YAMAHA YFM350FA BRUIN

Yamaha's 350 air-cooled Bruin fights for sales in a very competitive market and has to deal with the popularity of the Honda Fourtrax 350FM. Still, this is the company's most successful ATV, for them, a best seller. But Yamaha hasn't put all the fruit on this one. Rather, they've come up with a workable, under-$9,000 spec that has everything most land owners want in a mid-size package. We say mid-size because this is a very compact unit. The Yamaha is shorter than the Honda. It's also narrower, although heavier.

The transmission is the infinitely-variable Ultramatic with shaft-drive. Two or four-wheel drive is selected by pushing a button on the right handlebar switchblock. It's standard setup these days and works well, particularly for people who don't use these machines often and have to memorise all the gadgetry before they get going. The gear shift lever is on the right-hand side and has three positions, Forward, Neutral and Reverse. As a safety measure, reverse won't engage until you apply pressure to the rear brake pedal. (A whinge: the brake pedal is too high. You have to raise your foot to reach it and there seems to be no pedal height adjuster).

If there's one thing in the Bruin's favour, though, it's ease of operation. The vehicle has electric-start (with recoil backup); the transmission is simple and foolproof in use; the disc/drum brakes are strong but progressive; the Yamaha has a relatively small turning circle of three metres (compared with the Honda's 2.5 metres); and it's agile, comfortable and easy to steer. It would be an ideal mechanical roustabout for women, or level-headed teenagers who know the value of an ATV on the farm and have the sense to employ it responsibly.

EVERYDAY STUFF
Daily maintenance won't drive you nuts on this one. The engine has an oil-cooler and a thermo fan to keep the temperature under control. The drive-unit is contained behind cases on the right-hand side of the engine, and like the airbox it has its own snorkel. Access to the sparkplug and oil filter is pretty good, and you get at the airbox (and the only storage box) by removing the seat.

Getting at the carbie is another matter, as we discovered when the front rubber intake boot blew off and we had to carry out restorative surgery. The front clamp is secured by an Allen fitting, of all things, but the toolkit lacks an Allen key so we had to scrabble around in the dirt with Scotty's multi-tool. We ended up zip-tying the thing back on. Incidentally, the boot didn't come off because of a small explosion in the carb. We thought chassis flex might have been the problem, although it has to be said that we were pulling stuntman stuff at the time. The Yamaha has Allen screws all over the place so if you don't have a set of Allen keys, and you have a Bruin, get dem keys.

The stock tow-hitch was good, so was the stainless muffler. Behind the bars, Yamaha has provided basic instrumentation without going overboard. The analogue setup won't make you feel like an FA18 jock but the hour meter was a sensible addition and there are warning lights for anything you need to be warned about.

We reckon there's room for improvement here and there. The steel rims must have been a cost-saving measure and make the Bruin look slightly dated. We thought the Honda 350FM was finished better too. Front and rear racks on the Yamaha offer plenty of tie-down potential but there's very little dry storage space. And hey boys, don't put storage boxes under the seat. Every time you need something - a smoke, a sardine sandwich, drink, more ammo - you have to take the seat off to get it. Get it?

COMFY AND MANOEUVRABLE
Out in the rough stuff the Bruin goes quietly about its business. It's not the strongest or fastest or toughest working ATV we've tested but it's comfortable and certainly manoeuvrable. It changes direction with little effort, even with both diffs engaged, and its tight turning circle enables you to sneak around in tight stuff without getting hung up, snagged or totally stuffed. The Bruin also has very effective engine braking.

Power from the 348cc engine, which looks like the Warrior engine by the way, is pretty mellow, in fact we wondered how the Bruin would handle its rated towing capacity of 500kg. The engine isn't doughy but the power delivery it quite flat and makes the machine feel under-geared, or as if it needs low range. This engine won't frighten anyone. We didn't test the vehicle pulling a loaded trailer through swampy terrain but we reckon the Yamaha would find that sort of work hard going with the gearing it has now.

One thing that works very well on this bike is splash protection. We got Tony Caban to flog the thing through deep puddles for the photo shoot and he came out of it looking as clean as Shirley Temple.

We reckon the only real drawback with the Bruin is the tyres. They're Taiwanese Cheng Shins and they don't seem to get much bite on hard, smooth surfaces, or not the level of bite we expected, having by now tested almost every sports and utility ATV on the market.