2008 TRX450 HRC kit review

[Mr_RPM]

lots of ranting here, scroll to where i have a red bold marking if you want

so as you may know my dad is a certified mechanic and does alot of side jobs at home under the table, im normally around to help.

we have had a guy over with his polaris outlaw 525 (as i wrote a review on that). well all of his cousins and uncles ride with them.
they all started out on xr100s and other small dirtbike then one of them bought a 400ex. that led to the others buying a 400ex a DVX400 and a 350x (same as a ltz/kfx400 just artic cat fenders) with very tight competition one of them brought over his 400ex for a pipe, stage 1 cam and jetting. since that guy was winning the other brought his 400ex over to do some work aswell. (my dad is loving this...$$$) to make a long story short they now all ended up a outlaw 525, trx450, and ltr450...lol competition costs so much lol

all stock the 525 was fastest then the ltr then the trx. well theltr had a pipe and cherry bomb plug in installed, faster but didnt beat the 525.
so now the trx was behind, so he ordered a HRC kit from honda hoping to surprise his cousins and uncles ( it was a secret) so he brought it over as usual.

the kit included a cam, CDI plug in (raised rev limiter and changed timing) head pipe with guard adjustments to fit on the header, new carb needle and jets. said to remove airbox lid and exhaust baffle (came with ring spacer to put in exhaust), bigger crank breather hoses (enlarged T-fiting),
and all hardware you will need. dad said its the best kit he has ever installed (quality wise) and came with a very detailed book explaining the whole kit. price was very well for what your getting too.
the kit changes the timing to bring it to the specs of a CRF450

now with it all installed it beats the 525 and LTR no problems, i guess by a large gapp too. cant wait to see the the guy with the outlaw 525 brings over to have us install....lol

this is just my .02 cent on it. i loved it as it was simple, efficient, all made by honda so you know its still reliable, and it improved performance enough to beat the competition!


buy one!

[puggerton03]

Thats cool. My step-father fixes cars on the side and I help him out alot too. What do you know about the KFX450? How do they compare against the Honda and Suzuki 450s?

[rdlsz24]

How much does that kit run roughly?

Rob

[Mr_RPM]

between 300-350 dollars, but you getting a fatter and tuned head pipe which are around 150-200 from any pipe companies and a cam, hotcam's are around 150. so right there is 300 dollars and you get even more. its a great deal.
what do i know about the KFX450, well its the first 450 to have an aluminum frame, the a arm mounts are in the mid of the frame for longer travel and its feul injected and has reverse. lol the kfx 450 is a great quad but as far as how it does in any of the racing i have seen (from Racer TV on the Versus channel, to drag racing at the dunes) it laggs a little bit. to me the kfx offers nothing special and doesn't seem to [put out as much in the performance area as some of the others. for the price of the 450 you could buy a honda and slap that HRC in it and be ahead. and even though it has an aluminum frame it believe its the 2nd heaviest or the heaviest (i think the suzuki is with its width) but now that everyone is going with the wide set up (well everyone but honda as it sems for now) that will change.

stock for stock any of the 450s will keep you happy (maybe not the polaris since it will be broken shortly after haha i tease) and finding a good deal is what i would look for. if i had no budget and needed the best stock quad out there it would be the KTM 525XC or 510MX and if it had to be a 450 then the KTM450xc and 450mx look pretty sweet. or even the new yfz450 with the wide stance. The more i think about the more i realize they are all great, the Can-Am is suppost to have a wild top end feel to it (like a 2 stroke, which i love) and the honda with the HRC would be awesome, or a yoshi LTR450 (by7 yoshi i mean it has the power bomb installed and baffle out other wise they are turds due to emission control). the only 2 that dont do anything for me is the polaris and kfx450... a girl a ride with, her dad owns a kfx and it seems cool, though he put 20 inch mudlites on it (why put mudders on a racer? hes an idiot). he jumps like 15 feet high with it.
i have no experience with the polaris 450, but with the 525 i do and that engine is the same as the KTM 525 just with cheaper and crappier exhaust and airbox. it rips and i love it. just the quad itself is cheaply built and even new the fenders raddle around a bit.

find the one that gives you "that" feeling as the KTM does for me. stock for stock they are all to similar to matter and its all about the rider and even the price depending on your money status.

[dcreel]

Dirt Wheels just did a test on the 450's (not the YFZr but the YFZX) and the kfx450R won.

[Mr_RPM]

i love dirtwheels, but to me I just dont see any patterns from what they say as the best and who is winning races. everything dirtwheels says is alot of opinions, and like all opinions they all vary.
i haven't checked out the yfz450x, i will have to check it out. i used to keep up on quads but then with all the next gen stuff i stopped caring and went to trikes, cars, girls, and guns lol. my neighbor down the road had a first gen yfz450 and we all loved it