Can-Am Outlander 500 DPS

Most of us ride for fun, right? Sunny day, clean bike and an unfolding ribbon of smooth tarmac, weaving indirectly to the pub car park and a buttery sunset. Perfect.

But there are some out there that can only dream of such idyllic conditions. Farmers, I’m reliably informed, do much more than watch programs about tractors and wait for government crop subsidies to land on their doorsteps.

Dark, wet, dry, burnt; being a farmer doesn’t sound like the most fun ever. So I’m guessing that if that’s your lot, you’d be pretty keen to surround yourself with technology that won’t let you down when you’re 50 acres away from the house at 4.00am on a stormy morning.

So, in the ultimate act of sacrifice and as a sign of solidarity with the undervalued “land-toilers” (on a par with Julia Gillard staying out west in a comfy hotel for a couple of nights to feel their pain), I ventured out on what BRP hope will become a farmer’s favourite tool, the Outlander 500 DPS (or as it was more commonly referred to by anyone that saw me on it, “That bright yellow quad” – I felt like a Wiggle), on a day so wet and bleak that even posh folk would have to call it shit.

Okay, so if you don’t own a farm or have a few dozen acres out the back, this Outlander makes about as much sense as an English summer. By being non-ADR compliant, it’s never going to see the road or (legally) the inside of a state forest. And that, severely cuts down the areas you can have fun on this thing.

But just like a MotoGP bike is designed to win races, the Outlander has been designed to carry, tow and transport rider and supplies to wherever they’re needed.

And, after a quick spin on it, I’d have to say “wherever” could be a fair way off the beaten track. And getting there couldn’t be simpler as the Outlander has been designed for all levels of rider. There’s no front brake lever to pull and no clutch disengage, no individual gears to worry about and no dash that takes a fully paid Mensa member to figure out.

It comes with two keys that offer different power characteristics. The main (black) key offers the full-fat experience, whereas the grey key offers a power-skim, knocking 25 per cent off the output. This is more than just a gimmick as the grey mode cuts everything down to a learner-friendly speed – it accelerates slower, which lessens the front-to-back body rock, and also achieves a lower top-speed. This is all controlled via a chip in the key sending info back to the ECU.

After selecting the right key for the right rider, it’s time to wake the beast. There’s a satisfyingly quiet “putt, putt” out of the 500cc V-twin engine, which fires with hardly a prod of the left-mounted starter button. There’s a tank-mounted gear selector on the right, offering Park, Neutral, Reverse, High and Low ranges. Slide it in, release the left side brake lever (a mechanical pivot releases the handbrake mechanism) and you’re good to go.

The usual quad thumb throttle waits for your input. In Low range, the bike leaps forward, the preload-adjustable independent shock absorbers allowing a fair amount of nose-high action as the weight gets transferred to the back. The wide, plush seat means that this action is always more fun that frantic. Low-range is obviously great for sodden terrain and steep gradients, both of which were abound on this test. In 2WD, there’s was a tendency for the power to over-ride the tyre’s grip and spin up slightly (did I mention how wet it was though?), whereas in 4WD (selected by a switch on the right-hand switchgear), the machine pulled and drove, and left less of a footprint in the liquefied mud.

And it was in 4WD that another benefit came to life. With the bike running a fully automatic gearbox, there’s a significant amount of engine braking that happens when off the throttle. This allows for controlled crawling in tougher areas and helped haul up the machine under heavy braking. In 2WD mode, it was much easier to lock the wheels (no ABS) via either the handlebar brake lever or the right side foot pedal (both control the same system, there’s no independent front and back levers), but with 4WD, the extra braking effort offered via the gearbox meant for harder, quicker and less locked-up braking.

As this is the second generation of the Outlander, there has been a raft of changes over the previous model. The rear end suspension set-up now claims to use 75 per cent less components than before (snappily named Torsional Trailing arm Independent rear suspension – TTI for short), then there’s a revised chassis geometry (or Geometric Contact Control in BRP-speak) and the addition of a three-setting power steering system. This makes the bars light and flickable, even when the front wheels are revolving slowly and climbing obstacles. A simple button press shifts between modes to accommodate different riding styles and rider weight. There are other chassis changes under the new bodywork, but the result is that the BRP looks and acts fit for the purpose.

With never having my arm up a cow’s rectum on a wet night in a faraway paddock (well, not on purpose), it’s hard to gauge exactly the extent of a farmer’s needs from a quad. But with a seemingly “get anywhere ability”, carry racks front and back and the option of a Hayman-Reece type towball, it’s a clear contender for the farming dollar. It’s also on the radar of some of the 306 Surf Live Saving clubs Australia-wide, too.