I am about to buy the Honda 450s 4x4 and was wondering what the top speed of this bike is and do you find this to be sufficient .

 

The top speed is about 49. I usually only see about 47, but she stretch out 49 every now and then. That's with 250 lbs on her back(me)!! I really don't think weight matters much. It'll do 47 with me on it or with me and another grown man too. It likes the work!! The motor is hungry to be put to the test. It usually wins too!!

Sufficient: Yes!

 

53 mph down hill with stiff wind 180 lb.

Verry good dependable guad.I own a 400 ex and ride with my bud who owns the 450es 99, Great tag team.Watch out for your buddies trying to load up your racks with there stuff.Works for me, and thankfull.

Just found out frame may be bent on es due to some unintenchanle gymnastic summer salts.Don,t know how bad yet.

 

My 99 ES will do 51 on pavement

 

Hang on there, Honda Just may be comming out with something cool in the near future, If you want more speed like me, you may want to wate and see what honda is planning. I just rode my friends 99'450s and it was begging for another gear at 40mph. Kinda felt like driving the family car to town in 3rd gear. But if you dont need speed the quad is by far the best choice. My 2 cents, Joe

 

That was where you probably should have shifted it into fifth there bud.

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Andy Bassham *(1999 Arctic Cat 500 4x4, 1989 Honda 300)*

 

It pulls hard all the way through 5th, why not add a sixth gear honda?

 

Andy dude, come on now.. i know it will scream 50+ but so will my toyota truck in 2nd!! What honda needs to do is bring back the dual range, My 84'200ES big red in high range smokes his new 450S on the road and still has a lower gear in Low range! I have 100's of miles to cover and i perfer not to do it at 6,200 PRM as noted on my tach at 45MPH on the 450s. Just my 2 cents, Joe

 

As you can see, it is late and i cant type. RPM. Joe

 

JRM- I agree with you big time on the hi/lo range. I think honda should add it to all of their utilities. The super low first is awesome, but I would rather be without it if I'm just riding on level ground. Also, the reverse is major slow. It would be nicer to have 2 different reverse speeds as well. The old yamaha 225 I used to ride had dual range and it was a blessing. You could ride it all day in hi and then gear it to low range for rough stuff and climbing. When we got the 300 honda, I forgot all about a need for low range with the super low 1st. It was as low as the yamaha's low range 1st. Now that I have this 500 Arctic Cat, I can see the advantages more clearly. First runs pretty good, not so low that it is slow, and not so high that it doesn't pull good. Low range is a monster low. The other plus is that I have a dual range reverse as well.(though it doesn't say anywhere in the brochure). In regular conditions, It will back up about 3 times as fast as the honda 300 will. If I need to crawl it backwards up the ramps into the truck, I can shift it into low range and it really slows down the reverse. I think honda should put it on the 300's, and even the 450's for that matter. They had dual range on the trx 200 in 1984, but dropped it for the 250 fourtrax. Its a good thing to have I think.

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Andy Bassham *(1999 Arctic Cat 500 4x4, 1989 Honda 300)*