Our hunting season is winding down here in Utah and I've been lucky enough this year to go on quite a few hunting trips. And most of them involved ATV riding through some pretty nasty country. As things worked out, I rode a lot of my buddy's atv's this year instead of my own. One particular trip involved a 79 mile round trip through the deserts of Southern Utah in which my tires only touched soil for about 4 of those miles. The rest was on boulders and slickrock. Well, to make a long story short, this ride was taken on a Honda Rancher, and boy was that a mistake! Honestly, I almost looked like I'd gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson by the time it was over. The insides of my knees were black and blue from bashing into the gas tank and my butt was so sore that I had to lean back in my seat for a week. Even my elbows and wrists hurt!
Now, my Wolverine's aren't the nicest riding machines in the world, but I know for a fact that I would have been half as bruised and half as fatigued riding them instead of the Honda. I just couldn't believe how bad of a ride that Honda was. The trip would have been a blast on any other atv but it was nothing but a chore on the Honda.

Then about two weeks later, I ended up riding a Honda Foreman into similar country but about half the distance as before. I honestly didn't think I was going to survive the trip. At one point, I just had to stop and walk down the road about a mile just to get off the damn machine! I would have rather walked out than ride that Honda but my buddy would have been upset about me ditching his ride in the hills!

Now, to back up a bit, I rode the Paiute trail a bit this summer and at one point, we were sitting off the side of the trail for about an hour having lunch when my buddy commented on how many Hondas were going by. So I started paying attention to it and he was right. About 3 out of 5 Atv's going down the trail were if fact Hondas. It started to dawn on me how many folks in Utah own Hondas. It's actually kinda shocking. Here we are in one of the roughest riding areas in the country and the majority of people own the worst riding atv's on the market! Yes, they are reliable. Yes, they have decent resale value. Yes, they have been around a long time. But after putting in over 100 miles on Hondas this year, I'm convinced you couldn't GIVE ME one of the damn things! I'd rather have a $6,000 bicycle!

Why oh why hasn't Honda kept up with new technology in their ATV's like they have in their motorcycles? They have the worst ride, the worst suspension travel, the worst engine braking, the most outdated electronics, and the worst ground clearance of any machine I can think of. Their flagship model is not even as good as a lot of the other brands mid-level entries. I just can't figure this out. Anybody else feel this way?

By the way, I did get to ride something besides a Honda on two trips this year. Did a bit on a Can Am outlander 800 and it was awesome. The other was a 650 Kawa Prairie and I loved it. In fact, I was involved in a pretty scary flash flood on that Prairie where I was racing down a slot canyon as the water began to rise up all around me. Luckily, because of the quality of the machine and size of it's engine, I was able to beat the majority of the flood down the stream bed. If I'd been riding a Honda, I would have been washed away for sure simply because you can't ride them as fast over rough terrain. Food for thought......

 

[quote=kick start;3075186] Honestly, I almost looked like I'd gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson by the time it was over. The insides of my knees were black and blue from bashing into the gas tank and my butt was so sore that I had to lean back in my seat for a week. Even my elbows and wrists hurt!
Now, my Wolverine's aren't the nicest riding machines in the world, but I know for a fact that I would have been half as bruised and half as fatigued riding them instead of the Honda. I just couldn't believe how bad of a ride that Honda was. The trip would have been a blast on any other atv but it was nothing but a chore on the Honda.

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well at least it didn't bite your ear off!. seriously though. sorry you had a bad experience. i for one haven't had the "pleasure" of living through what you described. my polaris is good for fast/rough rides as in your flood situation. the faster the trailblazer goes, the smoother the ride. my grizzly is rough and tough and doesn't beat me around on rough terrain like you described. thanks for the advice! i would like to see honda catch up with the other brands also!

 

IRS machines are tons better for riding comfort. I rode my son's Polaris ATP which was a quad with a dumpbox and a solid rear axle. Tough machine. Rear springs were rated for a 400 lb. payload and we loaded it with heavy wood and gear many times. He sold it and got a Renegade 500 which is a much more fun machine to put it mildly. Comparing his ATP to my Sportsman X2 which also has 400 lb. rated rear suspension but with IRS shows what an amazing difference there is between a solid axle and IRS with the same rated weight carrying. I can ride my X2 with a bad disk in my back pretty much all day. I can't say the same for the ATP with the straight axle. It was brutal. I can understand why he decided to get a different quad.

 

Wow,maybe you're a little soft? The reason that Honda doesn't keep up with the "Jones" is because they don't have to. They've perfected proven technology. As far as IRS goes,there's a reason pickup trucks have a straight axle instead of IRS,RELIABILITY. Why wasn't you riding your own atv,was it broke down? We've had Honda atv's for 28 yrs. and I wouldn't ride anything else.

 

Actually, I'm just the opposite. I'm not soft enough! Maybe I need to be a fat couch potato to ride Honda's!? You know, have a spare tire or two for cushioning?

But seriously, the technology they've proven was (and is) from the 80's and 90's. You can't sit (literally) on that for two decades and expect to lead the pack anymore. You say, "We've had Honda atv's for 28 yrs. and I wouldn't ride anything else". As Tim Wilson would say, "Well therrrres yer problem". You obviously haven't BEEN on anything else to know the difference! I've had a 1983 Suzuki lt125 for 28 years too but that doesn't mean I'd want to even think about taking it where we went riding. It just doesn't have the tech to make it an enjoyable ride. And I just don't see the point in sticking with a certain brand year after year if better and more fitting machines are available from other manufacturers. Claiming brand loyaltie just for the sake of it instead of exploring other options has never made much sense to me.

My Wolverines utilize solid rear axles as does the Prairie I rode and they are in fact, very reliable. But those machines ride so much nicer than the Hondas that there isn't even a comparison.

And no, my atv's weren't broke down. They just simply weren't loaded up on the particular trailer we hauled down during scouting season. Sometimes it's just easier to hitch up with whatever was left on the trailer than switch everything around. But in hindsight, it would have been far less painful to just take the time to do it.

 

Actually it is for payload capacity, not "reliability". There is a reason only trucks have a straight axle. They ride like CRAP!!! Give me IRS, 4wd (not 3wd), power steering and horse power any day.

 

Proven "technology" like drum brakes,non adjustable shocks (guess they know best how to set up your personal quad) and no engine braking (until recently)??? I have to agree with most of the others here, Honda, while reliable, does so by using very old. solid parts, while the other manufacturers have jumped way ahead in the area of suspension, brakes, and engines/transmissions. A fluid drive tranny on an ATV may not have been the way to go, quads take a lot more abuse than a car or truck with the same type of auto tranny. Honda was a leader from the start of the ATV creation, but seems to have just laid back and let everyone else fly by for the last decade or so.

 

Honda is still using mostly 19th century automotive technology. Sure it's been perfected in the last 120 years but that doesn't make it the best available. As long as they stay decades behind eveyone else I won't buy one.

 

My Rubicon has adjustable shocks,engine braking,and I'll take a gear driven tranny over belt drive any day.I don't seem to have any trouble with my drum brakes either.I've ridden my couisin's Suzuki,my buddy's Polaris,and it wasn't enough of a difference to make me wish I had one.

 

The Rubicon is certainly a better machine than the Fourtrax or Foreman that I rode. That being said, the Rubicon still has less suspension travel of comparable models from other brands, and has less ground clearance too. It also isn't rated to haul as much or tow as much. And there's no differential lock of any kind on it or their flagship model. Speaking of their flagship model, last time I looked, they still hadn't put a low range on it.

The gear drive vs. belt drive issue has long been put to rest. When Polaris first came out with it way back in '86 I think it was, the rest of the ATV industry said the same thing you did. Now, every one of the 7 major manufacturers except Honda has gone with the belt drive transmission. If it didn't work, it wouldn't be so prevalent.

As for the Honda drum brake and engine braking (or lack thereof), I don't even want to go there.......