Ride,
You posted some pilot questions, and I might be able to answer them (I would have replied on the original post but it turned into a “max” discussion -whatever the hell that is!). Anyway I’ve had 250 odysseys, 350 odysseys, and a 400 pilot.

The pilot is safe, but it makes you FEEL safer than you really are because of the cage and people tend to get stupid (and hurt) in ‘em. You can ride aggressive in ‘em, but landing on one front tire will break a spindle or a-arm pretty easy (it’s a heavy bike).

Honda only made a ‘89 FL400 pilot, but sold them until stock ran out. We bought ours used in ‘90 from a lady who won it on “The Price is Right”. She never rode it and wanted $150 - $200 for it, until she called the dealer and found it sold for $6000 (before tax). She then asked $3500.

FL250s and 350s have wide turning radii because of the front suspensions swing arm design. We got a little more turning out of them by grinding the stops. If you grind too much, you’ll hit the arm and tie rod when you turn, so don’t get carried away.

I hope I covered most of the questions. It has been a great bike. It’s very well engineered and is as reliable as a....honda!

Fish

 

Do you still have the 400?

 

TxDoc,
Honda didn't see a big enough market for the Pilot to justify all the costs that go into making a product. Honda was probably selling a hundred or more sport 4-stroke quads, to every ONE Pilot sold. They go where the money is; can't say I blame 'em. (A $6000.00 price tag 10 YEARS AGO didn't help sell 'em either)

One day when I finish some of my other projects, I'm going to put a 900cc 3 cylinder 2-stroke snowmobile engine in it. They use the same salsbury drive unit, so the swap would be simple (I also own a machine shop).

 

Yes I do. I take it to the dunes about three time a year (if I'm lucky). It doesn't see alot of action because my wife mostly rides it. I've got razorbacks on front and sand skates in the rear, so I've never even used the stock tires and wheels.

 

Why did they quit the Odysseys and Pilots? A friend of mine who has a "speed" shop that builds and sells high performance engines and parts had two, one with knobbies and the other with some kind of directional tread. I turned over more than once on the concrete and the only thing that got hurt was my neck from the shoulder harness. Kinda like a rope burn from a hanging that went wrong. They were very fun to race against another person in.