concerns

[trout]

Iam just wondering about the current rash of problems that I am reading about in here.

1. Engine case blowing out
2. shock mounts cracking

Now the shocks seems pretty common to me, those mounts crack on the YFZ, the Z-400 and now apparently the honda, seems like an industry wide weak spot.

Now the engince case blowing off seems new to me. I have bee nto dozens of tracks and MX races and never see nthis happen to a motorcycle or a Quad.

Would someone rational and intelligent, perhaps 86atc250R, calm my fears here OR was this quad perhaps rushed to market and the kinks are comming out as we speak??

thanks
trout

[250EXking]

You have took look at it this way. Everything new is going to have it's problems. Almost any machine will have it's problems. Not flamming Yamaha, but the raptors, their new Rhino 660 has had some problems, other companys will have their problems. Honda's arent invincible, they are going to have their problems too. Next years bike might have new upgrades to the chasis, and what more. First year machines are going to have their problems, just wait and see what happens. Maybe it may be a few faulty bikes, but i'd still get one.

[trout]

yeah, I tend to agree, 1st year anything is usually a test bed for the product for years to come. Even cars are usually terrible the first year of a re-design. But engines blowing apart?? I personally am looking for a bike to buy, and will most likely wait till the 05 models for all the manufacturers come out.

But....I dont care if the damn thing is flooded and I shouoldnt give it gas, blah blah blah, it SHOULD NOT BLOW APART, under any curcumstances. It SHOULD be enginered to withstand the dumbest/most un-knowing person out there.

Hell, if the side case comes off with enought force, it could break your leg! You think the CPSC was all ove rthree wheelers, they will eat the 450R alive if it ever breaks someones leg! This just seems way wrong to me, and VERY dangerous to the user.
This problem actually IS the manufacturers fault, NOT the rider or the operator, EVEN if they didnt read the manual. IF it is that possible or That common, they should design a motor that cant blow up.

my .02

Trout

[2004TRX450R]

First off I'd like to clear one thing up. Two instances ISN'T a rash of problems.

Second I think we should have foam put on the outside of our cars and all over our bikes and everything that we come into contact with so that noone can hurt themselves. I think we should have computer drive all our cars so that we eliminate driver error and eliminate hundred of accidents a year and I think we should ban guns because they kill people and this is all the manufacturers fault.

Come on people lets get real here. I get so sick of people not takeing responsibility for themselves. The government and lawyers do a good enough job of makeing everything so that we can't possibly do anything to hurt ourselves. Does the government and the manufactures of everything we use really have to be our acting parents and hold our hands to make sure WE don't do anything to hurt ourselves. This is exactly the thinking that got ATVs (threewheelers especially) a bad rap back in the 80s.

Shock mount cracks I can see as being an issue provided we start hearing a lot of them doing it. If someone jumps the crap out of their bike and races it hard stuff like that is going to happen. So a few isolated incidences is really not an issue. Now if there is a large percentage of them cracking then that is another story.

As for the engein "blowing apart" as it was put the TRX is the only quad you have heard do it bacause (and I know a lot of E-start winers are going to comment and flame on this) it has a kick start. The E-start bikes don't do it because they don't have a kick starter to slam back. Instead they sheer the flywheel keys and take out starter clutches. That is why the raptors have such a problem with starter clutches. I know of a couple of dirt bikes that have done this most of wich are YZs and WRs. I have heard of 1 CRF. It is rider error bottom line. If you want the kind of performance out of a 4 stroke engine that we are getting out of these 450s (CRFs, YZs, WR, YFZ, TRX, etc,) then that is something that is going to happen. They need the accelerator pumps to make the throttle response crisp and they need the compression to make them have more power especially in the low to mid range where these high reving engines suffer the most in the power depeartment. And this only happens in rare isolated circumstances and it isn't from being flooded. Just from the little extra fuel dumped in from the accelerator pump.

Please don't take this personally but anyone that thinks that Honda should have some kind of protection feature to keep them from doing this and doesn't know the proper procedure for starting these bikes and likes to wine because it isn't e-start should just stay on their 400EXs. For the rest of us that want a truely PERFORMANCE machine and isn't going to cry foul every time some little thing goes wrong with it then enjoy the new TRX450R.

Sorry for the long post I just needed to vent a little.:D

[jimbo45]

It SHOULD be enginered to withstand the dumbest/most un-knowing person out there.
Does that sound ridiculous to anyone else? Come on, that is like saying the "dumbest/most unknowing" person should be able to climb in a Nascar and not mess something up as compared to a minivan. Us sport riders/racers have begged a pleaded for a "race" type machine from Honda for 15 years. We finally get one and now it should be race ready, the fastest thing out there, light weight, AND be able to have any old dumb***** jump on it without out knowing anything about quads and expect it to be as easy to use as a Recon??!!! Come on, this is a high performance machine. If you don't have any common sense about quads, then maybe you don't need one. And for those with the cash and without the brains, well, maybe you are a poser and it will blow up on you.

[alias]

Originally posted by jimbo45
Does that sound ridiculous to anyone else? Come on, that is like saying the "dumbest/most unknowing" person should be able to climb in a Nascar and not mess something up as compared to a minivan. Us sport riders/racers have begged a pleaded for a "race" type machine from Honda for 15 years. We finally get one and now it should be race ready, the fastest thing out there, light weight, AND be able to have any old dumb***** jump on it and it without out knowing anything about quads and expect it to perform like a Recon??!!! Come on, this is a high performance machine. If you don't have any common sense about quads, then maybe you don't need one. And for those with the cash and without the brains, well, maybe you are a poser and it will blow up on you.

Yeah it sounds like they expect way too much, the TRX450R is an awesome bike.

I guess you just should not give it gas while kicking it over if you are worried about it. If you do you take your chances the same as any 4 stroke kickstart dirtbike.

[jasontrx450r]

Speak it jimbo :devil:

[Woody_YFZ]

Originally posted by jimbo45
Does that sound ridiculous to anyone else? Come on, that is like saying the "dumbest/most unknowing" person should be able to climb in a Nascar and not mess something up as compared to a minivan. Us sport riders/racers have begged a pleaded for a "race" type machine from Honda for 15 years. We finally get one and now it should be race ready, the fastest thing out there, light weight, AND be able to have any old dumb***** jump on it without out knowing anything about quads and expect it to be as easy to use as a Recon??!!! Come on, this is a high performance machine. If you don't have any common sense about quads, then maybe you don't need one. And for those with the cash and without the brains, well, maybe you are a poser and it will blow up on you.

Amen to that. They definitely should not be user friendly to everyone, only those who plan on using it for it's intended purpose.

[robman]

What if some nob,friend or kids get on your machine and start playing with the throttle,"sure buddy you can try out my quad".Caboom!What now,the warranty is over and your screwed.It's going to happen to everyone eventually except for the guy who has no friends and only rides once a month.I'm not impressed with this!

[2004TRX450R]

Originally posted by robman
"sure buddy you can try out my quad"

Right after that it is your responsability to explain to them how to operate it before you let them ride it. If some kid jumps on it and pumps the throttle then awhile later you go to start it the fuel will probably be evaporated anyway. I think one point here that noone is grasping is that it won't do it EVERY OR ANY time the throttle is applied before starting. That is just one of the main factors in it. That along with a not so good kick along with the piston being in the right spot to begin with etc. will factor in to it doing this. It is very few and far between that it can or will happen. In working in a bike shop for the last 7+ years I have seen it happen twice and heard about it once. The one I heard about was a CRF. The two that I saw was a WR and it was the same guy both times. He is an idiot. He has an '03 WR450 and put heated grips on it. Then the chargeing system doesn't have enough power to keep the grips hot and the battery charged very well so he kills it or turns it off and the battery won't start it again. Then in the process of kick starting it it back fires on him. Being it has happend twice that it broke something (the first time it was the center cases and the second it was the kick starter shaft) I would guss it happend several times when it didn't do much but kick the starter back at him. Also being it was the same guy twice I would venture to guess that it also has to do with the guy trying to start the bike.
My point being that even though it can, will, and does happen it doesn't mean it will every time you touch the throttle. It is very isolated instances and not common at all.

[Hammer trx450r]

deal with it people, you guys sound like OZZY!! go buy an automatic with electric start and reverse. this is not the bike for babies

[trout]

Originally posted by 2004TRX450R
First off I'd like to clear one thing up. Two instances ISN'T a rash of problems.

Second I think we should have foam put on the outside of our cars and all over our bikes and everything that we come into contact with so that noone can hurt themselves. I think we should have computer drive all our cars so that we eliminate driver error and eliminate hundred of accidents a year and I think we should ban guns because they kill people and this is all the manufacturers fault.

Come on people lets get real here. I get so sick of people not takeing responsibility for themselves. The government and lawyers do a good enough job of makeing everything so that we can't possibly do anything to hurt ourselves. Does the government and the manufactures of everything we use really have to be our acting parents and hold our hands to make sure WE don't do anything to hurt ourselves. This is exactly the thinking that got ATVs (threewheelers especially) a bad rap back in the 80s.

Shock mount cracks I can see as being an issue provided we start hearing a lot of them doing it. If someone jumps the crap out of their bike and races it hard stuff like that is going to happen. So a few isolated incidences is really not an issue. Now if there is a large percentage of them cracking then that is another story.

As for the engein "blowing apart" as it was put the TRX is the only quad you have heard do it bacause (and I know a lot of E-start winers are going to comment and flame on this) it has a kick start. The E-start bikes don't do it because they don't have a kick starter to slam back. Instead they sheer the flywheel keys and take out starter clutches. That is why the raptors have such a problem with starter clutches. I know of a couple of dirt bikes that have done this most of wich are YZs and WRs. I have heard of 1 CRF. It is rider error bottom line. If you want the kind of performance out of a 4 stroke engine that we are getting out of these 450s (CRFs, YZs, WR, YFZ, TRX, etc,) then that is something that is going to happen. They need the accelerator pumps to make the throttle response crisp and they need the compression to make them have more power especially in the low to mid range where these high reving engines suffer the most in the power depeartment. And this only happens in rare isolated circumstances and it isn't from being flooded. Just from the little extra fuel dumped in from the accelerator pump.

Please don't take this personally but anyone that thinks that Honda should have some kind of protection feature to keep them from doing this and doesn't know the proper procedure for starting these bikes and likes to wine because it isn't e-start should just stay on their 400EXs. For the rest of us that want a truely PERFORMANCE machine and isn't going to cry foul every time some little thing goes wrong with it then enjoy the new TRX450R.

Sorry for the long post I just needed to vent a little.:D


You make some good points.............a little edgy, but point taken.
trout