Todd's 2019 Talon X trail build

[toddvdh]

I dislike bumping my head on the roll cage with a helmet on. It barely touches on bigger bumps, but it's enough to annoy me. I decided to lower the seat.

It ended up about 1 1/2" lower in the front and 1 1/4" lower in the rear, which also helped because I feel like the factory seat was leaned too far back for me. Direct bolt in with me making 2 plates so it can go back to stock easily. I was just some 1 1/2" x 1/4" flat bar. I never used the seat adjuster so the easiest way to lower the seat was to eliminate them.

 

[toddvdh]

I also started my real windshield build. I had just rigged one up from some pieces I had laying around but it was pretty ghetto. My plan at some point is to either make a flip up windshield like the Yamaha one for the YXZ, or a flip down on the hood.

I had left about a 1" gap at the bottom for airflow. That ended up feeling nice for the breeze, but any mud on the hood would blow right into my face after it dried.

I bent up the old covid guard that were taking up space in the corner. I bent really nice in the 240ton brake press at work.

My gasket came in and it fits really nice against the hood.

I have 2 clamps and some velcro straps coming so I have to work on mounting but that should be pretty easy.

 

[toddvdh]

Other than the sub trans issue I have been loving this machine.

 

[toddvdh]

I got the machine all cleaned up and as shiny as it gets while I still have it home.

I ordered the switch filler plate adaptor from the club store and it fits great! Now I just have to cover up the hole from the switch the previous owner put in

With the dash all cleaned up the talon plate really looks good.

 

[toddvdh]

I don’t ride that often at night, but I love lights so I added 2 more on my homemade windshield!!

 

[toddvdh]

A shiny pic because it usually isn’t this clean.

And a rear end shot because some people around here like that.

 

[Smitty335]

A shiny pic because it usually isn’t this clean.

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And a rear end shot because some people around here like that.

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You run a shortie windshield? I have a flip up and a shortie. I just love it when the shortie goes back on.

 

[toddvdh]

I do. I have a couple big pieces of polycarbonate to build a flip up or something similar, but I like the airflow. I wear a helmet and googles when I ride and dress for the weather. Maybe I just miss motorcycles and atv’s??

If it’s really bad out I take the pioneer with the SATV flip-up windshield.

 

[Remington]

You run a shortie windshield? I have a flip up and a shortie. I just love it when the shortie goes back on.

Looks good! U guys out of snow I see? just seen the last bit if snow has left my cabin in Northern Mi. Im sure the UP still has some in areas. My Cousin lives right across the lake from you in Leelanau and his snow is now gone as well

 

[toddvdh]

We are out of snow finally. In the woods you can find it on a couple slopes out of the sun. Although the rain last night an today should take care of that.

Bring on spring and mud!!

 

[906UP]

Looks great @toddvdh , what tires/wheels are those? I'm kicking around the idea of some new shoes for mine.

Looks good! U guys out of snow I see? just seen the last bit if snow has left my cabin in Northern Mi. Im sure the UP still has some in areas. My Cousin lives right across the lake from you in Leelanau and his snow is now gone as well

We are out of snow finally. In the woods you can find it on a couple slopes out of the sun. Although the rain last night an today should take care of that.

Bring on spring and mud!!

We had almost complete snow coverage as of Fri/Sat but with the warm the last couple days along with the rain last night it's dropping fast, now we're down to just piles around the driveway where it was piled up from the blower. There's still quite a bit in the woods, I imagine we'll still find snow in spots well into May this year.

 

[Remington]

We are out of snow finally. In the woods you can find it on a couple slopes out of the sun. Although the rain last night an today should take care of that.

Bring on spring and mud!!

Yeah we still have a little in the woods. Ive had about enough of it. There just a touch of it off the porch At the cabin

 

[toddvdh]

Looks great @toddvdh , what tires/wheels are those? I'm kicking around the idea of some new shoes for mine.

The tires are 31x9.50x15R ITP ultra cross tires. The rims are STI HD9 beadlocks.

I'm not sure on the back spacing but they are all the same and I have a spare. I know there are spacers on the rear also but I'm not sure how big they are. It sits pretty even all the way around. I'll look tonight and see if I can find backspacing stamped on the rim somewhere, and I'll measure the spacers.

I've been happy with the tires. They don't rub. They seem to hook up good in the sand, mud, and snow. They ride reasonably good on pavement but I don't have much of that by my cabin. It's mainly sand and gravel roads other than about 100 yards of pavement to get to the trail. That's most of the reason I don't usually clean it so good. It's covered in dust as soon as it leaves the garage.

Deep snow or mud is about the only thing that gets me, but I don't think the tires matter when you are sitting on the skidplate. I have 15” of clearance in the front, and 14” in the rear so it takes some deep ruts to get me. 😂

I never had stockers to compare to, but the tires outperform most stockers I've had in the past on other machines.

 

[toddvdh]

I believe the rims are 15x6.5 With +50mm backspace. No spacers in the front, the rear has 1.5” spacers on both sides.

Front and rear tire width is 64.5”

 

[toddvdh]

I received some extended door latches from down to fabricate. I find myself holding the door open slightly so I get a breeze on me. These should help with that. They hold it open about 3”.

They are very nicely made. I might need a wrap of electrical tape around the latch because they rattle a little, but I don’t know if I will be able to hear that rattle over the rest of the machine. 😂

 

[trigger]

I received some extended door latches from down to fabricate. I find myself holding the door open slightly so I get a breeze on me. These should help with that. They hold it open about 3”.

They are very nicely made. I might need a wrap of electrical tape around the latch because they rattle a little, but I don’t know if I will be able to hear that rattle over the rest of the machine. 😂


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Can you still close the door all the way?

 

[toddvdh]

No. But the square hole just goes into the latch. So all you do is open the door, push it into the latch and it on. To take it off, all you have to do is pull the door handle.

I’ll probably lose a set By accidentally opening the door handle. Lol. For $35 I figured I would give it a try

 

[Remington]

I received some extended door latches from down to fabricate. I find myself holding the door open slightly so I get a breeze on me. These should help with that. They hold it open about 3”.

They are very nicely made. I might need a wrap of electrical tape around the latch because they rattle a little, but I don’t know if I will be able to hear that rattle over the rest of the machine. 😂


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Those look cool! Not a bad ideer!

 

[toddvdh]

We went on a really nice ride recently. I was the odd man out in a Sxs but that's okay. It was 65* out and from 9am to 2pm we chased rain. The trails were wet and muddy but the rain stayed in front of us and it was a perfect non dusty day. It started raining hard at 3pm but we were only an hour from the cabin. It made for a fun last part of the ride because it was coming down so hard we couldn't see for a while.

Found a neat snapper along the trail.

 

[toddvdh]

I really enjoyed the door latches. They barely rattled and really gave me a nice airflow. I ended up taking them out in the afternoon when it started raining and got a little cooler out. I wanted to get a little heat from the machine. LOL.

Here are a couple videos of a mud hole along the way. It was deep enough that an empty soda can floated out the door. The canned ham went back in and got it though. If you notice there is a big rock in the video that smacked the skid plate on because i couldn't see it. Thank goodness for good skid plates. LOL

You can also see how the door latches hold the doors open just enough for some airflow.