highpocket74
Well-Known Member
Vendor
Lifetime Member
Thanks to Richard (Hondasxs) for letting me upgrade my vendor support membership. This forum is the best I've been a part of so vendor support was easy. I like the fact that Richard runs this forum himself and not some company that owns an collection of forums.
For those new here or don't know me, my real name is Brian Young from Southwest Louisiana and I've been a member here since 2020 after I bought my 2019 Talon X. It didn't take me long to like what I saw here so I became a supporting vendor with my very small business, 10-80 Dirtsports.
About the business and my designs.
In April of 2019 I cranked up this little online business selling R2C air filters at first, then expanded to Desertcraft air filters and Jemco RZR cargo boxes. Sales weren't super great at firts but there's a lot of competition out there in cyberspace. But, eventually sales increased enough to make this worthwhile.
During the long Easter weekend of 2020, I decided to try to make something of my own. All weekend was spent in my workshop making some UHMW front a-arm guards for my Talon. First I mocked up everything with cardboard, then cut the plastic, heated and bent it to fit. That was all the spark I needed to get my imagination running wild!
In June of 2020 I decided to make a better shifter plate that retained the notches. I wanted this because after using a CA Tech plate for a while I thought the safety factor of the notches was worth the convenience of direct Low or High to Reverse. These Honda transmissions don't lock into gear as well as Polaris does so knocking it out of gear is easier done. Surprsingly the shifter plated didn't take long at all to design. The first design was produced in August and by December I had some small revisions mainly for cosmetics. The Talon shifter plates have been selling well since then.
After the Talon shifter plate success, I focused on a Pioneer 1000 shifter plate. Even with the Talon design as a starting point, the Pioneer shifter plate had it's challenges. It took 3 tries to get the design nailed down. That's 3 times of removing and installing the dash panel to test fit and function!! That wasn't fun! But I got the design figured out and left the first prototype on the donor machine. A few weeks later the owner, a local farmer, mentioned how much better he liked my shifter plate than the Honda plastic. That floored me because farmers are nearly utilitarian owners. They don't splurge on bling or accessories. So I thought if a farmer likes this shifter plate then surely other recreational riders will too. And I was off to the races having these laser cut for sales.
I should mention here that near my home is a company that was founded on building ATV racks in the 80's. They have grown big over time and I've know the owner since I was a little kid. I approached them about laser cutting and powder coating my shifter plates and they said sure, no problem. Having a high quality manufacturer with CNC equipment 5 miles from my house is a blessing in many ways. Not everyone has such an opportunity literally in their back yard. This shop has been great to work with and I appreciate that they never forgot what it's like to start out from scratch.
So now I have the shifter plates for Honda's 1000 side by sides going and selling. They aren't flying off the shelves form online orders but I can't complain. During January of 2021, I have this bright idea to design some kind of under seat storage for the Talons. They offer very little factory storage and could use more space. Since I have a Talon X, I jump into mocking up a storage box for the driver seat with foam core board. This works great because it's rigid but can be sliced and easily bent. In one weekend the foam box came together but I didn't have a lid for it. It took weeks to find a lid that would work with the constraints of the seat frame. With the design complete, I made some drawings, sent the design to the shop and the X2-d box was born. The very first prototype fit perfectly under the seat! With that design complete, I located a very cool guy that let me borrow his X4 for measurements to design boxes for the 4 seat Talon X. He wasn't using the UTV at the moment so I was able to keep it for 2 months! I did the same designing with foam boxes and once complete I made drawings and sent to the shop for cutting. After several tweaks on the construction technique of the boxes, the overall design has not changed. They still fit perfectly where they are supposed to and offer the most usable storage possible for their locations. As far as I know I'm still the only person making under seat storage boxes for the Talon. The Talon X2-d box has been the best selling followed closely by the X4-p, large passenger seat box for X4. This box offers huge storage for an otherwise inaccessible, empty space left by Honda.
To be continued...
For those new here or don't know me, my real name is Brian Young from Southwest Louisiana and I've been a member here since 2020 after I bought my 2019 Talon X. It didn't take me long to like what I saw here so I became a supporting vendor with my very small business, 10-80 Dirtsports.
About the business and my designs.
In April of 2019 I cranked up this little online business selling R2C air filters at first, then expanded to Desertcraft air filters and Jemco RZR cargo boxes. Sales weren't super great at firts but there's a lot of competition out there in cyberspace. But, eventually sales increased enough to make this worthwhile.
During the long Easter weekend of 2020, I decided to try to make something of my own. All weekend was spent in my workshop making some UHMW front a-arm guards for my Talon. First I mocked up everything with cardboard, then cut the plastic, heated and bent it to fit. That was all the spark I needed to get my imagination running wild!
In June of 2020 I decided to make a better shifter plate that retained the notches. I wanted this because after using a CA Tech plate for a while I thought the safety factor of the notches was worth the convenience of direct Low or High to Reverse. These Honda transmissions don't lock into gear as well as Polaris does so knocking it out of gear is easier done. Surprsingly the shifter plated didn't take long at all to design. The first design was produced in August and by December I had some small revisions mainly for cosmetics. The Talon shifter plates have been selling well since then.
After the Talon shifter plate success, I focused on a Pioneer 1000 shifter plate. Even with the Talon design as a starting point, the Pioneer shifter plate had it's challenges. It took 3 tries to get the design nailed down. That's 3 times of removing and installing the dash panel to test fit and function!! That wasn't fun! But I got the design figured out and left the first prototype on the donor machine. A few weeks later the owner, a local farmer, mentioned how much better he liked my shifter plate than the Honda plastic. That floored me because farmers are nearly utilitarian owners. They don't splurge on bling or accessories. So I thought if a farmer likes this shifter plate then surely other recreational riders will too. And I was off to the races having these laser cut for sales.
I should mention here that near my home is a company that was founded on building ATV racks in the 80's. They have grown big over time and I've know the owner since I was a little kid. I approached them about laser cutting and powder coating my shifter plates and they said sure, no problem. Having a high quality manufacturer with CNC equipment 5 miles from my house is a blessing in many ways. Not everyone has such an opportunity literally in their back yard. This shop has been great to work with and I appreciate that they never forgot what it's like to start out from scratch.
So now I have the shifter plates for Honda's 1000 side by sides going and selling. They aren't flying off the shelves form online orders but I can't complain. During January of 2021, I have this bright idea to design some kind of under seat storage for the Talons. They offer very little factory storage and could use more space. Since I have a Talon X, I jump into mocking up a storage box for the driver seat with foam core board. This works great because it's rigid but can be sliced and easily bent. In one weekend the foam box came together but I didn't have a lid for it. It took weeks to find a lid that would work with the constraints of the seat frame. With the design complete, I made some drawings, sent the design to the shop and the X2-d box was born. The very first prototype fit perfectly under the seat! With that design complete, I located a very cool guy that let me borrow his X4 for measurements to design boxes for the 4 seat Talon X. He wasn't using the UTV at the moment so I was able to keep it for 2 months! I did the same designing with foam boxes and once complete I made drawings and sent to the shop for cutting. After several tweaks on the construction technique of the boxes, the overall design has not changed. They still fit perfectly where they are supposed to and offer the most usable storage possible for their locations. As far as I know I'm still the only person making under seat storage boxes for the Talon. The Talon X2-d box has been the best selling followed closely by the X4-p, large passenger seat box for X4. This box offers huge storage for an otherwise inaccessible, empty space left by Honda.
To be continued...
