10,000 Mile 2006 Apex ER Review

Well, I finally rolled the 10,000 miles mark on my 2006 Apex ER. This sled really is a blast to ride. Even after 10,000 miles the motor is still just as strong as the day I first rode her.

The throttle response still amazes me every time I let her rip. There is not enough good things to say about this motor. Not having to carry oil is a great thing. I average about two oil changes a year and they take me about 30 minutes to complete.

Things I have changed on the sled include:
13mm sway bar
Revalved mono shock with big boy spring
Heat Loc's for the hand warmers
Removed side panel bolts and replaced them with socket head bolt for easier access
ROX 2.5" riser
Skid plate

The Apex in my opinion has three major design flaws. Exhaust components (wear out quickly), rear suspension, and hand warmers (still cold on cold days, even with the Heat Loc's).

My riding style is extremely aggressive. No major jumps, just hard fast runs though the trail no matter how bumpy it gets. Yamaha knows (after Corey Davidson tried to run the mono), and I know this skid will not work for aggressive riders. So that leaves me between a rock and a hard place. I have broken many suspension components and will not even bother to get into what was replaced. I have a ZX2 on the way and hope to have my suspension issues solved.

This is the list of the major things I have had replaced and at what mileage:

4,599 Drive shaft bearing
4,864 Exhaust donuts and y pipes
6,530 New Predator track (stock Ripsaw wore out)
6,530 New chain
8,167 Muffler (developed a leak)
8,167 Drive shaft bearing
8,167 Secondary ramps
8,167 Primary sheaves
8,167, 9,000, 10,200 Rubber spacers on limiter strap rod
8,167 Front bushings replaced with Ulmer's kit
8,167 Front shocks rebuilt
8,167 Seat developed a small rip in the front right corner. Local upholstery shop repaired using the existing material
xxxx Track clips have been replaced 5 times. Twice on the Ripsaw and three times on the Predator.
8,900 Drive axle snapped in half
9,500 Right side headlight pod mount cracked in half
9,800 Exhaust donuts and y pipes
10,200 Snow flap and mounting bracket


I am still trying to get a set of skis dialed in. I have used USI Project X, Tripple Threats, and Slydog's race skis. I think I may end up going back to my Project X skis as they are VERY predictable skis and the only reason I changed was because of steering effort. You can go into a corner with these skis and know you will come out of it fast and sharp. All of my setup will change with the new skid I am sure. So I will start over.

I have had quite a bit of downtime with my sled. Most issues being suspension failures and I know I must contribute this to my riding style. Yamaha has stood behind their product and taken care of my issues. Y.E.S. is truly a great thing. I hope to keep this sled until I see the 20,000 mile mark before I sell it.

The sled, 3 years after it's release, still gets looks on the trail. It just looks and sounds awesome. People still come up to me and want to know about it.

Engine braking is not an issue. After learning to ride the sled you use the braking to your advantage.

Bottom line, there are issues with this sled that need attention yesterday. But, riding long days has never been more enjoyable and more exciting. Here is to another 10,000 miles!

thats mint , yea you have had a few problems but i cant ever see a 2 stroke have that few problem in that many miles and none with the motor( imagine that ), i can believe that i was a big 2 stroke head till i bought a 05 turnkey turbo rx1 from simons and i never looked back at the 2 what ,

goodluck on the next 10,000

Nice report...I am 2/10ths the way there(10,000 miles). Only had it one season though.

Before you go dumping the mono, you might want to try Hygear's set up. I ride real hard and from the stock set up (which was unacceptable to me) to what I have with the dual rate and revalve is night and day. I went with the dual rate all around but it is in the back where I was looking for most of the help and their set up really delivered!

Coondog2707 said:

Before you go dumping the mono, you might want to try Hygear's set up. I ride real hard and from the stock set up (which was unacceptable to me) to what I have with the dual rate and revalve is night and day. I went with the dual rate all around but it is in the back where I was looking for most of the help and their set up really delivered!

Click to expand...

The monoshock can easily be made to ride great, what can't be done easily is make it hold together over a high number of aggressive miles. It might be doable somehow, but not with the stock front and rear pivot arms.

If you don't push the monoshock too hard, it is a great skid. For some of us, it just isn't durable enough.

Great report! I envy your mileage so bad! I hope you enjoy your next 10,000 as much as the first ten. One thing you stated and is true to form. Some of my crew I ride with purchased new sleds this year, but its my RTX thats gets all the looks and people coming up to me at stops. I feel bad because know its got to be torking my freinds off. Gotta love it.

I am almost at 11000k on my 06 apex er. And once again is is a good report.

Big boy spring installed before 500k
1 warranty fuel pump relay at 1100k
all suspention and wheel bearings cleaned and repacked every spring
1 chaincase seal at 2400k
sliders at 3400k, 6200k and 7800k.
2 sets of carbides in that time
4 oil changes with filters
rebuilt and re valved shock at 9500k
changed drive belt and plugs at 9500k just cause i figured the sled deserved a treat.(belt was still within spec)

Someone posted a reply to this thread but it was lost when it was moved to a sticky. So here is my reply:


The drive shaft bearing had not failed yet at 4,599, but it was dry and rusted and would have failed if not taken care of. So it is cheap insurance. So really the first real issue was the exhaust.

The bolts I removed were the ones on the very bottom panel with the phillips head that have shoulders. I picked up some stainless steel 10mm bolts from the hardware with several small bushings. I cut the bushings down to create a shoulder like on the original bolt. It really does make it much easier to remove the panel for an oil change. I also spray painted them black so they would blend in.

Hyfax wear would depend on conditions, but at a minimum with bad conditions I would get atleast 1,000 miles out of a set. Right now for example I have about 2,000 miles on my current set. They are getting close but I also rode without clips and that increases the wear.

Coondog2707 said:

Before you go dumping the mono, you might want to try Hygear's set up. I ride real hard and from the stock set up (which was unacceptable to me) to what I have with the dual rate and revalve is night and day. I went with the dual rate all around but it is in the back where I was looking for most of the help and their set up really delivered!

Click to expand...

Yeah, and if you ride Tug, you know what bumps are all about..LOL.


I've only got a little less than a few grand on the 06 rtx, but the front arm is reinforced across the front, sides and everywhere...the rear rewelded, based on all the failure points people have had. So far no signs of any breakage or cracks. Now as a comparison, we welded our RX1 pro action suspensions yearly, to get them before the cracking turned into trail breakage. We sorta beat on them, bad, but they are holding up fine. Just redid all the bushings in one again.
Other than the bottoming on the mono (much less since the revalve), the ride and more importantly, the control at high speed over normal trail junk is fantastic on the mono (revalved shock), so I'll deal with a little welding once in a while, if needed. As far as the bearings, they get needle greased every few hundred miles..very easy to do. Not to say they won't fail, but I've got no rust on any, and the front axle bearing on my old 03 RX1 was like new after over 5000 miles. I'm big on preventive maintenance, so hopefully I won't have any downtime when there is snow to ride. I'll probably do the exhaust donuts some summer after 4000 miles.

mdkuni,

Very interresting, my failures are almost the same as you, exceot I'm on my 3rd track.

I will get to 12k miles on this weekend, for sure...

Good review. I love my 4 stroke sled too. I lust after riding it!

Nice review. There's a guy in our area who owns an 07 Attak, it has over 10,000 miles on it as well, except he accomplished this in less than 5 months !!! I was talking to him just last Sunday, he said he purchased the sled in Feb 07, and currently has 10K on it, I don't think the guy ever stops or gets off the friggin thing !!! I guess an average day's ride from him includes over 400 miles of riding, can't even imagine riding that long let alone the costs involved in maintenance, but it sure is inspiring

I also added the Hygear set up with add on resevoir.

Wow.....what a difference. I cannot imagine a better rear suspension being available on any sled.

It was expensive, but definitely worth the money.

I now have over 10,000 miles. Just returned from Lac StJean and we put on 1,504 miles in 6 days. Only issue we had with our two '06 Attaks was mine would not start 2 mornings because of the fuel pump relay. I put the spare in that I had in my pocket and it started right up. Both mornings was about -20F.

The end of the first year I had the shocks re-valved by Pioneer Perf.

End of 2nd year had a cracked slide-rail.

I then changed all idlers with Yamaha acc. wheels, drive shaft bearing (no failure,just maintenance),slides for the first time at 7,500 miles, front end bushing kit from Ulmers.

This year at 8,360 miles, the Y-pipe cracked. Changed donuts and welded pipe, and it held up fine for the 1,500 miles last week.Found a crack on the front pivot arm in the rear suspension, and welded it.

Just oil changes and grease besides that. Still love the ride, motor, and sled overall. Will also be keeping it for the 20,000 mile mark.

i have had some of the same problems
my track went at 5100
my chain came out of its home (the case) at 3100
drive axle broke on clutch side (bearing ceased) at 7150
currently waiting to c if warranty will cover it.
fingers toes and anything else i can cross is crossed
$3000 in parts so far
still is a great machine though
06 apex rtxer