Toyota Prado, Mountain Biking
Toyota New Zealand loaned writer Tim Warren a smoky blue 2024 Toyota Prado Adventure to go and have a good Kiwi summer. He did that and we are publishing Tim’s exploits progressively. Read on and enjoy!
I wouldn’t describe myself as a well-balanced mountain biker. I love the downhill, flat is okay, uphill can get hard, yet sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. I still had my trusty tyre pump with me from my beach trip so that was very handy for checking the vehicle, it was just right, and the bike, which was rather flat!
This was my chance to throw the tow bar on the Prado. It comes equipped with a hitch and a tow bar attachment for it. The hitch means you can fit a variety of heavy duty equipment, and with a 3500kg tow rating, that was going to surface. However, it was not going to be a full load, just a tow ball, bike rack, and my unmissable bright orange bike.
Auckland gives a choice of where to go for mountain biking. I chose the park around one of our friendly forests. Of course I had a little urban navigation and then threw some faster roads to get there. I flicked off the rear sensing because the towbar and bike were playing havoc with it, however it’s quite reassuring to have a camera review of anything that you’re towing. the big 4×4 trucks along very easy and in no time I was pulling into my spot. Only grass, gravel and vehicle access to the top. Being a little bit lazy, I parked near the top to give myself the best initial downhill run.
I explored this series of runs until I was most definitely a professional, then I moved on to a steeper ride. After a great downhill, I found it was too steep to be able to ride the bike up – up not being my favourite part. It was not too steep to drive the Prado down, put my bike on the rack and drive back up. So that was quite an education. The Prado was able to deal with steeper terrain than I could on an ultra low ratio sprocket. And once I’d driven back up, I was further amused to see that I hadn’t even used low ratio on the 4×4. There is a lot more capability here I feel.
A great afternoon excursion, showing me clearly that I could get anywhere I need to go with the vehicle – and that I was the only limiting factor. I think it would be great to tackle a ski field access, I’d be supremely confident taking this Prado up any road in New Zealand or the world for that matter.
So, I can’t ski cause it’s summer, but what’s next?