Grizko, Have you raced the Kodiak against the Grizzly, we had a short space and hooked up two brand new machines I was impressed that the Grizz didn't run off and leave the Kodiak. Thats one of the reasons I didn't buy the Grizz. The Kodiak dose not burn hardly any fuel and runs cool here in Southeast Texas. I like the way the machine is built in all. Seems to be one fine machine.

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Yes we raced them but as you can imagine not while my wife was around,A freind was over and we tried it, me on the Griz and my freind on the Kodiak and switched with the same results the Griz is faster from the start and around 30 to 40 mph the Griz will pull ahead by quite A bit and stay their but the Kodiak does hang with it at the start,I also raced against A Honda 450es no competition from start to finish the Kodiak hooked up faster and just kept ahead the whole time,the Kodiak will do around 55 mph on the pave.

 

GrizKo, It could have been that the quads only had a mile on each one of them. The Grizz was smoking quite a bit after short rides, I guess nothing was seated yet. The Kodiak seemed faster but I think that was due to the lighter weight. I wished they would have redone the Grizz but after having the Kodiak for a few rides it has plenty of power and speed for me. Here in Texas it gets hot, temps into the 100 with humidity almost all the time at 100%, thats hard on a air cooled / oil cooled engine. I was afraid that the heat would be to much on the Grizz from idling and slower working speeds. The Yamaha reps said that the water cooled engine would hold up better under these conditions and it would maintain it torque without loosing any power due to heat, from working the machine. The short time that we spent idling around and riding at the shop, the Grizz was a hole lot hotter, I think we put about 2 miles on them with a strip of land that was only about 200' long x 40' wide, so the Grizz could not get much air across the fins. I also ordered 2 sets of clutch weights to help reduce the RPM down on the cruise speed of the Kodiak. ($45 a set) I'll let you know what it dose to the performance of the bike.---------------Kyle Kimball--------




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Bought one about 3 months ago (00 Kodiak). Shopped around about a year. Good machine. Installed an hour meter on mine, for maintenance purposes, for about 20 bucks. Don't need to know how fast I'm goin, but timely maintenance a must, if u want any of em to last!!

Pigrider

[This message has been edited by Pigrider (edited 11-16-1999).]

[This message has been edited by Pigrider (edited 11-16-1999).]

 

Ya'll want to know what I did last night. I had a friend come by and wanted to see the new machine, I showed it to him and he talked me into taking it for a ride. I let him ride it for a second but he didn't want to drive it any more because it was to new, so I hoped on and he said move far ward you drive it. The machine had over 500 lbs on it, it supprised me in its handling. I am still impressed-----------Kyle Kimball-----

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[This message has been edited by etkimball (edited 11-16-1999).]

 

I took a look at the 2000 Kodiak yesterday. The dealer had 3 in, green and black. They looked pretty good. I looked at them and it seemed to be a decent machine, one of the best Yamaha utility machines to date. The engine was protected very well from mud and other debris, it isn't as huge and boxy as the Grizzly, and it seemed to be put together really well. I have some questions for all of you Kodiak owners. How is the engine compression braking? How does the suspension soak up the bumps? Also, how would it compare in performance to a Polaris Sportsman or Magnum 500? I know a Sportsman 500 is faster than a Honda 450, and one of you said that the Kodiak is faster than the Honda, so I'm curious to how it would compare to the Sportsman.

 

rooster, I don't know about the Sportsman yet but they say it is close to the Grizz. We had a short distance race against the Grizz and it stayed with it at slower speeds and is a lot easyer to handle. They say that the Grizz and Sportsman run close to 62 MPH and the Kodiak will go around 55. I found the ride to be excellent, the suspension is built to give a good ride in rough terrain and the engine braking is better than what I thought it would be. We go across a concrete ditch and when shifting into slow in 2 wheel drive the back wheels will slide and when in 4 wheel drive you better be hanging on, it will idle down with little engine increase. When in high range you use the brake very little, this is a steep ditch and if you don't go up it fast enough the bike will slide back down with all 4 wheels pulling. (the ditch is wet) It will be a good while before it needs brakes.

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I haven't seen anything about how the 00 Kodiaks handle deep mud. I can only attest to how mine handles dust. Here in Mississippi, I would have to drive off in the river to find actual mud. We haven't had a significant rain in a while. I can only assume that one day it will start again. Any first hand knowledge out there about what to expect? With the power and ground clearance, I suspect it will compare favorably with just about any machine out there.

 

Quick question: How does the kodiak handle deep water such as if the water was up to the handle bars?

 

Unless you modify it there is no quad that can go threw water over the bars for more that a few seconds.