Best riding talon

[PaulF]

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.......

That is total BS. Springs are NOT based on corner weight alone. A machine used specifically for rock crawling will be much better with a softer spring than a casual trail rider and a casual rider needs a softer spring than a duner and a duner need a softer spring than a desert racer. The difference from a rock crawler to a desert racer will be more than 100# per corner.

Then there is spring length and single, dual or triple springs. Then there is the crossover settings for each type of terrain. Choosing the correct spring and setting them up properly is as much an art as the valving.

The rest of what you said is mostly spot on but your claim of springs having "zero to do with terrain" is just plain wrong.

 

[Admin]

 

[HavasuDave]

The Talon X doesn’t have long travel suspension. I started on a RZR 800s, 8500 miles. Then a rzr 1000 (11k miles). I had custom suspension on the 1000 when I test drove the Talon X and R in Moab 2019. The X rode like my rzr 800. The R rode better than my 1000 with the suspension work. I have 8000 miles now on my Talon R. I did the shock therapy valving and upgraded to Eibach stage 3 springs at 7000 miles. It rides dramatically better. For rocky riding, keep the ride height stock and the crossover set for max distance on the ride spring. You won’t believe how smooth it goes over rocky rough terrain.

The other spectacular feature of the Talon is i4WD which gives you traction control like a corvette. It uses electronically balanced braking sensing wheel slip. As an additional benefit to this, you get a form of antilock braking. That was one of the major things I noticed on my initial test drive, I couldn’t lock up the rear tires and in panic/hard braking in a turn, it stopped straight as an arrow.

I started out with 30” tires, went to 32” for 6000 miles and now back to 30”. It performs far better with 28-30” tires, especially if you are rock crawling and steep terrain. 32” are fine fast open desert or sand, but I didn’t like the change to shift points and high gear ratio for technical riding.

its interesting your thought the low gear wasn’t low enough. I found it to be lower than my rzr, but you have the rzr high lift rock crawler so it’s got a lower gearing. The nice thing is the Talon doesn’t free wheel like my rzr used to do on down hill engine braking.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

The rest of what you said is mostly spot on but your claim of springs having "zero to do with terrain" is just plain wrong.

You need to step away from the SxS sites for a minute and go read up on rock crawling and desert shock/suspension tuning from the pros like Phil Lucchardi(sp) or Wane Isralson from FOX on sites like Pirate 4x4, Race Dzrt ect. Springs hold the vehicle up......Period.

The stiffer the spring the stiffer the valving you need to control the motion. Once you start chasing valving to control the spring movement due to overly stiff springs everything goes to $hit.


The springs in my short course race car are way softer than the factory springs it came with yet I can send it over 100' table top jumps and have it land with the cloud of titties feeling and bomb over whoops like a Sunday drive because my valving was done correctly.

 

[Nowbroke0]

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.
View attachment 346621

Bungeed up out of the way -
View attachment 346622

You can see the white SB link in the up/disconnected position here -
View attachment 346623

So I maybe bought some shocks that will mount where that sway bar link is. Hope to get them installed this weekend an try it out

 

[Wilson1]

PaulF - What Slowpoke wrote is very true - The number one job of springs is to hold the machine up - HOWEVER the rate of the spring you choose comes next, so you are also right, springs aren't based on corner weight alone once you have the machine standing up. Honda valving isn't good. Any shock guy will tell you that. I have had my shocks and springs done twice. Once when I got it and then again this summer since I have added so much weight with bolt on's. Both people that did my shocks knew what they were doing but the last guy specialized in off road racing and does lots of high dollar desert racing stuff and is very active in racing himself. His solution was much better than the first one even with heavier springs. I do believe the best way to do you suspension is to bolt on all the stuff you want and then take the whole machine to your shock person of choice. That is hard to do sometimes since these things seem to have a life of their own and they grow over time. My selection of storage box, tail gate extension, spare tire, fuel mount, roof rack changed over time so don't get upset if you have to redo your shocks every so often. If the shock guy has the machine they can do a better job of balancing the front to the rear which is overlooked when you just send off your shocks unless you do a four corner weight check before hand. This suspension stuff is very subjective. My brother loves his RZR suspension but I am not impressed at all. If you ride a lot, you will be redoing the shock seals every couple of years anyway if you stay on top of it. Updating the valving and spring rate at that time is easy and will be based on your time in the seat. You will know what you really want after riding it for a season. If you can find a local guy to build a relationship with you will have the ability to keep tweaking your setup to get it right. Mine is a 2019 and I am still tweaking it every year. Good riding everyone and rubber side down.

 

[denniswestfall]

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

Same here. He did my x4 a couple years ago too. I ride both high speed seasonal roads and rough rocky trails in NH. He made "3" more like "2 1/2" and I find myself running that setting more.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

 

[Ugly]

PaulF - Since we are talking about suspension systems, interested to know yourtake on front (and rear) limit straps. Helps or hurts in the long run????

 

[Highcountry]

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.

Try Shock Therapy 623-217-4959 in LA. I have a bad back and they reworked my springs and shocks on a Talon R. It now rides great!

 

[CID]

PaulF - Since we are talking about suspension systems, interested to know your take on front (and rear) limit straps. Helps or hurts in the long run????

When I was brand new to SxSs, my Talon's stock shocks didn't top out enough to bother me. But as my skills increased, so did my speeds. I was still ok with it until I added beadlocks and 30" tires (stock is 28"), now the topping out became worse and I was concerned about long term issues; that clanging couldn't be good for mechanical things.

Just about this time, Shock Therapy came out with the front limiter strap kit for the Talon. It's pricey but I didn't want to screw around with piecing together my own kit, so I jumped in. ST doesn't think rear limiters are needed on the Talon and I've found that to be true since I don't have any topping out now.

The quality is high and I'm happy with my choice. The topping out KLUNK is gone, the whole point. It took several thousand miles for the straps to stretch enough that I had to tighten them which is to be expected.

I would buy them again. If your budget is tight and you don't mind sourcing the parts, a homebuilt kit can be done for a fraction of the cost.





This is all you get for $$$ -

 

[DRZRon1]

as an alternative search 'PRP limit' in this forum, Paul F (of course) has a post on length needed for his machine and hardware, looks like a PRP sells straps online for about $25 each plus you have to get hardware, not that complicated

PRP also has a bunch of technical stuff on their website to order the straps and no I don't work for PRP, just a very very thin wallet..

 

[DHS_Officer]

" Springs hold the vehicle up......Period."

You are way over simplifying things. Clearly the springs do far more than just holding up the corners. If that were true, there would be no different spring rates, no dual rate's.

 

[Ugly]

I think Shock Therapy only has front limit straps - no rears. I have asked a couple to times about rear straps and S.T. say end of the year?

 

[CID]

I think Shock Therapy only has front limit straps - no rears. I have asked a couple to times about rear straps and S.T. say end of the year?

With supply chain issues, there's no telling who has what. I don't think the rears are necessary though and wouldn't buy them unless I still had clunking after doing the front. The front limiters completely solved my problem.