Dear Motorhead:
First, I wanted to say that I really enjoy Dirt Trax Television. You guys are by far the most knowledgeable and informative ATV show I’ve watched.
In your recent episode “Honda Historical”, you indicated that in 2000 Honda introduced the first longitudinally mounted engine in the Rancher. However, they actually introduced that in 1995 in the Fortrax Forman 400.
Other than that, I found the segment on Honda innovation interesting as although historically they were very innovative, they’ve fallen way behind in recent years. They’re largest ATV is a 680, they don’t offer power steering on their flagship Rincon and they don’t offer a differential locker on anything.
Personally, I’ve always felt Honda has tons of potential, but fails to use it. It seems they are happy with sitting on thier current marketshare lead and selling by their name and known reliability rather than being innovative. I think this will eventually catch up with them.
Anyways, thanks for reading my slight rant and keep up the good work! I’m anxious to see a test of the new Outlander 1000, as I’m pretty set on upgrading my Grizzly 700 to one.
Tyler
Thanks for your email!
You are correct about the 1995 Foreman – I apologize!
Yes, Honda needs to step up and offer competitive features to stay credible in the game. I think they are finally “getting it” and we’re optimistic about the next few years.
Time will tell!
Motorhead Mark
