We do a deep dive on the 2023 Honda Talon 1000R-4 to see what’s new and then tell you who this rig is for!
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Check out the full feature at https://www.utvdriver.com/reviews/honda-talon-1000r-4-sport-side-by-side-video-review/
For more stories, reviews, and first-looks check out https://www.utvdriver.com/
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SportsTranscript
00:00 With all the talk about the 2024 Can-Am Maverick R
00:03 and its seven-speed dual-clutch transmission,
00:05 we decided it was time to take a look
00:06 at the sports side-by-side
00:08 that brought us the dual-clutch transmission,
00:10 and that is the Honda Talon.
00:12 Zach, how many Honda Talons have we had through this shot?
00:14 - Oh, man.
00:15 Right when we first moved to Knoxville,
00:16 we had two Honda Talon for the better part of a year
00:19 beat the ever-loving snot out of.
00:21 - Yes, we did.
00:22 - We took them over to Hatfield-McCoy,
00:23 we were in a Winrock multiple times.
00:24 They were unstoppable forces of nature.
00:26 We loved them, and most of that love
00:28 came down to the gearbox.
00:29 That dual-clutch transmission,
00:31 you never had to worry about a belt tune,
00:32 had to worry about slipping a belt, burning any of that.
00:34 And there is something fun to just, you know,
00:35 click in the paddles and bang, bang, bang.
00:36 The launch control's excellent, all that stuff is fun.
00:39 Now, Honda came out with a model
00:41 that we've been waiting for for a long time,
00:43 which is the four-seat 1000R.
00:46 That's 1000R-4.
00:48 We've got one here in the shop.
00:49 We figured it was time to take a minute
00:51 to show you everything you needed to know
00:52 about the Honda Talon 1000R-4.
00:55 (upbeat music)
00:59 Honda introduced the Talon in 2019.
01:02 To great fanfare, it was a 105 horsepower,
01:05 1000cc parallel twin that came right out
01:08 of the Africa Twin Adventure motorcycle.
01:10 A proven engine and transmission
01:11 that came out of another part of their power sports business
01:14 and it slotted right into a side-by-side almost seamlessly.
01:17 And speaking of seamlessly, it had a dual-clutch gearbox.
01:20 This was something revolutionary
01:21 for the time in side-by-sides, and it made a splash.
01:24 We aren't the only people who loved it.
01:25 Woods racers love it, desert racers love it.
01:28 They sold them by their droves.
01:30 But in the time since 2019,
01:32 the side-by-side market has evolved considerably
01:34 and Honda knew coming into this year,
01:36 it was time for a little bit of a revamp.
01:38 And rather than go all the way back to the drawing board
01:41 and risk screwing up something that really works,
01:43 they just made the Honda Talon better.
01:45 Now the R is the wide track model.
01:47 That's for ripping across the desert.
01:49 If you live in a wooded area,
01:51 you're probably gonna go for the X model,
01:53 but everyone had been clamoring for a four-seat rig
01:55 that they could rip across the desert.
01:56 And so Honda delivered.
01:58 And not only did they do that,
01:59 they put Live Valve on every model.
02:02 What is Live Valve?
02:03 - Yeah, so if you think back to the halcyon days of 2019,
02:06 we really hadn't seen Live Valve at that point.
02:08 It was a brand new thing.
02:10 The idea of having an adaptive suspension
02:12 on a side-by-side was big news.
02:14 It allowed the rig to do all sorts of incredible things,
02:17 adjust suspension on the fly.
02:19 You just push a button, it'll firm things up
02:21 or soften things up as you need.
02:24 We love that system.
02:25 Everybody likes adjustable suspension
02:26 where you have clickers.
02:27 It takes time, you gotta get out,
02:29 you get your tools out, you get muddy, whatever.
02:31 That kinda sucks.
02:31 As opposed to Live Valve, you just push a button,
02:33 the thing's ready to rip.
02:34 - Right, and it'll go from side to side.
02:36 So if you huck it into a corner
02:37 where most side-by-sides exhibit a lot of body roll,
02:40 the Honda will stiffen up the outside of the rig
02:42 to keep you flat in the corners.
02:44 That is something that we hadn't seen before.
02:46 We have tested these in the desert in Arizona,
02:48 and that was the first thing we noticed about it.
02:50 You huck into a big sandy berm in the desert
02:52 and it just holds.
02:53 The industry has caught up in the meantime, however, right?
02:56 Polaris, Can-Am, just about anybody out there
02:59 who's serious, sell you a Fox Live Valve system.
03:01 - Right, and there are even,
03:02 Polaris and Can-Am even have their own
03:04 proprietary branding on that.
03:05 So they've gone to the trouble of developing
03:07 suspension systems that work with their specific rigs.
03:10 Now, Honda's is an off-the-shelf unit,
03:11 but that doesn't mean it's less
03:13 than the proprietary units from some of their competitors.
03:16 - That's everything we already know about the Honda Talon.
03:17 What's new with the new rig?
03:19 - They've got a new electronic power steering unit
03:21 that Honda says has 87% more torque than the outgoing unit.
03:25 That means you get more assist.
03:27 Now, we've felt some of these changes
03:29 in the 2023 Honda Pioneer lineup.
03:31 It's fantastic.
03:32 It works in a utility rig.
03:33 There's no reason it won't work in a sport side-by-side.
03:36 They've also added a return to center function.
03:38 So if you let go of the wheel, it's going back to center.
03:40 So you come out of a corner,
03:41 instead of having to manually counter steer,
03:44 you just let the wheel go and then catch it,
03:45 and you're right where you want to be.
03:47 - Which is more intuitive, right?
03:48 Like you get in the car,
03:49 all modern cars have a return to center.
03:51 Either that's a function of how the suspension geometry is,
03:54 or it's a function
03:54 of the actual electronic power steering system.
03:56 They very wisely brought it over from the automotive side.
03:59 It's super intuitive.
04:00 It's super low effort.
04:01 And that means you can ride longer.
04:02 You're not going to worn out when you're out on the trail.
04:04 - Right.
04:05 And the other nice thing about the return to center function
04:06 is that it has a gradient detection.
04:08 So like if you're on a hill,
04:10 the thing is going to steer up into the hill
04:11 or down away from it, whatever you're kind of doing,
04:13 the rig is going to help you.
04:15 So again, much lower effort.
04:16 It's much more intuitive.
04:17 It's easier to ride.
04:19 - Going to make things much more comfortable
04:21 for a beginner, I think.
04:22 - Yeah, absolutely.
04:23 They also tweaked the styling a little bit
04:25 for the first time.
04:26 We've got full coverage doors, front and rear.
04:27 That's a massive thing.
04:28 Look, you know, it was fun to be able to look
04:30 at the bottom of the doors.
04:31 But for those of us on the East Coast
04:33 where water and mud is a thing,
04:34 it basically meant you've got a nice racing stripe
04:37 up your thigh.
04:38 So having that gone is super nice.
04:41 There are a few more cup holders,
04:42 a little bit more storage available than before,
04:44 which is huge.
04:45 - Yep. And they stuck with the door nets,
04:47 but now they go from the top of the half door
04:48 to the bottom of the cage.
04:50 Means you've got some protection if your head rocks,
04:52 it's not going out of the side by side,
04:53 the net's actually going to keep it in place.
04:55 So that's a very nice feature.
04:56 Again, something that's going to make everything feel
04:58 a little bit more comfortable and safe.
05:00 Before we go any further with our everything you need to know
05:02 on the 2023 Honda Talon, take a minute,
05:04 go down below, hit that like button
05:06 and hit the subscribe button for us.
05:08 We've got new content on YouTube every week.
05:10 So give us a follow and make sure you don't miss
05:12 any of the action.
05:13 If you take your family with you,
05:14 there's way fewer worries than on rigs
05:16 that you have to buy that aftermarket.
05:18 - They also elevated the aesthetics a little bit.
05:20 So for the first time,
05:21 we've got painted plastics, color matched frames.
05:23 It just looks a little bit nicer than it did before.
05:25 - Yeah, the wheels on the old one were matte finish
05:27 and they looked a little golf carty
05:29 is the way I would put it.
05:30 And these are a gloss finish.
05:31 They've got more spokes.
05:32 They just look a little bit more, for lack of a better term,
05:34 they look a little bit more polished.
05:36 Another nice feature of the 2023 Honda 1000 R4
05:41 is that they have a new low range sport driving mode.
05:43 It's just going to increase responsiveness
05:45 when you're rock crawling or whatever.
05:46 Just something nice, makes it a little bit smoother.
05:48 And again, if you're taking your family on the trail
05:50 and they don't want to go 50 miles an hour everywhere,
05:53 that is a really nice feature
05:55 to kind of keep everything calm and collected,
05:56 let everyone focus on the ride and not what they're feeling
05:59 or not what the rig is doing that they wish it wouldn't.
06:01 - So at this point, the Talon's been out for a good while
06:03 and Honda knows what's working and what's not working.
06:06 For 2024, they've increased the size
06:08 of the roll bar protection.
06:09 It went from 1.5 millimeters to 2.3 millimeters,
06:11 which doesn't sound like a lot,
06:12 but that amount of thickness really increases
06:14 structural rigidity,
06:15 which also means the thing just feels better.
06:17 - And keep in mind that that almost extra millimeter
06:20 extends over the whole length of the cage.
06:22 So while one millimeter doesn't sound like a lot
06:24 when you're talking about the cross section of a tube,
06:26 an aggregate over the whole rig,
06:28 that's a lot more material.
06:29 - Yeah, considerably.
06:30 They also took over a problem that early owners were seeing
06:32 with differential seal leaks.
06:33 They have an all new differential seal design
06:35 that should take care of that issue.
06:36 - Now the things Honda didn't mess with,
06:39 some of them we wish they had.
06:40 Now I understand the philosophy from Honda's standpoint,
06:42 don't mess with what works.
06:44 So they left the Unicam parallel twin
06:46 from the Africa twin more or less alone.
06:48 Back in 2019, the 105 horsepower
06:50 that that engine is pumping out was adequate,
06:53 more than enough in fact.
06:54 But the industry has really moved on in that four years.
06:57 They took the pandemic to kind of make everything
06:59 a little bit more beefy,
07:00 and Honda hasn't kept up with that, and it's noticeable.
07:02 - Yeah, I mean, we're living in a world
07:04 where there are multiple utility rigs
07:06 that are turning out close to that kind of power.
07:08 - Or more than that.
07:09 - Or more than that.
07:10 And nobody wants to be on a trail
07:11 and get your tail dusted by somebody in a Ranger.
07:13 - Yeah, so the solution-
07:15 - Put a turbo on it.
07:16 - Put a turbo on it, come on.
07:17 - Give us the turpskies, Honda, we want the turpskies.
07:19 Similarly, Honda left the four-wheel drive system alone.
07:22 It's an intelligent four-wheel drive system
07:23 that uses the brakes to shuttle torque
07:25 from one side to the other.
07:26 Most of the time, it works excellent.
07:28 You only really notice it falling down
07:30 when you're into some really technical stuff.
07:32 And if you've been hanging around us for a little while,
07:35 you know that we like a true locker.
07:37 We wanna be able to push a button,
07:38 know that that front differential is locked.
07:40 Pretty gnarly trails around here,
07:41 and that half second of slip can be the difference
07:43 between I'm making it up this thing and I'm not.
07:45 The Pioneer has a lock.
07:46 You know what it does?
07:47 It works really, really well.
07:49 It's got turf mode and a locker.
07:50 Throw that in there.
07:51 Beef it up for sport use and throw it in there.
07:53 - Absolutely. - How simple is that?
07:55 - Honda also claims that because of the new steering system,
07:57 there's a better turning radius,
07:58 but this is a four-seat rig.
08:00 She's super long.
08:01 The turning radius is not great.
08:03 If you were whipping around on tight trails,
08:06 even in the desert,
08:07 you're gonna be doing some awesome power spots.
08:10 - Yep, yep.
08:10 And then again, we noticed this with the Honda Pioneer 1006.
08:14 Seems to be a familial trait.
08:16 Doesn't seem like it's outside of the realm
08:18 of Honda's capability to fix it.
08:20 - Yeah, and we know why Honda has done that, right?
08:23 Anytime you have a super tight turning radius
08:25 in something with a high center of gravity,
08:27 you increase the chance of the thing
08:29 flopping over on its side.
08:30 You open up that turning radius,
08:32 you're less likely to have that happen.
08:33 - The interior hasn't changed much for 2023.
08:36 Honda says they've relocated some of the dials on the dash.
08:39 That's great.
08:40 I can't say that we noticed.
08:41 The interior is more than adequate for a 2019 rig.
08:45 In 2023, it is starting to be outclassed by its competitors,
08:48 especially from the North American market.
08:50 You will have heard us in 2020 and 2021
08:53 rave about the interiors in Hondas, in Yamahas,
08:56 in Japanese rigs in general.
08:57 They were just a cut above the quality level
08:59 you'd get from a North American machine.
09:01 That ain't so anymore.
09:02 - No, no.
09:03 Polaris specifically has increased the quality
09:06 across the board.
09:07 Can-Am is catching up,
09:08 and really it's leaving some of these older rigs
09:10 kind of in the dust.
09:11 - We know what they're capable of
09:12 because Honda made super high quality interiors
09:14 or what felt like super high quality interiors
09:16 a few years ago.
09:17 So we can't imagine there's that much effort
09:19 in just kicking that up just one more notch.
09:21 If we're going to have an arms race,
09:22 let's have an arms race.
09:23 - Absolutely.
09:24 Honda also threw a lot more accessories
09:26 at the rig for 2024.
09:27 They say they have over 60 accessories.
09:29 The vehicle that we have came loaded with over fenders.
09:31 It's got your splash guards.
09:32 It's got cargo box.
09:33 It's got light pods,
09:34 and they're all Honda branded,
09:36 which means, you know,
09:37 they're going to be pretty good stuff.
09:38 - Yep, yep.
09:39 We still didn't get a proper GPS system.
09:41 It's still a Garmin bolt-on unit.
09:44 It's time for that to change.
09:45 - Absolutely.
09:46 Let's talk about price.
09:47 - 2023 Honda 1000 R4 Fox Live Valve starts 25,799.
09:52 So the thing we just said about it being noticeably
09:55 behind the other rigs,
09:57 well, it's also priced like a 2019 rig.
09:59 - Exactly.
10:00 We live in an age where, you know,
10:01 earlier we were pricing out a Maverick car,
10:03 and you ratcheted it up to over $72,000.
10:06 - Yeah.
10:07 - So you can get a fleet, a fleet of Honda Talons for that.
10:10 - Yes, you can.
10:10 Loaded down with any accessory you want, really.
10:13 And you know, if the R is a little too wide for you,
10:16 or a little too sporting for you,
10:17 step down to the X and you step down a thousand bucks.
10:21 A four seat X comes in at 24,799.
10:24 And then if you only have two of you,
10:25 or there's only one of you,
10:27 you're looking at even cheaper.
10:28 A 1000 R Live Valve two-door is 23,499,
10:32 and then another thousand bucks off that for the X model.
10:35 So these are really affordable rigs,
10:37 and really can't be overstated.
10:39 It's hard to afford a $35,000 side-by-side,
10:42 let alone justify one.
10:44 And when you're coming in 15 grand underneath that,
10:46 you can forgive a lot of sins.
10:48 - Absolutely.
10:49 And you've also got to remember that this is a Honda, right?
10:51 People love buying red because it means something, you know?
10:54 It's a reliable rig.
10:55 You're not going to have trouble out of it
10:56 like you might have some other vehicles.
10:58 - How many 35,000 mile Honda Africa's twins have you seen?
11:01 - Yeah, quite a lot.
11:02 - With, yeah, no valve adjustments, et cetera.
11:04 You know, that translates here to the side-by-side world.
11:06 And again, you don't get that in other side-by-sides.
11:09 Now I keep referring to Polaris and Can-Ams
11:11 as North American rigs,
11:13 and I kind of want to walk that back a little bit.
11:15 We should point out that although this is a Honda,
11:18 it's American made.
11:19 They build these things in South Carolina,
11:21 just a couple hours south of our shop here in Tennessee.
11:23 So even though it's a Japanese brand,
11:26 you're getting an American rig.
11:27 - Yeah, I mean that plant down there,
11:28 I think there are like a thousand people working down there.
11:30 - Right.
11:31 - Like it's a pretty big to do.
11:32 I think it has, like, a turn out around 200,000
11:33 side-by-sides a year out of that facility alone.
11:36 Honda's not the only company that's doing it, right?
11:37 Yamaha's got a facility over in Georgia.
11:40 When we say North American rigs,
11:42 what we mean is North American parent company.
11:43 - Either way, you're keeping your dollars
11:45 within the United States,
11:46 and there's something to be said for that.
11:47 - Absolutely.
11:48 So that brings us to who is this rig for?
11:50 This is your first sport rig.
11:52 - Yeah.
11:53 - This is a perfect first sport rig.
11:55 You don't have to worry about things like a belt.
11:56 It's not going to scare you.
11:58 It's going to be fun.
11:59 You're going to have enough power to have a good time.
12:01 It's not going to fall down
12:02 when it's come up to your first real obstacle.
12:04 And for the most part,
12:05 it will hang with your buddies
12:06 who have 200 horsepower rigs.
12:08 You'll have a good time.
12:09 So who is this rig for?
12:10 It's for the guy who has their first sport side-by-side.
12:14 It is a perfect rig for that.
12:16 It's comfortable enough.
12:17 It's low maintenance.
12:18 It's going to keep up with any of your buddies' rigs
12:21 for the most part.
12:22 It is the ideal rig for that.
12:24 It's also for somebody who has some children.
12:26 You're going to need a couple of seats
12:28 for the little ones in the back.
12:30 Perfect, it's made for that.
12:31 It might not be for someone
12:33 who has a little bit more experience in a sport rig.
12:35 If you're coming from an XP1000, going to a Talon,
12:38 that's going to be a tough adjustment.
12:40 It's also not for somebody
12:41 who's trying to put full-grown adults in the back.
12:44 The back is a little on the tight side.
12:45 - Yeah, yeah.
12:46 You're going to bang your knees into the back of the seat.
12:48 That's a perfect place to put kids or teenagers.
12:50 Let them experience off-roading
12:52 from the safety of the back seat first.
12:54 And then when it is time for them,
12:55 you know, when they turn 16 or 17
12:57 and it's time for them to experience the side-by-side
12:59 in the driver's seat, Honda Talon's got you.
13:01 While the Honda Talon is pretty basic from the factory,
13:04 there are so many accessories you can buy from Honda.
13:06 Aftermarket support is huge.
13:08 You can bolt 32-inch tires right to it.
13:11 If you have a Can-Am in your garage already,
13:13 the bolt pattern swaps over.
13:14 So if you've got rig wheels for something like a Can-Am,
13:17 you can slap them right on there.
13:19 And that jumps the capability up immensely.
13:21 We put 32s on a 2021 Honda Talon,
13:24 and were shocked by immediately how much better it was
13:27 without touching the suspension.
13:28 So yes, it's a great first sport rig,
13:31 but it's a great first sport rig
13:32 because it can be your second sport rig
13:34 or maybe your third,
13:35 depending on how deep you want to go into modifying it.
13:39 - Yeah, you know, it's funny you bring up modification.
13:41 If you're somebody who likes to make a rig your own,
13:43 there is absolutely nothing wrong
13:45 with jumping into a Honda Talon
13:46 because the aftermarket support is absolutely wild.
13:49 Their guys will sell you a forced induction system.
13:51 Their guys will sell you a wild suspension
13:53 to make this thing keep up
13:54 with anything that Polaris or Can-Ams turn out.
13:56 - Absolutely. And then it's yours.
13:58 You can tune it however you want it.
14:00 You don't have to undo work that a factory did.
14:02 You're building from the ground up with a Talon.
14:05 - But you might want to wait until after a year
14:07 because this thing comes with a full
14:08 one-year manufacturer warranty.
14:10 - That is wild, especially for a rig
14:12 that is known for reliability the way a Honda is.
14:15 We hope you don't have to use it,
14:17 but the likelihood of coming up against that is pretty slim.
14:20 - Yeah, I mean, you know,
14:20 one year is pretty long for the industry.
14:23 - Yep, yeah.
14:24 And I mean, you can beat on a rig pretty good in a year.
14:26 - Absolutely. - So you're covered.
14:27 - That's it for everything you need to know
14:28 on the 2023 Honda Talon 1000 R4.
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14:47 (upbeat music)
14:49 All right, with all the news
14:54 about the 2024 Can-Am Maverick R coming out,
14:57 we figured it was time to take a look at the side.
14:59 Just knock all that off now.
15:06 Just sweep the helmet rack.
15:10 Welcome to behind the scenes with UTV Driver.