Jumping in declaring a Turbo is a requirement without truly understanding the discussion around the KRX/Talon doesn't make sense. You are ignoring the main points of the discussion and interjecting your opinion that was already cast from consideration before you shared it. For the purposes of this discussion centered around the KRX/Talon, Can-Am sucks with their: not quite 4WD, and noise levels that compare to sitting inside a 55gallon drum while a monkey beats on it with a pair of chainsaws. That said if I were looking for a bad ass dune machine the Can-AM would be in the lead, but I have gone up trails in a Pioneer 700-4 that a Can-am with a turbo was just spinning 3 wheels and hearing the blow off valve. Polaris well...Polaris, some of us have had them and they were never considered. Yamaha doesn't really have a competitor for the KRX or Talon yet, the YXZ takes 20k to get it to where it will do as well as the KRX and Talon will off the showroom floor, because of its gearing and motor design, and its design being more for short course racing but they are GREAT machines just not comparable to a Talon KRX for this discussion. Add to that the Talon has little space for gear and the KRK has a good bit more, while the Can-am and YXZ have none and you are left with two choices. The validity of a Turbo for certain types of riding is not being argued against. Now that I have paraphrased 31 pages of discussion.
Our group, really most of this thread, is not 5:30 riders (ride for 5 sit and bull**** for 30) so the dunes and gravel roads, seem incredibly boring to us, if that was where I had to ride I probably would be playing golf. That said everyone has what they like, but for some you get to a point where the bunny trails get really boring. So you try harder trails and you find the limits of yourself or the machine so now your challenge becomes can I set it up correctly/build it up/drive it, to take on the harder trails. Then they get boring so the cycle repeats. In most cases the views from the harder trails are AMAZING. That said I won't ride the single track that @CumminsPusher does its constant abuse and just doesn't seem fun. Most of our breaks are on a single obstacle that we tried a little to hard to get through. Yes dents and scratches are going to happen, but I stay away from places where I will roll over. This is my expensive hobby/stress relief, I don't play golf anymore, I don't hunt anymore, I don't add 20k in accessories to a truck to crawl the mall, I don't buy gallons of whiskey every weekend, or gamble, this is it. So now the discussion around cost becomes who has the best machine at the lowest entry point for what we want to do, knowing that we are still going to have to do work and build the machine up before we hit the trail with it.
The issue with the Talon is we already know its not up to "our" task and it needs to be brought up to where the KRX is and then some before we ever hit the trails with it. I added it up for myself about 6months ago and finding the Talon at $17k it was still an extra 12k (no turbo) to build it out, the KRX can be found at $17k and be decked out for about $4k extra and most of the accessories don't have to be MADE, they can be be bought straight from Kawasaki. You also don't have to spend all the time and effort swapping the parts out.
I am not buying a KRX, I chose a different path 6 months ago when I couldn't get a KRZ for less than 23k and I decided a Talon didn't fit my needs but saw no other available options, I think I will have my Pioneer to a place where it will compete capability wise with the KRX in most places, lose to it in a few, and beat it in a few. We will see shortly.
