2014

[MR.HAPPY]

I hope they show us the new SxS Crew soon!!!

Been waiting, but can not wait much longer!

 

[Grimm]

If you guys do test ride the new Viper...test out the reverse.

 

[Blue Dave]

Well I just rode the new Vipers at my local dealer. I rode the 129" and the 144" track models. I certainly preferred the 144" for traction (acceleration & straight line tracking). I really liked the seating position and the ride was fantastic on about 20 minutes of trail / ditch riding. It felt light and nimble. The steering was effortless and precise. No need for power steering. The cornering was flat as far as I could tell on the short very controlled test ride. No complaints whatsoever on the ride quality and handling!

The handlebar switches felt cheap and the dash was not impressive at all. The wind protection was nonexistent but a real windshield would fix that. I did not try the push button reverse nor did I get a look under the body panels. One large radiator in front with a thermostatically controlled fan and a large heat exchanger in the front of of the tunnel only. Hopefully this fixes the overheating issues that the Apex has.

The lack of power however left me wondering if something was wrong with the engines on the two sleds I rode. They both performed like I would imagine my Apex would perform with one spark plug removed! What a disappointment! The Yamaha guys told me that the clutching was not dialed in yet but the engines just sounded and felt really lame compared to my Apex.

If they end up eventually offering a 4 cylinder or a boosted version I would certainly be interested, but this model really feels under powered. What a shame, too bad they put such a lame motor in such a great chassis!

 

[hornydevil]

Well I just rode the new Vipers at my local dealer. I rode the 129" and the 144" track models. I certainly preferred the 144" for traction (acceleration & straight line tracking). I really liked the seating position and the ride was fantastic on about 20 minutes of trail / ditch riding. It felt light and nimble. The steering was effortless and precise. No need for power steering. The cornering was flat as far as I could tell on the short very controlled test ride. No complaints whatsoever on the ride quality and handling!

The handlebar switches felt cheap and the dash was not impressive at all. The wind protection was nonexistent but a real windshield would fix that. I did not try the push button reverse nor did I get a look under the body panels. One large radiator in front with a thermostatically controlled fan and a large heat exchanger in the front of of the tunnel only. Hopefully this fixes the overheating issues that the Apex has.



The lack of power however left me wondering if something was wrong with the engines on the two sleds I rode. They both performed like I would imagine my Apex would perform with one spark plug removed! What a disappointment! The Yamaha guys told me that the clutching was not dialed in yet but the engines just sounded and felt really lame compared to my Apex.

If they end up eventually offering a 4 cylinder or a boosted version I would certainly be interested, but this model really feels under powered. What a shame, too bad they put such a lame motor in such a great chassis!

Nice to hear that about the way it felt and how it look. One thing to keep in mine is that's it as a 3 cylinder not a 4, how did it felt compare to a Nytro is what I would really like to know. Again thanks for sharing your information.

 

[journeyman]

Well I just rode the new Vipers at my local dealer. I rode the 129" and the 144" track models. I certainly preferred the 144" for traction (acceleration & straight line tracking). I really liked the seating position and the ride was fantastic on about 20 minutes of trail / ditch riding. It felt light and nimble. The steering was effortless and precise. No need for power steering. The cornering was flat as far as I could tell on the short very controlled test ride. No complaints whatsoever on the ride quality and handling!

The handlebar switches felt cheap and the dash was not impressive at all. The wind protection was nonexistent but a real windshield would fix that. I did not try the push button reverse nor did I get a look under the body panels. One large radiator in front with a thermostatically controlled fan and a large heat exchanger in the front of of the tunnel only. Hopefully this fixes the overheating issues that the Apex has.

The lack of power however left me wondering if something was wrong with the engines on the two sleds I rode. They both performed like I would imagine my Apex would perform with one spark plug removed! What a disappointment! The Yamaha guys told me that the clutching was not dialed in yet but the engines just sounded and felt really lame compared to my Apex.

If they end up eventually offering a 4 cylinder or a boosted version I would certainly be interested, but this model really feels under powered. What a shame, too bad they put such a lame motor in such a great chassis!

Was this at Waldoch's or Larson's?? I was going to Waldoch's tomorrow. My thought is they must be off on their clutch and/or ECU specs. They said there are 4 states of tune sleds out there and they haven't got these nailed down yet. I have ridden Nytros and they are pretty spunky so one would think being in a lighter chassis would only help performance wise. Maybe they are losing power with the new exhaust........who knows but this is disappointing to hear.

Maybe they detuned it as not to beat the Apex.....used to do this to Phazers years ago for 2 reasons. To run the 56HP class and NOT to beat the SRV.

 

[Blue Dave]

Well I just rode the new Vipers at my local dealer. I rode the 129" and the 144" track models. I certainly preferred the 144" for traction (acceleration & straight line tracking). I really liked the seating position and the ride was fantastic on about 20 minutes of trail / ditch riding. It felt light and nimble. The steering was effortless and precise. No need for power steering. The cornering was flat as far as I could tell on the short very controlled test ride. No complaints whatsoever on the ride quality and handling!

The handlebar switches felt cheap and the dash was not impressive at all. The wind protection was nonexistent but a real windshield would fix that. I did not try the push button reverse nor did I get a look under the body panels. One large radiator in front with a thermostatically controlled fan and a large heat exchanger in the front of of the tunnel only. Hopefully this fixes the overheating issues that the Apex has.

The lack of power however left me wondering if something was wrong with the engines on the two sleds I rode. They both performed like I would imagine my Apex would perform with one spark plug removed! What a disappointment! The Yamaha guys told me that the clutching was not dialed in yet but the engines just sounded and felt really lame compared to my Apex.

If they end up eventually offering a 4 cylinder or a boosted version I would certainly be interested, but this model really feels under powered. What a shame, too bad they put such a lame motor in such a great chassis!

Was this at Waldoch's or Larson's?? I was going to Waldoch's tomorrow. My thought is they must be off on their clutch and/or ECU specs. They said there are 4 states of tune sleds out there and they haven't got these nailed down yet. I have ridden Nytros and they are pretty spunky so one would think being in a lighter chassis would only help performance wise. Maybe they are losing power with the new exhaust........who knows but this is disappointing to hear.

Maybe they detuned it as not to beat the Apex.....used to do this to Phazers years ago for 2 reasons. To run the 56HP class and NOT to beat the SRV.

I rode at Waldoch Sports which is near my house. In fact I rode my Apex there on the same trail that they were using for the demo ride. They will be offering demo rides at Waldoch again tomorrow from 9-4. I may go back again tomorrow and remember my camera this time and also remember to try out the push button reverse. They have only three Vipers, one 129" and two 144" models. Therefore only three customers can go at a time and each demo ride lasts about 20 minutes with a chance to swap sleds halfway. They really control the demo ride by having a Yamaha guy on an Apex leading the group of three Vipers in single file and a Yamaha guy on an Apex at the rear keeping the group together. No racing, jumping driveway approaches, or aggressive driving is permitted so you can only tell so much about the handling.

They told me that they were still testing clutching & fuel calibrations so perhaps the poor performance will not be representative of the production models. This is most likely true because I was seeing a 500 RPM difference between the two sleds that I rode when I had the few chances to open them up for a short time. They do take off good from a dead stop but once underway I missed the hard pull of my Apex. Perhaps someone who is familiar with the Nytro can let us know how the Viper compares since that would be a more fair comparison.

 

[yamaha convert]

Well I just rode the new Vipers at my local dealer. I rode the 129" and the 144" track models. I certainly preferred the 144" for traction (acceleration & straight line tracking). I really liked the seating position and the ride was fantastic on about 20 minutes of trail / ditch riding. It felt light and nimble. The steering was effortless and precise. No need for power steering. The cornering was flat as far as I could tell on the short very controlled test ride. No complaints whatsoever on the ride quality and handling!

The handlebar switches felt cheap and the dash was not impressive at all. The wind protection was nonexistent but a real windshield would fix that. I did not try the push button reverse nor did I get a look under the body panels. One large radiator in front with a thermostatically controlled fan and a large heat exchanger in the front of of the tunnel only. Hopefully this fixes the overheating issues that the Apex has.

The lack of power however left me wondering if something was wrong with the engines on the two sleds I rode. They both performed like I would imagine my Apex would perform with one spark plug removed! What a disappointment! The Yamaha guys told me that the clutching was not dialed in yet but the engines just sounded and felt really lame compared to my Apex.

If they end up eventually offering a 4 cylinder or a boosted version I would certainly be interested, but this model really feels under powered. What a shame, too bad they put such a lame motor in such a great chassis!

I'd pretty much totally agree with Dave's assessement.
They did say that the current ECU tuning was no where near finished. I found the engine was good somewtimes and didnt feel as good others when you got on the throttle. They even said that the sled may stop but it will fire right up again. Something to do with the mapping but I didnt hear or see one do it. They expected the performance to improve as they improve the engine mapping.

Here are some pics I took

 

[actionjack]

Boy that report is more than a bit disappointing. Guess I'm gonna need to find a place to demo one.

 

[Nytro40th]

Thanks for the report, time will tell.

 

[journeyman]

Yeh I am sure they don't want bad performance reports coming out too soon. I suppose this thing is just so different being the whole chassis and gearbox is completely different. News like this seems more Cat like already.......not having stuff R & D'd enough. But it just seems weird they wouldn't have this dialed yet. How long have they been holding a new sled back??? puzzling.......

 

[marq]

This rant isn't specific to Yamaha or this model, I think all brands are guilty of this issue to some degree.. but why not adjust your product testing and development schedule so that when you unveil something in Feb or Mar it's actually a finished product with the bugs worked out?

Does Chevy or Ford hand over a new Camaro or Mustang to Car & Driver to test in this state? Maybe they do, but I doubt it.

The only guys I'd have confidence in getting something dialed in by fall would be the Yamaha engineers, but still.. it's amazing what we're willing to accept from the Big 4!

 

[jedwards89]

Having owned both an apex and a current nytro there is not much out there that compares to the mid to top pull of an apex. So comparing a broke in Apex to a relatively new nytro motor there will not be many favorable reports about the engine. In speaking with a dealer today the response was that it is very similar to the nytro. With a header clutch and an sno pro track I would guess that I will be a bit dissapointed with the viper compared to what I have. But a few tweaks will make this sled a serious thought for me. Easier steering, lighter feel as well a a ditch banger type attitude sound pretty good. Time will only tell. I hope they get them dialed in before they get to ny.

 

[ViperTurboPete]

I just watched the marketing video of the XTX Viper. I love the look of the bars, the front end. I can only imagine what it feels like with the Yamaha mill (a dialed in one) under the hood. I think this sled will be a hit.

I hope someone reports on the fine details of fit and finish from what they can see. I don't want to believe that it will be shoddy.

 

[AKrider]

I personally wouldn't be too concerned about how it ran. I recall riding a demo Ski-doo Rev back in the spring of '02 and it was a dog. The sled was even an 800 and my dealer said because it was a demo, they had it very detuned. The chassis was so remarkable that one ride through the bumps made it obvious it was better than anything else available at the time.

I'm jealous that guys in the lower 48 are already getting to try these sleds out!

 

[fourload]

Blue Dave, My Apex is set up close to yours and is very responsive with the Ulmer clutch kit. My buddy's stock 08 is not nearly as responsive and powerful feeling. His wife's 09 Nytro feels like a slug too. I think we are spoiled with our clutch kits. Hope they get the calibration right on these new Vipers!!