First weekend with Sidewinder xtx 137 and 2012 Apex xtx

[budman 1000]

Well guys I'd like to give my impressions of my new Sidewinder xtx 137.

Initial driving the sled had lots of noise and vibration from track and drivers, by day 3 the drivers must have wore in as sound and vibration gone and very quiet.
Did I say quiet? this whole sled is very quiet and I'm thinking I want it louder.
I found the steering to be actually very light so very pleased with that as I am coming from Power steering Apex's. The Tuner 3 ski's worked better than I expected and will run with them for this year.
I set the QS3 shocks at #1 and the ride is impressive, very happy with the ride.
I found the seat has lots of room to move around on and the heated seat is ohh so Awesome!
Over all feel and handling is very good.
One thing I did notice is for me its not as fun as an apex in the twisty trails as that is one area the Apex shines IMO.
I wanted to get a idea of fuel mileage and range the sled has so I fueled it up to the filler cap without burping the tank and I drove till it ran out of fuel- it ran out at 168.5 kms, the low fuel light came on at exactly 140kms which is 28.5 kms driven with light on (this was the very first tank of fuel through the sled and lots of on and off on the throttle and wide open pulls)
I find that the sled starts moving very easily and hardly moving the throttle lever, very pleasant sled to drive at slow speeds.
I have the yamaha accessary- medium windshield on and it isn't quite adequate for cold weather and at first I thought it was plenty big.
I drove by myself the first hour intially and the sled felt super strong.
K thats enough chat lets get to the good stuff!

Riding with my buddy's 2012 Apex xtx 100% stock all weekend.
his sled has always been dead even with my 2015 Apex xtx so this gives me a good idea of how the Sidewinder will compare to my Apex.
Day 1 - I couldn't beat him anywhere anyhow, very disappointing

Day 2 - by end of the day had 240kms on and it was a different story, he could still make me look stupid out of the hole from a complete stop, but at about 150 meters estimating I'd go by him so fast I could dang near suck his helmet off, lol.
this is looking much better, but we also did full speed runs together and we had the same top end speeds as I couldn't get away on him and he couldn't get away on me either ( hard pack trail on lake 1.5 mile distance) our top speeds where 170km/hr.

Day 3- sled is feeling faster through out the day(360kms),so we resume our races.
now the Apex only gets me by 2 sled lengths from dead stop and it only seems like a couple seconds and I pull past him like crazy fast and I get probably what looks like about 100 meters ahead on him and then our speeds seemed to match up and I didn't gain any distance on him.

Day 4 - short ride and its much colder out -22 C .
the Apex only gets me by half a sled length and then I make him look pretty sad and my buddy said the
Sidewinder just kept pulling away even on top end. speedo today is showing 180km/hr on hard pack trail and 155km/hr breaking trail in 6 inch's of snow on the lake.

So far I have no issues with the sled, I torqued the turbo bolts before the first ride, the secondary clutch rollers still look good, but will be watching them.

After 4 days of riding I'm very happy with the sled and it seems to be loosening up everyday I ride it as it was going faster each day we rode. I would like it to brake the 160km/hr mark in loose snow making it's own track as my 210hp turbo vector does 170km/hr on gps in the same type of conditions.

looks like it should be a good race when I line up with 2 of my other buddy's and there 180 mcxpress Nytro xtx's! can't hardly wait.

 

[Bluebullet]

Good report and Thanks

 

[sideshowBob]

Great report! I have been waiting for some real world Sidewinder/Apex comparison.

 

[Doc Harley]

Awesome. Going in the right direction is always good!

 

[WVTurboLTX]

What is your issue with it in the twisty trails? Mine kept lifting the skis under acceleration till I pulled the limiter straps up to the third hole. Now it handles better than anything I've ridden so far. It doesn't let you wheelie the sled but that's not what I'm after with a groomed trail cruiser.

 

[budman 1000]

What is your issue with it in the twisty trails? Mine kept lifting the skis under acceleration till I pulled the limiter straps up to the third hole. Now it handles better than anything I've ridden so far. It doesn't let you wheelie the sled but that's not what I'm after with a groomed trail cruiser.

I don't have an issue with it in the twisty trails it just isn't as much fun as an apex xtx in twisty trails as that sled is an absolute riot in those conditions. We don't have groomed trails here and I'm not looking for wheelies either so I like being able to steer the sidewinder while accelerating

 

[budman 1000]

I don't have an issue with it in the twisty trails it just isn't as much fun as an apex xtx in twisty trails as that sled is an absolute riot in those conditions. We don't have groomed trails here and I'm not looking for wheelies either so I like being able to steer the sidewinder while accelerating

 

[budman 1000]

Curious what you guys have noticed for rpm? Mine hits 8750 while accelerating then pulls down to 8600 in the 150km/hr and higher