Home Forums Gear Horses and ATV's Anyone riding a 14 or 15 Foreman?

As a kid I had a 1981 Honda ATC 110 three wheeler. It had a fine mesh screen behind the fuel selector valve that filtered any gas coming through it. Something like that would have kept the crud out of my carb. I haven't messed with the fuel delivery systems on any other ATV's so I didn't know other makers didn't use fuel filters also. It's amazing what some companies will do to save a couple of bucks.

Honda never took any steps to stop the fine particulates which were eventually inevitable in those old steel-tanked Hondas. Trying to troubleshoot the leaky 'carb problem' when the problem was actually very fine rust particulates was eventually cured by installing filters on everything we drive. I suspect some of the rust we had trouble with may have originated in the tanks of the old ATVs. It was also possible that it might have originated in steel drums used to haul fuel in though also. Fuel screens or screen 'filters' don't trap the fine particulates; paper elements seem to work well however.

Why not just get a yamaha?

11 years and over 4k miles of riding on my ForemanES and I've never touched the angle sensor and the same with my wife's 09 RancherAT.

I might! It's one of two choices....

IMO, you can't go wrong with either choice.

I really like the Yamahas, I think that's the way I'd have to go vs a new "theory" with Honda. Needed to do some catch up.

I hope I have the same luck!

I bought a 2014 Honda Foreman. I have an aftermarket winch. It came in handy last winter trying to pull a trailer full of firewood uphill in the deep snow.
From my experience it has plenty of power but tire chains might be a good thing to have.

Do you have the solid rear axle or the IDS?

'12 foreman with EFI and EPS
no front diff lock
manual shift

starts easy the first try even if it sits for months...it doesnt get 10 degrees in georgia though...

Had it narrowed down to the 450 Grizzly and Foreman. Local Yamaha shop had sold their last 450 Grizzly and were not sure if/when they would get more...seems Yamaha may not be making them? So, I ended up going with a 15 Foreman. They marked down the 15 models since the 16's are out. I wound up with the electric shift model rather than the foot shift mainly due to the remaining 2015 foot shift models having extra dealer add on's that I didn't want.

Spent a week with it so far, one day of which was in rough mt trails, the remainder on the farm. Quite a change from the IRS and CVT on our other machine but for my uses it will work well. Pro's and con's of each difference, depending on how it's being used. Hopefully it will last a LONG time....

That is correct. Yamaha is no longer making the 450 Grizz. They're now making the Kodiak again, which is a cheaper version of the Grizzly while making the Grizzly as well...which is a fancier bike.

I think it's on the website now.

Either way, it should still be faster, more up to date, and just as reliable as the foreman.

Just took a look at their website and it shows the Kodiak. If I read thing right, the smallest is a 700. No diff lock on the base model, to get it you go up to the SE model...and same price as the Grizzly 700. Looks nice if you want a base 700...I really don't need anything over a 500. It looks like mid-sized atv's are going the way of the dinosaur and I hate to see that.

If i was buying today i would get the new Rubicon with DCT and if i was concerned with pulling heavy loads, i would get a foreman...gears beat belts for that in my book

It's the same size as the 550, physically.

That would be the same flawed logic the sno-go makers have fallen for if that’s the case. The majority of the market might put more miles on there ATVs on trailers being pulled by large 4WD pickups but that certainly isn’t the whole market, and there are probably more miles expended on the ground by utility users of the ATV, many of them in the lower, practical horsepower ranges - where machines last and last.

I just don't need an 700 machine. A 400 has met my needs for the last 10 years. It gets used every day and I've never said "I wish I had a bigger machine or more power". Several times I've wished the footprint of the machine was a little smaller. That was one of the reasons I liked the Grizzly...and one of the reasons I didn't consider the Rancher since it is now the same physical size as the Foreman.

Diff lock I do like and have seen it make a lot of difference when climbing steep trails with uneven rocks and the back tires start spinning with one of the front tires off the ground. Doesn't help that I wear tires until I can get no more wear out of them.....

On trails this past weekend I really liked the solid rear axle. It has the down side of feeling everything more, but it seems so much more stable (compared to IRS) on the washed out ruts and uneven rocks. It was the thing that stood out most. High speed and smooth ride aren't nearly as important to me as stability. I kept thinking that the stated lower ground clearance of the Foreman was going to hit a lot of the uneven rocks/ledges that I was going over but it didn't...my IRS machine seems to hit more even though ground clearance is supposed to be higher.

Changing gears is neither here nor there with me. For my kids I especially like the CVS and engine braking, I think it's a lot safer than gears if they don't know how to use them. As long as you use them, the gears on the foreman are great, especially the low first gear when descending rocky sections. I like not having to stop and switch a lever from low to high or to reverse when driving up a steep tricky section then flattening out to a level section....just change gears and you're good.

I keep thinking I wish I had gotten a manual foot shift, but hopefully it will never make a difference.

I wish I had pictures - in more than just my mind- of the loads I’ve hauled on and by trailer, with my old 98 Honda 300 TRX 2wd. Too many people use engine displacement to replace a lack of cranial displacement.

Have I ever wished I could crack 60 mph just to see it on the display? I suppose it might be fun purely for no reason other than to say I’ve done it. Have I ever wished I could ruin tires faster, smoke belts, or get heavier machines into impossibly stuck places? Not so much.

We had a TRX 300 2wd for a lot of years. I remember when my father sold it after a lot of years of use...for exactly what he paid for it when he bought it new. Several guys I know still have one, saw two of those guys using them this past weekend.

If I can remember I'll take and post a pic in the next week or two on the thread about what folks pull/haul with their machines. I'll never wear one out running fast...I might break something with a heavy load, but so far I haven't.