1st Ride - 05 RX-1 ER

[Convert]

My dealer put racing gas in my 05 when it got here in August said it would keep the pilots from getting plugged in storage seem's to have worked

 

[Swiss Sledder]

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.

I do exactly the opposite and have no ski lift :shock: Welt posted the idea of keeping constant throttle through the corners. I tried it and it works.

Just two different approaches towards solving the same problem. That's my 2 francs worth.

 

[welterracer]

SUZZIE is right.. keeping constant throttle is critical on this sled due to handling.. If you let off the gas hard the front end dives because of the engine braking!

It doesnt always work especially in tight twistys where its harder not to let off the gas!

 

[MrSled]

I have been waiting to hear how this thing handles the moguls....any word??

 

[ReX]

We went out and rode an old railroad bed on Wednesday evening. There are a couple of bumpy sections, including a few "moguls" that I could just get a little air off.

It wasn't enough to really evaluate the sled, but it definitely wasn't terrible in the bumps. I felt the front shocks could use a little more compression damping or stiffer springs as on landing the front end would compress alot (felt close to bottoming after about 6" of air at the skis). Doing a bit of a throttle induced ski lift off the "mogul" and keeping the power on, the front still compressed alot. The most I got the front end off the ground was about 1 foot.

The rear seemed quite nice, even on the medium shock setting and only #4 on the rear spring. I weigh about 230 lbs ready to sled. The rear skid felt well damped and seemed far from bottoming out. Considering there are 11 clicks stiffer on the shock (which makes a huge difference) and 3 clicks of additional pre-load on the spring I believe the skid will work well (assuming it is durable).

By the end of the evening I had 170 kms on the sled and the WOT rpms were getting a little better . It is now seeing 9400 at lower speeds and I finally opened it up for about 10 seconds and at 150 kph (95 mph) the rpms were around 9700.

It's snowing here again and we're supposed to get more Saturday too. There are some trails about an hour from here that will probably open up by next weekend so I should get a chance to really try it out.

 

[RX1 Yooper]

I never beleived the tight engine theory. Has anyone put a new engine on an engine dyno, and compared the power when broken in?

I would think the track is what needs to be broken in, not the engine. How about using a fish scale to turn the track with 0 miles, then with 200 or so.

 

[ReX]

One thing I forgot to mention (reading Flippers RS post reminded me) is my RX-1 was quite darty in the wet snow we were riding Wednesday evening.

We swapped sleds and the RS Vector was noticably better for straight line riding. I also noticed that the RX-1 skis had more bite when steering (likely at least partially the different between mid-keel and deep-keel skis).

I also had a chance to ride my first Rev. With the dual runner skis, it was much more stable (less darty) than both the RS Vector and RX-1.

Also, last night I took out the '97 Storm and the RX-1 around my property. The Storm does pull much harder than the RX-1 at lower speeds (less than 40 mph). Higher speeds they are about the same. The Storm also stays flat when accelerating, the RX-1 points to the sky (I haven't touched the suspension setup yet).

Since the Storm and my buddies XCR800 are dead even, I now know he'll take the RX-1 at lower speeds.

So far I figure the RX-1 will need some clutch tuning, stiffer front springs, and likely ski shims to load the tail of the ski a little (reduce the darting). Other than that it's exactly the sled I was looking for.

 

[ReX]

One other thing I was very impressed with.

My sled was basically empty when I got it. I rode it around a little (2 kms) and then dumped in about 4 gallons of 87 octane gas.

100 kms later I filled it up. This works out to 15 mpg during the first 4 gallons of fuel. For comparison my Storm gets about 8 mpg.

 

[Snowaholic]

Hey Almostrx,
Glad to hear the new sled has certainly improved, It will be interesting to see how the rear handles the bumps. What trails are opening soon? I know that the Parry Sound area has about 12" of snow down but the ponds and creeks aren't solid as of yet. The train tracks you rode are they the ones out of Stittsville? (guys remove the "S")

 

[tshelver]

One thing I saw in a recent magazine comparo, is that they reckon Yamaha went overboard on the weight transfer on the '05 RX-1, and had to tune it back.

I haven't ridden the Vector or '05 RX1, but my Warrior is much more stable in a straight line than the 600 / 800 Revs. I'm running SLP Powder Pros with 8" Bergstrom carbides, but even with the stock setup it was more stable.

 

[ReX]

Hey Almostrx,
Glad to hear the new sled has certainly improved, It will be interesting to see how the rear handles the bumps. What trails are opening soon? I know that the Parry Sound area has about 12" of snow down but the ponds and creeks aren't solid as of yet. The train tracks you rode are they the ones out of Stittsville? (guys remove the "S")

Yep, the Stittsville to Carleton Place rail bed (now a "multi-use" trail). There's about 4-5" of snow on most of it (before we packed it down).

I'm expecting by next weekend some of the trails will be open or close to open in the Mt. Laurier area. The temps have been getting very cold at night (-20°C tonight) and they have been getting a fair bit of snow. The forcast also calls for snow all weekend and all next week up there.

 

[Snowaholic]

Sweet!!!! I may have to make my way back up there to get out for a rip, it's about time they recognized the tracks as a trail, I grew up mainly in Stittsville and boy did we scare the hell out of the cross country skiers that were using the tracks! If it doesn't have a motor get out of the way!
I miss the valley!

 

[ReX]

Sweet!!!! I may have to make my way back up there to get out for a rip, it's about time they recognized the tracks as a trail, I grew up mainly in Stittsville and boy did we scare the hell out of the cross country skiers that were using the tracks! If it doesn't have a motor get out of the way!
I miss the valley!

I think, as a multi-use trail, the skiers are just as "welcome" on it as we sledders are.

 

[Tork]

One thing I saw in a recent magazine comparo, is that they reckon Yamaha went overboard on the weight transfer on the '05 RX-1, and had to tune it back.

You guys are saying constant throttle. But it sounds like you could use the mono shock to your advantage if you try to stay in a decel rate thru most of the corner, that'll load the skis for good bite in the turn. Then when you are nearly done with the turn hammer it for a good hole shot. But I guess with loading the front end you could over come the stock spring rate and anti roll bar and compress the outside front suspension.

My vector is so far pretty sweet. Too early to tell if it rails in the corners. The Vector also feels like it has more weight transfer than the pro action

 

[Snowaholic]

I think, as a multi-use trail, the skiers are just as "welcome" on it as we sledders are.

I don't disagree at all, I use to ski the tracks and walk my dogs there, the more people that use trail systems the harder it is for local municipalities to close them down, and we fight enough people already who believe sledding is harmfull to the enviroment.