Yeah sorry for the spambots they seem to keep working around the protections, the technology battle continues.
Its sad Honda does not reintroduce the FL400, an updated version, I think they would sell, throw in a proven 50HP 4 stroke bump the suspension up to 12"-14" of travel keep the weight low as possible.
Lee if your reading... I see the 4 seat UTV market coming to a close in a few years, 99% of the hundreds if not thousands of 4 seat UTV's I've seen in the deserts over the past 10 years have just 2 people in them and 50% of them have one person.
With this crushing economy, sales dropping I see a market for lower cost single seat machines, 99.0% of the desert riding I do in 2wd or can be done in 2wd the exception would be the rock crawling type sections I run into, every time I put mine into 4wd I ask myself 'would you make it if you were in your Pilot' only a few times i answered no. If there was a 2wd version of my RZR and it was 100 lbs lighter I would upgrade to one.
That said when the economy rebounds and all the repossessed UTV's has been bought up, production ramps back up my prediction is you wont see the same sales in 4 seat UTV's we've seen in the past.
Most the people I have talked to the passengers are fathers, sons taking dads for a ride just to try and get them in the game, rear passengers the same, family members first time off road, none of the passengers seem excited about being there not a single one indicated 'yeah I am getting one of these'. I have only encountered a dozen or so husband wife teams where the wives seems really excited about being off road. I know many females who love ATV's and off road it just does not fit their lifestyles any more, family, kids, grand kids and all the baggage that comes with that.
My last trip early 2022 I seen literally thousands more side by sides in the desert than ever before, seems the Covid thing has caused an explosion in sales since there is nobody out there pushing Covid restrictions of any kind. Also on a side note id like to note I seen the most Canadians in the desert than I have ever seen before, every place I parked huge numbers of Canadian plates on the tow vehicles. Canada's Covid restrictions and lock-downs are GOOD for our tourist economy.
Many of the really great riding areas in AZ are now over crowded, example, places like Lake Havasu City area the trails are all whooped and rutted up to the point they are no longer enjoyable, pushing me out to areas I haven't ridden before, which I like
I try not to keep going places I have already been when I do its usually because of weather changes I relocate to get out of the heat or cold so pick an area where the temps are right.