I am looking at buying a brand new honda. And im tossing between the 420 foot shift, or 500 foreman footshift. One thing Im not sure about is the fuel injection with the 420, im sick of sinking money into a bike. thats why im getting rid of the grizzly going back to honda. any suggestions?

 

I bought my 420 june of 07 and i havnt had any problems with it at all. I love the cold mornings when you can hit the start button and it fires right up.

 

The Foreman 500 is a good choice if you want to do work 90% of the time, and trail ride 10% of the time. It is a solid reliable machine, simple air/oil cooled engine, and has a trouble free manual transmission.

The Rancher is a real peach! Pick it if you mostly want to do trail riding. Mid size...big enough to do the job, but not a huge big bore pig either. Great handling...and the power rips right off the bottom. Water cooled and superb fuel injection!!! Best value for you money out there! Don't expect to load this sweet little quad down with huge tires, you will destroy its sweet handling. If you want a lifted mud monster to feed your ego, get an 800 cc whatever from someone else!!

The standard Rancher has SRA, or you can get the 420AT which is IRS and has a totally unique dual-clutch transmission.

Best to avoid the pushbutton ES shifting option on either machine!

 

I can agree with most of what RR said above. I actually own both and love them both but they are distinctively different. The Rancher, I absolutely LOVE to ride. It handles great and has plenty of pep as well as not too bad on the power side. It's by no means a power puller but I did pull a kid in a 1989 Toyota pickup about 4 miles with mine after his truck stalled in about 3 feet of water. I backed up to him, connected the tow strap and away we went.
The Foreman is a load puller. I think it could pull the house off of the slab. It has all kinds of pulling power in low gear and it's top end is the same as the Rancher, thanks to Honda's wonderful governer. They both top out at around 55-57 MPH. The Foreman doesn't handle near as well as the Rancher but power wise, the Rancher doesn't touch the Foreman either.
Now for the disagreement... both of my machines are ES and I haven't had a lick of trouble with either. I know people will say "Just wait, you will". Well, I'm still waiting...
Get what suits YOUR needs over what others say you will need. I think you'll be armed with plenty of information to make your decision.

Have fun, ride hard!

 

The rancher 420 also gets great fuel mileage, I have a 07 and i get around 90 miles for one tank of fuel and thats all because of the fuel injection. The wife has a Arctic Cat 366 and she can only go about 40 to 50 before she has to refill.

 

I have 2 '07 420 ranchers. One is a FM (four wheel, manual shift) and the other is a TE (two wheel drive, electric shift). Wouldn't trade them for anything.....(well maybe).
Haven't had any trouble with either. I do regular maintance (more than I should) and clean them good after every ride. Have been trouble free. The EFI is the biggest reason I went with the 420. I live at 4800 ft. and ride as high as 12,000 ft. and the EFI has performed fawlessly. We have enjoyed alot of trail riding and also use them for hunting and working around the cabin, pulling trees and pulling a trailer loaded with fire wood.

Great Maachines.

 

I'd say get a real ride on both, and pick the one you like best. Both will likely be very solid and reliable machines.

Personally I like my Foreman as a trail quad. It handles well and slides predictably. It has good torque, but you couldn't call it snappy. I think it rides slightly better than the SRA 420 as well.

The 420 Rancher, on the other hand, also handles very well, with a lighter more nimble feel. The engine is also snappier especially when wound up. A lot of people also like that it is a bit physically smaller and lower, which contribute to the responsive handling.

No bad choice among those two.

Also, if you don't care if you foot shift, don't get ES. If it was really what you want, though, I wouldn't worry about it. Most owners never have a problem, and if you do it would likely be an angle sensor or some other small thing.

 

Ive been reading up a bit on it. And I'm still a little confused on what to get. Currently I own a 660 grizzly but I'm gettin rid of that its garbage. Before that I had a honda 350 which I beat the **** out of and it did me well. Mostly I do trail riding and like horsing around on the bike, not a whole lot of work but I do do some. I want to make sure I have enough power. I always found the 350 could have had an extra bit to her. any more help ??

 

The 420 feels way more powerful than anything in its class that I've ridden.

The 500 has strong bottom end torque, but HP wise it is probably the low end for the 500 class. I find it has plenty of power to go where you want, or drag big stumps or whatever, but it isn't likely to win any drag races. The 500 is more of a stone axe, air cooled two valve 5 speed, with a pretty beefy clutch and other powertrain parts. If a person were going to bet on which utility 4x4 could stack up the most hours of heavy use with minimal service, the foot shift Foreman would be a good horse to bet on.

You really need to score a test ride on both...

 

The 420 engine is a bit over square, so it revs more like a sport quad rather than grunt like a classic utility quad. I also have a 350, and the 420 revs out faster and is faster on the top end, although if you are picking your way through some rocks I think I prefer the 350.