Certainly you are entitled to your opinion. Yes I am. Thank you. That is all I gave.

However I am not the first, nor will I be the last person to make this adjustment. I'm sure this is true also. Do what you want to your machine, after all it's yours.

I have yet to hear from anyone who has tried it and had any problems. I'm sure this is true as well.

Honda suggests 3.5 lbs of air for the tires but Highlifter suggests 6 lbs on their tips page. I will always follow the Manufactures specs, or the specs on the tires sidewall.

All this to suggest that Honda's specs are the "safe" ones, not necessarily the best ones. A "safe" ride is. Well, "safe."

BTW, the ground clearance is the same on the two bikes. At least on the two that I own. I didn't mention anything about Ground clearance.

 

Good post. I certainly respect your opinion. However as a point of clarification you certainly did mention ground clearance.

From your Sept 21 post:

"The Rancher has better ground clearance and sharper turning radius."

Temp

 

So, I did... Sorry no total recall here. Not to start a war. But, according to Honda's website the difference is.

Foreman 450ES Ground Clearance: 7.7 inches
Rancher ES Ground Clearance: 9.7 inches

Is this a misprint?

 

I also would like to add to this topic, although it may not fit with the topic of this post. ‘Hiofcer’ is correct about the ground clearance. Also I do agree with his post about “leave it stock”.

As this is my opinion I would like to give my reasons…

1. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…
2. Warranty
3. Engineers thought of the stuff we do not think of…
4. Warranty
5. Why take the chance to make it worse?
6. Warranty
7. And last but not least…warranty.

Please, once again these are opinions, I am not bashing anyone. And if you have an endless supply of money, knock your self out, modify it. But for the rest of us that don’t have a money surplus, why take the chance of modifying a parameter/setting that an engineer has set? If these changes improve the machine characteristics, possible the engineers have found this, but also ,they may have found a draw back(wear and tear), thus, leaving it where it is.

I also believe this to be true with most ‘ATV add-ons’. Large diameter tires change to whole gearing ratio throughout the machine. Different air filters change the air-fuel mixture. Daisy chaining lights off of the existing lights add more current on the wiring and charging system. These are all parameters that are/were designed be engineers who spend all of there time, well, ….engineering.

I am not totally opposing these modifications, but I would sure check out my warranty information. Voiding this and trying to blame the shop or manufacture, could lead to a dead end.

Ride and ride often.

Schtick

 

Greetings,

Gotta agree -- I've thought the same basic thing for a long time. Sure you can squeeze more out of these machines, but you don't get something for nothing -- and that cost is usually measured in reliability and longevity.

No one is saying don't do it, just recognize that trade-offs are inevitable.

 

rancher

 

GET THE FOREMAN

DON'T GET ES!

.....tehe

never riden a 350, but riden a 450es a bit, and yuk!....floor boards and electric shift doesn't cut it for me

the es ties up you left hand
the floor boards collect dirt, a don't allow you to move to get low on the bike for fast turns....(your foot sits flat).....not to mention the problems with the electronic shift....

other than that the 450 goes well handles well.....just wish they come with some manly tires to start with!

 

It would be close but I think that I would take the 450.

Temp

 

Thank You schtick. You explained my point much better than I could have.

 

It appears that I am in the minority on this issue but that is fine. I am not advocating radical changes to any bike (unless of course that is what the owner wants) but rather tweaking that makes it a bit more enjoyable. What we are talking about here are two things:

1) running 6 lbs of air in the tires as opposed to 3.5 - 4. Hardly a radical, warranty voiding change
2) adjusting the toe out to 1/4". Will this void warranty? Maybe but I am not sure. I do know that it makes the bike handle better and no one that I know of has experieinced a problem because of this.

It is worth noting that Honda has a relatively low rack weight rating but that has not stopped folks from adding such things as rear seats and there does not seem to be any public outcry about that. Some folks have suggested that Honda tends to understate capacities. Go figure.

Minor mods are just that .... minor mods. In the snowmobile world we regularly change gears, springs, ramps, etc. without voiding the warranty. Why? Because these are minor mods that may suit the individual rider better and do not void warranty.

I would suggest that it is matter of degree. Radical changes..... you are in a risky area. Minor changes ... you are just tweaking.

Concerning the ground clearance of the Foreman and the Rancher .... as I have stated before, I own both (2000 models). Sitting on my level, concrete garage floor they measure the same beneath the rear differential (7.7") and the frame (9.5"). They both have 5.5 - 6 lbs of air in the tires. Who knows, maybe the decreased toe out gave the Foreman and extra 2". ;-)

Temp