2021 Release?

[Deeppow16]

I have said this many times before but in my eyes this "partnership" is completely one sided. Cat runs the show and always has been. I have zero problems with 2 companies working together IF they both contribute to the cause which in this case they are not. I'm sorry but Yamaha hasn't done a damn thing in the partnership except supply a motor to use which is a small part of what makes a machine. For all the guys that say Yamaha is the reason for slightly better quality need to stop and think for a minute. Maybe textron is the reason for some of those changes? They have the money to help cat fine tune some things but its still far from prefect. Yamaha is in the passenger seat or more like the back seat of this deal. They are just along for the ride and whatever they get they get. They are lucky they get a good platform to use. Yamaha has no say in the partnership otherwise we would have seen some different more significant changes by now. I'm going to leave it at that. I'm done with this thread

 

[T-Bone]

I will buy a sled that works over one that looks fancy anyday. Believe it or not since Yamaha the chaincase has been refined at least 4 times. Lights,plastic,suspension open your eyes and mind a bit.

The consumer shouldn't have to make a choice between something that works or something that is refined. Your word is fancy?? Not sure what that is. Yamaha's strength coming into the agreement with Arctic Cat was clearly improving the AC fit and finish. An Apex from 2006 has far better fit and finish than any 2020 Yamaha or AC. There is no arguing that. Where is Yamaha's contribution They have just essentially accepted whatever AC give them, then they put their engine in it. Now they are ent even doing that. Just take AC sled and paint it a different color. My eyes are open and I'm not buying the BS Yamaha is telling us. Seven years and you're happy with headlight, ski and plastics and chai case that has tried to be fixed 4 times? Yamaha is out to lunch and they should just be honest and transparent with their customers. Look at wha the other two manufacturers have come out with in the last seven years. and don't just say well they are junk, throw away 2 strokes. Thats just not true for those that really have their eyes and minds open.

 

[biffdotorg]

Many of the issues are simple to fix but have not been addressed.
I think it’s hilarious how the tuner skis were the best thing since sliced bread when released, now we’re going back to the single carbide skis. It just goes to show the latest isn’t always the greatest. Seems to me companies feel the need to bring changes to everything nowadays even if it isn’t for the better.

This, this this is the epitome of the problem with the consumer. The exact reason why there will always be someone complaining, change or no change.

Some complain that there are no changes, and others complain that there are too many changes making things more expensive.

These OEM's also have to be careful at how quickly they add a fix. If they don't fix something, it may be that the amount of failures does not warrant a total retool, nor be addressed. If they fix a few, then the consumer demands a service bulletin to address the issue if it arises. If they fix it during model year, then the customer expects a total recall, even if it does not fail. At every level, the MFG has to determine the cost of fix, compared to the cost of lost reliability and customer satisfaction. And at every level, there will be complainers.

Same goes for just feature changes like skis. Come out with it one year, and replace it the next, admits that it didn't work, and the customer demands replacement. Come out with it one year and replace it 6 years later, and the customer may have found a work around to make it work (like we have in the aftermarket) There will be complainers no matter what.

Or you make small changes over the years and try to fly it under the radar. Just like when folks called out Jaret on the Sidewinder fixes. They addressed quite a few of those, hoses, site glass etc. But if they had brought it to our attention, 90% of previous owners would demand that they get theirs replaced, even if it had not failed. And now, that may just be the case. So Yamaha, in this case, has to weigh the cost of those service bulletins, or potential recalls with the cost of customer satisfaction. This is called business finance. And business finance doesn't read sled forums, until someone puts a pricetag on your customer satisfaction.

 

[biffdotorg]

I have never seen any of the factories put on a pre-studded track that I can recall. I can't see it happening either, likely to remain an accessory option.

That being said, is the current Ice Ripper still based off the first series Ripsaw? If so I had one a few years ago and did not care for it. Now if it's based off the Ripsaw II that would be a different story.

SkiDoo offers the Ice Ripper. It makes sense for the factory to offer the most universal un studded track stock. As it's the most common mod made by the end users. And there is some value to a new take off. But on a spring order, where the VIN is assigned at assembly, heck yes, offer up a track option for a fee.

As far as those complaining about the low windshield on the Venom, let me ask you this, How many of you have gone to the accessory catalog to purchase a low windshield? Only a few, but many have gone and bought a bigger one. If the target market is the tweeners, they all want the low windshield. They want looks over function. Face it, we are getting old and prefer function.

 

[Vmaxkid]

I agree with you biffdotorg. There will always be complaining. You can’t please everyone. But you can please more of us by making a better product. Acknowledge they have an issue and take care of your consumer by fixing it right. It appears Yamaha is no different than the auto industry. There are cases after cases in which the auto manufacturers knew there were problems with their vehicles. They have looked the other way until people start dying in crashes. That doesn’t even prompt them to make fixes sometimes. It sometimes takes the government to step in or a class action law suit for them to say yes we have a problem. These snowmobiles are becoming about the price of compact cars so there shouldn’t be a difference. Frankly the warranty on a $17k snowmobile should be at least 3 years whether bought during power surge or within the season.
For those of you guys who are creating your own fixes or buying other people’s fixes and you either like to pay someone to install those fixes or you enjoy doing the work yourself good for you.
I used to be that guy. But I don’t want to be anymore. I expect paying as much as we do we should have the responsibility of regular seasonal maintenance and be responsible for checking things over to make sure all looks good for the season. But I shouldn’t have to take anymore out of my pocket than the cost of the sled and my maintenance.
I shouldn’t have to buy a $140 driveshaft saver to fix the poorly designed Arctic Cat driveshaft to make sure I don’t end up stranded. We aren’t talking about isolated incidents here. It’s not like one persons handgrip came off and we all want Yamaha to fix our grips. I’ll even admit that if it’s a very small issue I’ll fix it myself or pay someone to do it. Like changing to a solid state relay, etc..No big deal. But There are documented post after posts on these forums of the flaws that have left some stranded, caused others to be paranoid (myself included) and others that checked and found they were about to have a catastrophic issue but caught it in time. Also me as the chain tensioner bolts were backing out but I caught it. Just fix the issues Yamaha. It would be a lot cheaper (ie) to fix the parts in a Chaincase than to have to order complete cases and all the guts because they failed blowing all apart. Oh and to lay out money through my YES to pay my towing and trip interruption.

 

[03RX1-ER-LE]

SkiDoo offers the Ice Ripper. It makes sense for the factory to offer the most universal un studded track stock. As it's the most common mod made by the end users. And there is some value to a new take off. But on a spring order, where the VIN is assigned at assembly, heck yes, offer up a track option for a fee.

As far as those complaining about the low windshield on the Venom, let me ask you this, How many of you have gone to the accessory catalog to purchase a low windshield? Only a few, but many have gone and bought a bigger one. If the target market is the tweeners, they all want the low windshield. They want looks over function. Face it, we are getting old and prefer function.

Before my son took his hiatus from sledding to raise a family he had to have the low chrome windshield on his RX1, rode for 13k miles complaining his face was always cold, like WTF are you kidding me, I told you it would be lol?

 

[03RX1-ER-LE]

I agree with you biffdotorg. There will always be complaining. You can’t please everyone. But you can please more of us by making a better product. Acknowledge they have an issue and take care of your consumer by fixing it right. It appears Yamaha is no different than the auto industry. There are cases after cases in which the auto manufacturers knew there were problems with their vehicles. They have looked the other way until people start dying in crashes. That doesn’t even prompt them to make fixes sometimes. It sometimes takes the government to step in or a class action law suit for them to say yes we have a problem. These snowmobiles are becoming about the price of compact cars so there shouldn’t be a difference. Frankly the warranty on a $17k snowmobile should be at least 3 years whether bought during power surge or within the season.
For those of you guys who are creating your own fixes or buying other people’s fixes and you either like to pay someone to install those fixes or you enjoy doing the work yourself good for you.
I used to be that guy. But I don’t want to be anymore. I expect paying as much as we do we should have the responsibility of regular seasonal maintenance and be responsible for checking things over to make sure all looks good for the season. But I shouldn’t have to take anymore out of my pocket than the cost of the sled and my maintenance.
I shouldn’t have to buy a $140 driveshaft saver to fix the poorly designed Arctic Cat driveshaft to make sure I don’t end up stranded. We aren’t talking about isolated incidents here. It’s not like one persons handgrip came off and we all want Yamaha to fix our grips. I’ll even admit that if it’s a very small issue I’ll fix it myself or pay someone to do it. Like changing to a solid state relay, etc..No big deal. But There are documented post after posts on these forums of the flaws that have left some stranded, caused others to be paranoid (myself included) and others that checked and found they were about to have a catastrophic issue but caught it in time. Also me as the chain tensioner bolts were backing out but I caught it. Just fix the issues Yamaha. It would be a lot cheaper (ie) to fix the parts in a Chaincase than to have to order complete cases and all the guts because they failed blowing all apart. Oh and to lay out money through my YES to pay my towing and trip interruption.

The few times I had YES it covered towing, lodging etc for a covered repair. Never used it but was there. Only claim ever was to have the doughnuts replaced at 9k on a RX1

 

[SaddleBagger]

Been a die hard Yamaha rider forever. SRX's of the triple days, 07 Apex, 08 40th anniversary Apex which I still have. 2011 Apex, terminal event in Quebec last year that could not be fixed. I was forced to buy a sidewinder in Quebec to get home. It was the best damn thing that happened to me, now looking in hindsight. Trust me, I defended the Apex to everyone. Always using the reliability argument, which went totally out the window Feb 1st 2019. Now that I have the sidewinder, it's night and day better. The seating ergonomics, no more sore knees and hips. The handling, forget about it. The suspension, what suspension in the apex. Are there some issues that need addressing, sure there are. Thankfully I read a lot, and it's not all porn. So I took the steps needed to make the winder as reliable as possible. When I consider the work, hour for hour between the apex and winder, it's about the same. Got sick of doing exhaust donuts on the apex. The exup valve, this all sucked. Got 7,500 miles in a little over a year on my winder, and it's been nothing but a joy. But really, what did you guys expect from Yamaha. They had an essentially unchanged apex for 12 years. I see tons of winders out there, so people must like them. I don't see poo or doo making wholesale changes to their sleds either.

It was awesome watching you drive out of the dealership on your new Winder and never look back.

 

[74Nitro]

I worked at various dealerships from 1995 through 2004, most of the time Yamaha. For as many happy customers as there was, there was almost as many unhappy. It never ends and it is not specific to one brand.
One of the most comical things was when the next years model had a new feature, the customer that owned the previous year model thought their machine should get that upgrade for free.
It takes all kinds.
This isn't to suggest the chaincase shouldn't have been improved sooner. It certainly should have. However, if you don't like it there are two other brands of sleds, and it is a loss for Yamaha and Cat - not you.

 

[twyztid]

Looks like new top gear testing complete from Hurricane Performance and ready for sale.

I am not convinced that needle bearing is the right fix but this is not the place to discuss that.

 

[MrSled]

I am not convinced that needle bearing is the right fix but this is not the place to discuss that.

I agree!!

 

[tjmrtx]

When cat had suzuki motors in them did anyone ever hear someone say suzuki makes the greatest sleds ever. No because everyone new that they were cats and cats only. I just dont get why in this arrangement people are so quick to defend yamaha for putting there badges or just motors in someone elses sleds. Back in the day you had kawasaki and john deere in a joint agreement. But that partnership made sense. You had kawi motors in deere sleds but those two machines could not be more different from each other. I just wish yamaha would have kept and developed their lineup while supplying motors to cat. Im not bashing cat here i want to make that clear as so many get upset about us apex guys talking about our sleds. Cat makes a decent sled, but you sidewinder guys can litterly get all your parts from a cat dealer now. At least i would like to see yamaha bars,grips,throttle, gaugges and maybe a more quality seat cover with some stiching imbedded to seperate the two brands more. I get this is what were going to have to live with for a while but true yamaha sleds are pretty much over. When you can by a mountain max made completely by cat something is wrong. My gut feeling is yamaha got into this arrangement to catch their breath and retool, but after seeing how how much cost savings there are by not manufacturing there own chassis and r and d the big wigs at yamaha would like to keep this going long term.

 

[Monster Max]

I have said this many times before but in my eyes this "partnership" is completely one sided. Cat runs the show and always has been. I have zero problems with 2 companies working together IF they both contribute to the cause which in this case they are not. I'm sorry but Yamaha hasn't done a damn thing in the partnership except supply a motor to use which is a small part of what makes a machine. For all the guys that say Yamaha is the reason for slightly better quality need to stop and think for a minute. Maybe textron is the reason for some of those changes? They have the money to help cat fine tune some things but its still far from prefect. Yamaha is in the passenger seat or more like the back seat of this deal. They are just along for the ride and whatever they get they get. They are lucky they get a good platform to use. Yamaha has no say in the partnership otherwise we would have seen some different more significant changes by now. I'm going to leave it at that. I'm done with this thread

Everyone assumes that Yamaha has nothing to do with the Cat designs and unless there is proof that they don't, its just hot air...If you look at pre Yamaha Cats and post Yamaha Cats, there is huge difference in the designs and quality.

 

[sailor joe]

Best sled they offer

I just sold my TF..found it noisy and tippy...hard to negotiate in corners at times...very, very comfortable and warm sled, lots of power.
Got a 2up Sidewinder, glad I did...it handles corners really well, no noise or drone issues, comfortable sled and not worried about getting put on its side..
Maybe I'm missing something but the Sidewinder 2 up is awesome!!

 

[03RX1-ER-LE]

I agree!!

Sorry, just commenting there is a fix for the 2021 and prior Yamaha chain case now for the masses.