I have noticed that there have been a few questions on the quality of the Rincon. I have had mine for 4 months now and have about 700 miles on it. I did have to have the ECM replaced this past weekend, but I understand mistakes happen. I have heard many myths about the quad so I will just throw my thoughts out there. Keep in mind I am by no means an "expert." This is my opinion, which is not reliant on corporate sponsorships...

"Engine break…almost non insistent."
I read this many many times in magazine articles before I bought it, and the truth is that I believed it for the first few miles, however, once I learned the traits of the quad I realized how wrong and obviously eager to criticize the critics were. The engine braking does lack at under 7 mph, but there ARE ways to get it to work. My idea on why this is lacking has nothing to do with speed, and all to do with RPM. When the engine idles down, it losing engine braking and jumps into Honda's "no creep" mode that prevents it from moving at idle while in gear. I have read several Honda articles that claim the engineers spent a large amount of time eliminating creep. I have recreated situations where I lose engine braking at around 25mph, but that was on purpose to see if I could do it, and it took some work to do. Also, ESP increases the engine braking, throw it in 4x4, keep the RPM up in 1st and you won't have many problems are the majority of hills. It is not as great as a manual, but the critics couldn't have been more wrong on this fact.

"instrument panel….don’t ever damage it, it’ll break ya."
That is true... I bet it costs a pretty penny to fix, but the panel is part of the reason I went with the Rincon. I welcome all the info I can get, and the look and feel of the panel gave me exactly what I wanted. Most utilities have larger instrument panels, so the cost of a rollover comes with the territory.

"Primitive front drum brakes…….must be dry to work"
I can't speak for their complexity because I frankly don't know... but I can say that they do work as well as would be expected. I had a problem with the front brakes when I first got it, but proper adjustment seemed to clear that up. They work great for me. Then again, what kind of break does work when they are wet??

"Honda sure- trac diff. ……….harder to steer in slippery conditions."
Granted I have never ridden on ice or snow, but it turns just fine on the slipperiest of mud (1/2 inch of silt ontop of rather packed black land goop that is hard to stand on without slipping and ending up nice and dirty). The one gripe that I have about the steering is the turning radius, which would have been better.

"Poor stock tires"Very true. They do not suit the mud very well at all. They will do just fine in normal muddy conditions, but they will fail when it comes down to crunch time. However, the quad was not made so much with mud in mind, rather a unmatched smooth ride while trying to get as much traction as could be obtained without sacrificing ride. The guys at Honda did that just fine. I will be getting some mud only tires soon, but I will never get rid of the stock tires completely.

"No low range gear."
This goes back to the sport utility concept. The Rincon is more a cross between the two disciplines of sport and utility. I do not think a low range is needed in a quad not totally aimed at work. However, 1st gear is rather short and have offered more than enough power for the limited amount of pulling I have needed.

"Top speed is only rated at 49mph."
This is simply laughable. The guy that rated this must have been 500 pounds with a parachute tied to his back or his calculator needs to go back to school. I tested it out yesterday on a gravel dirt road with a slight downhill grade (2 degree) and got it up to 62.3 mph. This was with GPS as well as the on-board speedometer (which were the same by the way... good job on that Honda). 49 mph can almost be obtained in 2nd gear. That "expert" really needs to do some more homework.

"Plastic floorboards……weak"
Very true, however, let me defend Honda here and say that it explicitly says in the owners manual (and the guy at the dealership told me also) that the boards were not made for supporting a rider. The foot pegs are raised above the boards for support and the floor boards are really meant only as mud guards. But then there are morons like me who can't keep their feet on the pegs and crack it. Honda did right on their design of this idea, but I am going to reinforce the boards with fiberglass this week.

 

Thanks Schef.

here are some more thoughts, some the same, some not.

i have had my Rincon for almost three months now, 980 miles in 67 hours and no problems. thats an average of 14.8 MPH. this would have been better except for sunday afternoons with the wife. she is slower and not into going on the long rides right now.

Engine Breaking: there are some places i go that i wouldnt mind some more engine compression holding the wheels back, however, in those steep descents i am usually in 4wd and the quad seems to have more breaking when this is the case.

instrument panel: here's an idea, dont flip it.

drums. sure, disks up front would be nice. i have been through rivers, some of which pushed water over the front of the quad (rack and fender) and besides me wishing i had a lifevest caused no probs whatsoever. just for S&G i took a look in those drums last night. clean, dry. amazing, only wish my chevy had em sealed like that. they also stop exceptionally well considering they are drums. when new, they will feel week until they get burnt in.

slippery when wet...well, i dont know cause when it does rain here its gone before you can get to it.

tire sucks. well, sort of. out here it has actually served me pretty well. i have chunks missing from them and slices and everything else and no problems. i have been on some very rocky trails and am, however, almost down to the wear bars already. one thing to remember on stock tires. they are intended to be the best *all around* solution for the quad when the person buys it. it is also likely that the manufactures do not want to put something that rips up the trail and gets all the tree hugging crazies chasing them about their involvement in destroying the earth.

no low range: doesnt bother me. on the rancher i always was starting in 2nd or 3rd anyway. hmm....that means i was only using three gears most the time then too. crazy.

top speed.. i have no idea what to say...i have had it up to 62 on slight inclines and even 65 on the flat ground. sometimes i even ride this from my house on the paved road to go riding and zip along with traffic no problem.

plastic, floorboards, bumper... i hit a tree with my rincon a few weeks back and must have been going about 15-20 mph when we came to an abrupt stop. those plastic bumpers are good and strong with the steal behind em. no damage to anything but me, the gps and the first aid kit. my floor boards have the same cracks in under my heel that schef has. same ones my rancher had. you would think i would have stopped riding this way by now but ohe well.

ANYWAY....not sure if this served any purpose but will sum it up with this:

i could not be more happy with my rincon. i ride it every chance i can and even bought a second one for the wife.

 

GOOD! So I'm not the only one who has feet that wonder off the pegs! I did manage to beef mine up with fiberglass.

crack

fiber1

fiber2

 

yup. saw that nice work you did on yours. was thinking about it but figured i would just bust it up with rock anyway.

 

Schef, nice work on the foot/mud guards. I'm picking up a new rincon at the end of the month and I think that may be one of the first mods I do, before they crack. Both reviews were good and honest. Maybe I'll add my 2 cests later.

Thanks
PE101

 

I recently bought a Rincon, and I'll add my thoughts. I've got about 70 miles on it now.

The ride is amazing. Got to be the best ride quality out there. The transmission is silky smooth, too. The suspension is so smooth, that I literally have trouble knowing at what point I'm airborne and at what point I'm back on the ground this thing lands so smoothly when jumping. I'm talking 1' to 2' jumps. Anything over 2' and I'm sure I'd hate the landing.

The engine braking is as good as any manual shift 4 wheeler at anything over 12mph. Below that, you need to be using brakes anyway, so no big deal to me.

My front drums worked horribly to begin with. Turns out they just needed to be adjusted, and since I have adjusted them they are good. I wouldn't say they feel as well as discs though. Maybe mine still need to break in a bit. Not sure why they were so out of adjustment from the dealer.

The 4x4 has worked fine for me so far. I don't do heavy mud, but have used it getting over creek ledges and logs, and it worked fine.

The stock tires ride great. They get decent traction in a variety of conditions. As someone else said, if you have a specific type of terrain you ride all the time, get tires suited for it.

I've not towed anything heavy yet, but for general trail riding and hill climbing, low range gearing simply isn't needed. This machine has plenty of torque for those situations. Towing heavy loads may be different, but it feels pretty strong to me.

I've not gotten to 60mph yet because I'm still being gentle with it for a while longer. But it hits the mid 50's without much strain.

The floorboards are weak, but you are supposed to use the pegs anyway.

Overall, I couldn't be more pleased with the machine. I bought it for aggressive trail riding and occassional yard work duties. I'm quite sure I bought the best bike for me. If you're thinking of getting a big new machine that handles a wide variety of uses, take a look at the Rincon.

 

I'll add my two cents about the Rincon, although I can't speak with objectivity since I've ridden no other make/manufacturer in the past few years.

A buddy and I (each of us weighing significantly more than the average human) purchased Rincons back in February. So far we've done quite a bit of riding in snow, mud and generally dry weather, covering various terrain such as steep, snowy hillclimbs, wooded areas and mud bogs. We've forded some deep creeks (water above exhaust tip) without any problems.

ACCELERATION: Considering my size, the acceleration is excellent. I easily pull the front end of the ground most of the time in low gear, especially when getting on it after coming out of turns and such. I've had the bike up to 58 MPH and felt it would go a little more if I had more distance available. I thought it handled fine through all speed ranges.

TRANSMISSION: I really love the automatic transmission in this thing. I'm a bit disappointed at only having three speeds (I actually prefer manual shift / clutch / lots of gears), but I think ESP shifting is great fun. Makes you feel like a rally racer! If you are just cruising along in Auto mode, the transmission shifts smoothly and appears to be quite efficient. I do notice times, when in Auto mode, where the transmission doesn't seem to feel a downshift is necessary, which basically requires me to hard brake to get it to downshift. Of course this problem doesn't arise in ESP mode, and I'm not sure that it's a problem in the first place. I've read reports regarding the factors taken into consideration (by the computer) when the transmission is in Auto mode, and they say that braking is taken into consideration.

In ESP mode I think the shifts are quick and hard (as they should be in my opinion).

When its cold out and I start the bike up, I do notice that if I'm putting a load on it the transmission slips. I'm not sure how much of this is due to some fault of the transmission and how much of this is due to my weight on the bike. Once it warms up though it works flawlessly.

REAR DISC BRAKE: Works great - Really nothing to comment on. Disc brakes are great.

FRONT DRUM BRAKES: Do not work nearly as well as I would have expected, even for drum brakes.

Keep in mind that I do have problems with braking, but with my weight on the bike I would expect that. It's a real pain in the rear end going down steep hills since I always have the feeling that the bike would not stop (rear locks up, front just can't handle the weight). I'm going to experiment with some brake adjustments to see if I can get these working better.

SUSPENSION: Very smooth and comfortable.. Definitely a 'cadillac' ride. However, when you need the suspension to perform 'off road' on bumpy trails, washboards, and even when jumping, the suspension has surpassed my expectations! I do not have any more of a problem 'bottoming out', whether I'm sitting idle or jumping / pulling wheelies, than somebody 150 lbs has... it just isn't a problem. So I think this suspension is tuned quite well considering this is a utility ATV.

ENGINE BRAKE: I definitely miss not having a manual transmission for braking. But I think the engine braking is fine. In my opinion, it's best to wait until after break-in to evaluate engine braking to any degree. When in ESP mode you can expect to do a nice job of braking without giving you whiplash. In Auto mode don't count on engine braking when/where you need it.

NO LOW RANGE: I road a Rubicon for a week before I bought my bike. So when I first got on my bike and realized there was no low range, I was highly disappointed.... but trust me, it is not needed. I have had no problems under any condition with bogging down with my weight on the bike. I've stressed the bike pretty hard and it's always had the needed grunt to carry me through mud, up and down any hill, etc. without appearing to strain.

STOCK TIRES: I really dont' know what to expect with tires for any custom application, but I think these tires have done well in snow (light and deep) and mud. I'm sure if I were riding in anything but 'regular' conditions in the spring/summer/fall then I would want a tire specific to that application though. As you would expect, these are all purpose. They help give the Rincon to deliver rider comfort.

SURE-TRAC DIF: Never had a problem with steering in two or 4 wheel drive, on ice, snow or mud, high or low speed.

TOP SPEED: My friend, weighing 250 lb, does about 62 on it. As I said above, I had it up to 58 and am confident it would do 60+ with me on it. The point is that on a bike like this nobody needs more speed. If they do, they need to purchase a different type of bike.

FLOORBOARDS: I have had zero problems keeping my footing on the footpegs. The floorboards are definitely very nice and do get used as footrests. Everyone should know that the floorboards aren't intended to replace the footpegs though.

Overall I think the RIncon is a very nice bike. It's very comfortable, very stable (even at higher speeds). I have a lot of fun on the bike. I only wish that braking was better at higher weight capacities. I'm not at all sorry that I bought the bike, and I wouldn't even think about buying a different manufacturer's bike... I wouldnt' want to take a chance and find out that it couldn't compare to the Rincon.

Mike

 

As far as comments about using the rincon for work no one seems to have put it to too much strain pulling stuff. I have used my rincon to haul a 5x4 round bale in my tow behind cart for a few miles many times this winter. It pulled it pretty well considering it is well over the maximum towing limit as the bale and cart easily weigh 1000-1100 lbs. I have also used this machine to haul loads of firewood with about 1/3 of a chord of wood on the cart. I wouldn't say that it is an ideal machine for working, but I live on a farm and consequencially we need it for it sometimes. It has been more than adequate for occasional work use.

 

SCHEF:
I read the magazine article you quote the top speed of 49mph. Read it again...49mph was the top speed obtained at 1/4 mile. It takes a little more room to reach 60+mph...but the Rincon can do it...as almost every 500+cc machine can. Good reviews guy's...good reading.

ROB