Russia declares war on paved roads

In mother Russia, asphalt is a luxury that isn’t required by these 2 WTF vehicles. The first one is an “ATV” and the second one is an off-road motorcycle.

When you think of an All Terrain Vehicle, traditionally thoughts of popping the clutch and hitting the dirt paths on a 4-wheeler come to mind. That’s not the case with this Russian monster. Meet the “Sherp ATV”. This vehicle doesn’t need a forged path. In fact the Sherp if you put water in its path, it’ll start treading to the other side. Basically, this WTF vehicle will go where ever the f*** it wants.

Let’s start with the giant tires which are 63 inches (5 and a quarter feet) in diameter with ground clearance just shy of 2 feet. This allows the Sherp to hurdle obstacles up to 27 inches tall.

Weighing in at 2,866 pounds, one would think that it has massive horsepower. Nope. Its 1.5-liter four-cylinder diesel engine only churns out 44-hp. As such, it’s not the quickest ride.

How slow? On land she’ll max out at 28mph.

Treading water is no problem but then again, you’ll be in for a long ride with it’s max speed of 3.7mph.

On the plus side the Sherp can fit up to 4 people and haul up to 2,200 pounds.

The starting price for a soft-top base model is $65,000. Beyond paying for the hard-top, other options include adding an onboard generator and for a long adventure, you can tack on an additional fuel tank. The later option adds 50-liter of fuel to its stock 58-liter tank. That’s 108 gallons of fun with no mathematical way of calculating the average miles per gallon.

 

Have Russia ship you one to hit the swampy bayou and break out your fishing rods because the Sherp ain’t at home on paved roads.
Although, I’d suggest paying in cash…not sure you’d want to toss them your credit card number.

Now for the motorcycle that won’t be performing in the X-games. This is Russia’s “Taurus 2×2”.

For the non-gearhead reader, 2×2 simply means that it’s engine sends power to both tires.

The Taurus comes in 2 versions, the lighter “2” and the heavier “2M”.

Photo above is the Taurus “2M” version.

The smaller version is powered by a two-stroke engine that produces 5.5-hp. It’s not tough to distinguish the lighter version due to its tires. The “2” has inflatable low-pressure tires which is the primary reason for saving 92 pounds over the “2M” variant.

With so little horsepower even the lighter Taurus only has a max speed of 37mph. However climbing stairs for a photo-shoot is not a problem.

As for the heavier Taurus “2M”, you’ll get both a bigger engine and a set of solid off-road tires.

The bigger engine can take you further off the beaten track but it lacks in speed. Powered by a larger Honda GX-210 four-stroke engine, it’ll churn out a massive horsepower increase from 5.5-hp to an astounding 7-hp.

With the increased weight from both the tires and engine, the “2M” achieves a max speed of 22mph on the open road.

Both versions have a cool trick up their sleeves. They can be quickly broken down to fit into most vehicles for transportation. This is due to a patented “quick-design” formula in which the front end forks are easily removable. In fact, it only requires a rider to remove one screw to complete the process. After the break-down, you deflate the tires and you’ll be on your way home.

The price for a base Taurus “2” starts at $815 and jumps up to $980 for the “2M”. At this price, it seems like a quick “I’ll take one” decision. Like all good fun, it’s not that simple because the Taurus is only sold in Russia. However the company plans to ship them to other countries in the near future.