Just got back from Hayward WI, and put 240 miles on the R-TX-DX. I had cinched the strap up one hole, set the coupler block on 3, and the torsion spring on 2. This was after having a really bad handling ride locally with push and tipping way beyond what I expected on this new sled. The trails I rode on included long lake runs, tight twisties, fire trails, wide road trails, and very bumpy ditch runs. Luckily the leader of our group is from the area and knows the less travelled trails, but the pounded ones were take to get to them.
So my impression of the sled is about a 5 on a scale of 10. It's better than when I rode it set up from Yamaha which was about a 2. This sled is stock at this point and I'll probably have to make some changes to make it tolerable. On the plus side, after about 100 miles I let it fly on a long run on the chain of lake part of the trail and hit 93 on the meter with plenty left. The sled started hot/cold in an instant. The seat heater and grip/throttle heater worked great. On the lake turning at 50-70 was pretty poor with the stock carbides. Getting up front on the seat helped, thankfully I had installed pads or the stock seating would have smashed my knees getting this thing to turn. Lots of torque but the clutching is terrible. From a standstill the sled jerks into motion which gets very tiring after a while. The suspension adjustments allowed the sled to be turned better in tight woods twisties and more stretched out woods trails. Plenty of torque & power from turn to turn. It got tippy in one turn. On bumpy trails I had to stand, there was very little suspension buffering and I got pounded if on the seat. When I hear plush ride on the RTX, I can't imagine what the performance suspensions would be like. I may try backing off on the front skid shock to see if that softens things up and helps hookup. Gas mileage was pretty good at about 14 mpg estimate.
So in contrast I rode a AC9000LXR turbo and it had much smoother acceleration and much lighter effort steering with more control. For a 4 stroke it felt like a 2 stroke weight compared to the viper from an ease of handling steering standpoint and linear power. It's clutching was Much smoother with no jerky starts. On a lake run I easily hit 103 before letting off. I was very impressed with the Suzuki 4-stroke power delivery. Of course it's not really a fair power comparison at 177hp compared to 130 for the viper. But, the AC steering was very light and the sled was very balanced which surprised me being the same chassis with same ci/weight motor. His setup is not much different than mine. We both weigh near 200. The AC was pretty much stock but did have 10" dual carbides and yet it steered with half the effort of my Viper.
So I know I sound disappointed in the R-TX-DX, and I am. It's just hard to believe Yamaha has such a crappy carbide, clutch, and suspension setup when you drive it away. For the money you pay I don't expect to be rebuilding a new sled to get it to perform even half way decent. But here I am and I'll have to address these concerns and hope to do the job Yamaha didn't to make their trail sled handle like a trail sled. I will continue to work the setup and swap the carbides with possibly a 8" inside, 6" outside carbide setup. I'd like to try backing off the front skid shock and see if that lightens up a bit and helps steering transfer. I'm afraid I'm also going to have to investigate clutching changes and I hope there is a way to get rid of the jerky engagement.
