This question might be getting old by now but I am thinking about buying a 500 manual
shift 2005 4X4 Foreman and I need some input from people who have bought one. I did do a search
on the forum but I didn't find too much info. I do alot of easy trail riding with only a little bit
of muddy crappy stuff on occasion. I may use the bike to plow, I'm not sure yet. I don't want a
bike with a belt, call be old fashioned. I like to shift gears and I like the feel of a SRA. I live
in Northern Ontario so having a liquid cooled bike is not much of an advantage to me, if the bike is running in 120 degree weather that means I was drunk and ran into the neighbors sauna. I will not
pound the crap out of my bike and I plan to keep this one for a long time. The most impotant thing
to me is reliability. A fancy elastic band transmission bike is no fun when its in the shop, or when
the belt housing fills up with water (done that) and you have to get towed back to the
truck (did that too, Honda 300 pulled me). I am wondering how much smoother the 500 is over
the old 450. The dealer told me they softened the bike up this year (good thing) and that it rides
alot smoother than the old ones. I am also wondering about fuel economy, I know the old 300's
seemed like the gas tanks were sealed up from the factory, you just never had to put gas in the little
buggers. Please let me know good or bad, I am looking to buy a new bike in the next week or so.

 

Anyone know of any online reviews of the machine? The only one I found was from
atv connection, they had a good review IMO.

 

https://atvconnection.com/atvconnect...oreman-500.cfm

I need another 4X4, and I am thinking this may be the one???

 

I recently purchased a Yellow Honda 500 Foreman manual shift 4x4 to replace my former machine which kept breaking down. Many questions have been posed about the Foreman and I will attempt to answer most of them in this review.
First – with tax, title, etc I paid $6100 out the door here in W.V., yes it can be found for a bit less but until I take all the time to drive 100’s of miles and fill the tank of the truck several times I figure it was not worth it. I also like the idea of buying local to help make sure I have a dealer in the years to come.
As for the machine, it was delivered in excellent condition and I only noticed one flaw. The headlight cover seems to be loosely attached and vibrated a tiny bit, but once you are riding it is totally unnoticeable and not an issue. I agree with other reviewers that Honda should have placed a headlight shut-off switch for the handlebar light on the bike as a standard feature and not as an option. But at approximately $15.00 I guess I will be forking up for that real soon. The only other “strange” thing I noticed was that if the operator wants to check the oil (and you always should), you need to unsnap and remove a small black panel on the left side of the machine so that you may access the engine oil dip stick. This is inconvenient and sort of silly to place a item that should be monitored before every ride behind a plastic panel. On my personal machine I have removed the panel and placed it in the garage for safe keeping. The funny thing is no one has noticed it is “missing” and it does not truly affect the ascetics of the machine. I say lose the silly trim Honda, let’s keep this simple. If I wanted complex I sure would not have bought a manual shift, solid rear axle (SRA) machine!
Upon firing the Honda up I noticed it starts quickly and only appears to be a tad bit cold blooded. I allowed the machine to idle for about 5 minutes then kicked a leg over it and planned to hit the trail. I met with an interesting surprise; I could not shift it into first gear with my foot! I ended up having to reach down and pull the shifter up with my hand to get it to engage its first forward gear. I quickly ran the machine through the gears while sitting still then went back to neutral. From this time on the machine shifted perfectly (by foot) and never stuck again. I was told the Honda tranny is a little stiff at first and this seemed to be true!
After a stiff start I headed out on the Hatfield and McCoy Waterways trail to do some real test. The first thing I noted was fist gear is LOW. I mean real low!! If you want to pull a plow for a food plot, tow a LARGE load, then this is the gear for you. If you want to do a normal trail ride, skip first and just start in 2nd. I ended up riding the entire day and think I only kicked it down to first gear one time and that was for a massively steep downhill that had a 90 degree bend in the middle of it. This was the only time I even shifted to first; most of the testing was done in 2nd and 3rd. The machine performed extremely well in numerous rough and rocky climbs. It performed so well I very rarely even shifted the machine into four wheel drive. Most of the day’s adventure was easily conducted in 2 wheel drive with the factory tires. Speaking of factory tires, they are not the best tires I have ever ridden on. They tend to allow the machine to have a little roll in sharp downhill corners and a small amount of plowing. All for all, as factory tires go they are not too bad, I personally will replace them with a 6 ply rated tire that better suits my needs.
The ride itself is impressive for a SRA machine. It is not as soft and plush as an independent rear suspension systems but it is a LOT better than the machines of the past. It gets a little bumpy on the real rocky sections but nothing that will cause most people any problems. The suspension seems to be able to carry a load fairly well and really keeps the machine planted to the ground. I can not get over how stable the machine feels. I made a few errors through out the day and picked a bad line here and there and the machine recovered without a hiccup. A few times I side hilled some rutted out sections of trail that should have pushed the machines ability to stay on four wheels but it felt like it was glued to the ground!
The question I hear over and over is can a sub 500cc machine “do the job.” One word – YES! The motor is excellent, from the smooth idle all the way to the redline. It pulls strong but does not produce a “hang on to the bars for dear life” rush of power. It has more than enough power for normal trail riding and with the super low first gear it should perform with the best of them in the work world. This motor is smooth and has plenty of beans to get you where you want to go. No, you are not going to outrun a Brute Force 750, Sportsman 800, or even a Prairie 700, but then again this is not what the machine is designed for.
You will catch the faster bike soon enough if you play it smart. Why you ask? Because of the excellent fuel mileage! I was highly impressed with how far this thing will go on a tiny bit of fuel! After three hours of riding, up and down hills, rocky terrain, mud and some higher speed runs I only used about 1 gallon of fuel! I thought the fuel gauge was broke until I looked in the tank and the gas was really still in there. I am not one of these people that are “worried” about fuel economy on an ATV but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised knowing I won’t always need to haul extra fuel with me when I go out riding!
I would highly recommend the Honda Foreman 500 to anyone looking for a comfortable and fun trail and work quad. There are many choices out there but if this Honda holds up like the past Foreman’s I doubt I could have picked a better quad for my intended purposes.
Ride safe!

 

Ditto from the above post. I like mine. Stiff shifting until it warms up. Plenty of power.
Excelent engine braking (about the only time I use first gear). This is my first quad so
I cannot compare it to any other. If the bike lasts the way people say hondas will I would
be very pleased with my purchase. I cannot say anything bad about it.

 

I like mine also. Like you guys, mine can be notchy shifting the first time through the gears after the first start of the day.

Like you, Derky, I'm not a fan of belts, and value long term reliability over drag race performance.

A full day of riding can kill a tank of gas. It seems to use about the same fuel as my riding buddy's Rincon 650. Low gear is great for technical decents, decent ride for SRA (Doesn't hold a candle to the Rincon's IRS).

Access for valve adjustment (like the oil dipstick) takes a few minutes, but it isn't too bad.

Overall, I'm very happy with mine.

 

It's been a long while since I've looked at new bikes, can anyone give me a comparison (advantages/disadvantages) of the Foreman and the Rubicon?

 

My freind got a 05 Foreman and he loves it but wont change the oil![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]

Dont know why?

 

Sportster,

Essentially the Rubicon is liquid cooled and uses a hydromechanical transmission. Essentially it is an automatic, though it has a mode where it emulates gears by letting you select a variety of ratios.

The Foreman is air cooled, 5 speed gear on gear transmission. It does have two oil coolers, and an electric fan. Liquid cooled engines generally allow tighter clearances inside due to more stable temps, and usually allow a higher state of tune/more power.

Air cooled, on the other hand, means no radiator to break, clog, or whatever, no coolant to change, no water pump...

The Foreman can be had in 2WD, 4wd foot shift, and 4wd with an electric shift system (up and down buttons on the bar).

Hope that helps. I think both are good machines.

 

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

I have an '05 Foreman S 2/4wd manual shift with a 2500 lbs. Warn winch.
I bought it about a week ago and so far have scratched the crap out of the rubber finder flares and managed to get stuck up to my knees is a so called "puddle".

My wife got a '04 Rancher AT (auto) 2/4wd at the same time i bought mine and she has gone through everything i have and then some. I like to ride hers when I want to zoom through the trails at a higher speed, i can't do that on mine b/c of the width. It's too wide to make some of the tight turns.

I had a honda fourtrax 300 and compared to the foreman that i have now. it is like going from a mini cooper to a 18-wheeler....tons of power!!! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]