1st Ride - 05 RX-1 ER

[ReX]

I finally got a chance to try out my 05 RX-1 ER. 45.3 kms (28 miles) this morning.

I got up at 6:30 AM eager to try it out on the back roads, but we hadn't received the snow that was forecast. At 8:30 (after two laps around the yard with about 1" or less of snow) I was driving to work and it started to snow HARD. I Turned around, called work and said I would be in a little late...

This sled has definitely got lots of potential, hopefully it will be my favorite sled yet (had about 15 different sleds over the past 27 years of sledding). I love the smooth powerful motor, the great throttle response, and the overall feel and ergonomics of the sled. Compared to my Polaris sleds, the RX-1 feels smooth and refined. Most of the time I was riding varying the speed between 30 and 70 kph (20-45 mph), letting the motor break in (it cruised at 60 kph at 6000 rpm), with fairly regular short heavy throttle bursts taking it up to 80 kph (50 mph). Towards the end I brought it up to 100 kph (60 mph) a few times and once to 110 kph (65 mph) during short WOT cycles.

In it's current form it felt significantly down on power compared to my '97 Storm, but temperatures were +1°C (33F) and it was powering through 4-6+ inches of wet soggy snow most of the time. WOT rpms were only a little over 9000 rpm. I'm hoping a colder day, better conditions and after 500 miles or so it will pull harder (without any mods).

One thing I found interesting as the motor loosened up. The idle started off around 1300 rpm (once fully warmed up) and by the end it was idling at 1800 rpm.

Since I was riding smooth dirt roads, I didn't get a feel for the suspension's bump handling.

Cornering it did understeer a little more than I liked, even after a plow scraped the roads down to a hard packed base. Also, with the factory setup there is far too much weight transfer for me. Smoothly opening the throttle on hard packed snow while going around a corner it would lift both skis and go straight. Obviously on a straight line, it would also lift the skis, even at 60+ kph (40 mph).

Probably the best part about my ride... After backing the sled into the garage, I hopped in my car and came to work. No shower required!!

Bring on the snow!!

 

[welterracer]

In the new SNOWGOER mag.. They complained about too mucy weight transfer with stock settings.. They said they set it to the LOWEST setting and was really good there!

Dont get discuraged yet... Wait till there is a good hard base and that motor starts breaking in... And youl forget all about that old Polaris!

 

[4Fighter]

With an '05 RX-1, Maybe I'll agree with you Welt.

 

[ReX]

Welt,

Thanks for the feedback.

I have a few Qs for you RX experts.

Is it typical to see the WOT rpms down that low (9000-9100 rpm) when new and on a warm day?

I also had a little trouble starting it, like the carbs were bone dry. With the choke on full it took quite a bit of cranking to start and it kept stalling (lean) at first. It really needed the choke on full for at least the first minute and it kept trying to run on two cylinders as I turned the choke down. I hadn't fired the sled up since I brought it home a month ago and the tank was very low (made two laps of the yard and didn't run out after that though). Also during the two laps, it did have a minor light throttle bog. Once I put in 5 gallons of fresh fuel it ran perfectly for the next hour and a half.

One last "feature" after I parked the sled and took off my snowmobile suite I went back into the garage to check the mileage. The engine was now flooded and I had to give it lots of throttle while cranking it to get it to go (no choke used at all). I assume this is the typical "hot" carb feature due to the carb heaters making the fuel evaporate.

Other than these minor issues I really like the sled. I am definitely ready to let the Polaris go.

 

[NEED SNOW]

I love the weight transfer. I set mine to the highest setting..."Almost RX-1..On my sled it had ski lift on hard turns, is that what you ment by " understeer" ? I wonder if my transfer set on high could add to the ski lift. As for power, affter I had 80 miles on, it felt great. I wish you could see the looks on the faces of my 2-stroke friends affter My brother drag raced them...

 

[welterracer]

The engines are extremely tight when new... You will notice that they rpms will go up milage...


Im not real sure on why you are having starting problems... Maybee you left the choke on too long or have bad gas.... Or maybe a little of both!

There has been a few cases on here where the sleds had pluged jets from the factory! expecially the pilot jets!


Later.. Brian

 

[Mighty]

RPM's will increase as the engine loosens. Get a coolant shutoff valve for the carbs.

 

[Swiss Sledder]

I also had a little trouble starting it, like the carbs were bone dry. With the choke on full it took quite a bit of cranking to start and it kept stalling (lean) at first. It really needed the choke on full for at least the first minute and it kept trying to run on two cylinders as I turned the choke down. I hadn't fired the sled up since I brought it home a month ago and the tank was very low (made two laps of the yard and didn't run out after that though). Also during the two laps, it did have a minor light throttle bog. Once I put in 5 gallons of fresh fuel it ran perfectly for the next hour and a half.

Welcome to Yamahas. When the engine isn't warm, I always had to use full-choke to start the sled and then slowly back off the choke, keeping the engine from stalling until the warning light goes out. If the engine is warm, then it was no choke and a little throttle to start the engine. Yamaha engines always seem to want a little throttle to get them started when warm, and the past RX-1's were no exception.

 

[YamahaRx-Warrior]

My sled starts a hard when it's very war outside I have to gas it a little bit. It revs to almost 11,000 rpm's everytime I hammer on it.

 

[ReX]

I love the weight transfer. I set mine to the highest setting..."Almost RX-1..On my sled it had ski lift on hard turns, is that what you ment by " understeer" ? I wonder if my transfer set on high could add to the ski lift. As for power, affter I had 80 miles on, it felt great. I wish you could see the looks on the faces of my 2-stroke friends affter My brother drag raced them...

Transfer set to high will give more ski lift on corners while accelerating at least a little. Cruising it shouldn't make much difference. (at least if these sleds behave similar to Polaris and Cat).

 

[ReX]

The engines are extremely tight when new... You will notice that they rpms will go up milage...


Im not real sure on why you are having starting problems... Maybee you left the choke on too long or have bad gas.... Or maybe a little of both!

There has been a few cases on here where the sleds had pluged jets from the factory! expecially the pilot jets!


Later.. Brian

It definitely wasn't too much choke. It wouldn't fire at all until it was cranked with the choke on full for at least 20 seconds. Then it started firing while cranking, but wouldn't stay running. Moving the choke from full it wouldn't fire at all. Then finally it started, but again would only run with full choke. I want to check the choke travel when I get home to make sure it was getting full choke.

It didn't act like plugged pilots once it got running. The idle circuit, if anything seemed a little rich compared to mid-range.

Hopefully I'll go for another rip tonight. The 1/2 tank of fresh gas might have been what it needed. The only gas in it was whatever came from the dealer. It was bogging a little on that fuel (very, very minor), but ran like a top with the 5 gallons of fresh gas (except not amazing power - at least to me, but I'm used to running a well tuned tripple 800 2-smoke).

 

[Tork]

I love the weight transfer. I set mine to the highest setting..."Almost RX-1..On my sled it had ski lift on hard turns, is that what you ment by " understeer" ? I wonder if my transfer set on high could add to the ski lift. As for power, affter I had 80 miles on, it felt great. I wish you could see the looks on the faces of my 2-stroke friends affter My brother drag raced them...

Understeer is when you turn your skis and the front end doesnt bite and the sled tends to plow straight forward. Ski lift has more to do with roll stiffness. With a big weight transfer what you are doing is asking the (narrow ) track to keep your sled flat in a corner vs the wide ski stance.

 

[Riceburner]

9,000 rpm or so is what I saw until broken in.

Moved up slowly for the first 1,000 KM or so.

10,200 rpm now. Bone Stock 04 Warrior.

Dave

 

[RTX Meirda]

Almostrx1:

Your sled sounds like min in terms of set up.

Suggestions:

1. Put an aggressive set of carbides up front (assuming you are studded) I use woodys (do not need dually's)

2. Do the ski bumper shim mod on tech page.

3. Loosen off your springs to lower ride height.

After doing these things....retrain yourself in the corners.

Instead of cruising into the corners slow and powering out (Taking the weight off the skies)

Go into the corner hard and make your turn under no throdle....then hammer the gas as you are just about to straighten out.

The weight up front really cause a lot of grip!

Really fun to ride like this.....I had my SRX's set up like this as well.. looks impressive....skies in the air all of the time.

My 2 cents.

 

[welterracer]

I just looked back threw some old posts... MRSLED had plugged pilots in his 05 too... Would only run with choke on!!