When my parents came down from Minocqua, WI to vist me for Thanksgiving my father told me a very interesting story.
He works for a Ford dealer in Minocqua and he said an oriental (Japanese) man came in and wanted an oil change. The man was wearing a polo shirt that said "YAMAHA" on it so he asked the man what he thought about his Yamaha.
The oriental man said to me father, "well, I think theyre the best!" When my father asked him why he thought that way and the man said, "well, I work for Yamaha."
Now, my father likes to give people a hard time about their sleds, especially when they dont ride Polaris. He said to the man, "So, when is Yamaha going to make a sled that will compete with the XCs?" The man sort of laughed and said, "Well, we have something in the works that we think will turn the industry on its ear. We've got a 2-stroke that meets the EPA regulations and we've got a chassis that were working on and once we get it perfected it will put even the Firecats to shame." He told my father that the only problem they were having is that the sleds had a tendency to want to land on the nose and were cracking the bulkheads.
My father's last comment on this topic was: "I didnt say it, but I thought to myself "Why dont you just copy Polaris? Thats what youve been doing all along anyhow."
I didnt argue with my father on that one. I learned long ago that he is too old and set in his ways to be swayed by anyone's word of mouth.
He's very brand biased. If its not a Ford or a Polaris its not worth owning to him.
He told me what a POS my '90 Phazer II was untill he rode it one day. He came away impressed. His only comment was, "I was surprised how zippy that thing was considering its fan-cooled and the suspension didnt bounce me around as much as I thought it would."
He had always told me about how back in the early '90s how he knew people who rode Phazers and how they couldnt keep up with he and my mother (they had Polaris Indy 400s at the time). He told me how bad TSS was, how it rode poorly and was a weak suspension. He told me how poor Yamaha's engine were on power and fuel milageand how it took at least 10 pulls to get them running. He told me how bad Yamaha's clutches were. Well, after seeing my Phazer first hand: how it always started on the 2nd pull, how it would pull 16-18 mpg, how it never once broke and how I was not the least bit sore even after a 200 miles ride he no longer criticized Yamaha.
I hope Yamaha does come out with a ditchbanger and I hope they stick it to everyone who has ever doubted their potential.
Yamaha has a great line of trail sleds right now. However, they need to come out with some weapons for those of us who want a sled that will compete with the REVs, Firecats and IQs. I also think that a lot of people who owned SXs and SX Rs would come back to Yamaha if they made somethat that was competitive in the ditchbanger market.
Hebi
