. Turns out it was dying every time those exposed wires made contact with each other. Oops. Attention to detail can easily be the difference between a great day of riding/racing, and a near death experience.

Dang sorry to hear about that. Felt like i was driving the quad as you were talking about it

that really sucks

Wow great story(well sad but written good). And nice comparison eski!