Nice, so you have both now? That should be a fun machine and nice trail ride. Reverse rules! I love it on my Z. I wish my big daddy DS had reverse. Congrats man!

 

Just wondering if you have considered the 700xx from honda. I have no personal experience with it but just thought i'd throw it in to the decision making.

 

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



But I'm really not sure it's practical or possible to gear either one down enough for the tight woods. I've also considered the Outlaw 525 IRS, but have not found a reasonable one yet.

What do you guys think?</end quote></div>

As a trail guy, I love my 700xx. It has way more than enough power stock and with the big 3 mods it's insane. Plenty of torque for climbing and great ground clearance. The 525 IRS is also a great choice.

I'm also bigger than most so it fits me well too. It's also just as wide as my 400EX. (that I sold)

Ask me anything, I'm not Mr. Honda and I'll tell you like it is.

 

Wow I'm surprised at that choice. You should have looked at the 700xx since you ride rutted eastern trails. It will dominate any of the 450's if the trails are rutted very bad. Ground clearance is everything on these type of trails.

 

I looked at all the top ATV's, and considered even more. I did strongly consider the 700XX because it is such a nice looking and comfortable bike. What I found myself doing was considering the TRX450R, and then the 700XX, and then a Rancher 420... and then it pretty much hit me like a brick wall....

What I was really doing was drifting away from the sport class and into that "cross-over" sub-class that exists between utility and sport.... sporty utes and super-heavyweight quads aimed at the sport rider.

See.... I already have a Polaris Sport 400 (Scrambler 2x4 2-stroke) which is a larger cadillac sport quad, fully automatic and extremely potent in the engine department, but still lighter in weight than the 700XX.

I didn't want a heavier quad than my Sport 400. I wanted a lighter, better handling one. I like the IRS on the 700XX, and would like to have it on my Sport 400, or see it on a Scrambler since they don't already handle fantastic....

But as an IRS sport quad, to me the 700XX is totally out-classed by the Polaris Outlaw IRS unit I was looking at, and as a big-bore sport quad out-classed by the newer Raptor 700R I was also looking at. So in a nutshell, I think that is why Honda came to the market with the 700XX where it is... so as to avoid direct competition with those two.... and they have a quad I think a lot of, but really does not fit in, or warrant the purchase since I already have the Sport 400.


I really wanted to try the IRS for trails... and this was my 3rd go at buying one (Outlaw IRS) but it has just never worked out. This time the dealer just lost the sale by playing "salesman games".

To put it bluntly, the Polaris/Yamaha dealer for some reason wanted to play sales games instead of delivering FINAL out-the-door quotes on the Outlaw and Raptor. Instead, they only wanted to say they would be so close to matching my other quotes that I would not want to drive farther away.

After one trip to the dealer and running into that 3 straight times after that, I just decided to go farther away to the Kawasaki/Yamaha/Polaris/Can-Am dealer.... where there were no games being played.

I went there to consider all of them, but honestly thought had in mind that I was going to snag a KFX400 if I liked it (I did) or if not, an Outlaw, but once I got that far away and got down to business, I just couldn't pass up the KFX450R.

It doesn't have the off-idle torque and grunt of the big-bore and long-stroke 4 stroke machines. But with me being straight up old school from the days of 2-stroke sport quads.... man it just feels so right to me personally.

So for what it is not off-idle, it is a work of art in many other areas.
The feel, the handling, the chassis, the trans... I'm impressed.

I hope it turns out to be worth the trade-off.

 

Since you did all the research over and over you made the best choice for you. It's good to see someone make a choice based on their "gut" feeling and old fashioned research instead of giving into peer pressure from magazine's, commercials, and other people on ATV sites.

 

duster congrats on the new quad. keep us all posted on how good the power is and how well the quad does overall.

 

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

I looked at all the top ATV's, and considered even more. I did strongly consider the 700XX because it is such a nice looking and comfortable bike. What I found myself doing was considering the TRX450R, and then the 700XX, and then a Rancher 420... and then it pretty much hit me like a brick wall....



What I was really doing was drifting away from the sport class and into that "cross-over" sub-class that exists between utility and sport.... sporty utes and super-heavyweight quads aimed at the sport rider.



See.... I already have a Polaris Sport 400 (Scrambler 2x4 2-stroke) which is a larger cadillac sport quad, fully automatic and extremely potent in the engine department, but still lighter in weight than the 700XX.



I didn't want a heavier quad than my Sport 400. I wanted a lighter, better handling one. I like the IRS on the 700XX, and would like to have it on my Sport 400, or see it on a Scrambler since they don't already handle fantastic....



But as an IRS sport quad, to me the 700XX is totally out-classed by the Polaris Outlaw IRS unit I was looking at, and as a big-bore sport quad out-classed by the newer Raptor 700R I was also looking at. So in a nutshell, I think that is why Honda came to the market with the 700XX where it is... so as to avoid direct competition with those two.... and they have a quad I think a lot of, but really does not fit in, or warrant the purchase since I already have the Sport 400.





I really wanted to try the IRS for trails... and this was my 3rd go at buying one (Outlaw IRS) but it has just never worked out. This time the dealer just lost the sale by playing "salesman games".



To put it bluntly, the Polaris/Yamaha dealer for some reason wanted to play sales games instead of delivering FINAL out-the-door quotes on the Outlaw and Raptor. Instead, they only wanted to say they would be so close to matching my other quotes that I would not want to drive farther away.



After one trip to the dealer and running into that 3 straight times after that, I just decided to go farther away to the Kawasaki/Yamaha/Polaris/Can-Am dealer.... where there were no games being played.



I went there to consider all of them, but honestly thought had in mind that I was going to snag a KFX400 if I liked it (I did) or if not, an Outlaw, but once I got that far away and got down to business, I just couldn't pass up the KFX450R.



It doesn't have the off-idle torque and grunt of the big-bore and long-stroke 4 stroke machines. But with me being straight up old school from the days of 2-stroke sport quads.... man it just feels so right to me personally.



So for what it is not off-idle, it is a work of art in many other areas.

The feel, the handling, the chassis, the trans... I'm impressed.



I hope it turns out to be worth the trade-off.</end quote></div>

Nice! One thing is for sure you will love EFI that IMO makes all the difference in the world. You end up doing more riding and less wrenching!

I am still surprised you did not go with the KTM! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: DODGE57HEMI
Nice! One thing is for sure you will love EFI that IMO makes all the difference in the world. You end up doing more riding and less wrenching!



I am still surprised you did not go with the KTM! [img][/img]</end quote></div>

Well, make no mistake... of the showroom floor, KTM is king.
And on top of it, it will spank on some mod-quads too.

For the money and what you get with the KTM, it's honestly hard to find a better value for the person seeking the extreme of extremes.

People who will deny that are just like me and uncomfortable with sinking that much money up in everything all at one time. Either that, or they heavily enjoy the mod process.

I may yet end up regretting it... but for me it came down to this... I decided I did not really need the extreme of extremes for my uses. For me it was a little bit hard to justify the price differential just to be one step further out on the "leading edge" with everything. Since I don't earn a living competing, I think it will be OK with me.


As for just the EFI... the throttle response is surprisingly remarkable.
I'm just holding out for the starting manors to get a bit better is all....