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   Been thinking about long rides and what would I do if I had a blowout that I couldn't repair on the trail!   After some research and viewing other ideas I made this to relieve some pressure of possibly having to walk back to camp.

     Just want to wish the best for the Holidays to all my Kymco friends out there, and may your new year be filled with joy and prosperity !!

For all you 450i owners, are you aware of the additional air filter behind the dash?  After a couple trips in some serious dust and dirt,  I wantwd to give the airfilter a serious cleaning. After removing it from the airbox I found very little crud which took me by surprise. After washing and cleaning the inner and outer foam there was almost no crud!  I then remembered the other filter behind the dash. After removing the front storage box, yes it is a little tricky to remove it but keep trying it does come out. The upper filter is to the left of center and faces rearward, you can reach your hand behind rhw vox and feel the course foam filter. There are two screws to remove rhat releases the frame holding the course filter material. This filter had all the crud I was expecting to find. After a good wash and dry all is good again. When ir is time to clean that air filter dont forget the one behind the dash, this is the one where most of the crud will be contained

   Just got back from a weekend ride so here is a report on my 450i.  This was a poker run to raise money for a trail maintenance crew. We have a small ride area in Ohio that is normally well maintained by a group of volunteers. The remnants of that last hurricane made its way to Ohio and downloaded with 2 days of gully washout rain!  Everything on higher elevations was completely washed of any dirt or debris and left just jagged rock, looked more like a monster truck hill climb, and the lower levels were left with deep mud holes filled with water and all the loose gravel and dirt washed down form above. In all my years I have never rode a more demanding and rugged trail system. With only one weekend before the poker run they did not have time to repair the trails and looking at the damage the rain caused it will take them years to repair and build new trails. Anyone with a sport bike and chain drive was in serious trouble with the mud gravel mix throwing chains left and right. Without high ground clearance or the ability to get a serious running start to get thru the mud bogs caused many to end up stranded or drowned out. My 450i was able to make the whole course, however we were buried twice and had to winch out, slide sideways down a mud strewn hill and even rolled it on its side  coming down another hill due to serious erosion and very deep ruts. Normally I would never attempt a trail such as this, but 12 guys with very high rock crawlers were on hand to help anyone in need, and the other 100 or so riders were very helpful in watching over all the other riders. I know I helped more than a handful of others stuck in deep mud or hung up the the large boulders exposed from the run off. One of the reasons I was able to get thru is the extra support I built to my frame for my snow plow, these added rails gave my machine enough added support to allow me to glide over many big rocks.  I was amazed at how well this machine went thru some of the mud holes, yes diff lock was necessary and well used! Even my radiator was covered in mud but it did not overheat! We went home with a mud covered machine but not one crack in the plastic after all the abuse we put it thru.  I had to drop the skid plates to clean all the mud/gravel out from under, when I lowered the skid plated there was a good 2" of mud laying there, causing the skids plates to bow under the weight of the mud. I am guessing 50 lbs of mud packed up under the machine, heck mabey more than that! After 3 yrs of ownership this machine impresses me more each time I use it. I would never plan on putting this machine thru this type of abuse ever again but it is very comforting to know it can do the job when needed. I could see the looks we got when we arrived, some were chuckling at the Kymco name, but at the end of the run I had had many riders coming over to tell me how impressed they were as to how well the little 450i made it thru the trails. All I can add is I was also impressed!

    I recently posted my experience with a soft side cab enclosure for my 450i, it certainly is better for plowing snow!!  I also tried an item by a company called "Mr Heater" they make a variety of small propane heaters. Been thinking of adding a heater to my UTV but from what I have read, they can take awhile to get warm. I wanted something faster so my research led me to this small propane heater used for enclosed golf carts. It would normally sit in a cup holder on the dash of most golf carts, but of course I would need to make a secure base to hold this unit on the floor. It is fairly tall and skinny so it will tip easily so I made a base from a coffee can full of cement that I used for a portable canopy, it is heavy enough to keep it from tipping and keeps it in its place. This afternoon we received around 3-4" of snow so I had the opportunity to try this heater out. It is self lighting with a pizzo ignition system and puts out a non adjustable 4000 btu of heat. Best of all it runs 5 hrs plus on a 16.4 oz propane tank and it takes me about 45 min to clean my 300 ft drive and parking area so it will be fairly cheap to operate. With the Pacific Eagle enclosure I have installed it works great!  Within 5-10 minutes it is warm enough to remove gloves and stocking hat and is so much more comfortable not having ice cold wind blowing in your face.  Very pleased so far with this little heater, it does have an oxygen depletion safety and a tip shut off safety feature so with the small areas gapped open by the soft enclosure no worrys for getting gased out, in fact it burns extremely clean. I hate the smell of propane even while burning and I can smell nothing with this little heater going. If your looking for a little heat in your cab enclosure look into this little dynamo, mine works great.

   With another winter approaching I decided it was time to look for a cab enclosure.  Hard side units were as high as 3000 so that was out and also the fact that I want it removed in the summer for trail riding. Thye search for soft side enclosures began, I have found some with only weather resistant materials and some with weather proof materials. I came across a company by the name of Pacific Eagle and it turns out to be a partner to Kurt from Offroad Body Armor a good friend of this forum. My research found that they use a material usually found on high quality marine boat covers and it is weather proof and very tough. After some discussuions with the owner about how these enclosures attach, I was convinced that this was the enclosure for me wants and needs. Their enclosures are modular meaning you can buy all or any piece of the enclosure as they all attach to each other independently. My machine has the factory hard top and a windshield that I made myself so I ordered a back panel and the two side doors, forgoing a soft top and a soft windshield. I was not disappointed when the pkg arrived, well made and professionally sewn, just a good looking enclosure. The instructions were a bit confusing until you have all the pieces laid out to correspond to the pictures and then it came into focus for the install. The entire enclosure is held on and together by some seriously heavy duty 2" wide industrial strength Velcro. Yes you will be adding this self stick Velcro to the roll cage and also to the plastic body panels, but the well thought out design has these attaching points in areas that appear to blend into the body design about as well as can be. From my 50 yrs of being a tool maker with design engineering I knew the self stick Velcro would need some help if it were to stay attached to the plastic body panels for the long haul. After trying a couple different products, the tried and true "goop' was the best added adhesive to use. A newer formula brought out by a competitor is called E-6000 and is the same formula but slightly thinner in texture than the original goop. I have to say after years of using goop for many projects this stuff has never failed me, so I was very comfortable it would serve the purpose intended. Being a modular unit the pieces must be assembled in proper order and that starts with the back panel.
A close rough fitting is needed to see where the Velcro strips are to be added to the roll cage primarily and to some body panel areas. Once marked the Velcro is added in these spots along with some goop to be sure of an almost permanent adhesion. I used painters tape to hold these Velcro strips into position for 24 hrs for the glue to set up. On the roll bars I used long enough strips to around the roll bar completely  and then added the painters tape again to hold while the goop dried.   I adjusted the back for a good fit to clear the cutouts for the seat belt mounting bars sticking out the back then attached all the Velcro straps which held the rear panel very well and kept it taught. The same for the doors, rough alignment to locate areas for the Velcro then glue that into place and wait for it to setup. The initial install is a good 3 day job and the machine must be kept at 60 degrees or higher to allow proper cure for the adhesive.
   I did run across an issue with my doors, it appeared to have the Velcro strip sewn to the wrong side of the door in one area so I called "Mike Pope" at Pacifis eagle and a replacement pair of doors was sent out immediately....talk about good customer service!!  When you look at these doors with all the Velcro strips on various sides of the door to attach to the other modular sections I can see just how easy it might be to sew one on the wrong side, but in any case a prompt replacement was sent along with a heartfelt apology so in 3 days I was back in business and actually allowed me time to get the rear panel properly in place. I also had to locate two bolt holes for the factory top and add grommets where those two holes went thru for long like and keep from tearing out.  I am limited in the number of pics so I am going to stop right now and post what I can then I will continue on after this posting.

    Just for fun decided to do a search for used Kymco utv's, even went nationwide. From the various sources posted on the internet it appears they sell rather quickly. From the 100 or so listings all but a few have been sold within a 30 day sales period. Why did I do this you ask....wanted to see just how popular these machines are becoming and yes their popularity is growing!!  Not only that there resale values seem to be very good when compared to other brands and that is even better. Not only the used market but dealers for new as well as used has increased a lot!! Now most every decent size city has a Kymco dealership and that is good news as to the popularity of these machines. Now the atv's appear to be much slower in catching on but with the popularity of utv's growing a such a rapid rate I can understand the slower atv sales nationwide.  Just thought this might make all us Kymco UTV owners feel even better about our choices in the machines we purchased.

    We are about to embark on our first long trip with the 450i. Not to long ago we hooked up with a large national group for riders with side x side machines, atv's are also welcome but most are SxS's.  They are planning a trip and 4 day ride in the UP of Michigan and we are currently putting the last items in the motorhome preparing for an early departure on wed morning. A couple of 80-100 mile per day rides are planned along with numerous shorter rides. I am told they break off into high performance riders, and a group that likes to play in serious mud and hill climbs and another group for us older folks for serious scenic riding. Wife and I will be in the scenic ride group but I may do a couple shorter mud and hill climbs if timing is right. Will post back how the 450i holds up and any problems that might arise. Big part of the group are Polaris owners and always complaining about repairs on their machines, so hoping the Kymco gives a good showing in front of all the Polaris guys. Club is an all mfgr club and doesn't allow any one group of brand riders to bash or disrespect other brand riders but they do a lot of teasing with the others so we will see how things go.