Looking to upgrade to a Talon

[Jacobg1123]

I currently have a Pioneer 1000-5, great machine but the wife is jealous of our friends X3s and RZR Turbos.... i say hell to both of them and took her to see a Talon, shes on board. My question is 20 or 21 and X or R. Has anyone ridden in both? Is the live valve worth it? Its only 2k more, a friend of mine has the talon X4 with live valve but ive never driven/ridden one without. Whats the concensus?

 

[helimech]

If your spending that much money whats another 2k, you'll probably later regret it if you dont buy the live valve.
I would

 

[HUCK]

NO LIVE VALVE . If you don't like the ride you can shocks custom to what YOU WANT for less .

 

[Jacobg1123]

I

NO LIVE VALVE . If you don't like the ride you can shocks custom to what YOU WANT for less .

I have never dove into the custom world. What would i be looking at for the upgrade?

 

[RB3offroad]

We went with the Live valve and Love it

 

[Jacobg1123]

We went with the Live valve and Love it

Is it that much different?

 

[RB3offroad]

If you test drive them both you will feel the difference

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

If you test drive them both you will feel the difference

If you get the factory shocks properly tuned you will feel a difference as well..... Your statement provides zero facts. Care to explain to the class why its actually better? Or do you just feel the need to say that because you spent 2k more on a Talon than one without live valve?

That live valve crap is gimmicky as fawk. The only other place I see anything like it offered to the public is in the bolt on mall crawler Jeep world. If it costs more it must be better.....

 

[HUCK]

Top shock companys gonna be 1000-1300

 

[Smitty335]

If you get the factory shocks properly tuned you will feel a difference as well..... Your statement provides zero facts. Care to explain to the class why its actually better? Or do you just feel the need to say that because you spent 2k more on a Talon than one without live valve?

That live valve crap is gimmicky as fawk. The only other place I see anything like it offered to the public is in the bolt on mall crawler Jeep world. If it costs more it must be better.....

I have had my suspicions as well on the Live, it probably adjusts the rebound, I just can't see how it would adjust the spring tension? It can't. Unless it's an air bag system and it's not, hook line and sinker boys!

 

[helimech]

makes sense, more s*** to go wrong

 

[Jacobg1123]

makes sense, more s*** to go wrong

They are under the warranty though and the extended if purchased

 

[michdave]

I don’t own a Talon or any other vehicle with Live Valve so I don’t have any real world experience with the Fox’s...

But, I know that they developed the Live Valve for mountain bikes, trucks, cars, as well as UTVs. The Ford Raptor has them as an option as well at other brands of UTVs other than Honda. The shocks, according to Fox, adjust rebound and compression dampening to adjust to what the vehicle is doing by taking input from on-board accelerometers, gyros, etc. I could try to explain...but there’s a lot of videos out there from Fox explaining it better than I could. Here’s one.

Is it worth the extra? 🤷🏻‍♂️

I’d look to race teams to see if they’re running them. Granted...Live Valve to me seems more of a convenience factor for folks who simply may not be spun up on tuning their own suspension. It allows you to select between 3 modes, and it does the rest. If you are capable of tuning your suspension with the proper knowledge and understanding, you probably don’t need all the extra complexity of the system (although to the user it’s “less” complex, the product itself is much more complex than a simply bolt on shock with mechanical adjustments).

Just my two cents.

Good luck on the choice! I’d love to throw a Talon in the garage in the next few years to have an alternate to the Pioneer.

 

[70Bones]

Live shocks ride like grampy's Buick... smooth... controlled... and it's great, if you like riding in grampy's buick...

Ok, I'll say it before @Smitty335 does... this from a guy who rides a P500, who has dents in the roof shaped like my head, who's left shoulder is disjointed from the seat belt, whose spine is compressed from hitting bumps and whose tongue was bitten off the first trip out... and all of that from going 30 mph!!! But it IS fun!

 

[CID]

If you choose not to go with the Live Valve, note that the stock X is reported to ride considerably stiffer than the R. And since you're in PA (trees?) you might prefer the narrower X, that means you'll probably want someone to tune the stock suspension, including springs - $1000-1400 as mentioned. This may still be true even with the Live Valve, unknown at this time.

I think the Live Valve has potential but I also think it's not ready for prime time and long term reliability on complicated electronics (and the mechanics they're controlling) is questionable.

 

[Jacobg1123]

Thanks for all the input, im feeling like the live is too new to be considered good or bad haha. Probably just run with the 2020 and get it tuned like you all are saying. Re look at the new tech in 5-6 years. Is there a place to ship the shocks or do i need to find somebody local? Do honda dealers do things like that?

 

[Code54]

I went with the X non live valve and love it. We ride TIGHT WV trails so the X is a bit smaller so it works for us. I changed to the tender springs and am very happy with the ride. it is not super smooth but far from bad and still handles well.

 

[CMB]

makes sense, more s*** to go wrong

Just seen a good deal on a 19 X 600 miles 14 ?

 

[CID]

Thanks for all the input, im feeling like the live is too new to be considered good or bad haha. Probably just run with the 2020 and get it tuned like you all are saying. Re look at the new tech in 5-6 years. Is there a place to ship the shocks or do i need to find somebody local? Do honda dealers do things like that?

I had intended to get mine done by Shock Therapy for a couple of reasons - 1. They're frequently mentioned online by multiple sources and well regarded. There are several other choices, I'd check around. I wanted to bring mine in and have them do the work, that way they could actually check the weight of the vehicle and set the ride height 'in person'. 2. They're in the Phoenix area and so is my Sister - I expected to be there right now and then the world blew up. I missed my window, summer heat has already arrived down there, so even if I overcome my concerns over covid, it's too hot anyway. I'm in the 'most likely to die if I get it' demographic.

 

[my99svt]

I originally was going to send my R shocks to shock therapy for revalving and springs and for them to add the Fox IQS system. Then I called a different company and talked to them about it. They told me they could do all that but, they didn’t want to sell me the IQS because there have been failures of the solenoids in the shocks and you might switch to medium and only 3 would switch. He basically talked me out of spending $2k more to save me the issues! I sent my shocks off today and should have them back next Friday or the following Monday.


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