I took my X4 (base model) for its first ride last Wednesday at Texplex. For those of you not familiar, Texplex is a facility in north Texas with multiple tracts for motocross, pit bikes, Raptor style trucks, and side by side short course.
Since I do not have lower doors and a harness yet, I was limited to the trail system. Their trail system is like a short course track with a small number of mostly milder jumps. It is to side by sides what single track is to dirt bikes.
I managed to run the trail loop about six or seven times and put 83 miles on the Talon X4 in a matter of 3.5 hours. First few laps were at shock setting 2. I have nothing to compare it to since my other side by side is a P500 and have not ridden anything else. But I can say the handling is so confidence inspiring that I was pushing speed right away which was not my intent initially. In fact, after the first lap I called my insurance agent to get it insured. Setting 2 felt really, really good. landings from small jumps were very satisfying. Yes, the back hops up more than the front. I think this is going to happen more so on longer four seat models than two seat models in general. Several corners were bermed and banked, and several were negatively banked (sloped in the same direction as body roll). The car handled them all very well with a lot of control. I could get the back loose and drift even at high speeds.
I was thinking about reviews on the Live Valve and how flat reviewers say it handles. With no frame of reference, I can't say the X4 base is more or less flat. But I was still curious. So I set the shocks to 3 and ran around some more. This definitely made the car flatter. I'm not super sensitive to the nuances of handling, so it was a clear improvement - not that it was bad at setting 2. Some jump landings were a little firmer, but still very good. The difference between front to rear hitting was more apparent because the landing was harder, not because of more rear hop.
Then I remembered a Wax Racing youtube video where they adjusted the front to 3 and the rear to 2 to get the X2 to fly really good over a jump they were testing. So I did the same. I think it helped, but am not 100 percent clear. I needed a few more laps to work up the courage to hit the jumps harder and get more flight time to check it out.
I did not tough setting 1 on the shocks. I will use that setting when I go out on the rocks.
Power-wise it felt good. Not like "om my god!", but very strong and competent. Ironically, I did give a couple guys a ride back to the pro shop because their RZR's broken belt stranded them on the trail. With the extra 450 to 500 lbs, the car still was very strong. There was some difference in acceleration, but it was very slight and I was surprised. Yes, I hauled ass around the track with these two stranger passengers, lol. They said they came to the track all the time so it seemed okay? The car jumped and landed nearly the same with those guys. The car did feel slightly more tippy on the side where the two guys were sitting (both bigger than me by a good 20 to 30 lbs).
The car got up to about 72 and once 74 mp, but I ran out of room on straight stretches to get it to the limiter.
The tires were great for the track. I'm getting 32s to put on bead locks, but will slap the stock set on when I go to the track. I used probably half a tank? Not sure how accurate the gas gauge is. Shows a little more than half. I filled it up very full in the morning.
Door stoppers needed adjustments for rattling. I'll add more as I think about it.
Since I do not have lower doors and a harness yet, I was limited to the trail system. Their trail system is like a short course track with a small number of mostly milder jumps. It is to side by sides what single track is to dirt bikes.
I managed to run the trail loop about six or seven times and put 83 miles on the Talon X4 in a matter of 3.5 hours. First few laps were at shock setting 2. I have nothing to compare it to since my other side by side is a P500 and have not ridden anything else. But I can say the handling is so confidence inspiring that I was pushing speed right away which was not my intent initially. In fact, after the first lap I called my insurance agent to get it insured. Setting 2 felt really, really good. landings from small jumps were very satisfying. Yes, the back hops up more than the front. I think this is going to happen more so on longer four seat models than two seat models in general. Several corners were bermed and banked, and several were negatively banked (sloped in the same direction as body roll). The car handled them all very well with a lot of control. I could get the back loose and drift even at high speeds.
I was thinking about reviews on the Live Valve and how flat reviewers say it handles. With no frame of reference, I can't say the X4 base is more or less flat. But I was still curious. So I set the shocks to 3 and ran around some more. This definitely made the car flatter. I'm not super sensitive to the nuances of handling, so it was a clear improvement - not that it was bad at setting 2. Some jump landings were a little firmer, but still very good. The difference between front to rear hitting was more apparent because the landing was harder, not because of more rear hop.
Then I remembered a Wax Racing youtube video where they adjusted the front to 3 and the rear to 2 to get the X2 to fly really good over a jump they were testing. So I did the same. I think it helped, but am not 100 percent clear. I needed a few more laps to work up the courage to hit the jumps harder and get more flight time to check it out.
I did not tough setting 1 on the shocks. I will use that setting when I go out on the rocks.
Power-wise it felt good. Not like "om my god!", but very strong and competent. Ironically, I did give a couple guys a ride back to the pro shop because their RZR's broken belt stranded them on the trail. With the extra 450 to 500 lbs, the car still was very strong. There was some difference in acceleration, but it was very slight and I was surprised. Yes, I hauled ass around the track with these two stranger passengers, lol. They said they came to the track all the time so it seemed okay? The car jumped and landed nearly the same with those guys. The car did feel slightly more tippy on the side where the two guys were sitting (both bigger than me by a good 20 to 30 lbs).
The car got up to about 72 and once 74 mp, but I ran out of room on straight stretches to get it to the limiter.
The tires were great for the track. I'm getting 32s to put on bead locks, but will slap the stock set on when I go to the track. I used probably half a tank? Not sure how accurate the gas gauge is. Shows a little more than half. I filled it up very full in the morning.
Door stoppers needed adjustments for rattling. I'll add more as I think about it.
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