Recreational

We spent the better part of last summer running around the north woods on the friend and family friendly, four seat sensation called the Polaris RZR4.  Regardless of whether we were in the driver’s seat or the back seat, it’s impossible not to have a great time on the RZR4 thanks to the long wheelbase, super stable platform, and silky smooth, stock FOX shocks.  It’s a blast to cruise down the trail on the RZR4, but we always felt it could use a little more power.

It’s our job to let you know exactly what to expect from every vehicle we test.  We want you to know what a machine is capable of long before you hand the dealer a check, and that means everything from fit and finish to average maintenance tasks.  We use our test ATVs exactly like you do; for work duty, for weekend play, and as hunting buddies.  After a year with the Kawasaki Brute Force 750 4x4i here is what we’ve found. 

The Green Team has been on a roll. In the past year, Kawasaki has introduced all-new Brute Force 300 and Brute Force 750 ATV’s, and at their dealer show, they previewed the new Teryx4 750 4x4 Side x Side. That was only a teaser and we weren't allowed to ride the new Kawasaki at their Florida dealer meeting. So when Kawasaki’s Jon Rall called asking if we would like to come to Tennessee’s Brimstone Recreation to try the new Teryx4 750, we grabbed our gear and were on our way.

Anyone who has purchased a 2011 Polaris RZR 4 already knows that they’ve found a great product with a very high “FUN FACTOR”. We’ve spent a lot of time blazing down many different kinds of trails and terrain with the RZR4, and it always keeps you excited and stands up to just about anything that you can put in front of it. Accessories can make an already great vehicle even better however, and we decided it was time to add on a few toys that would benefit our RZR.

The old saying is, “It’s not the size of dog in the fight, but the size of fight in the dog.” That can now go for ATVs as well. Kawasaki’s new Brute Force 300 doesn’t know it’s an easy to ride, 300cc machine perfectly suited to work around the yard or go for weekend trail rides. It thinks it’s the leader of the pack, and it may be right!

The old saying is, “Good things come in small packages,” and one of the best examples of that in the off-road world is the new Kawasaki Brute Force 300. Though only slightly smaller than the other Brute Force models, it’s a huge overachiever.

If you’ve got either a dirt toy or a band with an Axle in it, sooner or later you’re going to have problems. Just ask Slash and the other guys from Guns-N-Roses. Recently, when we came limping back to the shop with our Can-Am Commander, we had a dysfunctional axle of our own. Luckily for us, our axle problems were much easier to solve than those of Slash and the boys, and the only therapy needed was a little help from the guys at Gorilla Axle.

When it was introduced almost two decades ago in 1995, the Polaris Scrambler 400 made tracks into fresh territory. Before it there were only two ATV categories, sport and utility. The Honda 400EX, the Yamaha YFZ 450R and the Can-Am Outlander 800 weren't even on the drawing board, and custom built chassis ruled the racetrack, while the utility quad world was heavy on the utility side. Single cylinder, 400cc engines were the big bore powerhouses of the day. It all sounds like a tale that begins with: “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away…”

CAN-AM never does anything half way, and when we heard rumors of major changes to their ATV lineup, we were more than a little intrigued. What arrived was beyond what anybody outside of CAN-AM’s engineering group ever imagined.

It’s been a long time since bears roamed freely in Southern California’s San Bernardino forest. The high mountain lake area wasn’t named Big Coyote, Big Deer, or Big Prairie Dog, but it is called Big Bear for a reason, despite a century or so of relatively unmolested camping. Recently, Grizzlies prowled the old domain of the Golden bear, every bit the dominant predator they’ve always been. This bear was not the Grizzly of old that chilled the blood of explorers, miners, settlers, and Native Americans, but this Grizzly was introduced by Yamaha and we had come to tame it.