Yamaha Warrior

YAMAHA WARRIOR

CYCLE WORLD TEST

IF ATVS WERE HAMBURGERS, YAMaha’s Warrior would be a double cheeseburger at Friendly Freddie’s All-Nite Diner. No matter what your tastes are, you can always get one served up your way. Except that with the Warrior, chances are the machine wouldn’t have to be changed from one customer to the other; it already has all the ingredients to suit people who ride either for play on the weekends or for work during the week.

Like Freddie’s cheeseburgers, the Warrior can get along with just about anyone. It has features that appeal to workers and players alike, including electric starting (backed up by a recoil starter), reverse and full suspension. But what really gives the Warrior its do-anything abilities is its motor: At 348cc, it is the largest-displacement engine found in any fourstroke ATV—aside from Yamaha’s own Big Bear 4x4, which uses the same basic powerplant. That engine is, in fact, closely related to the one in Yamaha’s XT350 motorcycle.

Because those extra cubic centimeters translate to raw torque, the Warrior will outgrunt anything this side of a D-9 Caterpillar. The engine lugs so unstoppably and is so difficult to stall that a rider might think it has an automatic clutch and inadvertently forget to pull in the clutch lever when he comes to a stop. But the Warrior does indeed have a manual clutch—one that can survive incredible amounts of punishment— along with a transmission that has six forward speeds and reverse. Yamaha redesigned the reverse-engagement lever for 1988 to make it easier to get into backwards mode, but the task still isn’t very easy. It requires the rider to rock the machine back-andforth and take several stabs at engagement.

Also new for this year is a floatingpiston-style rear shock. With that improvement, the suspension at both ends is now good for most tasks, although it is still barely adequate for hard sport riding. Big bumps and whoops can swallow the rather softly sprung Warrior whole, especially if they’re hit at competition-level speeds. The four-wheeler is rather heavy, too, with most of its 408pound weight carried rather high in the chassis, giving the machine a tippy feel when cornering hard.

Conversely, the Warrior is quite smooth and comfortable on dirt roads, where the soft suspension and wide seat make it feel like a luxury sedan. The machine also is outstanding in rocky, nasty riverbeds and over unimproved terrain. Its massive torque and good ground clearance make it second only to a four-wheeldrive ATV when it comes to the kind of stuff that makes the average mountain goat feel a little edgy.

A soldier with weekends off

That’s real versatility. On one hand, the Warrior can pull a tractor out of a mud bog, and on the other it can race rabbits down a fireroad. True, at each extreme there are other ATVs that perform better. But there are very few that show so little preference, that can do so many things with such equal competence. The Warrior truly is an ATV that doesn’t fit into any single category.

That makes it a perfect choice for the ATV rider who doesn’t want to fit into any single category. S

YAMAHA

WARRIOR

$2899