With great generosity from Ken of Columbia River Honda, in St. Helens, Oregon I was able to spend some quality time with Cannondale's newly-released dune quad, the Glamis 440 at Jones Beach, Oregon.

  To describe it in a nutshell, I loved it! The ATV demonstrated itself a great sand-rooster, with the Ohlins shocks sucking up the nasty whoops. The fuel injected 432CC four stroke ripped out the power - the 11,600 RPM rev limiter allowed me to get the most out of the paddle tires. The motor hit hard with such a broad powerband, I almost forgot it was a four-stroke!

Drag Racing On the long sandy beaches of the Columbia River, we set out to drag race the competition - a stock Yamaha Raptor 660, a race-modified Raptor, a Banshee, a Suzuki Z400, a Honda 400EX, a Polaris Predator 500, and even a Polaris Scrambler 400.

  The results? The Banshee was the closest competitor, but I easily smoked the competition, even beating out a Honda CR250 motorcycle. Impressive!

Rooting Around After beating every quad there in the drags, I hit the sand for a nice ride, rooting around the trails, hitting some jumps, screaming down the flats, climbing some sand bowls, all in a days work, and with surprising comfort. By this time the banshee operator with me was complaining about a sore thumb from pushing the dual carbs. I traded with him for a bit, and believe it or not, after getting off the Cannondale Glamis, the Banshee seemed like a tamed bunny! Bummer. Sorry Philly!