# opinions needed!



## talleyman01 (Jul 13, 2011)

My younger brother has the unfortunate problem of being a honda guy and he is shopping for a new bike. I have been trying to help him and it has brought me to a question about the hondas, is there any specific reason that everyone rides the rancher over the foreman other than price? I have done my research on the honda website and i can tell the obvious differences with the engine size and things of that nature but when i look on mimb alot of the hondas are all the ranchers and im curious to know why. I know that i am posting this in the kawi side but i see that lots of you guys have hondas also so thats why i asked here. any opnions are appricieated. He is deffinately trying to stay away from the rincon as a couple of guys that ride with us are extremly unhappy with their rincons. 
thanks


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## wolf_36 (Jul 7, 2010)

I don't know alot about honda , my son in law has a rancher which I pull out of the mud quite often and one of the guys that ride with us has a rincon :33: I pull that out of the mud alot also but the last foreman I saw was all time 4X4 don't know if they still are but if they are might be the reason


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## T DAWG (Jan 30, 2011)

well besides the price. it a beast!!!! man the rancher 420 or 350 will go any where the bigger ones will go, stronger, more dependable, and over all just a sound bike man. i have a 350 rancher its been the best bike ever. all my friends have ranchers also. im getting a 420 also.


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## T DAWG (Jan 30, 2011)

and no the when they changed the body style of the hondas. the all time 4wd went away. they made every bike bigger than the 350 selectable 2wd or 4wd. the 420 ranchers are the only ranchers they made selectable 2wd 4wd


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## BleednGreen68 (Apr 19, 2010)

The Electric shift Hondas are junk, we work on so many of those. One more electrical prob just waiting to happen. Very expensive to fix. Plus the hydro trannies are expensive to fix also. He needs a kawi bad! Ride Green!


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## T DAWG (Jan 30, 2011)

i agree with you that electric shift is junk. just one more thing to mess up when mud ridin. and i would only own a foot shift honda. but over all the 350s and 420s are bad ***.


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## Eastexasmudder (Nov 21, 2011)

Idk about the ranchers but my friend has a foreman 500 and I drag that thing around every time he rides with me. I pulled it out so much one day I broke my tow rope. The electric shift sucks. I did convert it to manual one day before we rode. He doesn't try to hit the bad stuff that I do. There might just be karma with him or something but I'm always pulling that Honda out. I rode with a 420 recently with 28's and it did awesome in my opinion


I'd rather be riding instead I'm using tapatalk!


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## T DAWG (Jan 30, 2011)

well like a said before the rancher is most def the best bike honda has ever made. and it really has a lot to with the driver and what their skills are.


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## talleyman01 (Jul 13, 2011)

Ok so if we stay with the manual shift has everyone had good luck with them? He has had a recon that has over 15000 miles on it and beat the hell out of every time it's brought out of the barn and that's the reason he wants to stay Honda which I can't say I blame him.


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## T DAWG (Jan 30, 2011)

yeah man stay foot shift. the majority of my friends have 350 and 420 ranchers and they are so easy to work on, and the are long lasting i have a 2005 350 and a 2007 420 never had a problem with them.


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## southernbrute750 (Jul 5, 2011)

I know the foot shifts also have a better gear ratio for turning larger tires


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## BleednGreen68 (Apr 19, 2010)

Yea, go with the simplest honda, and you will be fine. Our kawi dealership works on lots of hondas and I will tell you that most of the ones that come in are beat to death. Farmers dont really take care of their stuff, atleast around here. They look like crap but still run good. Honda makes great motors. The electric shift ones work great...........when their working. An atv just needs, hi, low, and reverse and a switchable 4x4 mode. Guess im just spoiled with my 750 green machine hehe. You can always count on the good ole brutes to pull ya out! My friends dont leave home without me! haha


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## T DAWG (Jan 30, 2011)

yeah foot shifts also have more power do to that gear ratio. my friend has an electric shif 420 and my 350 foot shift keeps up with it. but my foot shift 420 blows it away.


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## wcs61 (Jun 7, 2011)

My neice has a 420 manual shift and it goes places you won't believe being a completely stock bike with stock tires. Let's just say she is the chick to beat around the mud holes.


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## filthyredneck (Feb 10, 2010)

I agree...if it has to be a Honda then make it a manual shift 420. My little brother has a 2011 420 manual shift/manual 4wd SRA with a 2" lift, 27" s/w Laws, and snorks and he follows my brute pretty much everywhere....he does have to work harder than I do to go the same places, but that honda always pulls through. 
I asked him why he didn't get the IRS 420 and he said because he wanted a manual tranny...we both grew up on SRA footshift atv's so it's nothing new to him. But honestly from what I've seen, even the IRS 420 becomes a beast after you install a gear reduction. I know theres at least 1 on mimb that I remember seeing post and he also has some riding vids with a bunch of brutes.....he's turning 31 Laws like they are nothing.

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## hp488 (Sep 23, 2009)

A 420 sra with a axel paddle, tires and a gr won't be pulled out anymore. All I can say is you can't beat a Honda a very dependable ride.


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## Shrek (Oct 4, 2011)

talleyman01 said:


> My younger brother has the unfortunate problem of being a honda guy and he is shopping for a new bike. I have been trying to help him and it has brought me to a question about the hondas, *is there any specific reason that everyone rides the rancher over the foreman other than price? I have done my research on the honda website and i can tell the obvious differences with the engine size and things of that nature but when i look on mimb alot of the hondas are all the ranchers and im curious to know why.* I know that i am posting this in the kawi side but i see that lots of you guys have hondas also so thats why i asked here. any opnions are appricieated. He is deffinately trying to stay away from the rincon as a couple of guys that ride with us are extremly unhappy with their rincons.
> thanks


to answer your original ? The Foreman's have always been SRA bike ONLY (even still in 2012) alot of riders go with the rancher for the IRS option. I had an '06 foreman 500 that has @ 2500 miles (sold to my father) on it and that thing's still in perfect shape. 

I will add that it has towed my brute home a couple times :nutkick:


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## gatorboi (May 22, 2011)

The new foreman is a good choice if your looking for foot shift sra option. Its just a 420 with a little more umph. Now if you want IRS you have to go 420, its geared lower so you would need upgrades. The new Foreman is a beast, FI and i've seen them turn 29.5's stock. If I were looking for a new honda with manual tranny it would be the foreman.


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