first real test for Kymco 450i

[airshot]

   Well guys I gave my UTV it's first real test this week. We went riding at a riding area based on an old gravel mining operation. The mine was shut down years back and is now an off road vehicle riding area. There is some mud, lots of hill climbs, a drag strip and lots of tight twisty turny trails in the woods. This place is used by all types of vehicles including trucks and jeeps for hill climbing and rock crawling so there is some fairly nasty stuff there to peak everyone interest. I choose to test my UTV on some hill climbs now that it is broken in, keep in mind that I understand that my Kymco is not a serious hill climber but was very surprised at how well it did climb. Plenty of power for anything I wanted to tackle. I even made it up a couple of hills without issue that were recommended I NOT try by more experienced riders.
Nothing foolish here....just some much steeper hills than I thought she would make and it did it without question.  This place is well rutted and the Kymco ride was far better than my ATV ever was. As an older gent I really appreciated the steering wheel over the handle bars of the atv, by days end my shoulders and arms were not wore out, even without power steering it was a breeze to turn even with the diff lock feature on.  I was quite surprised at how well it went thru mud without 4wd turned on, I even had to pull out a couple of 4wd ATV's that could not make it thru. After pulling one fellow out, I tried showing off and ran thru the same area he was stuck in, and made it thru with ease. I was pleased to see the expression on peoples faces when at first many were laughing and pointing at the foreign little buggy that showed up there, but by the end of the day those same people were quite impressed at what the little Kymco could really do. I heard a lot of "WOWS" I did think it could do that statements coming from the spectators. All in all a great day and the 450i really showed its true colors.
Guys its a great little machine, especially for the price, I don't think anyone will be sorry for getting one.

[Driemeyer25]

Nice!

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[randyo]

I have about 400 miles on my 450i, mostly street, I purchased it as a company vehicle, with the thought that it would help us on larger boundary parcel surveys, when in practice, we have found that we use in on the street much more, to huff our warning signs and cones along the street as we work,  I can drive up to 10 miles on any street with a speed limit 40mph or less, and beyond that, I can trailer it to job sites and have a 2 mile radius from the job site

I find that it cruises right up to 47mph with little effort, when the governor takes over, Ive had it coast up to 48 or 49 on steep downhills, never 50, even fully loaded between myself, 300, my field help has 5 inches in height over me weighs 325, + survey equipment 75-100 lbs, and towing a  log splitter 1000 lbs?  I can maintain 35mph on grades as steep as 18%, and it goes off road nicely when the need had arisen. 

[airshot]

   Mine is the same way the rev limiter cuts in at 49mph according the the digital speedo in the machine, but it still feels like it has a lot of power left.  I have to pull the gps out of my boat and check the speed that way, that will give an accurate speed on that machine. At first it seemed to take awhile to get up to 45 from 30 but now that it seems to be broke in it gets up there rather quickly, in fact it climbs quick enough that when the rev limiter kicks in it is a surprise, feels like it wants to keep going.

[2015uxv450]

So far I have only put about 60 miles on my 450i. Most of that was a couple short trail rides. But I have also used it to move a little more than 8 cord of firewood. My big test for it will be in 2 weeks. My wife and I are going to do the mount Washington road ride for my birthday. I'll let you all know how it turns out

[Coach]

   Mine is the same way the rev limiter cuts in at 49mph according the the digital speedo in the machine, but it still feels like it has a lot of power left.  I have to pull the gps out of my boat and check the speed that way, that will give an accurate speed on that machine. At first it seemed to take awhile to get up to 45 from 30 but now that it seems to be broke in it gets up there rather quickly, in fact it climbs quick enough that when the rev limiter kicks in it is a surprise, feels like it wants to keep going.

Surely you have a smart phone! Download the free gps app. Now you can check the speed of anything you want at anytime. Have a great day.

[airshot]

Surely you have a smart phone! Download the free gps app. Now you can check the speed of anything you want at anytime. Have a great day.

Yep, have a hand held GPS just haven't tried that yet, besides that 48 mph is fast enough for me. I do have to admit though is after my front end alignment with a straight edge she tracks straight as an arrow with steering wheel straight ahead. I can even take my hands off the wheel and she does not wander at all (on the road not the trail)

[airshot]

   Well today I found a negative side to owning a side x side, we went riding in the old gravel pit this past wed. and there was a lot of mud there this time from a storm the past weekend. Now riding thru the mud was no issue for my 450i, the real problem was the mud is super sticky stuff that built up on everything. Good thing their was a car wash on the way home. After dumping 6 bucks to spray off the mud we went on home and today I decided to go back over the machine and see what mud I had missed. I decided to drop the skid plates and glad I did as I had to clean about 35-40 lbs of mud caked up inside the frame and skid plates. Of course now it was almost dry and had to work very hard to get it off. Cleaning mud of the ATV was much easier, less places for the mud to hide. On these UTV's I now see lots of places for mud to get into that a normal hose/spray wand will not get to. Removal of all the skid plates will be needed to get her really cleaned up. It is a down side to owning a UTV, I now see more work to clean it up.....but damn they are so much fun to ride.......