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It was just before five PM on highway 17 in Logan West Virginia. I had the throttle pinned on Kawasaki’s 750 Brute Force quad, the speedo was flipping between 69 and 71, and there was a cop behind me. Fortunately, the policeman was there to escort all the riders on Kawasaki’s press junket and not to throw me in the slammer for ripping down the highway on a quad. I’d spent the day riding the Hatfield-McCoy trails, and let me tell you, it was some of the most fun I’d had all year.

There are 600 miles of trails on the Hatfield-McCoy system—making it one of the world’s largest—and West Virginia goes out of its way to make riders welcome. Logan is an ATV-friendly town, which means you can legally ride dirt bikes, quads, and UTVs on the city streets. I didn’t do it, but you can even hit up the drive through if you want! How cool is that? It makes sense for the cities to be so accommodating,  as the tourism provided by ATV riders is a huge boon to the local economies.

I’d never been to West Virginia before, and it’s probably the hilliest place I’ve ever seen. One of the guides working with our group mentioned that if you were to flatten the state out, it would be bigger than Texas. We were in the heart of coal mining country, and while we were driving to and from the trails, I saw a bunch of trucks catering to the guys who work down in the mines. In Los Angeles, these would be selling tacos, but there they stocked jump suits with reflective strips and miners lights. Since I find the idea of going down in a mine terrifying, I was pretty happy we were going to spend all of our time above ground.

While the weather had been wet in the days before my visit, the skies were clear when we hit the trails, and it couldn’t have made for better riding conditions. The rains kept the dust from being overwhelming, and there were still plenty of puddles to splash through. After all, what ATV rider doesn’t like playing in mud puddles? Earlier in the year, I’d gone on another trip with Kawasaki—this one up to Mount Shasta in California—where I’d gotten to experience the Teryx 4, but I was even more excited to get some seat time on the Brute Force quad, and the big Kawi didn’t disappoint.

The 750 V-Twin provides plenty of torque, and it comes on immediately. I’m a speed freak, and while we were bombing through the woods, I never felt that I needed more power—I was too concerned with keeping my ass out the rough off to the sides of the trail. My background comes from evaluating cars, and one of the things that’s been so impressive about the Kawasaki products I’ve experienced is how well the company has handled implementing technologies which automakers have generally missed on.

For example, most cars with CVTs— continuously variable transmissions—are horrible to drive. They always sound like they’re hunting for gears, and from a performance standpoint, generally feel like they’ve taken cars back 20 or 30 years. But just as it did in the Teryx, the unit in the Brute Force performed fantastically, never missing a beat despite the constantly changing terrain and my often erratic application of the throttle. And while assisted steering is another area where car makers often drop the ball, the machine’s electric power steering was excellent as well. While the 700 pound quad hardly felt like a paperclip, the EPS made it surprisingly easy to control, and let me focus on the trail and obstacles as opposed to aching shoulders.

If you haven’t been to the Hatfield-McCoy trail system, you should definitely schedule a trip down to experience the gorgeous trails and Southern hospitality. Thanks so much to Kawasaki to letting me experience this amazing adventure! Check out some more pics below!

Behold XIBEIHU’s Amphibious 8-Wheeler. I stumbled across this baby while I was going through some of the memory cards I took to SEMA, and can’t believe I hadn’t posted it yet. So I figured I’d see what you guys thought of it. On the plus side, it floats and has cup holders.

On the minus side, it’s made in China, and even after searching Google for 15 seconds, I couldn’t find a price. But I posted a bunch of pics and a video below. So what do you think? Hot or not? Let me know in the comments below!

Sure, there are better choices for ripping across the water—they’re called jet skis. But maybe you live in Sweden and don’t have a jet ski, because your summer only lasts for like half and hour. So why not fire up the old snowmobile and give it a shot? Sure, there’s always the threat of sinking, but you have to admit, the threat of having to retrieve your submerged snow machine from the depths of a pond makes everything a little more exciting. The action doesn’t start until about a minute into the video—everything up until then is camera trickery and shots of a dog—when the killer soul soundtrack is unfortunately replaced by the all-too-common techno. Enjoy.

[via Jalopnik]

On the short-list of phrases I like to hear before my morning tea, “Coyle, you are going to die,” isn’t near the top. But that’s exactly what my colleague Sullivan said when he learned I’d be attending Kawasaki’s demo for the Teryx4. Given the chance, who wouldn’t spend a day flogging a UTV at the Chappie-Shasta Off-Road Vehicle Area? I was pumped! So I took a deep breath and explained that try as we might, someday, we’re all going to die.

Sullivan was unfazed. “We sent Adrian on one of those things, and he nearly killed himself—Adrian.” He was referring to our buddy Adrian Harris, a crazy Australian bloke who’d just completed a three-month motorcycle trip through South America, completely with treacherous terrain, food poisoning and corrupt cops. This made me slightly less pumped. But a quick call to Kawasaki’s John Rall set me straight. There weren’t going to be any Travis Pastrana-style antics, we were just going to have a great time checking out some killer machines on some beautiful trails. I was in.

After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we headed over to the off-road area, and the scenery on that drive alone could have qualified as a tour—this is some of the most gorgeous country in the Golden State. And as ATV Connection members know, the only thing that makes amazing country like this better are high-powered ATVs, and the new Teryx line was gassed up and ready to go.

As he walked me over to an orange Teryx4, Jon told me he was going to put me in the “grand piano,” and I was a little intimidated. At this point, I should probably mention that I’d never driven a UTV before. While I’ve owned a couple of street bikes—a cruiser and a crotch rocket—my experience with four-wheeled off-road machines was limited to some farm hooning in a battered ’70s Corolla wagon and a rock crawling demo I did, like, five years ago. But the Teryx couldn’t have been more welcoming.

From the steering wheel, to the seatbelts, to the key start, to the shift-on-the-fly four-wheel drive switch on the dash, anyone even remotely familiar with a car will find the controls completely intuitive. I felt the same way about the Teryx’s “cabin”—there are doors, after all—as I did about the Lotus Elise’s. Basically, everything has the feel of very nice Fisher Price toy. All the really great bits are under the hood.

Motivation comes from a 749cc four-stroke V-twin, and to compensate for more passengers and heavier loads, the intake, heads and cam profiles were tweaked, which means power is up 15 percent over the two-seater. The engine is purpose-built for the Teryx, and doesn’t see duty in any of Kawasaki’s street bikes. To insure reliability, there’s a beefy radiator and big fan to keep the power plant cool, and the electronic fuel injection makes for easy starts without having to mess with a choke. While Jon was giving me the rundown, I have to admit I kept thinking about how fun it would be to terrorize a retirement community—the kind where everyone rolls around in golf carts—in one of these babies. I also kept picturing my 90-something grandmother rolling up to the Clubhouse and being like, “what up, y’all?”

My lone concern with the specs of the Teryx? Three letters: CVT. Coming from an automotive background, there are few things I hate more than the continuously variable transmission. Generally speaking, it’s a abomination on par with the atomic bomb, Farmville or American Idol. And I don’t want to mention names here but Nissan—oops!—absolutely ruined the Maxima, Altima and Sentra by fitting them with these odious, fun-sapping pieces of garbage. That said, my fears about the Teryx’s “gearbox” were completely unfounded.

Our trip into the mountains took us along a trail which wound toward a vista at the top. As I did for most of the trip, I left the Teryx in two-wheel drive/high gear, and I thought the CVT performed beautifully. There was none of the hunting and pecking crap I’d experienced in road cars, and when I wanted to pound the gas to make the back end step out during the corners, there was no hesitation whatsoever. As expected, the V-twin made a proper noise, and the linear power delivery and crisp throttle response made driving the Teryx4 a joy. At one point, while I was getting sideways around a switchback—there was a bit of a drop—my passenger asked how this compared to other UTVs I’d driven. I replied that I’d never driven anything like this before. He got out at the next stop.

My passenger’s lack of confidence was fortuitous, and the guy who dropped into the shotgun seat turned out to be Sky, one of the park rangers. He knew every inch of the trails we were traveling, and if he was concerned about my driving, it didn’t show. Most of his instruction entailed pointing out which bumps would get us airborne. Our ascent had been on relatively smooth trails, but as the day went on, we tackled some pretty treacherous terrain, and I was frankly amazed at how well the Teryx’s suspension handled it.

To be honest, I expected I’d feel beat up at the end of the day, like you’d feel after the first snowboarding trip of the season. But that wasn’t the case. At all. When transitioning from a “smooth” trail to a path filled with large rocks, there were obviously a couple of jolts, but after the transition, it’s almost like the suspension started to float over the obstacles. But this wasn’t an uncomfortable float, like the kind you’d get trying to take a ‘78 Fleetwood around a bend in the rain. It was an almost hovercraft-like feel which communicated the terrain without assaulting you with it. And the faster I went, the smoother things seemed to get. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it.

Over the rest of the day, I took the Teryx4 down ferociously steep declines, across a snowy trail, and along a rocky creek bed and it never lost its composure. While I was driving through the stream, I actually forgot to switch it to four-wheel drive. It didn’t care. As I’ve said before, I don’t really have anything to compare it too, but I can say with certainty that bombing through Chappie-Shasta in a Teryx is some of the most fun you can have with your pants on, and I was bummed when we got back to the staging area—I could literally have kept doing this for weeks. Fortunately, the fantastic short ribs and bourbon Kawasaki treated me to after the ride took away some of the sting. Big time thanks to Jon and Agata from Kawasaki for showing me such a great time!

I’ve posted a bunch more photos from the trip over in a gallery on the forum, so head over and check it out! >>

ATVs might be all-terrain vehicles, but most of the time, riders don’t spend a lot of time on paved surfaces. Of course, this is Finland—birthplace of some of the world’s craziest and most revered rally drivers—so that means all bets are basically off. This footage was shot at the Ahvenisto circuit, and aside from being just plain fun to watch, it demonstrates that ATVs can make for pretty awesome camera vehicles. Check out the video and see if you don’t agree. Formula D, are you paying attention?