i dont think the big red army is near going bankrupt anytime soon. they are still profitable but agreed - a little out of touch, though. Their car designs are modest if not ugly (ridgeline) but they do go forever. Id go work for them and help them become a force of nature again. Honda can PM me and i'll come help out... for a price!

Reliability will always be their top concern. I cant say i blame them for tha goal, but some better market research would help them design products people want in all areas. key word for them is to PAY ATTENTION! look at waht people are buying and b!tchin about and fill that void. See what people want and MAKE IT!!! In a timely manner.... That's a revolution.

For offroad, yes they took allot lawsuits in the late 80's early 90's - because they were the biggest target to hit- that did scare them a bit from making sport machines, but they have tried since then. They said they would never make any ATV with an "R" designation in it ever again...2004 - hello 450R. while i'll try to keep it at a minumum, it is a good overall bike and engineered well and has been bullet proof so far for me, but i do think they could have done allot better with it... But it is a winning platform of racers and the king of the desert. So domination is relative to how you measure it. The Goldwing is an oldman's dream (hope it dont ever fall over on them b/c it weighs 1/2 ton! that's why it has a reverse gear)

The 600RR is an outstanding street sportbike and consitent king of shootouts in that class. Yamaha may make more power and a kickarse bike as well, but honda always gets the nods for ergos, handling (by a little) and relaibility. You should see the bikes they have in europe though. i wish we could get them here. They are not sleeping in that market - they have allot of competition from not only the other japanese oems, but german, itallian, etc brands that are really good machines.

We would just like to see that SAME TENACITY in the sport ATV realm, Honda, if you are looking at this. I know they have been testing a a light-weight sport 4x4 but have not brought it to market. Im ready for the 450lb 4x4. i think it is totally
do-able. People that buy a renagade would possibly go for this. They want a sporty 4x4 that handles good and is powerfull. and you will find that these same buyers also want less weight and be able to shift it if they want too.

They better have something up their sleeve b/c the 2009 YFZ450 is going to rock. EFI, new frame... ahh, allot more goodies.... Yamaha is serious about competing so is suzuki. suzuki didnt get any airtime that i saw for the 100+ changes to the 2008 LTR450. After the first year, they took it and addressed the issues pretty quick. I havent ridden a new one yet but from what i can tell it seems a step in the right direction.

Yamaha and kawasaki were the only OEMs that did not totally abandon us in the 'dark ages' of sport atving. They said blank it. And continued to make the Mojave 250, Yamaha made the Banshee, Warrior, and blaster through those times. no quadzilla, no ltr after 1992, no trx250R after 1989, no 250x for 1989-91 (it returned in 1992, then in 1993 as the 300EX and continues) 400ex did not appear until 1998 as a 99 model. BRP with the DS650 in 2000. raptor 660 in 2001...Suzuki had nothing memorable until 2003 - the Z400.

Competiton is slowly forcing them to introduce and do some things but sometimes it a too little too late. The 450 market has never been hotter and will only get better. Ther are what 7 450s on the market right now? Back in the day in the 250cc yrs we had 3.. LTR, TRX, and tecate....then for just tear @ss - the banshee, and Quadzilla...and the lt250, 250x, warrior, etc for general sport use. weve come along way but have furhter to go. we are stil a few yrs behind where we should be.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: garman351

Honda 700

(Here Is The real Story)



Honda will never build or go after the fastest quad or street sport motorcycle!




Garman</end quote></div>


I'd be willing to bet that it's the fastest (top end) quad out today. I bought mine Saturday and rode it Sunday. If this thing doesn't go above 70 miles an hour I'll kiss ***.

So it ran well, REALLY well.

I was asked to drag race a piped, and filtered 660r and beat him with NO problems. Mine is obviously still stock. I never even got all the way out of 4th. It was scary fast, but very stable at those high speeds. Not bad for mine being COMPLETLY stock.

I took it later on some technical hill climbs and descents with big rocks and loose stuff. The gearing seemed a little too high and I had to ride the clutch to keep it from killing. It was still very torquey and pulled the wheels in any gear.




It also did very well in the off-camber turns and was very forgiving when I did second gear wide sweeping donuts. I didn't think I would like the IRS, but I'm a new convert. It soaked up bumps that would have thrown me off into the scenery on my 400EX with ease.

1st gear is low, but like I said before, not low enough for technical stuff. It's great for drag racing though. 2nd gear rocks your socks. I never bottomed out or high centered ONCE.

(No, the fenders aren't touching the "wall".)







I also took it through some mudd that was about 6" deep at WOT and went through quickly. The mudd roost was epic.

I can't wait to uncork this with a slip on and a filter. Paddle tires for the dunes would be nice too.

Black plastics scuff easy, ESPECIALLY above the foot pegs.


Here are some more pictures before I went riding:

Loading up at the dealer:



At the house:

 

Hello everyone. I am the owner of a engineering and manufacturing company in Wind Gap, PA. I have been doing a good deal of development for ATV IRS for sport quads for the past three years. Actually, Honda purchased the first IRS kit I ever sold. Any way, I took a look at the 700xx at the Honda shop in our town and it looks pretty interesting.


Our latest development has been tuning our IRS kit for motox. We are making leaps and bounds and have found all the magic for IRS is in the sway bar. If you own an IRS ATV you know it is smooth in the rough stuff but it pushes in the corners. With an after market sway bar you can tune your IRS to turn on a dime; we have proved it.

I am interested in developing an after market sway bar for both the Polaris outlaw and 700xx. If any one is the owner for either of these vehicles and is in our area we are willing to sponsor you the after market components if you bring your ATV in for measurements and testing.

Email me if your interested... first come first serve.

amc33@sonicoffroad.com

Thanks

 

Hahaha yes, exactly what I had in mind the first time I saw the Outlaw IRS, a sway bar. I would love to own this new Honda if there was a sway bar designed for it, especially since I've seen rollover incidents with those Outlaw IRSs; plus I've been looking for a big bore sport atv and something from Honda seemed perfect, I love the quality and reliability of the machines, and the IRS would be perfect for the trails up here in northern B.C. A sway bar would also help out with the big powerslides, and of course, donuts. I don't see the dunes very often, so ride quality in that terrain wouldn't matter to me that much.

 

Funny how they put IRS on a machine (adding a bunch of dead weight), then discover it has a lot of nasty body roll and it corners funny....and then have to put a sway bar on it to make it handle like an SRA.......

 

I'm just saying man, you definitely notice it when hitting those hard ruts and logs; and I don't really care about the weight, my sled weighs about the same, and this engine will definitely be able to pull that weight. It might need a couple mods to bring it alive, but I really think it'd be worth it. I've ridden nothing but straight axle forever man, but I think its time to make a change, so I can hit those trails faster, and thats really all we have up here; theres some small dune spots around, nothing like down south though. Who knows though, I'll have to test ride one on my day off.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: reconranger

Funny how they put IRS on a machine (adding a bunch of dead weight), then discover it has a lot of nasty body roll and it corners funny....and then have to put a sway bar on it to make it handle like an SRA.......</end quote></div>


?????

The Outlaw IRS machines and the 700XX come stock with sway bars so there is no reason to add one.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Evasiveone

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: reconranger



Funny how they put IRS on a machine (adding a bunch of dead weight), then discover it has a lot of nasty body roll and it corners funny....and then have to put a sway bar on it to make it handle like an SRA.......</end quote></div>





?????



The Outlaw IRS machines and the 700XX come stock with sway bars so there is no reason to add one.</end quote></div>


My point exactly, even at the factory they know an IRS handles weird on a sport quad!!!

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: reconranger

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: TLCsome of the trails you do not have a inch to spare on each side on a ATV let alone a side by side.</end quote></div>



Same here in the mountains, and again here I think the 700XX will be at a disadvantage because it is on the bulky/heavy side. My friends who have KFX 700's won't ever ride with me on these trails, and big utes really have their hands full.



But, in some places the Rhino guys try to squeze down the trail anyway. The result is that what once was motorcycle single track gets turned into quad single track (so the dirt bikers hate us quadders), and the Rhino's come along and turn that into a wide fire road (so both the dirt bikers and quadders hate the Rhinos!).



There are 50" wide barriers that are intended to keep the Rhinos out, but they pull them down. I have seen it almost come to blows when dirt bikes meet a Rhino on the trail!</end quote></div>

yea its called a rzr!

 

in the end dont forget the scrambler 4x4 500