• 5 months ago
We jumped behind the wheel in Johnson Valley, California to find out if the new updates to an old machine keep it fresh enough for your hard-earned money!

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Transcript
00:00This thing feels way faster! Honda has really done the Talon a favor.
00:05It has been five years since the Honda Talon took the side-by-side world by storm.
00:09When it dropped, the 2019 Honda Talon was one of the best sport rigs out there.
00:13With a 1000cc parallel twin and a 6-speed dual-clutch gearbox taken straight out of
00:17the Africa Twin Adventure bike, it had about 100 horsepower and row-your-own gears in a light,
00:22nimble package that no one had seen before.
00:24Best of all, it was and still is cheap.
00:26The 2024 Honda Talon behind me starts at just $20,000. That is an insane deal.
00:32And as if that wasn't enough, it's always been available with Fox Live Valve Suspension,
00:36which senses the terrain as you drive and tightens up or loosens up in response
00:39to what's going on around you.
00:40But the side-by-side world has moved on a ton in the last five years,
00:43and that means the Talon is now starting to lag just a little bit behind the rest
00:47of the competition, especially when you look at the interior and some of the fit and finish.
00:50But Honda made big changes to the rig last year,
00:53adding the wider, desert-focused R-trim to the four-seat model,
00:57and making sure that Live Valve was standard on those R four-seaters.
01:00But we still thought it needed a little bit of a boost to meet
01:03the rising tides set by its competitors.
01:05The interiors are starting to look dated,
01:07and Honda insists on shipping the Talons with 27-inch tires up front
01:11and 28s out back when the rest of the world has moved on to 30s.
01:14We've talked about everything we think they should do to fix the Talon.
01:17There's a whole other video on that.
01:18And just today, we asked Honda engineers when they might see a big update for the Talon,
01:23and they were pretty tight-lipped, but there is something in the works.
01:26This year, Honda's made another big update to the old Talon
01:29by putting Showa shocks on all four corners.
01:31You can still get the Fox Live Valve Edition,
01:33but Honda has ditched the Fox manually adjustable QS3s in favor of Showa,
01:38who make the suspension on their motocross bikes.
01:40Honda tells us that the new suspension is more adjustable,
01:43is more supple and comfortable,
01:44but still has the same bottom-out resistance as the old Fox stuff.
01:47The old Fox QS3 shocks on the base model Talon were three-way adjustable,
01:51but the new shocks are 12-way slow-speed compression adjustable
01:55with four and a half clicks of high-speed compression adjustment.
01:58Now, you have to have a tool to do all that,
02:00but it's really nice to see that much more customization.
02:02The travel is the same at 17 inches roundabout up front and about 20 inches out back.
02:07That's the same travel as the old manually adjustable Fox suspension,
02:10so this rig should be just as capable, if not more, than the old one.
02:13Honda is so excited about the Showas on the Talon
02:16that they invited us out to Johnson Valley, California,
02:18to do about 80 miles of driving.
02:20This is the home of King of the Hammers,
02:22so if you're going to test suspension, this is the place to do it.
02:25We're going to find out.
02:26Did Honda fix the Talon?
02:27Let's just take a quick look around the rig.
02:29New 2024 Honda Talon 1004.
02:32The Showa stuff comes on the base model,
02:34so this doesn't have live valve or anything like that.
02:36This all feels very familiar to anyone who's been in a Talon
02:39because none of this has changed.
02:42There's that familiar Honda noise.
02:45I've always liked the rumble from the Honda Parallel Twin.
02:47It's a really nice sounding mill.
02:49We're in two-wheel drive right now.
02:51We're in high gear.
02:51Put her in sport mode and roll out.
02:54We're going to switch rigs throughout the day,
02:56so I'll get to test out a two-door later.
02:58Oh, yeah.
03:00It's a Honda Talon, baby.
03:02It's shifting gears.
03:03I have gears.
03:05Respect to everybody who makes a side-by-side with a CVT,
03:08but I love gears.
03:10Suspension feels great.
03:11We're not hauling the mail by any means.
03:14Feels good.
03:14You can tell that they actually did spend some time
03:17making sure that it's got a really progressive suspension travel,
03:20so it gets stiffer as you go deeper into the travel,
03:22but right off the top of the stroke in the shock,
03:25it's very compliant,
03:26so all these chundery little bumps and whoops
03:28and baby head rocks are pretty well smoothed out.
03:30You don't get jarred around like you would on suspension
03:33that's stiff everywhere,
03:34so you might want something a little bit stiffer
03:36if you're just going to be going flat out
03:38all the time through the desert,
03:39but in a four-seater like this,
03:41you don't want that.
03:42You want to feel some of that stuff,
03:43but mostly you don't want to get your fillings rattled out.
03:46Initial impressions, very nice.
03:48All right.
03:49We have switched to a two-door R model,
03:53so that means we've gone from 64 inches wide on the X
03:57to 68 inches wide on the R.
03:59We've gone from two seats to four,
04:01so we've got a little bit more rotation,
04:03a little bit quicker handling,
04:04and this thing feels way faster.
04:07Still the same base model Showa suspension.
04:10This same machine, except it's wider and shorter.
04:14It's a whole lot more fun,
04:16except when I can't see anything.
04:18You got to be on your game a little bit more
04:20because it changes direction more quickly.
04:23Slides are a little less progressive.
04:25You want a talent to go fast in, this is the one.
04:27The settings on this rig are the same as the one we got out of.
04:30Got a nice amount of compliance over little bumps and baby heads
04:33and has a nice progressive stroke,
04:35so when you get down close to the bottom of the suspension,
04:38it soaks up the bumps a whole lot better.
04:40Honda has really done the Talon a favor here,
04:43but if you just want to go popping around,
04:45the 105 horsepower Talon is a great way to get into it,
04:48and the new suspension makes that even better.
04:51And if you must have Fox, the live valve is still the live valve,
04:54so you can go and get your electronic suspension.
04:57That rig at almost $25,000 is still a deal.
05:00I don't know if you need it.
05:01This thing's so good.
05:02The two-door is a lot louder and a lot hotter than the four-door.
05:07In the two-door, you are quite literally sitting on the engine.
05:10It's an open cab, so that's not a huge deal.
05:12It's not oppressively noisy or oppressively hot in here,
05:15but it's definitely something to make note of.
05:17We just stopped for a water break.
05:18One of Honda's engineers went another half a turn or so
05:22out on our high-speed compression settings
05:24to calm the chatter down in some of these bumps.
05:27As we've loosened the suspension up,
05:29the traction has gotten higher and higher,
05:31which is making the machine more predictable.
05:33Frankly, faster.
05:35Whoa!
05:36And the result is a really fun side-by-side.
05:40We've gone almost 40 miles in the new Honda Talon 1000 X4
05:45with the Showa shocks.
05:46This thing is great.
05:48All of our old complaints still apply.
05:50It has a little bit of a snatchy throttle.
05:52The interior is not up to the appointments
05:54of some of the competitors,
05:55and you notice the tiny tires.
05:57I'd love to have 30s, I'd love to have throttle modes,
06:00and I'd love to have a nicer interior.
06:01Having said all that, I have some thoughts.
06:03One, this new suspension is excellent.
06:06There are 12 clicks of low-speed compression adjustment,
06:09four and a half clicks of high-speed compression adjustment.
06:11That means that you can get out of the rig
06:12and make sure you get it dialed into the terrain you're riding.
06:15It's not as slick as live valve, but it's also much cheaper.
06:18That brings me to the price.
06:20We're looking at a rig that costs under $23,000,
06:23and it's a great machine out of the gate.
06:24We've been ripping on it all day.
06:26Even though we don't have a stereo
06:28and we don't have air conditioning,
06:29we don't have a windshield, we're super comfortable.
06:31Honda does that very well.
06:33The seats are very nice.
06:34They're not made of the nicest material,
06:35but they are going to hold up,
06:37and I haven't noticed them.
06:38Paramount for seats.
06:39If you don't notice them underneath you,
06:40that means you're not uncomfortable,
06:41and if you're not uncomfortable, you're comfortable.
06:43The dual-clutch transmission is super fun to play with.
06:46It does get a little confused in deep sandy stuff,
06:49but really, this is an entry-level sport machine.
06:52It's not a Can-Am Maverick R.
06:53It's not really for desert racing right out of the box,
06:56but for you and your family to go putz around in,
06:58it's great fun.
06:59You can shift your own gears,
07:00you can put it in automatic mode,
07:01you can put it in sport automatic mode
07:03if that just raises the shift points,
07:04and it's great all around.
07:05In the rocks, it's fantastic.
07:07We'd love to see throttle modes
07:08because the throttle is still a little snatchy in rocks,
07:10and the new Showa suspension from the factory setting
07:13is pretty stiff for doing anything rock-crawly.
07:15Otherwise, it's great.
07:16That brings us to our final question.
07:18Did Honda fix the Talon?
07:20Well, no, but I would say in this case,
07:23it doesn't really matter
07:24because you're still getting amazing value for money.
07:27You're getting 105 horsepower.
07:29You are getting a proven powertrain.
07:31That parallel twin is great.
07:33The DCT is super stout.
07:34People put thousands of miles on them in adventure bikes,
07:37and they hold up.
07:38You're getting Honda quality,
07:39and you're getting a great fun machine
07:41at a really low entry-level price.
07:43Added to that,
07:44it's not some huge, wide, desert-only ripper.
07:47The X is nice and narrow.
07:48It's the trail model.
07:49It's made for any terrain you throw at it.
07:51That means it's nimble.
07:52It's easy to drive.
07:53You can easily get four people in there.
07:55So it is a sport machine
07:56for people who want to go out and have fun.
07:58They don't need utility,
07:59but they're also not trying to go 100 miles an hour
08:01through a whoops section.
08:02So to wrap all that up,
08:03the Showa suspension has made the Honda Talon
08:06more comfortable.
08:07It's an important but small update
08:09in a rig that is starting to show its age.
08:11Honda has said that there is an update coming.
08:14They won't say when,
08:14they won't say how big,
08:16and they won't say exactly
08:16what that update's going to look like.
08:18But if you're in the market for a Honda Talon,
08:20we would switch to the 2024,
08:22get the new suspension.
08:23It's super comfortable.
08:24It's super adjustable,
08:25and it's really great.
08:26If you want to know more about the Honda Talon,
08:28head over to utvdriver.com,
08:30where we've got news, reviews,
08:32and buyer's guides five days a week.
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