Editorial Dummying Down The Sport
ATV Connection Editorial
“Dummying Down” The Sport
Let me throw out a question for the masses: Are the manufacturers building ATV’s for the lowest common denominator? Are they building ATV’s to be so foolproof that any person who can walk and chew bubblegum at the same time can ride one? Is this marketing-driven engineering or lawyer-based engineering geared toward protecting uncoordinated people from themselves? Was this plan based on the fact that the pool of people who are actually qualified, skill-wise, to ride a conventional ATV might be getting a little shallow? So to make an ATV attractive to people who would otherwise never give them a second look; you reduce the mechanical skill required to operate one. But does this come with a cost?
I believe it comes at the cost of increased mechanical complexity. This complexity may work when new but as the ATV ages I am starting to see unusual breakdowns caused specifically by these add-on sub-systems. If adding so-called “fail-safe” switches or limiters prevents the poor uneducated rider from doing something that an educated rider would never think of doing, does this “dummy down” the sport? Is this a good thing? Is there a down side (besides the obvious benefit to dealer�s service department bottom lines)? I believe there also can be a safety issue when these features fail. On a recent trail ride with a local club I witnessed two failures of ATV systems that were installed for the express purpose of making an ATV “easy to use”. First was the failure of a parking brake interlock on a Yamaha Warrior. Its purpose was to prevent the rider from engaging the parking brake and then applying throttle and driving away, presumably with blue smoke rolling off the rear disc. (As if anybody is that dumb.) When the parking brake interlock switch fails, the ATV believes the parking brake is on, even though it is not. This then cripples the ignition, preventing revving of the motor above an idle. You are effectively reduced to riding a rock! Which, dear reader, would you prefer, walking or being towed home. (Those are your only choices unless you know how to bypass the interlock. The field expedient fix is to cut the wires on the upper switch entering the left lever pivot, thus removing the interlock and the faulty switch out of the ignition equation.) The alternative would be to have the manufacturer realize the owner just might be capable of knowing the parking brake is on and be skilled enough to release it before getting under way, or at least immediately realize it is on with the first application of throttle and then release it. ATV’s got along for a decade without such an interlock. Even your auto doesn’t have such a device.
Another example that happened on the same ride was when two different Polaris’ lost hydraulic pressure in their braking systems. Because it is Polaris’ philosophy to use integrated braking, a loss of hydraulic pressure meant the entire braking system went down. Couple that with not having any deceleration braking on these models and their ATVs were reduced to being skate boards on every downhill! These riders simply couldn’t stop! In the middle of a long ride with many hills is not the place to have this kind of failure. What we did was place Grizzlies directly in front of each machine to act as a stop. We then coupled another machine with a tow strap together with the brakeless ATV to ease each brakeless machine down every hill. It would have been so much simpler if these Polaris’ utilized separate braking systems. If the front brake system fails, you still have the rear system on which to rely.
It has been shown that an integrated braking system is easier to use for a “newbie”, even when that braking system has been proven to not be as effective on level ground and not as safe for climbing and descending hills. Could it be there was a conscious trade-off of a little safety in challenging terrain for increased sales to people who most likely wouldn’t get themselves into a “challenging” situation? Something to think about when purchasing your next ATV.
Another example that happened on the same ride was when two different Polaris’ lost hydraulic pressure in their braking systems. Because it is Polaris’ philosophy to use integrated braking, a loss of hydraulic pressure meant the entire braking system went down. Couple that with not having any deceleration braking on these models and their ATVs were reduced to being skate boards on every downhill! These riders simply couldn’t stop! In the middle of a long ride with many hills is not the place to have this kind of failure. What we did was place Grizzlies directly in front of each machine to act as a stop. We then coupled another machine with a tow strap together with the brakeless ATV to ease each brakeless machine down every hill. It would have been so much simpler if these Polaris’ utilized separate braking systems. If the front brake system fails, you still have the rear system on which to rely.
It has been shown that an integrated braking system is easier to use for a “newbie”, even when that braking system has been proven to not be as effective on level ground and not as safe for climbing and descending hills. Could it be there was a conscious trade-off of a little safety in challenging terrain for increased sales to people who most likely wouldn’t get themselves into a “challenging” situation? Something to think about when purchasing your next ATV.