Test Rides
Riding Kymco's Latest
It would be nice to say I visited Taiwan to experience the culture, see the factory or get a better understanding of the company, but none of these is true. Unfortunately, I'm not very cultured or sophisticated, and actually, I'm rather simple--I went to ride. So after enduring a 12-hour plane flight, a 15-hour time change and a day of wandering through the factory, it's fair to say I had some pent-up energy, of which the Kymco machines would have to bear the brunt.
I won't bore you with the events of the morning's scooter-testing session, but I can glean a couple of valuable insights from it. Kymco is very serious about testing, producing and selling a product that can be competitive and in which it can feel pride. Its scooter course had all kinds of testing scenarios, allowing its designers to ensure the machines have up-to-date performance and features that are important to potential buyers.
Unfortunately, Kymco has just started making ATVs, and its quads aren't yet as competitive as its scooters are. The ATV test course was situated in what appeared to be a vacant lot with some overgrown grass. The layout was interesting but not technically challenging. There were some tight corners, an off-camber section, two jumps and a small whoop section. While seemingly innocuous, the jumps and the whoops would prove to be the undoing of the machines.
The first quad I rode was the MXU 150. Tooting around, the little machine seemed robust and quite fun. Unfortunately, these impressions came to a lumbering stop as the machine broke after two laps.
The second quad I tried was the Mongoose 250, the same mount ridden by motocross he-men (and ATV Rider buddies) Kory Ellis and John Natalie during the Kymco Cup Challenge (News Front, Nov. '04). Surely, if these guys could bang bars for a couple of laps at Southwick, then I shouldn't have any problems with the midsize sport machine.
After a few easy laps, I began to up the pace, trying to come to grips with the Mon-goose's slightly narrow chassis. In aggressive cornering the machine tended to roll unless you could get the rear end sliding. For a 250 (liquid-cooled!), the motor seemed fairly peppy, and the CVT worked well, engaging at the appropriate times and supplying engine-braking when off throttle. After I put the spurs to the Mongoose, I heard a slapping sound, especially when landing rear-wheels-first off the two jumps. Eventually this led to snapping the chain, a problem several riders experienced in the Challenge race.
Given that the MXU 250 is a utility model, I wasn't expecting much in the way of performance, but it turned out to be my favorite of the bunch, which is a good sign for Kymco, as it is the company's newest offering. As with all these machines, the ergonomics and placement of controls were good, and I was never hunting for a shift lever, switch, etc. That may not sound like much, but considering some large manufacturers still struggle with this, I was encouraged. I immediately noticed the MXU 250 had a wider chassis, longer wheelbase and longer swingarm. This made it a much more-sporting mount than the Mon-goose, ironically. Even though it had less wheel travel, it didn't fare much worse over the two jumps and had a comparable amount of scoot to it. The brakes worked well and were employed constantly to coax the machine into broad slides entering what we considered turn No. 1 on the test course. After several hours of hard abuse, we did manage to find a few nicks in the MXU's armor. Some-how, we managed to loosen one of the fittings on the rear brake caliper. Not content to travel halfway around the globe and take it easy, I kept pushing the MXU to find its limits and eventually went too hard into the diminutive whoop section, though not hard enough to clear the third whoop, resulting in a humorous-looking cartwheel. The MXU held up quite well to this abuse, with only some body fasteners loosened and the CVT vent tube bonked loose. We've seen similar crashes cause much more substantial damage to name-brand machines, so color us impressed on the crash durability.
Overall, Kymco seems to be off to a good start and looks to be making some solid progress in creating a quality product. We wonder what would happen if, oh, just for inspiration, its engineers took apart one of the class-leading ATVs and used that as a benchmark for a future model. They have the tools, they just need a nudge in updating their designs, and we see no reason why Kymco couldn't someday become one of the major players.