Im sure you've seen this thread over and over befor, but can somebody tell me how well the Hondamatic holds up? I have my eye on a 07 Honda Rubicon for 5100$ It has about 600 miles on it.. is that a good deal? Or should I be looking into belt drives? I honestly dont want another kickshift, I almost broke my foot once with that.. Then I installed a set of HEAVY DUTY Metal footpegs that go from the back to front fender. And how do the plastic footpegs hold up on todays new fourwheelers? Well, Thanks in advance for all of your time and effort!

 

The Hondamatic holds up pretty well. I have an 05 Rubicon that has almost 7000 miles and no problems with the transmission so far, knock on wood. I don't know about plastic footpegs, but my rubicon has metal footpegs and had no trouble with them.

I'd say buy the rubicon. That seems like a good deal. I don't think you will be disappointed with your purchase.

 

How does the tranny do pulling heavy loads though? My buddy had a hondamatic that busted a bearing and he had to junk the fourwheeler.. They wont sell just a bearing, they sell the whole new hondamatic unit for about 1000$ And if yours has 7000 miles on it, thats quite a bit of riding.. I'd say no more riding then i'll be doing, The hondamatic will last forever.. How about on long trips? Does the rubicon wear you out?

 

I have a 2007 Rubicon with about 400 miles on it. I do NOT baby my bike. I ride it hard, in the mud, submerged all that fun stuff. As far as towing, yesterday I towed a 2001 Rubicon with an electrical problem (that turned out to be a dead cell in the battery btw) about 2 miles through mud pits and water holes back to the trailer. No problems at all.

In fact, the only thing I can say bad about my Rubicon is the fact that you have to pull the plastic behind the wheels back and spray the radiator from behind to get it clean, otherwise you have overheating problems.

The 07's have 2WD/4WD electronic selector, I leave the bike in 2WD unless Im stuck, makes it easier to turn, doesn't wear me out like the older Rubicons that were full time 4WD. In fact, everyone I ride with has installed Warn 4-2-4's on their older Hondas to enjoy 2WD steering out of their bikes.

Yes, the transmission is expensive to repair, but its a great tranny and I have only heard of a handful of people have problems with them.

As far as this deal goes, if you don't buy it, can I? Im finally wearing my wife down, and I think it will be soon I buy a bike for her so I can quit bumming a bike off of friends.

 

This machine does excellent pulling heavy loads. Just put it in low range and you can pull a house down, jk. We use it on a farm and we constantly pull 20 foot hay wagon, gravity wagons, or sometimes even a 16ft soybean head for a combine.

As far as wearing me out, I think it has a fairly comfortable ride. I have been on long trips and it does not wear me out.

 

I just bought a 2007 Rubicon in the camo finish that had just 149 miles on it and the quad looks brand new. I gave 5100 for mine at the dealer.
Mine will never see a lake bottom; just trails in the woods so it should last me a long time. At my age, I am not rough on any of my vehicles.

My brother-in-law has an 03 Rubicon that he drives the living heck out of and the only problems he has had are things like brakes and wheel bearings needing replacing. He did say that he wished he had installed a 424 on it.

 

The thing with Rubi transmissions is to change the oil regularly, + oil filter, air filter. - and to warm them up a little on low revs before riding. Using that, I have customers with over 50,000 miles of forestry work on the same tranny.
On older ones Warn 4-2-4 is the way to go.

 

A Hondamatic Transmission will hold up for a very long time, as said by other posters. You also won't ever have to deal with slippage from it like a belt drive bike. Problems on the Hondamatic Tranny are pretty rare to see, a lot of people are able to just totally bash their machines to hell and don't have a problem with it.

 

I took this picture about 100 miles ago.

This is an early 01, the "problem" year for the Hondamatic.

ZERO problems. IMO it's the greatest transmission ever put in an ATV.

Change the oil every 500 miles and use only Honda filters and Valvoline 10w40 ATV oil.

If this one ever wears out I'll buy another one.

 

My 2001 has also been driven HARD in many enviroments
1. SUmmer- full throttle in the dunes all day long- 4 low full throttle hanging with my friends on 450x's in the bowl's- it does quite well too
2. Fall- pulling 1,000 lbs of wood 5 miles to our hunting cabin during deer season useing the ATV transport trailer as the ATV trailer
3. Then comes elk season, try a early morning -10F startup with no warmup put in d2 and putting down the trail tryinng to be super quiet then slap on a western rosevelt 900lb elk on the back rack- its bent a few times but no axle issues
4. winter- yup time to hang with my freinds Yamaha snowmobile- crazy FULL throttle tapped at 52MPH down those sled trails, watch those whoops!
5. Spring, normally used only in emergencys like when our driveway washed out.