Questions for the Honda Talon Team?

JACKAL

JACKAL

Ancient Honda fanboi
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Why are your Fox shocks so bad and rough riding out of the box?
And Why wont you splurge for something nice/decent to start with?

I can answer this one truthfully because no one "official" will on record.

For whatever reasons, the powers that be back during R&D determined to run FOX shocks specified without bottom out cups internally, in turn in order to compensate for this OEM Spec requirement, they have to run a notably heavier rate spring to handle the big hits with the bottom out cup omission. This in turn makes for a less than supple ride at trail speeds, but work when WFO in deep sand whoops, which we don't have East of the Mississippi river.

Why the decision was made to do this is not 100% clear but it was a durability / longevity or safety decision that brought this about.
 
JACKAL

JACKAL

Ancient Honda fanboi
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What exhaust system the Teams run and does Alba Racing do the reflash. How much extra HP do they have.

If you can get in touch with ALBA Nate, he has made some screaming Honda race engines over the past couple of decades (comparable to HRC Factory unobtanium parts from way back) , he is the one guru to answer all your Honda specific questions.

Pretty sure he has a Talon Turbo setup at 265HP reliable, but you better get the powerball wallet out for those titanium parts.
 
CID

CID

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We have that up here all over the place and it don’t work worth a damn it’s horrible!
One of our Canadian brethren had an X and hated the suspension (used to a Canned Ham). But he and his buddies set up a 3 mile(?) race course through the trees and his Talon X had the fastest times, easily. He ended up selling it and bought another Canned Ham IIRC. Username started with an M but I can't remember the rest right now. 😢

Same with my R, it rides like a dump truck at sane speeds but when I wanna ride like my hair's on fire, it comes into its own. Most of us would be much happier with a softer suspension but then the desert racers would hate it. Honda had to pick their poison (fwiw: I think they completely missed the boat on the X's valving).
 
SLOWPOKE693

SLOWPOKE693

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Nobody that races a Talon in short course, desert or woods is using the factory shock valving or spring setup. Trust me the Talon suspension wasn't set up for racers either but George at Double E Racing has magic valving and spring combos that will have the Talon riding/handling the way you want.
 
CID

CID

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@Hondasxs - ask them when we get a FI system that actually works, sampling exhaust and making adjustments on the fly. FI should work from -300 ft. elevation (Death Valley) to 15,000 feet in Tibet. The Talon's FI is a primitive POS and inexcusable with today's advanced electronics.
 
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P1K5Dave

P1K5Dave

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20230713 122953


Man, Honda could really take some design cues from that machine to the OEM market. It's a 100% improvement in body lines over the boxy Talon they sell.
 
gparks

gparks

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Ask them how they feel about about building a machine that everyone complains about being inadequate on tire size, suspension, 4wd system, no turbo, my tail pipe is small etc.. but they keep selling them like hot cakes.😂 Must be doing something right. Love my 1000X-4 and the Blue Rocks 😂.
 
H

HondaTech

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Ask them how they feel about about building a machine that everyone complains about being inadequate on tire size, suspension, 4wd system, no turbo, my tail pipe is small etc.. but they keep selling them like hot cakes.😂 Must be doing something right. Love my 1000X-4 and the Blue Rocks 😂.

Enough people got tired of buying junk and fixing it every weekend.

A friend of the shops bought the first R we got back in 2019. He gets pissy whenever I talk about how junk Polaris is. But he shuts up whenever I ask whyd he buy a Talon then? Got tired of fixing that junk, huh? The only thing he's got to b**** about, is Honda didn't make replacement windows for the soft doors, which they do now.
He previously had a Pioneer 1000 and still owns a Polaris Sportsman
 
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