Anyone have these? I just got a used 1999, and it runs GREAT, I am very pleased with it

I had a Lakota several years ago. It was without a doubt a fun machine, built for play and speed, but with racks for gear. It was tough too. In my wilder days, I ran it (spinning and sliding) on a golf course that was iced over solid until the engine was glowing orange and had no ill effects.
However, I did come to realize the adavantages of a shaft drive over a chain drive and also, though I hate to admit it, 4 wheel drive does make a difference on an ATV especially here in the hills when carrying a dead deer.

Last Sunday we went to www.generalsams.com and played in the atv park. I was very well pleased with my lakota, as I ran over hill and dale, up and down hills and valleys and most certainly played in the mud!
For a 292cc bike, which was the largest 4 stroke in our group, i was very pleased that it kept up with 2 yamaha blasters in the "FUN" department, and it didn't get stuck ONCE, even though I tried, to a modest degree, to find some fun mud. I admit, i didn't try to go into very deep mud, as I really don't want to sink my bike and hurt it by ingesting mud.
I've crossed creeks and been dragging the bottom and not touching hard bottom with wheels..

It weighing only 400lbs empty makes manhandling it much easier than i would have imagined.

What's a Hill? here's that' 100 feet of slope ..LOL

Man, there are puddles at general sams that will swallow an 800cc bike, snorkles and all, and not even make a ripple. I drove around those!

When i had the lakota I was living in some of the steepest portions of North Carolina. So it was possible to leave from not much above 2500 a.s.l. and be pushing 6000' soon enough.
you have a good four wheeler.

just an update -
Post Hurricane Ike, the little lakota has earned its keep. it was kind of funny yo hear people say how small it was, and how its too small for me...

until they rode it, and were a bit shy about going into top gear, after it popped a wheelie in first...

the little thing fits in places there a 500 can't go, and is so light, it can deliver a ton of power...

Used it for dragging bruch, logs, and firewood...

what a great little machine

so, we got a second one today... it's the blue "sport" .. the previous owner put in a stage 2 carbkit, high performance exhuast (its too loud, actually) and air filter.... it "power lifts" the front wheels off the ground nearly a foot by just gassing it..

these little things are a hoot
jeffe

had both lakotas out today.. blue and red.. a friends son was riding red, and neither of us could get stuck... the 2 guys on blasters did, and the 1 on a polaris 200 did... the polaris had nil ground clearence, and my trails are rutted

My wife loves red.. and blue is about to get a new set of rings (smokes just enough to be annoying) and a 14 tooth front gear.. and then MAY get a cam

blue got a new clutch and HD springs... versach ? sp clutch ... dang, but it locks up TIGHT now... it's about 25-28% more bearing surface, and the HD springs let me torque down a little bit more...

trust me, if you put the clutch off a lakota (or bayou) anyother cover gasket is REQUIRED... just save yourself the heart ache

On replacing a lakota clutch

before getting started order a clutch cover gasket and find a 15/16 impact socket. If you don't have a factory manual, GET ONE

1: remove brake pedal .. no realy .. you are going to do a mod on this anyway, so take it off.
1a: remove the footpegs -- just do it.. 19mm air imapct
2: get 2 feet of 1/2 pipe.. you'll see why
3: drain oil
4: remove all the little bolts around the clutch over
5: from the other side, take your pipe and a mallet .. there's a couple TABS setup to tap on.. work these back and forth... the cover will come off easy, it just needs a bunch of TAPS -- clean the gasket off both the tranny and the cover. Do a good job, it WILL leak
6: the 15/16 impact will take off the primary clutch
7:remove spring/carrier i think its 21MM for the secondary clutch main spring
8: YOU MUST understand the alignment dots under the clutch carrier... no, realy.. it won't go back together right. THere's a heavy circle on the spined part, and a light circle on the aluminum pack BACKSIDE... the top slides all the way down is ONE position, and ONE only. If not, you'll tear it back down.. trust me, just did that.
9: with new springs, you can tighten it down a bit harder, making a stronger engagement.. migh tnot matter on an otherwise stock bike
10 make certain the shfter triangles are setup properly.. it makes sense when you are in it
11: when you put the cover back on, after the entire build, make certain the spring on the cover slides OVER the sfiter rid. You are going to use this to adjust the engagement
12: remove the back panel on the clutch cover. There's a nut and a screw through the nut. Loosen the nut, turn the screw all the right clockwise until hard to turn, turn back COUNTER clockwise until firm, i turn back about 1 turn clockwise at this point, as that sets how hard it will be to shift.

put oil in it
LOOK FOR OIL LEAKS
fire it up.. shift, but don't drive till brake is back on
put brake and pegs back on
have fun.. it will shift harder and grab more than ever

blue is my 2001 sport, and red is jana's 1999 red with rack

Blue got new clutches and HD clutch springs, with an oversized, VERY QUIET muffler ...
Red just needed the chain tightened...

changed the oil and filters in both of em

red is getting a 13 tooth front drive gear to make first gear wirth trying to use.

then jana and i went riding all over the "back parks" here, and had a ball...

then a neighbor stopped by on a wolverine 450 special ed... and i let him ride blue.. and he was VERY impressed...

we then washed and oiled them, chained em up, and put em up
jeffe

picked up a parts bike today.. cheap cheap

put a 13 tooth front sprocket on my wife's bike.. it makes it basically 1/2 a gear higher.. first went from wrapped out at 13MPH to 19mph or so...

reserve is no longer a dual rut cutter

so, I am very please, and first is now worth having

Before



after


Blue (my bike) got a set of 25x8x12 and 25x10x12 dunlops on "chrome" steel rims... only difficulty was that I had to reverse the rear rims, JUST LIKE STOCK, as the lakota's are designed for the "offset" on the rear to be "onset" .. that is, stepped OUT, not in... That means my rear rim now have the valve stems IN, not out.. if that causes trouble, I'll TIG them up and redrill them on the OUT side... heck, I might just do that when I have to tear it down at the end of the month to send it off for cam, head, and bore work at cycleworksracing.net

These are the absolute LARGEST you can put on a stock lakota, and have clearence in at the heel gaurds.

went from (speeds with stock)
1st 14mph
2nd 27mph
3rd 38 mph
4th 46 mph
5th 50mph...

to, post tires
1st 19mph
2nd 30mph
3rd 41 mph
4th 50 mph
5th 54mph...

LOL..
well, it doesn't matter how high your clearence is ... if you hit hit c, you are stuck...

bike rides GREAT with the big tires, i turned the front springs up one.. i think i am going to turn it back...

swapped out the skins wiht a 2001 sport set!

ran into some carburation troubles yesterday on blue
so i wound up pulling all of the air system and foudn the problem today
the previous owner has stuff the KN prefilter into the in side of the carb, as his SOLE filter... when i had hooked up the entire air system PROPERLY and put my KN on it, it ran way way way too rich

got it running with the KN+IDS2+Pipe .. VERY nice.. might try the 13 disks again.

as it turns out, the bike did NOT have a stage 1 kit in it, so I am going to do one, when i put a stock cylinder in to send the OEM one off for a rebore+cam+port

Anyway, net net, zero MPH gain, but it seems like nearly 2x gas milage, and the bike is riding well..

it has a slight lag going from Idle to 1/8 throttle.. too rich?

Jana and I took Red and Blue out to www.generalsams.com and rode all day! WHEW! we has a ball! I custom built a trailer in the last couple weekends to fit both bikes, perfectly, and just them.. it kicks !!!!

today we put a UNI air filter on Red - works just as good as a KN, at 1/3 the cost.

both red and blue proved their worth as hunting bikes last week!!

i just picked up my third one .. its basicaly a NEW 300 sport, with very few hours.. seriously, i put more wear and tear in a month than this thing has.. factory tires, probably 80% from the new ones

update-- i will have 4 running lakota's end of april .. i just love em