This page explains a Kos ATV tour through the all-terrain vehicle itself, then the spark plug, the disc brake, the throttle, the axle and the island of Kos. Four answers wrap up the page, and every new term is defined where it appears. Browse more trips at Greece tours.
What is a Kos ATV tour?
The Kos ATV tour means a ride on a four-wheeled all-terrain vehicle, a compact machine for rough ground. This section explains the name, the two main models, the first quad and the records. Every new word gets a plain definition.
The name of a Kos ATV tour comes from the machine, so the name comes first. The letters ATV stand for all-terrain vehicle. An ATV runs on low-pressure tires and has handlebars, like a motorcycle. A tire is the rubber ring around a wheel. A handlebar is the bar that a rider turns to steer the front wheels.
Two main models exist, and both appear on a Kos ATV tour page. Sport models are light, small, two-wheel-drive vehicles that reach about 80 mph. Utility models are bigger four-wheel-drive vehicles with a top speed near 70 mph. Mph is short for miles per hour. Two-wheel drive means the engine turns two wheels. Four-wheel drive means it turns all four.
The first quad ATV was made in 1980 in Monroe, Louisiana. A quad is an ATV with four wheels. The fastest recorded quad speed from a flying start is 196.19 mph. A flying start means the quad is already moving at the line. That record was set on 15 June 2008 at Madras Airport in Oregon.
Quads first joined the Dakar Rally in 2009, because the 2008 race was cancelled. The Dakar Rally is a long off-road race. Track-equipped ATVs also work at France’s Cap Prudhomme base in Antarctica. Industries use ATVs for their off-road ability. In the United Kingdom, law treats a quad as a four-wheel vehicle under 550 kg.
- Name: The three letters ATV give a Kos ATV tour its name.
- Sport: Light, small sport models drive only two of their four wheels.
- Utility: Bigger utility models drive all four wheels and serve work as well as play.
A Kos ATV tour relies on the light machine with low-pressure tires that this section defines. Next comes the spark plug, the small part that lights the fuel inside its engine. Every ATV engine needs one.
On a Kos ATV tour, what does the spark plug add?
A Kos ATV tour meets the spark plug in this section. This is the part that sends a spark into an engine. The facts below cover its parts, its heat, its history and its materials. Technical words are defined as they come.
The job of the plug opens a Kos ATV tour page in this section. A spark plug carries electric current from the ignition system to the combustion chamber. A ceramic is a hard material made by baking clay. The ignition system is the set of parts that makes the current. The combustion chamber is the space where fuel burns.
The plug has a metal threaded shell. A ceramic insulator keeps the shell apart from the central electrode. The shell screws into the cylinder head, and that grounds it. A cylinder head is the cover on top of the cylinder. Grounded means joined to the metal frame of the engine.
A Kos ATV tour engine needs current to cross the gap between the electrodes. Once ionized, the gas in the gap becomes a conductor, so current flows across it. Ionized means split into charged particles. As current surges across, the spark channel rises to 60,000 K. K stands for kelvin, a unit of temperature.
The story starts in 1860, when Etienne Lenoir used an electric spark plug in his gas engine. In 1902, Gottlob Honold invented the first commercially viable high-voltage plug. In 1930, Helen Blair Bartlett played a key role in making the insulator. Voltage is the push behind a current.
- Insulator: The insulator is made of sintered alumina, a very hard ceramic.
- Mica: Older plugs, particularly in aircraft, used insulators made of stacked layers of mica.
- Gap: Plugs in cars have a gap of 0.6 to 1.8 mm between the electrodes.
The side electrode is high nickel steel, welded or hot forged to the shell. Bare-thread plugs are a common type for motorcycles and ATVs, the machines behind a Kos ATV tour. The disc brake follows, for stopping power.
On a Kos ATV tour, what does the disc brake bring?
A Kos ATV tour reaches the disc brake here. This is a brake that slows a wheel by gripping a flat metal disc. This section covers its history, its heat, its materials and its use on bikes. New words are defined along the way.
Disc brake development began in England in the 1890s. A Kos ATV tour page can trace the idea that far back. A brake is a device that slows a turning wheel. A disc is a flat round plate that turns with the wheel. A caliper is the clamp that squeezes the disc.
The 1953 Le Mans race winner was the only vehicle in the race with disc brakes. Le Mans is a famous endurance race in France. The first sustained mass production of modern car disc brakes came in 1955. Mass production means building a part in very large numbers.
Heat is the main problem for any brake on a Kos ATV tour or anywhere else. A ventilated disc design helps dissipate the heat. A two-piece disc combines a central section with a separate outer friction ring. Friction is the rub between two surfaces that slows the wheel. To dissipate means to spread the heat out into the air.
Carbon-carbon brakes reduce unsprung weight and hold up better at high temperatures than cast iron. Unsprung weight is the mass that sits below the springs of the vehicle. Composite brakes can withstand temperatures that damage steel discs. A composite is a material made from two or more different parts.
- Aircraft: Aircraft wheels can be fitted with a fusible plug, a plug that melts, to stop a tire bursting.
- Rail: Even larger discs are used for railroad cars and trams.
- Bikes: Modern sports motorcycles have twin large front discs and a much smaller single rear disc.
Bicycle disc brakes use either a two-piston or a single-piston caliper. A Kos ATV tour page lists the disc brake as one part among the others on a quad. The engine and the tires sit next to it. The throttle comes next, the control that sets engine power.
On a Kos ATV tour, what does the throttle add?
A Kos ATV tour comes to the throttle in this section. This is the control that sets how much power an engine makes. Below are its meaning, its valve, its sensor and its history. Each unfamiliar word is defined in turn.
A Kos ATV tour page begins with the word throttle, since every quad has one. A throttle is a mechanism that manages fluid flow by construction or obstruction. Fluid here means a gas or a liquid. Informally, the word throttle can mean any mechanism that regulates an engine’s power or speed.
On a gasoline engine, the throttle is a butterfly valve. A gasoline engine burns petrol lit by a spark. A butterfly valve is a flat plate that turns inside a pipe to open or close it. A diesel engine works in a different way. Its power output is controlled by how much fuel is injected into the cylinder.
On a Kos ATV tour machine with fuel injection, the throttle body controls air flowing into the engine. The largest part inside a throttle body is the throttle plate, a butterfly valve. A throttle body gives the throttle a mounting place when there is no carburetor venturi. A venturi is a narrow pinch in a pipe.
A throttle position sensor reports the throttle state to the engine control unit. The state is idle, wide open or in between. The engine control unit, or ECU, is the small computer of the engine. It can reduce emissions, maximize performance and adjust engine idle. Idle is the slow speed of a resting engine.
- Link: Historically, the throttle pedal or lever worked through a direct mechanical linkage.
- Steam: A steam locomotive throttle is a poppet valve, or a series of them opening in sequence.
- Rockets: Throttling a rocket engine means varying its thrust level in flight.
Liquid-propellant rockets can be throttled with valves that regulate fuel and oxidizer flow. For a Kos ATV tour, the throttle is one more part of the machine. The axle follows, the shaft that carries the wheels. A shaft is a thin rod that spins in place.
On a Kos ATV tour, what does the axle add?
A Kos ATV tour rolls on axles, and this section looks at them. An axle is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. This part covers its kinds, its steel, its drive and its history. Each term is defined where it first appears.
Basic kinds come first on a Kos ATV tour page. A straight axle is one rigid shaft joining the wheel on each side of a vehicle. Straight axles are used on trains, the rear axles of commercial trucks and heavy-duty off-road vehicles. Rigid means it does not bend or flex.
A Kos ATV tour machine can use a split design. In split-axle designs, each side’s wheel is attached to its own separate shaft. Split axles allow a differential, so the left and right drive wheels can turn at different speeds. A differential shares power between two wheels through a small set of gears. This helps a vehicle in a bend.
Truck designs use tandem axles to carry more weight than a single axle does. Tandem means two axles set one behind the other on the same side. Chrome-moly steel is significantly more resistant to bending or breaking than carbon steel. Chrome-moly is a steel mixed with chromium and molybdenum.
An axle driven by the engine or prime mover is called a drive axle. A non-driving axle has no shaft and serves only as a suspension and steering component. Suspension is the group of parts that links wheels to the frame. Steering is the system that turns the wheels.
- Pusher: Lift axles placed behind the steer axle and before the drive axles are called pusher axles.
- Early: Lift axles were already in use in the early 1940s.
- Floating: A full-floating axle carries the vehicle weight on the axle casing, not on the half-shafts.
With a full-floating axle, the wheel stays on even if an axle shaft breaks. A Kos ATV tour page adds the axle to its list of working parts. The island of Kos comes next, the setting for all of them.
On a Kos ATV tour, what does the island of Kos add?
A Kos ATV tour is set on the island of Kos. This section looks at the island itself. It covers the climate, the rocks, the main town, the hotels, the wine and the farms. New words come with short definitions.
The land opens a Kos ATV tour page. Kos has a Mediterranean climate, and its summers are hot. A Mediterranean climate has dry summers and wet winters. In ancient times, earthquakes and subsidence split Kos from a mountain chain. Subsidence is the sinking of land. A mountain chain is a long row of linked mountains.
Kos holds a wide range of rock types, tied to the way the island formed. The volcano of Nisyros is among the remnants of the same mountain chain as Kos. A remnant is a piece that is left after the rest has gone. A volcano is a mountain that can throw out hot rock and ash.
Kos Town acts as the island harbour and also as a tourist and cultural centre. A port is a harbour town where ships dock to load or unload. A cultural centre is a place for the arts and learning. A Kos ATV tour page names Kos Town as the main town of the island.
Farming is the second principal occupation on the island. The main crops are tomatoes, olives, grapes, figs, almonds and watermelons, plus wheat and corn. A crop is a plant that people grow for food or for sale. An occupation is the work that people on the island do.
- Wine: In antiquity, the island held a wealth of famous wines.
- Hotels: Kos has seen significant growth in its number of luxury hotels.
- Beds: Five-star hotels practically doubled in number and in beds from 2014 to 2023.
The island of Kos gives a Kos ATV tour its place on the map of the Dodecanese. The page ends with four quick answers. They cover the weather, the airport, the islands around Kos and the clock.
Which four questions matter before a Kos ATV tour, and how are they answered?
A Kos ATV tour raises four everyday questions. The answers below cover the weather, the airport, the island chain and the clock. Each reply draws on its own source article, and each new word gets a short explanation.
Which season suits a Kos ATV tour?
Mediterranean describes the main climate of Greece. In summer, the weather in this climate zone is frequently sunny and dry. Rain falls in winter, and snow does not last long. Climate means the usual weather of a place over the years. A zone is an area with one kind of weather.
Which airport serves the island behind a Kos ATV tour?
The airport is named Ippokratis, for Hippocrates. Fraport AG operates it. KGS is its IATA code, and LGKO is its ICAO code. These codes are short letter names that airlines and pilots use for an airport. An operator is the firm that runs it.
Which island group holds the island behind a Kos ATV tour?
The wider Southern Sporades group contains the Dodecanese. Only 26 of the islands have people living on them. The group sits off the coast of Anatolia, in the Aegean Sea’s southeast. Inhabited means people live there. Anatolia is the Asian side of Turkey. A group of islands is also called an archipelago.
Which time zone applies behind a Kos ATV tour?
Eastern European Time is one of the names of the UTC+02:00 time zone. The zone uses daylight saving time, so it shifts to UTC+03:00 in summer. Cairo is the largest city in the zone. Daylight saving time moves the clocks forward in the warm months. UTC is the world time standard.