TONY’S TRAIL RIDES WITH IRON HILL POWERSPORTS AND KQ98: HONDA TALON 1000R SPORT

Not all off-road vehicles are built the same. While most that you see are for work or trail riding there are those that are built for speed and racing. You don’t see many because they aren’t practical for most. There are those that straddle the line between speed and trail riding and that’s what I had last weekend. The Honda Talon 1000R Sport has speed to spare, but also can be used to travel the countryside. This versatile machine has a bunch of features from a warn winch and LED light bar to a 1000cc dual parallel engine and Fox shocks with 20 inches of travel. This was a slightly different ride this week as we did go for a ride on the trails but we mixed that with a speed test. The Honda Talon’s most captivating feature is its ability to go faster than most side-by-sides and that is not a bad thing at all. For those that may be looking into getting into racing they wouldn’t look far past this ride. The cockpit holds you snuggly in place and with the doors and side netting you get the feeling that you are in a racecar. Once you put it in gear and touch the accelerator it is highly responsive to your commands. Honda has two ways for you to operate the machine: an automatic transmission and manual. Both are useful and make driving the Talon fun! When in automatic the transmission shifts properly at the target RPMs and doesn’t get sluggish as it gets up to its sixth gear. The only time the automatic transmission can be a bit annoying is when you are trail riding at a slower pace. It feels like the machine is waiting to shift to the next gear and you can feel it in your body anticipating the change. That’s where the manual transmission can be useful when trail riding in that you can shift to that next gear and it quiets down the engine and takes the resistance of the transmission away. The manual shifting is also a fun feature when you are going for that speed test. You can test your skill with the proper RPM – and maybe get it a little higher than the machine in automatic and see if you come off as a real racer. I used the manual transmission often while both racing at Deerfield Farms bean fields and on the trails in Chatfield, Minnesota. I was able to get the Honda Talon up to 70mph in the field and I could have gone even faster if I had more room to keep going. When you watch the video you can really see the speed and takeoff ability of the Talon. That brings us to the most fun and unique feature on the Talon….. launch mode. When you use this feature you push and hold the brake, hold down the launch mode button until it activates, pull back and hold the shifting paddles and apply the accelerator to the desired RPM. It keeps the vehicle from moving like you’re at the start of a race in Mario Cart. When you release the paddles and brake and floor the gas the Talon digs in and takes off like a shot! It is truly exhilarating and fun to play with and feel like you are in a competition. However, unless you are racing this feature would get kind of wasted and only be used to show off at times.

@schultzy_on_the_radio

I got to test the Honda Talon 1000R Sport with the Viper Urban Camo. This rig is built for speed! #TonysTrailRide #fun #outdoors #offroad #speed

♬ Race start signal 6: Countdown – tibita

We took it trail riding the next day up on the trails in Chatfield, MN and had a great time. The trails there are very diverse and fun to spend the day on. The Talon was able to climb over any obstacle and even drive through a deep puddle that left mud on our floorboards. The shocks on the Talon were a little stiff and we didn’t get as smooth of a ride when going across the bean field rows or when traveling the rocks on the trail like the other rides I’ve tested. I think the Talon is a great ride if you use it within the parameters it is geared for, but if you just go pleasure riding you will pay for features you don’t use and it will disappoint you if you need it for work projects as there isn’t much cargo room in the back. However, you get what you pay for and if speed is what you need you will get that in huge amounts for your money. So, get your Ricky Bobby on and go fast and shake ‘n bake with your friends in the Honda Talon 1000R and check out my test ride below!