In this day and age of dirt powersports the trend has been to release bigger vehicles with more horsepower. Hey, it’s what’s been selling.
So when a new vehicle that is more compact and has a smaller engine appears on the scene, well, that raises some eyebrows.
Enter the 2018 Yamaha Kodiak 450 ATV.
We got to throw a leg over this new compact ATV this week in the Capitol State Forest outside of Olympia, WA, on some of the tightest trails we can remember riding on. The trails are 48 inches wide and the Kodiak 450 is spec’d at 46.5 inches so, yea, it was tight.
After spending a full day on those tight trails and following Yamaha’s Pat Biolsi and Matt Barr on some of the forest’s toughest trails, we’re not sure if we’re more impressed with the Kodiak’s new four-ply 25-inch CST tires or the solid electric power steering (EPS). Maybe it’s an equal amount of admiration because they both were tested to the far ends of their capability. The tires got a beating on the roots and rocks that jutted out into the trail. Actually, many of those rocks and roots were hidden in the vegetation that spilled over onto the trail and you couldn’t see them so you couldn’t set up for to take them on. And there was plenty of jarring with all those obstacles that the EPS had to minimize so the bars didn’t get ripped out of our hands.
That one-day ride convinced us we would not buy anything but the EPS version of the Kodiak and we would borrow the money from our parents if we had to pay the extra few bucks (it’s about a thousand dollars more) it is to get an EPS model.
There are a whole host of other new features on the Kodiak 450, which makes an appearance after Yamaha put its 450 on a two-year hiatus, last appearing as a Grizzly 450. Those features include fuel injection for the engine, a new digital gauge, new handlebars, new seat, bigger footprint and new rubber engine mounts.
We’ll have a full report in the next issue of Dirt Toys Magazine but we are very impressed after our first outing on the new Kodiak 450.
