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Are white slides a myth?

MikeWalters

TY 4 Stroke Master
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
1,323
Location
Saskatchewan
Country
Canada
Snowmobile
2007 Phazer
I was out for a few minutes a couple days ago, me and my son. He was on his 120, and I had a passenger I was dropping off at house only 4 blocks away. We went to the field, then down a town street with our sleds, dropped the guy off, then...STUCK!!

My slides were sticking to the track. They are brand new, they are white. I thought white was supposed to be better? I have NEVER experienced this with stock black Yamaha slides before. And as mentioned, just ran about 2 blocks on a snow covered town road. Otherwise I was in a field. I have ran way less snow conditions than this with the blacks slides on, and have never had sticking.

No big deal, just curious if anyone else has had this happen?
 

i have never heard that different color slides are better then others. but i could be wrong to. i have heard of that happening if the slides are worn out but never with now ones. sorry to hear that happened to you.
 
I just replaced my white slides on my Apex about a month ago. They lasted me over 5000km, which I thought was amazing for a Yamaha. I replaced them with the black graphite ones and already after 500km, they are at the wear line and need replacing. I am of the opinion that the white slides are more durable.

Mike, I am guessing that the conditions played a factor in your case. Going down a road with an extra passenger heated up your slides so much that even the little bit of snow on the road didn't help. If you had been able to stop the sled in a bit of fresh snow, then likely you would have prevented the slides from sticking.
 
Grimm said:
I just replaced my white slides on my Apex about a month ago. They lasted me over 6000km, which I thought was amazing for a Yamaha. I replaced them with the black graphite ones and already after 500km, they are at the wear line and need replacing. I am of the opinion that the white slides are more durable.

Mike, I am guessing that the conditions played a factor in your case. Going down a road with an extra passenger heated up your slides so much that even the little bit of snow on the road didn't help. If you had been able to stop the sled in a bit of fresh snow, then likely you would have prevented the slides from sticking.

yeah, just weird. never experienced it before. Oh well, next time I guess it will be dupont!
 
New slides should be broken-in to make them wear better. If you just put them on and go out and ride they will wear faster, especially in marginal snow conditions.

It's recommended that you first ride 3-4 short periods (about 5-10 minutes) in good snow conditions, stopping to let them cool off for at least 5 minutes in between rides. This tempers the hyfax material and improves the life of the slide. Keep in mind that riding in marginal snow or no snow for long stretches will heat up even the best slides. Having a fully clipped track will also extend the life of the slides.
 
I put 4 X wheels across the front, 2 more on the outside near the back and blue sliders- had probally 2k on them.
Skid would roll across the floor... Less resistance is always good.

IDK, just sounds like a myth to me.
 
It has been long accepted that white slides wear better then colored slides due to the info in Mooseman's post. One thing to note about many Yamaha skids though is that most of them will wear slides to a point quickly and then seem to go a long time with minimal wear. Unless they are going past the wear indicators, there is no need to replace them.
 
Mooseman said:
Here's the info I have on white slides.

http://www.ty4stroke.com/download.php?id=94224

I have gone to 135mm wheels everywhere, no problems since.

that's the big one, I've got 1,200 miles on my Duponts now and with hardly any wear yet the factory idlers are BARELY supporting any weight, the duponts flat out work well. Also my MTX came with extra idlers at the bend that the short track models don't have.
 
I'm no expert but most plastic resins that I have seen are not totally white in their natural state. They are usually beige or milky clear so I'm wondering if there is still colorant in the white sliders if they are a solid white? Any molders or extruders out there that can comment on natural Polyethylene?
 
On Yamaha's website, they state that their white slides are pure UHMW with no colour additives:
 

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Grimm said:
On Yamaha's website, they state that their white slides are pure UHMW with no colour additives:

That looks like 'milk bottle' plastic so that answers my question, it is natural (uncolored) material.
 
The slides I got were Kimpex white.

I had a set of ice scratchers laying around so I bolted them on, we'll see how they do on the odd road now and again. Just weird as my black yammi slides never stuck, same conditions same temperatures etc. Oh and my passenger was 40 pounds so not like a big factor haha.

The pic with the colouring additives makes sense. Had a 136 vmax600 that started sticking after putting pink slides on it once, many years ago. Went back to yammi black and it was all good.

Ill see how many km I can get out of these, the rate I change them it will hopefully be about 2 seasons.

Only area I would like to address is the curve in the skid rails, ALWAYS wears down right there.
 
Maybe put a set of oversized idler wheels at the front and end slide wear forever. I plan on doing so, depending on if I get a new sled next year.
 
Grimm said:
Maybe put a set of oversized idler wheels at the front and end slide wear forever. I plan on doing so, depending on if I get a new sled next year.

Yeah not sure what to do there exactly, our torsion springs seem to be an obstacle as they would stab anything directly in front. Lots of guys using the tiny wheels way up front. And oversizing at the stock front idler wheel I think is too far away from rail curve to help...?

Time will tell
 


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