The Honda Foreman nameplate suggests it’s an overseer, the chief who supervises the rest. As a veteran in the ATV workforce, the Foreman has had to earn its name within a morphing fleet of Honda ATVs. But the Foreman models — in need of a trendy makeover — were starting to show their age. After surviving several years without major change, Honda decided it was time to reinvigorate the Foreman’s look and attitude with youthful exuberance inside and out.
After more than a year of R&D efforts, three fresh 2005 Foreman 500 models were unleashed from Honda and sent to Georgia for our testing gauntlet. Upon first look, the ’05 Foreman is a drastic change from the TRX450 with ESP (Electronic Shift Program) that received ATV Magazine’s ATV of the Year in 1998. The revamped Foreman, one of Honda’s more popular models, vaults into the same class as its bigger brother, the Rubicon TRX500, but with 25cc less displacement.
The Foreman, for the first time, is now available in 2WD with conventional shifting and an affordable sticker price ($5,299). The traditional manual-shift 4WD and 4WD ES that allow for shifting with your left thumb — both with the on-demand option of automatic — are once again offered.
