Having first learnt to ride motorcycles with the round edged, flat bottomed blue and orange petrol tanks of the old 'mountain goat' farm motorcycles, it's interesting to note how much farm bikes have changed. Although the wide and heavily treaded tyres do seem to have caught on.
Filco Farm & Sport, Nelson, in conjunction with Kawasaki, recently had a field day at Brightwater giving farmers and members of the public an opportunity to ride a wide selection of machines. It was a tough assignment but someone had to do it.
The new KVF 650 V-Twin ($16,888 excl GST), described as the world's most advanced farm ATV was the first to get the treatment, and being a personal fan of big bore sports bikes the excitement began at the push of the button. The distinctive resonance and note of the 4-stroke V-twin was unmistakable.
These modern twin cylinder engines have perfect primary balance and are exceptionally smooth, offering high torque and good throttle response. Two cylinders mean each cylinder can be smaller for a given displacement increasing fuel efficiency, while lower piston speeds will result in reduced wear and tear.
An interesting feature was also the new totally enclosed, multi-plate rear brakes. Immersed in a sealed oil bath on the drive shaft, these brakes will seldom need attention except for the annual oil change. In 4WD the rear brake brakes all four wheels.
But braking wasn't really the issue as I attempted a straight up hill climb over the heavily steeped trial paddock firmly in 4WD. The front wheels bounced over a rut, a front wheel lost traction and began spinning, the rear wheels soon followed suit. The pulse started racing. I'd bitten off more than I could chew, I was going to roll over, tumble down the hill and never live it down.
Let me introduce variable front differential control. This must be why Kawasaki painted the lever on the handlebar controls red. This little lever provides control over the limited slip front differential, and it worked like magic. Apologies to rural service technician Rod Payne who leapt from the Kawasaki Mule 3010 he was on, running half way up the hill to help, only to find me pulling away having finally come to grips with that magic little red lever.
The Mule 3010 Rod was riding also has a liquid cooled V-twin engine but is an entirely different beast. It's low centre of gravity, 2.8 metre length and 1.4m width, together with a tip tray capable of carrying 363kg and towing capacity of 545kg, would make it a practical and versatile tool for many horticultural, agricultural and amenity enterprises. The fat, low pressure tyres have a low impact on soil and the Mule is very easy to get on and off of, not unlike a golf cart (not that I would know). The air intake is mounted high on the roll bars meaning that during extreme river crossings, the operator may well drown before the 20hp 4-stroke engine stopped firing.
The Mule 2510 Diesel has 20% more power, 11% more torque and 37% more cargo bed capacity than its petrol stablemate, and is driven by a 953cc, overhead valve, 4-stroke, 3 cylinder diesel engine. This vehicle is the top of the range, and doesn't bear any resemblance whatsoever to the mountain goats of old, and at $23,378 excl. GST you wouldn't expect it to.
