Now that I finally have 50 miles on my new Outlander 800, I would like to give my honest impressions.

Before owning the Outlander, I spent two years with a Honda Rincon. I owned two Rincons, and I still do own one of them.

POWER; I thought I'd start here, since we already know the outcome. I am not sure if the Bomb has double the Rincon's horsepower, but it feels like it. The Bomb's power is brutal, and I mean that in a nice way. My Rincon will wheelie from a dead stop, but the Outlander will do it at ten miles per hour, without jumping on the seat, or any such body english. If you don't lean forward, or let off, it will come right on over. You don't just nail the throttle any old time on the Bomb. You make sure it's pointed in a safe direction before pulling the trigger. It may only be 150cc's difference, but it feels like way more than that. I say, bring on the 1000 Bombardier!!!

TRANSMISSION; The Bomb has a belt. Belts are for holding your pants up. Honestly, belts work very well most of the time. It's just that you don't know which day to stay home when "most" of the time runs out and the belt screws up. The Rincon's tranny rocks in my opinion. I have come to ride mine mostly in manual shift mode. You don't have to let off the throttle to shift either up or down, and it shifts without hessitation. If you ever had a muscle car with a shiftkit and a B&M floorshifter, you get the picture. On highspeed logging roads, you can downshift as you let off the throttle going into the corners to start the rear end sliding around. Nail the throttle wide open and upshift as you leave the corner and you will roost anyone behind you. I can also run in 3rd gear if I want to ride quiet and easily along without the engine singing high, and the belt whining. If Honda made a really low range mode you could switch in to, say to pull a wagon up a hill, or to crawl down hills, this tranny would put belt makers out of business. I remember when I bought my brand new Sportsman 350 back when that was the biggest one they made. I showed up at hunting camp and all the manual tranny guys made fun of my rubber band powered quad,,,,till it smoked their butts at everything. Pretty soon all the manufacturers had belts on their quads. That is what you call a quantum shift, or paradigm shift, or whatever. If Honda gave the Rincon either a HI/LO option, or added a gear or two so that it had a "granny" gear, I think it would catch on, and eventually you'd see another quantum/paradigm shift. Just my opinion, but once you get used to the way this tranny works, all others suck.

ERGONOMICS; This is one of those things that gets a bit subjective. Once you get used to a certain machine; when you get on another machine, it feels strange. Even taking that fact into consideration, I'm going to give this one to the Rincon. I am always amazed when I see my Rincon setting next to some other quad, and seeing that the rack height and ground clearance are about the same, because riding the Rincon makes it feel like it is a lot lower to the ground than it actually is. It feels low, planted, and stable. With no belt drive, your feet are closer together too. On the Bomb, you feel more like you are atop the machine with your legs wider apart. The Rincon has a much more pronounced foot peg, with the floorboard under, while the Bomb has floorboards with a slightly raised foot peg to them. Motorcycle riders will like the pegs, while snowmobilers will probably like the floorboards.

HIGH SPEED HANDLING; I don't have enough experience with the Bomb to be of much use on this one. So far, I would have to go with the Rincon, but that might just be my being used to it. One thing is certain, this thing will have to really impress me to come close to the Rincon. I notice the Rincon was not invited to play on Bombardier's infomercial. I can almost guarantee you that It would have won the slalom.

LOW SPEED/ROUGH TERRAIN HANDLING; I just put 20 miles on the Bomb out in the scab rock country. The landscape East of Spokane Washington is rougher than a cob. Jagged rocks, and clumpy bumpy grasses. Perfect for coyote hunting. I left my gps home, and got lost for about three hours wandering around with a varmint rifle strapped across my back, so I have a pretty good idea on this one. Hands down, no question, the Rincon wins. The Bomb just wears your arms a lot more. The steering seemed to transfer more shock and wobble, or grab and bobble, or whatever the correct terms would be, it just does. To be fair, the Rincon isn't comfy to ride out there either. It's rougher than crap bumpity bump bump, hitting lava rock in the tall clumpy grass over and over again. It's just that the Bomb seemed to work my arms a lot harder.

ROCK CRAWLING; This one would be totally dependent on what one is used to. Engine braking is totally foreign to me, having ridden Honda 250R's, Two stroke Polaris Sportsman and two stroke Polaris Explorer machines that had none. The Rincon has engine braking that will slow you to about 10mph, but in some of the stuff I've ridden in, you'd die if you went down it at 10mph. That's no kidding, you'd die. I have no problem using brakes because I have even more motorcycle experience than I have on ATVs, but after using the low range engine braking on the Bomb, I can see how this would make it much easier for people with less experience to get around. The Rincon has a torque converter, and so if you don't know what you are doing, you can come crawling (of course you can crawl with a Rincon) up over the top of a rock, and quickly rocket up to speed getting into all kinds of trouble real quick. It is just like driving your car, only with an even better power to weight ratio. The Bomb would be much more forgiving in these situations. The lack of a locker on the Rincon is a greater disadvantage to it than the lack of engine braking in my opinion. So, with that in mind I'd give this one to the Bomb.

BUILD QUALITY; The Bomb is innovative, well thought out, and well executed. It is not, however the winner here. It is lacking badly needed bare bones simple skid protection. Even with the factory fender flares (you pay extra for these by the way) installed, the splash protection isn't as good as the Honda. You can blast through puddles at speed with the Honda and come home dry. You'll get wet on the bomb. Water sprays onto your legs from the engine compartment, and around the outside of the fenders. They make you pay extra for the bomb's radiator protector as well. This is super stupid and sucketh mightily. The heliarc welds holding on the front push-bar/bumper support on my Bomb look like it was training day at the factory to me. It's almost like the frame/engine/tranny/suspension were made in one very good factory, while the peripheral stuff was slapped together (by folks McDonalds fired) at some bad factory. I'm getting a bit dramatic, but I think you get the point. The only cheap assed thing on the Honda is those little stickers warning you how you will die if you pretty much do anything fun on it. Get a hair dryer and remove them and you have a nice machine.

BRAKES; I don't like one hand brakes all. Again, motorcycle riders will like two hand braking, while snowmobilers will like one hand braking. Most people can adapt to either, and so it is a fairly moot point. I can stand the Rincon on it's nose with it's junky old drum brakes, but let's face it Honda, everyone knows that discs are better. I guess Honda knows too, because the 06 Rincon has them. I like the inboard discs on the Bomb, and they work well and give less unsprung weight. I'm giving this one to the Bomb, but that is comparing it to a 03 Rincon, not an 06.

CONCLUSION; If Honda gave the Rincon some Bomb-like power, and a locker up front, I'll be back on a Rincon. I like the Rincon tranny better, but having a low range is awesome. Hear that Honda? I like the ride and handling of the Bomb, but I like the Rincon's better. In the end though, we buy big bore quads for power. The Outlander has decent ergonomics, ride, handling, build quality, and friggin brutal grin making power.






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Two 2003 Rincon's, (Green). UPDATE; As of 11-26-05, I now own one 2003 Rincon, and one 2006 Bombardier Outlander 800.
Be thankful. God is good.

 

I work at a Honda and BRP dealer and have put some seat time on both and I couldn't sum these two machines up any better than you did. There is nothing that you wrote that I would diagree w/. Your statement about the Rincon and lack of a low range has been echoed by more than a few customers, whether they own one or not. I have even heard a few saying that they would trade in their Rincons for one w/ a low range in a second. W/ a low range, they feel they would have the Ultimate ATV, hands down. Have had one or two not buy the Rincon only because it didn't have a low range even though they absolutely loved it when they test rode it.

 

There are a couple of reasons why I simply won't buy Honda machines now despite having owned and loved them in the past. They don't offer locking front differentials and low ranges and up until recently they didn't offer EFI. The locker especially is a deal breaker. I know they supposedly have some sort clutch system or something but I've had one and it doesn't work for feces. You simply can't take it to the places you can a locker equipped ATV or get it places as easily as a locker equipped ATV. I told a Honda factory rep a dealer this once and he said their research said that "their customers didn't need or want these features". Well fine. That is why my next ATV won't be a Honda. That locker would cost them what 50 bucks a machine? The low range what 200? The lack of those features will most likely send me to Bombardier to drop nearly 10 grand on a new 800. OK Honda. Hope that market research works out for ya.

 

Like their cars and motorcycles, Honda quality is the gold standard. If they wanted to do so, they could have a machine that would blow the Outy out of the water. I knew that going into my new purchase, and knew that Honda is't making such a machine now.

Bombardier's success may change that.

 

Hey Jaydeecoy, I own neither a bomb or Rincon,regardless, I wanted to tell you I enjoyed reading your comparison article. Well thought out and well written. I looked long and hard at the Honda. All you said was correct. I might never need the hi and low option for my style of riding but........ Let me make that determination; not the manufacturer or dealer. There are times I use low on my machine and enjoy my verrry slow assent and decent. My option. I have not done much rock crawling but I think I will enjoy it. Very well written article. jlewis

 

ditto jllewis----If he hadn't posted that, I would have. You might have mentioned the irs and 75% fewer parts though, that's a biggie.

Since the outy is the most comfy, stable and best handling I have been on, the Rincon must be a lot better than I thought----haven't had a chance to ride one. I know your conclusion about big bores power would have caused me to choose the outy given the two choices.

 

Honda already makes a 1000cc V-twin that could easily be fitted to an ATV with just a different crankcase. Maybe a shorter stroke via a crankshaft and con rod change, say an 850 or 900, and voila, a Super Rincon with Honda's quality.

If they did it, people would come.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

 

Thanks for the level headed input guys. I posted this on my Rincon owners sight, and they hate it. I also posted it on a Bombardier site, and they hate it even more. I guess I must have called it down the middle eh?

Kawiyawi, I thought about mentioning how I do like the Bomb rear suspension better than the Honda's "normal" IRS, but I figured people would get all hung up on the fact that I said the Honda handled better. I believe the Outlander eventually will handle better than the Honda, once Bombardier sorts out the spring rates and shock valving. My bomb will probably be getting a set of highlifter after market springs once they come out, and once others try them first and let me know if they help.

 

I give it to the Rincon it has won the Baja 1000. They were the first overall quad to cross the finish line. The pro BRP team did not even get past the 200 mile mark.

 

It was well thought out and a reasonably stated opinion. Even though I just bought a Outy 800, I knew that Honda had certain engineering advantages, and as I said, is the gold standard for quality. PM me with the url for the Bombardier web site you posted to, I'd like to visit it.