Only got 30 miles in this weekend, but it was great. Started out at about 38 degrees, and it dropped to about 31 near the end of the day. Covered every thing imaginable except rocky, or sandy soil.

As for the concern I've read about no low power, I lifted the front off the ground climbing out of a ditch. Mind you, I'm well over 300 lbs, so that is plenty of low end power!

I did notice the difference without a 4 wheel lock. But it didn't even slow me down. Actually, I liked it better. I went through a lot of slippery muddy stuff and was breaking 1/4" ice to fall into the mud below it. It did just fine. I slid around a lot and found that more fun than just running straight all the time. Maybe soft sinking muck would not be so well, but I've even gotten stuck in that with locked wheels.

Bottom line, I am very happy with the choice.

Top speed was 55. It gets to 50-51 very quickly. That last 4-5 MPH takes about 1/8 of a mile more though. Handles about the same in either 2 or 4 wheel on gravel roads at 55 also. Not the fastest, but plenty of speed for my tastes on something without a roll cage!

I took it flying through some young brush with marsh under it. It didn't even hesitate to plow though making new trails. My 300 Cat would bog down trying to push little red brush over and was never happy with tall marsh grass grabbing at the frame.

When I went over washboarded trail, it was smooth as a baby's ... well, maybe not that smooth, but I was easily able to go as fast as I wanted which with my 300 cat or my old 250 honda was out of the question. I would have had a few pulled muscles and at least a broken tail bone! This was the best part. Excellent ride!

I did need a pull once. I knew the ice was thin, but wasn't sure how deep the water was under it. I broke through, and almost layed it on it's side on the edge of the creek. Stopped and assessed the suituation. When my leg was under water up to my knee and still not on bottom, I decided not to push it any farther and climbed off. Got my son to pull me back out. Didn't go in that area again. It probably would have been fine with a straight crossing, but not sideways which put me very close to a roll over. Icy water is not my friend!

I did cross elsewhere where I knew the water was only about a foot deep. It is a 4 foot wide spot and is 3 feet deep from the grass to the bottom. Went straight down, and climbed right back up and out perfectly. Lot's of fun too!

The absolute best part was the fenders! On every other ATV's I've ridden, when going through water ladden ditches, I get soaked. When going through slippery mud, I get muddy. When we got home, everyone else was covered with mud and what was by then a layer of frozen water. I was dry and generally clean! The fenders caught the mud and threw it away from me. That's not to say I didn't get a little wet. I did hit one hole so hard that it was like rain everywhere, and I could feel the icicles forming as the water dripped back off my hair. (I don't wear a helmet, get over it.) Normal riding though didn't spash mud and water towards me, it went out and down better.

Looking forward to the next ride already. I am glad I picked the Rincon out over all the others.

 

Excellent. I'm glad you are happy with the new machine.

 

Thats cool. Alot of people like to bash the Rincon for everything under the sun, But I truely love mine. I'm glad you liked yours also. But that 55mph top speed?? I know when they are new they need to break in. But that seems very slow. Mine will hit 64 on the rev limiter. Give it some break in time and it should pick up. Maybe the dealer has the trottle cable set to where it won't go wide open for break in purposes. I've heard of this with some quads.
But I'm glad you really are enjoying it.

 

If you haven't already, make sure you become a member at rinconriders.com too!

 

Congrats! Great report!

 

Do me a favor if you will. Find a steep rocky technical downhill, and ride down it and tell us how it goes. The Rincon has no engine braking below 8 mph (even Honda says that), so I can personally imagine that a long steep descent with a death grip on the brakes would not be a completely pleasent riding experience (vs most quads that have "stop you dead" engine braking).

Let us know how it fares.......thanks!

 

I realy dont understand why reconranger has to bash on the Rincon., ok so you have to use the brakes. BFD if you learn and know how to ride then using the brakes is no big deal.

reconranger what do you have against the Rincon? jealous that you don't have one. couldn't handle one if you did.?
look just leave them alone. they like the ATV THEY bought,
didn't you mom ever tell you "If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all"?

maybe you should learn that.

HR

 

You think a lack of engine braking is something the salesman is going to point out to a prospective buyer as he gets out his check book and eyes the shiney new quad that he has wanted to get for months??????

This is one of those "buyer beware" things and something every prospective owner needs to know! My goal is that somebody thinking about purchasing one of these, will read the posts and make an informed inteligent decision as to whether they can live without engine braking or they really don't care. THIS IS WHAT THE FORUM IS FOR, A PLACE TO FIND OUT THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY BEFORE YOU SPEND YOUR MONEY!

And, I am interested in jkane's personal opinion on the issue, and am wondering if he did or didn't know about this before making his purchase????

 

give reconranger a break, he always lists both the positives and negatives of the autos from experience, right?

who needs a honest salesman with reconranger protecting everyone, even though anyone that understands automatics knows the engine braking isn't up to that of a manual. just because he hammers that home every time he gets a chance doesn't mean he's bashing. it may look like it, but I'm sure he's just looking out for his fellow atvers[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

However, I never see him tell everyone what a pain in the butt it is to change the oil filter on Hondas. Or how much stiffer other Hondas ride when compared to the Rincon[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img]

 

I have a longer story on rinconriders.com. I did this one first, and forgot about the braking part here. So here's my opinion. Oh ... yes, I did know about that potential problem because I searched here and elsewhere and read all posts related to Rincons before I bought it.

Although I didn't get to a long downhill slope yet (trails in Wisconsin were closed the past couple of weeks due to wet warm weather), I did get it on a mile long open gravel road. I am used to letting off the gas and having the engine bring the thing to almost a stop without hardly using any brakes. I noticed that when letting off the gas to turn, I had to hit the brakes very much harder than previous machines. That means I need to start stopping ahead of time, not take it back and get a different machine!

You asked for opinion, so here it is! If you buy a Rincon, you are probably paying a little more than most comparably sized quads. Therefore, you are not necessarly looking for the "tear the trail up" kind of ATV. You are looking for a reliable comfortable machine that does "almost" everything.

The difference in the engine braking is no more different than it is between a truck with automatic transmission and one with a manual. Going downhill in my Jeep I sometimes gain speed. On my Harley, I don't unless I pull the clutch in. I like both rides!

I realize that when I go down long steep grades with the Rincon, I will have to treat it like my Jeep. I would never take my Harley off road, so that's not a fair example. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img] The example of my Jeep in off road conditions is the same though. I don't have a standard transmission Wrangler. I have an automatic Grand Cherokee. I prefer every other aspect of the Grand Cherokee over the Wrangler. Same with this ATV. I prefer every other quality of the Rincon over my Arctic Cat, and even my old Honda.

I hope this explains clearly why having weak engine braking is not a big problem.