MUDBLASTER,
Sounds to me like you might be riding your Ruby to church or just plain dirt roads?..If thats the case,that explains WHY you still have brake shoes left and WHY they still work..Honda has some of the worst sealed up drum style brakes on the planet[next to the old style King Quad by Suzuki]..If you dont ride in the mud/water to often,than you will be fine..But I promise you,if you do alot of mudding in mud/water,soon,you would be CUSSING up a storm about drum style brakes,and its not just Honda's either.I owned a new Rincon for over 2 years,it has a REAR disk brake and front DRUMS,YEP,the front drum seals LEAK!!!

If you desire a full time 4x4 so you dont 'forget' to put it in 4x4 in a bad situation,instead of the luxury of an easier steering ATV with less steering effort in 2wd,while cruising terrain that only requires a 2x4 ATV,than perhaps you need more time in real OFF ROAD situations to help you NOT forget??In 22 yrs of riding ATVS,I can only recall ONE time where I forgot to engage the 2x4 button into 4x4 when needed to..

Your buddie on the 400 that can go ANYWHERE the big bores go and he has 26inch tires??We maybe the stuff you guys ride in,but to say he can go anywhere the big bores go and FURTHER,is just an indication to the more experienced riders in here that you guys dont ride in extreme off road conditions..Where im from,a 400cc Honda will be left stranded in the mud,with little or maybe NO brakes..Poor ground clearance,no front 4x4 locker,poor wheel speed,are all a disaster just waiting to happen in the right conditions..

If you dont ride in extreme off road conditions,you buddies 4x4 400 Honda will be just FINE..But just like the remote control on your TV,once you have your FIRST taste of a remote control TV,your most likely not ever going to be buying another TV without that feature..

Remember your CORDLESS phone?I bet you are'nt going to be owning a phone anytime soon that has a cord either,once you try a cordless phone..

ATVs are allways changing,some much faster than others.

 

The honda 'fun factor' doesn't kick in for us die hards, until your kawazuki or yami has broken down and we are still riding. What do you expect to have dancing monkeys when you walk into the honda show room? They have hung their hat's on reliability. Granted a covey of doves doesn't fly out of my *** either, but they last and are pretty much bullet proof.

One man's humble thoughts.

 

Being a DIE HARD Honda fan is OK with me,as long as its what YOU like..Being a 22 yr verteran of the sport of ATVing,I honestly beleive that there WAS a time when Honda ATVs were sold on their reliability record,but thats just not the truth anymore,at least not since 2002 or so..

Im a member of Michigans largest growing ATV club,and we have ALL types of ATVs,and NONE of the newer model manufactures ATVs appear to be breaking down anymore than the rest,in fact,we,as a club,have very FEW breakdowns at all since 2002 or so?And in every circumstance I was involved in,those that did have a problem,were allways able to make it back to the parking lot on their own,except ONCE[tow was needed]..BUT,those ATVs that needed to be TOWED from a mud-pit,were allmost allways the ATVs without front differential lockers,and since Honda does not offer a diff lock on any of their ATVs,Honda tops that list.

Many Die-Hard Honda riders are 'slowly'walking away from Honda and are starting to go to the other ATVs to feed their appitite for features that are factory on the other manufactures ATVs,I seen this every week when I sold ATVs...

 

As a reliability engineer, I am here to tell you that your sample population and X-bar are no where near representative of the mue, or population mean. Michigan does not represent accurately all riding conditions and weather climates and riding styles. It sounds like you are predominantly a trail/mud club. Which I am not knocking. But you have to remember the inclimatic areas, i.e. Alaska, Sahara desert, Baha, MX, Hill climbs, etc. and the taxes that those styles impose on a machine.
Also, post 2002 machines have not been in the field long enough to warrant general wear/tear failure modes.
Take a 22 year stretch, find your X-bar and point of inflection, I think you will find Honda to have a much tighter distribution than any of it's competitors.

Also, you need a sample population from each demographic area, with a equal distribution of quads from each segment to truly be representative. What you have presented is a perception.

Look I like the kawazukis' and Yamahas rip man. But my little ole 400ex hangs with them and I have never had a problem. I guess I am skewed too to my own preference also.

out---

 

I agree,my sample is only a PERCEPTION of the reliablilty for the 2002 and newer quads,but one thing that is not a perception is the amount of folks that are leaving Honda since 2002..I do not have the sales figures directly in front of me,but I recall that dating back to 2002,Honda had a NARROW lead in the overall sales of ATV manufactures,with Polaris being just a little behind them.

Look all the way back to the early 90s when Honda dominated more than 50% of all ATV sales in the industry?I beleive they are just at about 28-30% now of the total sales of the ATV market?...A decline most every year..

Ever WONDER WHY that is?

 

No, not really. I should have thought it was pretty obvious. More models, more manufacturers, more applications.
1992-Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha

2002-Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha, Polaris, Bombardier, Arctic Cat, Cannondale

Pricing incentives and rebates have been a big driver for sales drops. People are often currency conscious, and a lower or no downpayment with a low long term monthly payment sells the brand quad. That is why you see the advertisement for $0 down, $79/month........ They call that a pricing war.

The other prevailing factor is 'newness'. Americans flat out like latest and greatest brandnew whiz bang stuff. Honda, due to their Japanese culture, don't understand that restyling something every few years makes it more exciting to American buyers. They would rather continuously improve the product and process and reliability. That is called Kaizen. Which is Japanese for 100% perfection. Or a 6-sigma. That is why everyone sits on here and complains why Honda hasn't come out with something new. They don't feel the need yet. Americans don't purchase for reliability, they prefer to purchase something that is new, looks cooler and goes like hell.

But you are starting to see purchasing preference shifts in America. That is why the Toyota Camry outsells every other car. Because it is based on value not whiz bang styling.

 

I guess for Honda to be on the leadingg edge they will have to do the same as all the other manafacturer's and use the same crappy belt drive that everyone else has!!!!

How does copying a drive system used for decades by snowmobiles and even quite a number of years by ATV's make you a leader in technology???

Suspension, have you rode a rincon...brakes, have you seen the new forman 500, honda's selectable 4wd system is an actual transfer case, not a BS AWD setup that engages the wheels only after slipage. Not all features span accross the entire line up, but that's the same for all manafacturers. The Rincon's nicer then the forman, the Grizley's nicer than the big bear and so on.

The only technology I'd like to see in a honda ATV is a manual activated front diff lock. For now the aftermarket has hooke me up just fine there.

Like someone else said, there must be thousands of very stupid people out there that continue to make Honda the best selling ATV out there.

 

mud is not everything.

 

oh and for the brakes i ride in everthing i come across and iv bin in my share of mud too.
but when i get home i wash and clean my quad and i think thats why they still work great.
and i do it every time i get home from riding.

 

BTW just for your information i live in northern BC Canada and its raining almost 70% of the time.
so theres no shortage of mud.
we just dont go looking for mud every time we go riding if it shows up we play if not oh well we ride on.
we have so many places to ride that we take what ever is there mud or not.
but there is always a dirt road we ride to get to the trails we are going to.
we ride alot of mountain trails and theres lots of mud and ruts big hills small hills all kinds of downed timber and other things.
and i do what ever it takes to get where are going and if it means going through mud up to the bumper the so be it.
but like i said already i wash it up good when i get home and everthing still works great.
and if that makes you mad that i still have brakes and you dont oh well.
try cleaning you honda and taking care of it and the brakes will last longer along with the rest of it.
dont go away mad just go away.