Talon Fyathyrio's 2019 Talon R build

[Fyathyrio]

I picked up a 2019 Talon R at the beginning of October, my first dirt toy of any kind. I had the dealer install a windshield, rear soft window, and tailgate, but it's stock other than that. While the weather was nice, I rode the hick out of it, now that winter is settling in, it's time to start the upgrades.



First up is the JEI Offroad dual Rotopax fuel can rack. Since I'm able to ride all over Utah legally, I want to make sure I have the fuel to do so. Two 3-gal gas cans along with two 1-gal water cans should get me as far into the desert as possible. More importantly, by nearly doubling my fuel capacity I'll be able to get back again, too.

The rack is nicely built, and uses solid bar clamps. While I was able to get it installed fairly easily, the pins are tight enough that I suspect I'll have to loosen a couple clamps to remove the rack in the future. This may be due to tight bushings, or just slight variations in both Honda & JEI manufacturing tolerances.



Using the Rotopax cans and bracket mount system, I have no doubt the rack will hold up to trail abuse for a long time. The wide back plate supports the fuel cans nicely, and is pre-drilled for the mounts.



Future plans include a street legal kit, light bar, and winch so I can hopefully get outta stupid mistakes. Plus adding appropriate outfits for playing in the muck & snow. Down the road I'll maybe go with the Evo exhaust, and maybe some larger tires. I'm thinking the $ix thou$and dolla turbo is likely solving a problem I don't have, even at 9k or 10k feet up a mountain I still have enough power to get up the next hill.

 

[Fyathyrio]

With 6 gallons of gas hanging over the hot exhaust, I thought I should do something to give myself a fighting chance in case there's a leak. Plus, I might ride with a Polaris at some point! I found a simple mount on Amazon that holds a small fire extinguisher to a roll cage bar. It comes with the hose clamps and you provide the extinguisher of your choice. I went with a white one to stand out a bit against the red body.



The provided clamps were a bit long for the roll bar side of the clamp, I'll replace those soon so there's nothing to catch. I also mounted the bottle so the nozzle points down and in so it hopefully won't get blasted by mud or full of water.



Simply pull the big red knob and the bottle slides free of the mount.

 

[DAJO]

With 6 gallons of gas hanging over the hot exhaust, I thought I should do something to give myself a fighting chance in case there's a leak. Plus, I might ride with a Polaris at some point! I found a simple mount on Amazon that holds a small fire extinguisher to a roll cage bar. It comes with the hose clamps and you provide the extinguisher of your choice. I went with a white one to stand out a bit against the red body.

View attachment 170848

The provided clamps were a bit long for the roll bar side of the clamp, I'll replace those soon so there's nothing to catch. I also mounted the bottle so the nozzle points down and in so it hopefully won't get blasted by mud or full of water.

View attachment 170849

Simply pull the big red knob and the bottle slides free of the mount.

I have that ex mount also. Be sure to loctite the two threaded area or the knob assembly will disappear on your first ride like mine did.

 

[Fyathyrio]

Good tip, thanks!

 

[CMB]

I picked up a 2019 Talon R at the beginning of October, my first dirt toy of any kind. I had the dealer install a windshield, rear soft window, and tailgate, but it's stock other than that. While the weather was nice, I rode the hick out of it, now that winter is settling in, it's time to start the upgrades.

View attachment 170718

First up is the JEI Offroad dual Rotopax fuel can rack. Since I'm able to ride all over Utah legally, I want to make sure I have the fuel to do so. Two 3-gal gas cans along with two 1-gal water cans should get me as far into the desert as possible. More importantly, by nearly doubling my fuel capacity I'll be able to get back again, too.

The rack is nicely built, and uses solid bar clamps. While I was able to get it installed fairly easily, the pins are tight enough that I suspect I'll have to loosen a couple clamps to remove the rack in the future. This may be due to tight bushings, or just slight variations in both Honda & JEI manufacturing tolerances.

View attachment 170719

Using the Rotopax cans and bracket mount system, I have no doubt the rack will hold up to trail abuse for a long time. The wide back plate supports the fuel cans nicely, and is pre-drilled for the mounts.

View attachment 170720

Future plans include a street legal kit, light bar, and winch so I can hopefully get outta stupid mistakes. Plus adding appropriate outfits for playing in the muck & snow. Down the road I'll maybe go with the Evo exhaust, and maybe some larger tires. I'm thinking the $ix thou$and dolla turbo is likely solving a problem I don't have, even at 9k or 10k feet up a mountain I still have enough power to get up the next hill.

Whats your opinion on the fabric rear panel ?

 

[Fyathyrio]

I like it. If you'll pardon the pun, it's pretty much invisible. The isinglass does catch & hold more dust than regular glass, likely a static thing in my dry area, but it cleans up nicely with a soapy pressure washer blast and rinse. I don't use a rag as that can scratch & haze the plastic over time.

Unless somebody comes up with an intake mount that doesn't interfere with a rear window, I'll have to pull it off in order to better filter air to my engine though.

 

[Fyathyrio]

My usual photo hosting site has been brokedick for a couple weeks now, so pix may be lacking, but the next phase of upgrades is starting. After nearly getting stuck in suddenly deep snow way the hell back in the mountains a week or two ago, I decided that it's time for some real recovery gear. While slip-sliding back down the icy trail and looking over the edge of some steep drop-offs, I felt that some safety gear might come in handy, also.

Primary recovery is the Warn VRX 35-S winch, attached with the L & W Fab winch mount. The L & W Fab mount came surprisingly well packed in expanding foam, so no damage from shipping abuse. Along with those are some recovery/tow & tree saver straps, some nice X Ring shackles, a winch hook bumper, and some other basics like folding shovel, folding saw, and a good snatch block. The tow strap I chose is 30' long x 2" wide, it's as much a winch line extension as anything else.

For safety, I chose the Simpson padded 3" wide 5 pt. D3 harness from the SxSBlog guys. I'll have to fab up a mount for the anti-submarine strap, but the rest of the install should be fairly easy. The D3 buckle holds the shoulder and lap belts on each side together into basically one strap, making it easier to use on a daily basis, yet still keeping the proper geometry of a standard 5 pt. sewn in harness setup.

I'll carry the recovery gear in either my Tusk modular bag, or in a pair of 15l dry sacks currently lost in UPS land. The Tusk bag fits in the back nicely with the included threaded links into the Honda tie-down loops when only 1 cooler is attached. Those coolers are awesome, by the way. They are the best soft sided coolers I've seen, leak free and with some solid ice still inside the next day.

 

[CMB]

I like it. If you'll pardon the pun, it's pretty much invisible. The isinglass does catch & hold more dust than regular glass, likely a static thing in my dry area, but it cleans up nicely with a soapy pressure washer blast and rinse. I don't use a rag as that can scratch & haze the plastic over time.

Unless somebody comes up with an intake mount that doesn't interfere with a rear window, I'll have to pull it off in order to better filter air to my engine though.

Ive been debating on which one to get. I wonder about head room with the glass, seems like the fabric has more space by the way it looks.

 

[Fyathyrio]

Of all the features & benefits I considered for a rear window, headroom never came to mind. I'm 5'11" and have the seat all the way back, and even with a floppy "boonie" hat, nothing hits the back window. I suspect your skull would have to be shaped like the creature in Alien in order for headroom to be a concern with either setup. The soft window does seem to align with the rear of the rollbar though, it's not centered in the hole between the bars.

 

[Fyathyrio]

I got a little more work done today, the Evo exhaust was finally installed, and I got the SuperATV rear hitch on also. The Evo install turned into quite the goat f#@k, but the SuperATV bolted right up with just a little wiggling to get the bolts in. The downside of the rear hitch is weaker bolts than Honda used. Chrome plated and nylok nuts vs the true hardened factory stuff. I tossed a 2" receiver shackle in to make rear recovery easier and less likely to damage frame or suspension bits.