yamarog
Newbie
Here is my story form friday night at eagle river.
Arrived hours early to search the pits for any new Yamaha's. All I found was Jimmy Blazes modified freestyle Nitro's. During the freestyle exhibition, much to my disappointment, Jimmy rode the old Nitro. However, his runs and flip were awesome and got the crowd pumped up.
The big suprise came later in the evening, when in the back row of Pro Open was a blue Yamaha Nitro piloted by former WSA pro #99 Jesse Strege. (Yamaha's "rough trail advisor") Although no match for top pro's Ian Hayden and Trevor John, the sled held up and finished respectively towards the rear of the pack, but kept close pace with all other riders.
After the race was over, I searched for the sled back in the pits. By this time my camera was dead from the cold. Just like earlier, I could not find it anywhere, until I seen Strege come out of an unmarked, unlabled, unstickered plain enclosed trailor. I asked if I could see the sled, and politely, he invited me and my wife inside for a closer look. Although it was only for a couple of minutes until the sled was hauled away to the race shop for "improvements."
Here is what i noticed on the machine. #1 it only looks like a Nitro on the outside to the casual observer. In reality it is obviously a custom works machine. The picture of the black Yamaha snocross sled in Europe is very similar, if not exactly like the one Strege rode at Eagle River.
It has a totally new chassis, with a very wide and tall bulkhead sporting some super long travel piggyback Ohlins Shocks. The A-arms look like ones on the utility sled - kinda reverse gull-wing design with polaris looking spindles and C&A pro ski's. The rider position was at least a few inches forward of an Apex.
When I seen it close up the hood was on, but it had a 3 cylinder engine, (that was announced over the speakers) with a single rear exiting exhaust. The tunnel on the machine is super deep, like the other new Snocrossers, and spun at least a 1.75" track. It had a small hand made aluminum gas tank under the seat and also the battery for its electric start was atop the tunnel.
The side panels of the sled looked carbon fiber, as were other misc. parts. The rear skid was a torsion spring design, but not like the present Nitro/Vector skid. I kinda looked like the new ski-doo skid with a 1-way coupling block in the rear and both skid shocks were piggyback Ohlins./
Whew, sorry it got so long - I was really excited to get a chance to see Yamahas undercover return to north american snocross action. Hopefully the involvement will grow to a full scale effort next season.
Arrived hours early to search the pits for any new Yamaha's. All I found was Jimmy Blazes modified freestyle Nitro's. During the freestyle exhibition, much to my disappointment, Jimmy rode the old Nitro. However, his runs and flip were awesome and got the crowd pumped up.
The big suprise came later in the evening, when in the back row of Pro Open was a blue Yamaha Nitro piloted by former WSA pro #99 Jesse Strege. (Yamaha's "rough trail advisor") Although no match for top pro's Ian Hayden and Trevor John, the sled held up and finished respectively towards the rear of the pack, but kept close pace with all other riders.
After the race was over, I searched for the sled back in the pits. By this time my camera was dead from the cold. Just like earlier, I could not find it anywhere, until I seen Strege come out of an unmarked, unlabled, unstickered plain enclosed trailor. I asked if I could see the sled, and politely, he invited me and my wife inside for a closer look. Although it was only for a couple of minutes until the sled was hauled away to the race shop for "improvements."
Here is what i noticed on the machine. #1 it only looks like a Nitro on the outside to the casual observer. In reality it is obviously a custom works machine. The picture of the black Yamaha snocross sled in Europe is very similar, if not exactly like the one Strege rode at Eagle River.
It has a totally new chassis, with a very wide and tall bulkhead sporting some super long travel piggyback Ohlins Shocks. The A-arms look like ones on the utility sled - kinda reverse gull-wing design with polaris looking spindles and C&A pro ski's. The rider position was at least a few inches forward of an Apex.
When I seen it close up the hood was on, but it had a 3 cylinder engine, (that was announced over the speakers) with a single rear exiting exhaust. The tunnel on the machine is super deep, like the other new Snocrossers, and spun at least a 1.75" track. It had a small hand made aluminum gas tank under the seat and also the battery for its electric start was atop the tunnel.
The side panels of the sled looked carbon fiber, as were other misc. parts. The rear skid was a torsion spring design, but not like the present Nitro/Vector skid. I kinda looked like the new ski-doo skid with a 1-way coupling block in the rear and both skid shocks were piggyback Ohlins./
Whew, sorry it got so long - I was really excited to get a chance to see Yamahas undercover return to north american snocross action. Hopefully the involvement will grow to a full scale effort next season.
7 skulls
TY 4 Stroke Junkie
Top notch reporting Yamarog. 
