Most of the friends we ride with are on utility style quads here in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. They seam to be more popular that the sport models due to the riding conditions and type of terrain we usually are in.

Personally I still prefer to ride a sport quad.

 

Yes, popular here for the farmers and ranchers. Many of them have owned trx300, trx400 and trx450's in the past and are sold on their reliability and low cost of maintanance. They upgrade to the 500 over the liquid cooled/auto tranny units for this reason. I do not see these units in for a lot of major repairs as apposed to others.

----- gimpster -----

 

As you know I am new to this game. I was going to buy a Rancher 420 based mostly on what I read here on this forum and the advise of my nephew who owns one. When I talked to the dealer he showed me where he sells the Foreman models two to one over any of the other Honda utillity ATV's. He said it was a good solid platform and had been around a long time. I also liked the fact it was a carb model. I am sort of the old school type. I would have bought the standard shift but he priced the ES to me for the same price and he said I could convert it if I wanted to later. JMHO

 

The Foreman is very popular, here, too. I don't think I'm alone in prefering to shift with my foot, and it will do everything the Rubicon will do, but is cheaper and simpler. The Rubicon is very reliable, but if you were unfortunate enough to get muddy water in the oil and not realize it, transmission repairs could get spendy.

Though people think of it as a work machine, the Foreman actually handles very predictably and I find it fun to push the limit sliding around corners. I also like it in steep conditions or in big rocks (except that it could use more ground clearance). Overall, it's a rock solid, simple as a stone axe quad. Although it isn't likely to win drag races (unless it's a race to 10,000 miles to see who has the fewest repairs), I still find it to be a fun trail quad.


Reconranger: Have you had a chance to take one for a real ride?

I know you are happy with the smaller Rancher, but I bet if you took one out on the trail with an open mind, you would have a good time.

 

i think my next quad will be the foreman for a couple reasons, bigger motor , bigger quad, and a great mudder.(as good as honda gets) i also like it cause its still air-cooled. they are not to awfully heavy either. great mid-sized quad!!! and im from the ohio /ky/wv, area. there are quite a few here!!!

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: JeffinTDReconranger: Have you had a chance to take one for a real ride? I know you are happy with the smaller Rancher, but I bet if you took one out on the trail with an open mind, you would have a good time.</end quote></div>

I'm not really in the market right now for another ute. Certainly if I ever felt like I needed anything larger than the Ranchers, the Foreman would be my first choice.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>I'm not really in the market right now for another ute. Certainly if I ever felt like I needed anything larger than the Ranchers, the Foreman would be my first choice. </end quote></div>

I didn't necessarily mean that you would want to buy one, just that it's fun to get a ride on different machines to have a first hand experience about how they handle and feel.

Actually, I've often thought that if you got a chance to ride a Rincon for a full day in bumpy rough trails, and went into it with an open mind... You probably wouldn't change your mind that you don't like them, but I'd bet you would see where they do have their strong points and why some people might enjoy riding them...

 

Around here the 500 foreman sales have increased greatly because of the power steering. They are a blast to ride to.