Best riding talon

[Wahoo]

Hello all, I currently own a rzr trail and rocks edition. I ride in the rockies. Mostly trails full of rocks. The rzr does a good job of providing a comfortable ride. My brother has a talon x with 30” tires. I’ve ridden his machine some and the ride is ok,but not as good as the rzr. I really like the talon, especially the transmission, but it needs improvement.
My question is,what suspension system will give me the best ride? Most of my riding is 10-15 mph. Speed is not a concern. It seems like the low gear is not low enough also.

 

[Admin]

 

[Ridinfool]

Uht Oh… the cops are gonna be here any minute now 🚓👮‍♀️

 

[JACKAL]

@Wahoo welcome to the forum.

There is 2 distinct philosophies regarding shock setup. First is run a heavy spring and modest valving to deal with the chosen spring rate. The second is let the valving do the work and run the lightest spring rate for the intended use.

Honda Talon Fox shocks come with a heavy spring rate and no bottom out cups, as specified by Honda, this gives what they determined desirable for a sport machine that would be driven fast while being reliable at the expense of a non-compliant ride at low speed.

Elka Shocks for example proscribed to the latter, running specific valving and the lightest spring rate for a specific purpose, this will give you the best ride factoring in all the variables to your specifications, weight, cargo, ride speed, etc. Likely Stage 3, 4, or 5 as your wallet allows. Trail riding Stage 3 should be plenty.

The OEM Fox shocks can be rebuilt and resprung but to get all the desired traits you want may cost almost as much as the Elkas done right from the get go.

Hope this helps.

 

[CID]

Rzrs, can-am and the Kawi KRX all have better OEM suspensions. I also ride the rockies, width isn't a problem and why I bought the Talon R, more suspension travel. Something that will help either Talon is unhooking the swaybar on rides that will see lower speeds. This is because a sway bar connects both sides of the buggy, both spring rate and valving. Someone makes an easily removable sway bar link set. On the Talon X, I think you can just remove one SB link and ride but the R has a more complicated rear suspension and the SB end will hit the upper trailing arm if you don't remove both links and tie the SB up.

Extreme riders say that low range is too tall and I experience that 'on occasion' but it's easy enough to ride around that 'problem' by gently bumping an obstacle. But I'm not an extreme rider either except for my summer altitudes - up to 13,262 feet so far. The DCT is so much fun to drive

that I'll learn to live with the shortcomings that come with a Talon.

Beadlocks let you run lower tire pressures which helps a lot with the ride quality.

You can see that the SB will hit in this picture if it isn't tied higher.


Bungeed up out of the way -


You can see the white SB link in the up/disconnected position here -

 

[Remington]

I currently own a rzr trail

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Welcome From Michigan.
the last Two posts explain your question very well and get u in the right direction. Get out of the fire trap while you still can! 😂

 

[HUCK]

Hello all, I currently own a rzr trail and rocks edition. I ride in the rockies. Mostly trails full of rocks. The rzr does a good job of providing a comfortable ride. My brother has a talon x with 30” tires. I’ve ridden his machine some and the ride is ok,but not as good as the rzr. I really like the talon, especially the transmission, but it needs improvement.
My question is,what suspension system will give me the best ride? Most of my riding is 10-15 mph. Speed is not a concern. It seems like the low gear is not low enough also.

I have a RZR trail and a Talon X . I sent my Talon shocks to Weller racing and told them what I ride (lotsa rocks) , Talon rides much better than RZR now .

 

[lowranger]

I have a RZR trail and a Talon X . I sent my Talon shocks to Weller racing and told them what I ride (lotsa rocks) , Talon rides much better than RZR now .

I had them do mine too. Major difference! I also have the Talon X. No high speed racing, mainly slower trails.

 

[DRZRon1]

I am not so sure a revalve\spring upgrade on the stock shocks whether X/R, LV, non LV cost about the same as 4 new Elka or similar new shocks unless 4 new shocks cost less than $1500. if there is no budget constraints - I am sure the Elkas deliver a primo ride.

bottom line, talon stock suspension on X/R is generally to stiff and unbearable for most, advice is plan to drop some cash with a reputable shock rebuild company (Weller, G-Force, FCR, etc., etc.) - the factory shocks can be rebuilt to your machine upgrades/riding conditions. My X is what I would rate as a 8 out of 10 after revalve/new springs. I’m just never happy in general…..

Bottom line - whatever model you have - the factory boingers can be redone to work very very well…….

 

[Rednick69]

Talon X here, had my shocks re-valved at Weller racing and new springs. I ride slow rock trails in the Ozarks of Arkansas. Talon still rides like a John Deere. My friend has a Talon X with the same Weller racing setup as me, John Deere.

 

[Smitty335]

Talon X here, had my shocks re-valved at Weller racing and new springs. I ride slow rock trails in the Ozarks of Arkansas. Talon still rides like a John Deere. My friend has a Talon X with the same Weller racing setup as me, John Deere.

Do your shocks have high & low speed compression adjustments? If so adjust the high speed pretty soft and speed up the rebound adjustment. The high & low adjustments have nothing to do with the speed of your X, it refers to the speed of the shock shaft traveling in the compression stroke.

 

[CID]

Talon X here, had my shocks re-valved at Weller racing and new springs. I ride slow rock trails in the Ozarks of Arkansas. Talon still rides like a John Deere. My friend has a Talon X with the same Weller racing setup as me, John Deere.

Send them back, they'll revalve them once for free.

 

[DRZRon1]

sorry to hear they still kinda suck bad, did you let Welker know and any response ?

 

[Honda-Kid]

I had mine done by weller racing and love the ride now its on a 2019 talon x. ride is 80% better.

 

[Teebow]

Mine rides fine without any upgrades

 

[Hometeam]

I have G-Force on my X and I think it's great!! I love the way it handles now! He did the Hi/Lo compression, springs, valving, and I run 32's for tires. I got an RLV also, and it is stock shocks on 33's. I think my G-Force X is smoother than my stock RLV. But I do think my RLV is pretty good with that setup too (it has just over 2k miles). I plan on having G-Force do my RLV soon also. I ride east coast trails mostly, but if I was gonna own just 1 it would be the RLV. I don't think it's width is a problem at all in the trails in Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, etc.

 

[Rednick69]

Do your shocks have high & low speed compression adjustments? If so adjust the high speed pretty soft and speed up the rebound adjustment. The high & low adjustments have nothing to do with the speed of your X, it refers to the speed of the shock shaft traveling in the compression stroke.

I believe I had them all set on low which I would have assumed would be the softest. Our last ride we rode a bit faster and I moved the rears up to medium or the middle setting.

Send them back, they'll revalve them once for free.

Thanks for the info. I'm actually selling the Talon and going a different route.

sorry to hear they still kinda suck bad, did you let Welker know and any response ?

I haven't spoken with Weller regarding this. My friend and I both sent ours to Weller and his is about the same as mine. There was improvement but not a lot.

 

[906UP]

I had mine done at Monster Performance in upstate New York, he's done my snowmobile shocks for years so I figured I'd give him a shot. He took a lot of the stiffness out of the front and a little in the rear (due to weight added). It was a huge improvement over stock, enough that my wife noticed it immediately. Also swapped out the springs, went with Bandit mediums in the front, heavy in the rear. I'll probably send them out for a service this winter, it'll be 2 seasons since they were done. I might try G-force this time 🤔

 

[TerryH]

Talon X here, had my shocks re-valved at Weller racing and new springs. I ride slow rock trails in the Ozarks of Arkansas. Talon still rides like a John Deere. My friend has a Talon X with the same Weller racing setup as me, John Deere.

This surprises me. Several guys on the Facebook forums have had Weller do their shocks and report a major improvement. Also heard very good things about Weller's customer service.

 

[Rednick69]

This surprises me. Several guys on the Facebook forums have had Weller do their shocks and report a major improvement. Also heard very good things about Weller's customer service.

I want to be clear that I'm not being negative about their work or customer service. I have not contacted them because I don't think it'll help since it is two different talons with the same setup that IMO do not ride well. When we ordered service from them they were great. We had questions from them after we received our shocks and they answered them promptly and professional. If I even need shock work on anything else they will be first on the list.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

You guys do realize that a coil springs only job is to hold the vehicle at static ride height, right? And that # is purely based on corner weights and has zero to do with the terrain you ride.......

Ride quality comes from properly selected springs AND valving. You will never find an off the shelf spring/valving tune that gives you the "cloud of titties" ride everyone seems to be after.

You think the Trophy Truck guys all call up the same shock tuner and tell them to install the Baja 1000 springs/valving and thats it? 🤣

Shock tuning is an art. Just because sombody can take apart a shock and change the valving doesn't necessarily mean they know what they are doing. Stick with tuners that do it to feed their families, not people that market parts to support their racing habits and you will be waaay more satisfied with the results. Good stuff ain't cheap, so if you want to cheap out on shock tuning you really shoud STFU about the ride quality and deal with your poor decisions personally.