I'm thinking about getting a Rancher,but I can't decide on electric shift or standard shift.Has anybody ridden one yet.

 

The Honda Rep let me ride one @ the ATV jamboree in Richfield UT, Im guessing it was a prototype the one I rode was a 2wd ES the bike was very impressive, I only rode it around the city park for about 5 minutes, the things that I did note were the following:
Steering was way easier than my 450ES
Instrument panel was the same as 450ES
Power was very good
suspension seemed softer than 450
turning radius was very tight.

The rep did tell me on the 4x4's the front suspension is a new type that will lock in when it senses wheel spin, he said that it does not use clutch packs like the current Honda 4x4's...that is how they got the light steering effort...someone please correct me on the front end if I am mistaken.

 

our delears dont have them yet.. god i hope they dont ride like a empty dump truck with only having 5.9 inches of travel! I would buy the Manual shift, but they dont have the nice dash so guess if i were buying one id buy the ES and put the "spair" shifter on it

 

You might look at the review on this site's main page. They apparently change something in the way the electonic shift occur and it is improved over the original 450's shifts.

 

Thanks for the input.I rode one the other day and I thought that that the ES shifted real smooth.