When you think of an ATV, you think of all the fun you can have exploring the thousands of miles of dirt roads in the backcountry. But when you try to convince your spouse that you need an ATV, you describe all the ways it can be useful around the home as a utility vehicle.
For three days just outside of Prescott, AZ, we experienced both ends of the equation—the fun and the practicality of Yamaha Grizzly, although we have to admit that even the practicality of this amazing four-wheeler is still pretty fun.
The 2014 Grizzly 700 is a durable workhorse with incredible off-trail capabilities. Whether you’re working or playing, this efficient big bore ATV will bring a smile to your face.
The staff at Dirt Toys spends a lot of time in the rugged terrain of the West—whether it be in the steep Rocky Mountain trails, sandy rolling hills of dunes, brushy dry areas of sagebrush or hard unforgiving rocks of high mountain deserts. And when we got the opportunity to put the Grizzly through the test near Prescott, we certainly made the most of our time.
Although there were nearly two dozen journalists competing for riding time on the Grizzly, we were able to spend some quality time with Patrick Biolsi, testing superviser for Yamaha, and Brian Voegeli, Yamaha test rider. Voegeli provided the off-trail challenges and Biolsi explained why the Grizzly was capable of conquering all challenges.
When riding with other journalists, Voegeli would try to keep the group under control and in moderately safe terrain. When just one-on-one with Dirt Toys, Voegeli took to the steepest, tightest washes found in the designated riding areas where balance and fearlessness came into play. It was here where we were able to see how effective the Grizzly’s electric power steering performed.
Yamaha introduced power steering back in 2006 on the first Grizzly 700. The challenge with power steering on an ATV was balance positive feedback versus negative feedback on a light vehicle where the handlebars are so close to the wheels. You just can’t make steering effortless because of the nature of the terrain. It would be too easy to have the bars ripped out of your hands each time you bumped a rock or rut.
So for 2014, Yamaha wanted to match the steering geometry on the Grizzly to accommodate all riding situations with its EPS setting.
“Basically it's a map, just like a fuel injection map,” Biolsi explained. “We can change the amount of assist that's given to the handlebars depending on the vehicle speed, how hard you torque the bars and how fast you turn. We call it speed sensitive and torque sensitive.”
What this means is the slower you go, the more assist you get. “You want more assist in 2 miles an hour than you do at 50 miles an hour,” Biolsi said.
It's also torque sensitive. “Depending on how hard I torque the handlebar, it'll give me more assist or less assist,” he said. “If I turn the handlebars very lightly I won't get much assist. If I turn them harder the machine knows that I want more assist at that point.”
Not only was the EPS put to the test, but also Yamaha’s three-position On-Command 4WD system.
As Voegeli would fly down the narrow jeep trail with a surface mix of fine powder and course rock, the two-wheel drive allowed you to slide through the corners and blast down the straightaways. But as Voegeli would turn off the trail and climb up the sandy washes lined with red clay and rock, you would need the limited-slip four-wheel drive.
And when the washes got too tight, Voegeli would maneuver his Grizzly to face straight up a nearly vertical bank and crawl out of the wash. Here the fully-locked differential 4WD would allow the Maxxis tires to bite into the hard red clay and securely creep out of the wash.
Understanding the relationship between the On-Command 4WD system and Yamaha’s Ultramatic transmission is important. They work hand-in-hand to provide a smooth ride regardless of the terrain.
“We've got 2-wheel drive which is the rear gear case,” Biolsi explained. “It's fully-locked in the rear all the time.” This is your basic 2WD system. It means your rear tires are doing the work and the front tires are basically free-rolling.
Now, when you need the front tires to get involved in the work, you push a button and they engage—you got 4-wheel drive limited slip. What that means is there's a clutch pack in the front differential and there's a certain amount of tension that it'll start to break loose. “What that gives you is most of the benefits of 4-wheel drive but it also doesn't increase the steering effort very much because the two front wheels are allowed to turn at different speeds,” Biolsi said.
But when you need maximum traction, both front wheels pulling just as hard and just as fast as the rear, you want to fully lock the front differential. This is the third setting for the On-Command system.
“Like the On-Command system, the Ultramatic transmission is really one of our core technologies,” Biolsi explained. It was first introduced on the original Grizzly 600 back in 1998.
“Of course the setting has changed over the years with the different engines and the different specs of the CVT or of the Ultramatic system,” Biolsi said. “But it’s that core technology of the centrifugal clutch taking all that abuse rather than having the belt slip. We have constant tension on our belt and that comes from the benefit of the centrifugal clutch in the engine. It rides in the engine only. That's different than the other stuff on the market.”
Biolsi said the other key thing that the Ultramatic transmission features is a one-way sprag clutch. “What that does is re-engage the engine if the rear wheel speed gets higher than engine speed—basically think about when you're coming up to a downhill and you let off the gas, engine rpm is going to start to decrease but wheel speed is going to start to increase as you go down the hill. On another machine that doesn't have a sprag clutch, once that engine rpm gets below the rear wheel speed it's going to disengage. Then you're going to get this popped-in-neutral feeling and you're going to start accelerating down the hill. But with a one-way sprag clutch, as soon as that engine rpm gets lower than rear wheel speed, it engages and locks the engine back into the rear wheels, or if you're in 4-wheel drive, the front wheels, which is why we say we have exclusively 4-wheel downhill engine braking which is when you want it because you're going downhill and you don't want just the rear wheels braking because it can get very slippery that way.”
The Grizzly has plenty of power to allow you the comfort of flying down the trail or climbing up terrain. The 686-SOHC powerplant is designed to deliver the performance for whatever the task.
“For 2014, we needed to meet a new tougher emissions standard,” Biolsi said. “We also, of course, wanted to maintain our power. We took this as an opportunity to actually increase the horsepower that we have from this powerplant.”
Although the Grizzly is still a 686cc, and it's still a four-valve head with a single camshaft, Yamaha has re-designed it from dual exhaust ports to a single, larger single exhaust port.
“The compression ratio has been increased in the cylinder head and the ports have been changed,” Biolsi said. “We're able to increase our low-to mid-range horsepower while keeping it smooth, tractable.
Basically, Yamaha wanted the Grizzly powerplant to be free revving.
“We're the first to put roller rockers and roller lifters on our camshafts,” Biolsi said. “It reduces friction; this is a very big single-cylinder engine. Also we have a hard ceramic-type coating on the cylinder. What that allows is reduced friction which allows this big single to rev very freely.”
It’s not just the engine, but how Yamaha has designed the engine to work in harmony with its CVT clutch system. The centrifugal clutch is very smooth and has very smooth engagements. It's not abrupt in any way. It doesn't slam together so you can get traction when you're climbing over something tricky or slippery.
Trying to keep up with Voegeli on the trails was no easy thing. Not only is he one of Yamaha’s top riders when it comes to introducing new models to journalists, he’s spent a fair amount of his spare time competing on race courses. So going fast through bumps is second nature.
For those of us who spend a good portion of our time riding a desk, its refreshing to feel the need for speed. But its critical to have a predictable ride with a suspension that can handle the hard bumps … and we tend to hit them a little harder than the experts.
“The Grizzly has always been known as a great-handling machine and we wanted to maintain that,” Biolsi said. “But we did want to try to increase our comfort. That was something our customers were asking for. If we could do anything to the Grizzly, let's make it more comfortable.”
For 2014 Yamaha increased the suspension travel on the Grizzly to do just that. And the company spent a lot of time on a test track to make the vehicle handle with predictability.
So the Grizzly has the performance features to make it fun in all terrain, while still having the capability of hauling a heavy load, plowing through deep snow or tackling any odd jobs around the house or on the farm. It’s a workhorse that can make any job easier. And you can still outclass the competition on the trail or in terrain.
So how hard can it be to convince your spouse this is what you need around the house?
