Chupacabra Offroad was invited by Honda to attend their media event in Sand Hollow Utah. (some video provided by Honda Powersports)

If you follow the channel, we drive all different types of vehicles, in the Southwest: Glamis, Baja, Moab, Sand Hollow, Nevada, Arizona, etc.

We spent the day in both the Talon 1000R and 1000X and gave our thoughts on what we like, and what we didn’t.

We’ve ridden in Sand Hollow many times, and it’s a great place to test power, handling, and the i4WD setup.

Transcription:

Another Chupacabra riding good morning from San holo making dominic back at it starting off the day in the 1000 our model just got to run our first fly over 10 minutes or some whoops san holo is pretty wet right now so I like that for testing the vehicle because you’re hitting the whoops harder it’s not a soft you can kind of feel what the car is doing a little bit better so that’s pretty good power feels pretty good so far just getting used to how the car feels you can definitely feel the width compared to a razor 1000 and man got treated to some amazing conditions so far today arraigned a ton yesterday started here first thing in the morning so we’re starting the day off in the our model we’re gonna swap there’s two separate groups so we’ll get our chance at try on the X as well yeah first impressions the power feels good and a lot of engine braking compared to CVT so definitely a different feel but everything feels really tight really like the sound of the car – yeah it sounds cool and the interior as far as the fit feel and finish in regards to noise and chatter there isn’t much which is kind of nice – you don’t hear anything really rattling bouncing around so keeps things nice and quiet and sounds kind of really nice and tight all right so first our hour and a half and the new our model so far initial impressions I think just to start off from first getting in it compared to a razor 1000 it feels made no bigger maybe slightly smaller I’m a tall guy I’ve got 34 inch inseam the dead pedal felt a little bit closer with the seat all the way back felt pretty comfortable steering wheel definitely feels stiffer than Razer 1000 I felt like just kind of initial like what I thought about getting in at the doors feel good it’d be nice to have a knee pad because like I said a little little tight and I think you’re taller than me something you should sit in real quick yeah I think the seats comparing to other cars that we’ve got a chance to dry before the seats look good they made of good material comfortable padding for your back the lower part basis here you bum rests pretty short and I’m a small guy tall small and I don’t really feel like that in the car I don’t really feel like it really hugs you or welcomes that kind of sporty feel so I feel like I was trying to scoot back and a seat as much as I could but I wish the base was a couple inches longer and as it leads to the cockpit being just big enough I think aftermarket seats gonna take up a little more space yeah driving we started off with some fast whoops felt good you can definitely feel that it’s wider the back end felt a little stiff like the car was a little high I think my first thought was to the back end felt stiff I’d lower the right height maybe yeah I think if there was some rebound adjustment to maybe adjust that because through some of the fast whoops even though it is a longer wheelbase on there are some of these whoops at speed you still tend to pack the rear and you’re constantly just kind of bucking through every single look all on the trail so we made a little adjustment there’s the one two and three settings on the front and rear shock so we went all the way soft mode in this last half of the trail so far it’s made a difference with some of the suppleness and kind of that initial harsh bump absorption yeah it’s nice to notice you know right out of the gate the rear in you know I would lower the back of the car a little bit I’d bump up the crossover rings and in the soft setting it would be I think I mean we’re talking free ten minutes so absolutely it didn’t bottom it just felt like it got into my shoulder a little harsh opinion but power feels good it feels fun I or fun the transmission feels really tight it feels like just really robust and firm it’s interesting get used to guys driven of CVT exclusively the engine braking and you know even breaking the car loose you kind of have to be smoother with your throttle smooth or slow speed in the Box yeah absolutely the automatic sport modes handy they’re just let you just drive you not to worry about the paddles but they’re there for you to use it and override it whenever you want which is cool and then the manual just without the automatic mode kind of kind of boasts a different drive experience entirely because obviously it relies on you to shift but it also takes away some that engine braking he was just saying so there’s a little bit less pitch so for those of you that want to really get in tune with driving and time your shifts correctly and get into quarters the right way I think it kind of gives you two different platforms to practice your driving on in the rocks real quick you know we we did rub a little bit 28 inch tires I think 30s would make a big difference there rocks are a little wet or less grippy than they normally are and you can just see like a more aggressive tread and you can feel it more feedback at a car I think too because the tires aren’t as robust is most of our after-market offerings that we all run yeah that extra two inches of tire will help a lot good good so far really fun I mean amazing day perfect and great spot to test I mean you got a little bit of everything we we just wrote for an hour and a half we tested a lot of different you have ironmans see big range of terrain running through some more idle check in later you so it’s the end of the day we talked about our first initial impressions at the cockpit comfort all the little nuances of being in the vehicle as it relates to other side-by-sides on the market and from there we finish up our ride on the our model wrote on the X really realized how similar everything is other than the suspension components so the motor characteristic was essentially the same it was hard to tell if as exact I would assume maybe on the X model they would soften it up a little things more for trail use but it’s also at an aggressive hit this thing handles really well it’s really flat stays really flat for not having a sway bar they focus a lot on the precision handling and I think they did really well it doesn’t feel vague agreed a very really torquey driving experience as you mentioned they do in regard to having the different options or different modes to drive in whether they’re having full manual and using the paddles or using kind of the automatic shifts it still allows you to kind of drive the car however which way you want and really harnessing each gear effectively and really having that power and torque download and get you out of really tight twisty corners especially the ex model which kind of what is meant for it really kind of boasts into a more fun and enjoyable driving experience today for sure yeah very fun shifting I ended up going in the automatic mode with Spike sport mode shifting gears tried manual mode it was fun the additional engine braking compared with CVT takes a little while to use as a driver I’d take me a couple more rides to get used to being smoother on the throttle especially to prevent that jerkiness because it’s so torque you off the bottle yes you know and some of the rocky sections that we encountered today you know you’re trying to be light on the gas but each little jolt in the cockpit you, you feel as the driver really translation you accidentally maybe punch in the gas pedal a little bit and you can obviously feel the torque even more in those instances but going shifting gears first second gear was a smooth transmission yeah third gear definitely pulled really well I mean what are some other things you think what is what other standout traits did you really enjoy about this car and specific sounds simple but these front mud fender flares and the door coverage kept us incredibly dry the beginning of the morning we got a lot of rain yesterday I’m bringing extra rain suits we thought we were gonna be covered yeah we ended up having an amazing day but we were going through some puddles pretty fast and you stayed really clean you can obviously kind of see the car now it’s not the cleanest and you would expect just with the smallest puddles that something might come and come into the cockpit but nothing mmm-hmm and just overall the build quality over the car I mean even the accessories there wasn’t a rattle there wasn’t a squeak it’s the quality we would expect from Honda for sure yep stays through true through both models the R and the X the motor was good and strong as I would expect for about 105 horsepower naturally aspirated vehicle to be I loved all the power and torque was down low had a lot of torque and that leads to the transmission it felt really tight and robust yeah as it relates to overall power I thought it’s similar to an XP 1000 you’ve got a good power and torque to about 40 45 miles an hour and then it tends to sign off a little yeah I think that’s probably what you have to do with an OEM vehicle for the restrictions it would be nice that this can be opened up with some tuning whether it’s an exhaust mapping an extra 10 15 horse just to let it pull a little bit harder in 4th gear you know I think because of the nature of the motor we might be able to get a lot of power for not a lot of money you know an exhaust and a tuner kind of like a yxz you know I’m not that technical when it comes to horsepower gains but I’m hopeful that gaining an extra 510 percent would not be having to break the bank in terms of getting into the head of the car I’m assuming exhaust just like any other manufacturer of those exhaust sounds if the car sounds good don’t get me wrong it’s really a unique tone engine tone but looking at the muffler and stuff in the back you can tell it’s probably pretty restricted yeah and I say I just have a little more power for the doones this will go anywhere in Glamis the two Sid right now I really will of course you want more I want to shoot the hill faster it’s not gonna win the hill shootout right now but it’s similar to a naturally aspirated you know 110 horsepower raise or 1000 which is honestly the if we’re talking about this price point this type of vehicle the vehicle were going against yeah started like a little more power of course just to pull harder and forth and longer up those soft hills doing trail riding I thought is good the low end torque I liked yeah how about mention what you think suspension was pretty good overall in my opinion the ex model was better the ex model first of all both of these are on the stiff side which as a whole I like because that means Honda really catered this to an aggressive driving we were driving pretty hard there’s three modes we ran the soft mode in the X model we bottomed out the rear a couple times and we should have right we’re in some chatter going up and some sandy subtract off of some GL drop-off – yeah we I’d probably never used mode three in either car because I think is a little bit too much on the stiff side and as he mentioned how their valve and sprung in stock trim going to that third mode probably just result in a harsh driving experience and number one in the soft mode really helped improve the ride overall so yeah to sum up suspension X model both models nice small bump compliance for stock I still think an aftermarket spring kit and bow beings really we’re gonna get a lot more comfort I liked how the X we did bottom it and it was fun it didn’t sway they both handled really well front sway bar I really was impressed by that really very very minimal body roll if any at all it kind of stayed flat it tracked well some of the – to track corners they got pretty deep in rut it didn’t really feel like you’re gonna maybe pop out of them they stayed planted and lets you kind of get to the next section pretty efficiently moving on to the R model of course you can feel the the wheelbase and the width yeah but we both agreed that the rear was too stiff first thing I would do is I’d probably lower the back of the car a little bit maybe a half an inch I’d bump the crossover rings up about an inch because it’s not much floor to further off the coupler when you’re at stock ride height so we’re running on this dipper spring out of the get-go first stock Springs again I thought Bob even though our model was pretty compliant over the chatter washboard it could be a lot better just with every other stock OEM shock I try those two things and and I do think this again is designed for aggressive driving and would be different and we’re talking a full-size spare on the back some accessories maybe some riders that are heavier then your way in the back of the car and you’re getting in the zones because I do want to bottom out my car once a ride right get to the soft settings see where we’re at and move around from there so that was kind of my initial impression a little bit of a stinkbug feel but and definitely appreciated you know we mentioned that engine break how this car when downshifting in sport mode or manual really kind of pitched the front-end forward which helps in some handling characteristics not all I think it’s just a little too much a little too aggressive and how the rear is set up spur on or valved it just made it a little bit even more like a little bit worse than it should be so getting a little bit more suppleness would help I think overall as a talk relates to suppleness I think with the 28 inch tires and 15 inch rims you don’t have a lot of sidewall and it was translating a lot of that harshness yeah which didn’t do the suspension much favors some some nice more robust 30 inch tires but you definitely feel a lot more cushion one a little bit of downside is the engineers say they don’t recommend or you can’t put 14-inch wheels as most of us know that’s got the most aftermarket offerings there’s still plenty of offerings out there for a 15 and a 30 I would prefer a 14 and a 30 to get that extra sidewall but they don’t recommend it or it’s not going to fit so 30s on some 15s some more aggressive tires some heavier tires that most of us in the real world would run would make the car a lot more compliant as well absolutely we mentioned just kind of the the feel of the cockpit inside you know keeping a mind of the seating and kind of how that relates to some of the other competition on the market I think there’s some little bit of room for improvement for overall comfort inside the car as well yeah the biggest concern is I’d love to do some aftermarket seats even those are high-quality we’ve talked about how they’re not long enough well then you’re gonna take a little bit more cockpit space and it’s already tight yeah so I think honestly if you are I’m six three six two and a half if you’re my height or taller sit on this thing you know let us know what you think in the comments I mean I think some taller guys are gonna have some challenges with it it’s definitely smaller than x3 yeah it’s pretty well known that X trees are huge in the cockpit world oh I’m a small guy so I’m only five seven if when I hang upside down but my see was almost all the way in the very furthest back position so that kind of gives you an example of what we’re talking about this is a great platform to hold on and it’s a unique driving experience you know shifting is fun it is fun it’s a it’s a different experience and they’re entering a very competitive landscape with what’s out with what’s on the market currently and for a first model vehicle we have to give them some props obviously things have come a long way since the initial Rhino if you want to call it and everything else in between since then but for a first first true sports side-by-side knowing how how serious Honda takes their Rd their testing and their development to try to continue to be better and maintain their themselves at the upper echelon of the competitors I’m confident for sure that these cars are just gonna continue to get better over time yeah I mean you’re seeing Honda’s commitment to the off-road community with the off-road motorcycle models we’ve been both riding motocross dirtbikes for over 20 years I mean this is targeted to a guy like us right we’re all we all love the dirt we all started off in the dirt probably before a side-by-side and yeah I think what I’m feeling from the marketing group is they’re gonna kind of target a lot of people maybe knew other gear heads from other on-road two wheels ATVs which i think is brilliant and it’s also a great opportunity to put another vehicle in the market that’s not the exact same thing as a CVT driven now there’s anything wrong but kudos to them for not trying to make another raiser 1000 right they had to do something different and differentiated a great first effort I mean comparatively to the first Yamaha I like this better I had my doubts about will it shift well enough can I control the power because I really liked the yxz how you could fan that the power like a dirt bike yeah but I really thought that the automatic sport mode shifting was on point it was it was good most the time it is and you can always grab a gear or two and most times the automatic I thought was pretty accurate it’s tuned correctly real quick we can talk about rock crawling four-wheel drive seemed like it work really well oh yeah we did get into some some release nothing too gnarly I’ve been back behind here and it gets hairy but yeah I can’t compare to like Moab which we’ve ridden before 30 inch tires you know obviously we drug a little a couple times a few minor kind of scrapes from in the belly pan things like that which then also kind of goes into your head of you’re always kind of thinking am I going too versus having something a little bit taller tire wise which kind of limits that worry even more so but as far as performance crawling through rocks no issue I four-wheel-drive so far I mean we didn’t get into it that much but it worked really well we’re taking videos of other guys going up and the tires are spinning working as a four-wheel drive system would work yeah as it comes to side of lion what really matters when you’re in the rocks the nose is a little harder to see over than a razor in my opinion I think the razor is still the king of visibility we really need it when you’re in the rocks yeah significantly better than the can-am and then marginally marginally a little bit more difficult to see out it than the Polaris yep yeah one final thought I know in the previous video as I mentioned will we be able to run thirty twos they said it’s out of the question they haven’t even tested on a 32 I’m not do you guys watch this channel you know I love thirty twos I’m all about them so if you are building this up as a rock crawler it would probably suck up too much power out of vehicle Robin you might not get you probably for sure we’ll have clearance on an ex-model probably the are but then you probably running into some other issues so you know that’s what it is I think if a customer’s buying this I have the expectation that you’re gonna run 30s yeah thirties we’re kind of maxing out for now mm-hmm and thanks for watching if you guys like the content please like and subscribe and comment below let us know what you think we’ve got more great content coming your way another exciting [Music] do you believe in the gym.