The Yamaha Grizzly was loads of fun to ride. It has a torquey motor and puts the power to the ground well. It has a great engine-braking system and an easy-to-use differential lock. I felt a little unstable on the Grizzly when riding off-camber trails and found the front end bouncy on a lot of the terrain on which we rode.
Kawasaki Brute Force-they sure named it right. You have to be a brute to ride the thing for a day. As a work machine, it's fine, but riding it on difficult terrain is just too much work. It's a full-time job trying to keep the front end where you want it to go and also trying to keep the quad on the trail. It felt top-heavy and very difficult to control at high speeds.
Location
We can't really talk about the locations we went to on this trip to the Carolinas, as you can't ride there anyway. As we wanted only the most-challenging terrain on which to test the big-bore 4-bys, we kept to the various "unimproved" riding areas, so pesky trail maintenance wouldn't ruin our fun. It was all legal, of course.
If you're looking for actual places to ride in the East, check out www.trailpass.com. Two of our testers, ATVR veteran tester Scott Voorheis and newbie D.J. Petrou, are associated with this new service that helps to connect riders to trails in their area. Membership will get you into a number of private riding areas in the South and Northeast. For more info, they can be reached at sevoorheis@trailpass.com.
Thanks also to MR Motorcycle in Asheville, North Carolina (828/277-8600; www.mrcycles.com), for receiving and prepping the various machines for us as well as lending some logistical support. And to G&R Polaris of Burnsville, North Carolina (828/675-9724).
| OPEN 4X4 TALLY |
| (lower is better) | Billy | Todd | A-Dog | Len | Scott | D.J. | Paul | Total | Price |
| Honda FourTrax Rincon | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 21 | 4 |
| Kawasaki Brute Force | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 32 | 3 |
| Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 5 |
| Suzuki KingQuad | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 2 |
| Yamaha Grizzly | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 29 | 1 |