Stories tagged: kawasaki

#<strong>Five Mile Pass</strong>

Twice in the past month I have had the chance to head to Five Mile Recreation area in the west desert. The first trip was with Mike, we will cover it in our upcoming podcast. The second was with my brother in law who was visiting from Idaho. <strong>Five Mile Pass</strong> is located about 25 Miles west of Lehi. Head west on Lehi Main Street for about 30 minutes and you are there. You will pass through Cedar Fort and Fairfield and the staging area is just off the highway on your right you can't miss it. It is one of the best places to ride <strong>ATVS in Utah</strong> year round because it gets very little snow in the winter.

Five Mile is an awesome place to ride with thousands of trails across the mountains. Five Mile is a great place for any type of OHV and any skill of rider. The staging area is a great place to introduce beginners to trail riding without too difficult of trails. When I went with Mike we took the Sport Quads which was a ton of fun but a few of the trails were too steep so I decided to come back with the <strong>Brute Force and Grizzly</strong> The Big Bore Quads also made for a more comfortable ride across the very rocky terrain.

Don’t let this scare you away if you are an experienced rider, there are miles and miles of steep, rocky difficult trails that can keep you busy for days. In Fact we rode most of the day both times and rarely hit the same trails. I believe we could go back a few more times before any of it became overly familiar.

Pulling up to Five Mile can be a bit worrisome on a nice weekend with tons of rigs in the staging area. I could not believe how many people were already there when we arrived around 9:30. I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of other riders we came across. With thousands of break off trails leading over and around mountains and hills we almost never ran into other riders.

Our Ride was really great we started off by heading across the highway to the south side of Five Mile Recreation area. I was hoping to find a really awesome ravine that Mike and I had ridden a few weeks earlier. After trying about twenty amazing trails I gave up and headed west towards the flats. There is an awesome dirt road that leads past some fields with grazing cows that is straight smooth and really long. It’s a perfect place to run some time trials and possibly a drag race or two. We enjoyed going full throttle across this area and took a small break on the opposite side next to the remains of an old stone home or barn.

I wanted to loop as far south as we could on the way back around the primary mountains and then head north on the other side of the Highway. Finding our way around was a bit difficult but led us to some really great trails including a ravine we rode in for several hundred yards. One thing I love about <strong> 5 Mile</strong> is there are so many options, for example when traversing one mountain we had 4 options which route to take I sadly chose the wrong one. It looked amazing and ran right along the edge of the mountain with a cliff on one side. It was a bit scary but looked okay until just after we rounded the last place we could see the trail turned into a motorcycle trail too narrow for a ATV. The problem was it left little room to turn around, luckily we found a decent spot and with spotting each other we were able to flip around and head back.

The North side of <strong>5 Mile</strong> is just as great as the south side. We drove north for around an hour climbing some pretty steep rocky hills before we needed to head back because we were running low on fuel. From what I saw trails lead north for a long ways to a much bigger mountain area that I would love to explore.

Overall we had an awesome trip and I can’t wait to get back out there and try it out. I recently purchased a GoPro camera and have taken it on the last two trips but sadly the footage is not great. I set the angle wrong on this trip so most of the riding is looking down to much to be interesting. I am still sorting the footage and hope to have at least a few clips to share in the upcoming podcast.

Have you ever been to Five Mile Pass Recreation area? What did you like? What did you hate? Tell us in the comments section. Also sign up with our site and get updated each time we make a new post. For now Ride Safe Ride Hard Ride Often.

#Little Moab
The ATV Cowboys headed to <i>Little Moab</i> on Presidents day and had a blast. Just like last years Video Cast we wanted to take advantage of some winter riding without having to deal with tons of snow so Little Moab was the perfect choice. My brother in-law Mike... yes another Mike in the family and I took the Grizzly and the Brute Force out for some winter fun.

It snowed Sunday evening leaving us with around two to six inches of snow to play with which really added to the trip. The snow was the perfect amount to make the steep dirt trails a bigger Challenge to climb. In several of the narrow canyon trails the increased depth of snow made forging through the powder a blast as we flew down trails and slid around corners.

We spent a large part of the day exploring a few trails I had never gone down that went for miles, most of which ended in dead ends leaving us with some fun maneuvering to get turned around to head back. Several of the trails are being cut and added to so it was fun to travel across some areas that are not complete trails, One of the ravines had a nasty little rock section that is not only fun but once it has been fully developed I believe will connect to the primary trail leading to mount Baldy.

I had to take Mike over to the actual <strong>Little Moab</strong> rock formations where we spotted each other and used the ATVs narrow wheel base to our advantage and climbed a few rock sections that would be difficult for a Jeep or Crawler. However most of the course is not suited for ATVs because of their short and narrow wheelbase. Be sure to use a spotter so you do not end up ruining a trip with a rolled quad.

Never been to Little Moab? You should check it out directions here.
What is your favorite thing about Little Moab? Please sound off in the comments section!

Ride Hard
Ride Safe
Ride Often

I recently read an article on Dirtwheels.com about the 2012 Sport ATV BUYER'S guide, that reminded me of a conversation that Mike and I were having just a week or so ago. Deciding which sport ATV is the best to purchase is tough right now. You want to make the right choice especially if you are buying a brand new machine that you will be keeping for awhile. When we buy a quad we ride it until it can no longer be ridden so buying something that will last is important. Also choosing the quad based on your favorite types of riding is essential.

Overall we decided that the YAMAHA RAPTOR 700R is the best quad to purchase if you are looking for general use. Dirt Wheels thought the same thing. The Raptor has all the power you will need, a nice tall stance and has a reputation for great handling. So for the average Joe who will rarely hit the track and spends most of his time riding the trails (like me) It's the go to quad. Too often I see riders picking up a quad that has been optimized for the track and are unhappy with its overall abilities in other scenarios. Most of the track optimized machines should be left alone unless you are one of those riders. I must add I have very limited experience with the Can-am machines in the article but was very impressed that they took 2,3 and 4th the guide.

The saddest part for me with the new 2012 models is that Suzuki is not coming out with a new Machine. All of the other names are trying to expand their models and Suzuki is sticking with the Z400. Do not get me wrong I have one parked in my garage right now and love the Quad. I am just disappointed that I wont get to see the next generation for at least another year.

What type of attributes are you looking for in a sport Quad? Out of the new models (see link to article below) which do you think is the best?

Click Here to see the article so you can see a better review of each Quad.

Great video and a quick overview of the highlights of several big Quads. I think the funnest part of where the Big Bore quads are going is they are getting much sportier. In fact besides track riding and hitting the dunes these Big Bore quads are your best choice.

What do you like about Big Bore Quads and which Quad do you think is the best overall buy and why?

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I recently went to Little Moab with Jared and my father-in-law. This will be the first video in a monthly podcast we are making. Sit back and enjoy. Look for another video in about a month. We'll let you know as soon as we have our exact release schedule figured out.

ATV Scene has a pretty good article on the Polaris Outlaw 525 IRS. They state some things that I kinda thought were obvious. It makes an awesome trail machine. You can take it to the track, and it should do better than a 400 class machine, but it isn't going to take the jumps like a 450.

This got me thinking of some of the other big (and when I say big I mean larger engine than a 450cc racer) quads on the market today. You have 2 options from Polaris. The 525 S and the 525 IRS. KTM has it's 525XC. Yamaha has its Raptor 700. Kawasaki has the KFX700 and Honda rounds out the group with its 08 700XX. Of all the major manufacturers only Suzuki isn't represented.

This is an interesting market. These are powerful machines. They all have reverse. They excel in the woods and at the dunes. Their mileage varies at the track though none are incapable. Most are roomier and therefore much more comfortable for bigger riders. I wouldn't say they are the best in any one class. I've seen enough souped up 450's beat souped up raptors in a drag that you'll have a hard time convincing me they are superior in that regard, and once you get deep mud or snow a 4x4 is clearly superior. However their versatility makes them tempting purchases.

I guess what makes this market so interesting to me, is that I think it is the market for 90% of sport class riders. If you go out to buy a new quad and you don't race MX or do freestyle then you shouldn't be looking for a quad with the stiffest suspension and the hardest seat. You shouldn't have to get off of your quad and pull the sucker backwards if you get in a bad spot. Your quad shouldn't be too wide for the trails you ride on. Well that's the 450 class. I think people buy race quads because they here they are the fastest or that they are what the pro's ride, but if you don't race Pro MX do yourself a favor and buy a quad with a comfortable quad.

I think the big bore class of quads will have enough suspension for most people. They definitely have enough power. The Outlaw and 700XX have IRS which for the big trail riders is a bonus. It wouldn't surprise me if the KFX got updated with IRS soon as well. For the average rider I think this is the class to beat.

Next time you are looking for a new sport quad don't just go with the 450 because it's trendy. Next to that 450 is a big bore quad this will most likely fit your needs better.