Miles by Kory Ellis
- Updated: November 12, 2003
By Kory Ellis
Jorge and I warm up in front of the 450R fire.
The number one question on everyone’s mind right now is “Honda or Yamaha?” I got the chance to go to Lake Whitney, TX with ATV Scene’s Jorge Cuartas for the Honda TRX450R press intro to try to find out the answer to that question.
As most of my trips go, it was another last minute venture. John (Pellan) called me on Thursday and asked me if I could go the following Wednesday to get the scoop on the new red ride. “Heck yeah I’ll go”, I told him. He told me that they were going to call me the following day and confirm everything with me. I was leaving the following day to go to Glamis for Halloween weekend. Do I chance missing the call because my cell phone might be out of range? Would I miss the chance to ride Honda’s answer to Yamaha’s best sport quad ever?
I was a little worried I wouldn’t get that important call but I went to Glamis anyway and got some good seat time in. After a good game of phone tag with Honda’s media people the flights were booked. I would know the answer to the number one question in the ATV industry in just a few days!
Waiting for the rain to stop in the freezing cold had us pretty frustrated, as you can see here.
For the special occasion, I ordered some new red gear from Fox and had them overnight it to me. I had to pack very light with the new flight restrictions. No bag can weight more than fifty pounds. I checked the e-mail confirmation that Honda sent. It said that the weather forecast was 80’s and sunny. So I packed one set of gear a couple pairs of pants and some short sleeve tee-shirts. As I got my baggage and proceeded to the curb to wait for the escort to the ranch that Honda had us staying at, I realized someone got the weather all wrong. It was forty not eighty. Lucky for me, my ride showed up quickly before hypothermia set in.
The driver and I looped around the airport for a while and slowly picked up person after person until we nabbed everyone After that it was “off to the ranch” literally — and I mean off in a hurry. The girl that was driving us was trying to qualify for the Indy 500 I think? Most of the trip back the speedometer was buried deep in the dash. She must have been riding that new Honda before she picked us up.
Anyway, when we finally arrived they had a 450R sitting in the lobby. Jorge and I were quick to take a look at it. We went over it like a little kid might snoop around at his presents on Christmas Eve. We learned a lot about it on our own but couldn’t wait to hear what Honda had to say about it. While we were checking it out we were greeted buy the Honda people. Tim Farr was by their side like a scene straight out of Star Wars, — Farr being the newly crowned Jedi Knight. They all answered our questions as fast as we could spit them out.
As I stumbled out to breakfast in the morning, I looked out the window and saw that it was raining out. “Great we get to go spin the wheels in the mud and go home wondering about that number one question”, I thought to myself. After breakfast we loaded up the van and drove to the track, which was only about a mile away. We stood under the awning of the semi trailer with eight quads by our side while it rained. This was a frustrating moment. Even Skywalker-Farr was bummed at the situation.
I was about to fall over and freeze to death in the cold rain. This really sucked. Then twenty minutes later the rain stopped! It was on! Tim was the first to hit the track. I looked for him to go spinning around the track in the mud, but much to my surprise, I saw him go around a turn pretty quick. There was even some dust trailing behind him. Either he was using the “Force” or it really wasn’t that muddy out there. Regardless, I quickly got motivated, got my new Fox gear on and hit the track in record time. I idled around the track a few times to get a feel for the quad and what it wanted to do.
I rode the stock Honda (minus the HRC kit). In no time I was hitting all of the jumps on the track. After we took some pictures we went back to the truck and had lunch. Warm hot dogs and beef jerky? O well, no biggie, I was there to ride, and we did plenty of that after lunch. We still cannot figure out how the track soaked up the water like it did. Maybe the “Force” really is with Honda and they used it to dry the track off for us? Nonetheless, it was absolutely perfect conditions out there. We grabbed a few HRC units and took full advantage of it.
The HRC kit that Honda will sell consists of a cam, jetting, air box lid and exhaust cap. Tim and I went at it for a while. It was a memorable ride to say the least. There we were — two pro racers, (one factory backed), racing one another on factory-built made-for-racing-production-quads that very few riders in the World had even got to touch yet! Needless to say, we rode the wheels off those Hondas. They had to drag us off of them so we could get back to the hotel for our dinner appointment.
Red or Blue?
All right, hear it is — the part you have been waiting for… How was it? Is it better than the YFZ?
The best way to answer this, in my opinion, is to put it to you like this, – do you like Fords or Chevies? The Honda has some very good things about it. For instance; the brakes, ease of maintenance, it is more comfortable for the taller rider because of the foot peg to seat difference. The Yamaha has some things about it that I feel are better than the Honda. For instance; the rear shock is longer so it is easier to tune for racing applications and the center of gravity is lower on the YFZ – so corners better.
In stock vs. stock form, I would have to say that the Honda runs a little better, but if you compare the HRC equipped Honda against a GYTR equipped Yamaha (pipe, jetting and air box lid removed) – the YFZ runs a little better if you ask me.
In my opinion, both are excellent quads. There has never been a sport quad in the same league that Yamaha and now Honda created! The decision is yours to make. Whichever one you end up getting, I can promise you’ll end up with an awesome ATV that can win on the track and provide a ton of fun along the way.
One last thing. Learn from my packing mistake and shove a sweatshirt or two in your bag. They don’t weigh all that much.