Basing on Hondas past, they will have a very durable machine that works pretty well, but wont blow the doors off of anything. They will be conservative with the HP and chassis, that's just what they do and have always done unless you go all the way back to the mid-late 80's. Think 250R, 350X VFR's etc. They haven't been out front performance wise since. Their big sportbikes, CBR's were always behind the Yamaha R1 and Suzuki GSXR. The Yamaha YFZ450 was a step ahead of the TRX450R etc. Not saying they are bad machines, far from it, I had 3 CBR's and 3 450r quads myself but I expect their sport SXS to be similar. Great machine, but not pushing the performance envelope so to speak. I think for a multi use machine, the Pioneer is a great rig, but if you look around there are other models that do certain things better, go faster, ride smoother, better workhorse or whatever.
BUT.... except when in a pissing contest when does that extra 10th of a Sec to 60 matter or that extra 3mph top end?
I can see big horsepower in dunes or super steep hills, I wager while there are a lot of people that ride in dunes there are a significantly larger number that do not. Perfect example the YXZ, they now offer a kit for everyone else who doesn’t ride dunes to be able to use it.
I would in my older and SLIGHTLY wiser late 30s have a machine that will be dependable and do 85% of things well even if it’s a bit slower. Than the set your hair on fire break down every week fastest on race day machine I had in my 20’s.
Granted where I ride big speed and hp don’t matter you can’t open it up. I can keep up with any of the 1000 rzrs Ive ridden with. Even travel doesn’t make that much of a difference between the 1000-5 and an XP1000, my recent Fox upgrade has made a world of difference.
If I was in dunes all the time I’d deal with using a sport for utility.
I wager the Honda sport will have a 15-20” of travel, 29-30” tires, a nice interior, an HO1000 with DCT, and a turbo option.I don’t think it will be the fastest or most powerful, but it won’t burn, the clutch won’t break, there will be no belt to get wet, there won’t be a reverse chain from a huffy, the ball joints won’t give out, it’ll be usable in the dunes and in the rocks, probably have 4Lock and I-4WD models.
