csederlund
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- 2014 LTX SE
How are the Elkas working out for you? Really, looking at upgrading the rears. I did have them revalved but I would like the extra volume of the reservoirs and adjustability.
putz21
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- '25 Sidewinder XTX LE w/EPS
'23 Sidewinder LTX LE w/EPS
I did the 6" Round bars per my conversation I had with one of their technical guys. He suggested not to get the leading edge, so I held off from getting them. I have 144 studs in the track and these skis just turn where you point it no matter what the conditions are. I may experience a slight dart here and there, but nothing too bad. I guess, it's mostly from all my doo friends with their Pilots. I don't think I'm going to get the leading edge this year. I'll just ride out the remainder of the season and see if I feel I need them or not. So far after 750 miles this year on them, I don't think I need them.
Not sure why a template would be needed for the leading edge. Maybe just give them a call and ask before you go drilling any new holes. Also, give the curves a try without the leading edge and see how they perform.
Crap. I'm heading up north this weekend to do mainly Oneida county. Hopefully we get a few inches between now and Friday night. Glad I have a place on a big lake. If trails are bad, I can continue to work on my Ulmer clutching until I get it where I like it. I saw that you moved your weights out to the tips, so I might try that this weekend as I mainly have all my weight right now in the heel with the Tungsten.
putz21
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'23 Sidewinder LTX LE w/EPS
I'm really liking the Elkas and the adjustability. My first few rides of the year, I didn't do any adjusting as I just wanted to ride. Once I had some down time a couple of weekends ago, I started adjusting and playing around with the high speed compression, low speed compression, and rebound. I can't believe how much of a difference there is from one end of the spectrum to the other! The compression was set up still too stiff to my liking, so with a few turns of the adjusters, I now have it much better. I still have more adjusting to do when I get more time hopefully this weekend. Overall, I'm very happy with my investment in the Elkas.
On one of the rides a couple of weeks ago, we ran into a 12 mile stretch of trail that had not been groomed all year. We just flew through the moguls. My friend on his r-motion thought he was going to throw up. Yeah, it was rough, but the Elka's worked great through it all.
WVTurboLTX
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2017 Sidewinder LTX LE
I figured out today that the rear tortion springs have a ton of effect on steering. I set mine at 2 and my dad's at 3 because he weighs an extra 40 pounds. Mine would turn good. His was lifting the skis like crazy. Dropped his back to 2 and his started railing like mine. Too much rear preload seems to not let the skid couple properly. We also switched to a 6 inch shaper on the inside and a 6 inch round on the outside. I took 1 turn out of the preload on my center spring to get a little more weight on my skis and it's perfect. Light steering and it tracks really well. No push at all. I had to add one turn of preload to his center because his steering was a little heavy at that point. I'm guessing because of his added weight. Ours are DXs but the geometry of the skids are the same.
rebmo
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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.
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.
saleen347
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You must back off the preload on the front rear shock. See earlier posts. It will make an incredible difference.
The DX does have a plush ride. Something must not be right or you may have been bottoming it. I know I did pretty often when I rode one. Maybe send your shocks out for rebuild.
WVTurboLTX
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I think you have the suspension all out of wack trying to fix the fact that the stock wear bars are complete #*$&@. My mom has the same sled as you and it handles like a dream. 6 inch shapers on the inside 6 inch round bar on the outside. Rear torsion at #1 (she's really light), front skid shock backed off one turn and never touched the front springs. Limiter straps at stock as well as the couplers. It's by no means a mogul masher but that's not what it's intended for.
rebmo
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OK, The tide is turning, literally. We got 11" of light powdery snow last Sunday in SE WI and local trails are all open. I had backed off about 1/4" of front ski spring load and almost all pressure off the front skid shock spring load. Trails were greasy feeling with lots of loose snow and drifts and some fields were open blown off snow. A few woodsy twisties were just starting to pack down.
I went for a ride yesterday with my son (on his SXR-700) and the R-TX-DX much closer to the trail sled handling I'm seeking. The ride was much "plusher" and the push was gone. For the first time it was a blast to ride. The snow was loose and deep on most of the trail so the back end could get very loose if I got heavy on the throttle. On the areas where the snow had been packed a bit the handling was very neutral and I could power through the turns slightly sideways and control the hookup. If anything I went too far and now could use some more hookup so I'll experiment with the front skid shock (add a little more spring load). I also am at the point where the stock wearbars need to go. I'll be researching that now that I have a good feeling about the ability to tune this sled for trails.
What kind of bothers me is that all the settings were so extremely on the far end of what it took to get it to steer and handle neutral through turns. The softer front skid shock setting really smoothed out the ride through the bumps and even landing from some air excursions. It did not bottom out yet but I haven't hit any really nasty bumps. No more poundings over small/mid bumps, and tippiness when on the throttle. For some reason the acceleration is much smoother and not so jumpy. Either the clutch is broken in or the much softer setting on the front skid shock smoothed out the power hookup. I suspect the latter since it was a big change right after the suspension changes and very noticeable smooth takeoffs.
Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions. I have now raised my rating on this sled to a 7 of 10 with potential to improve with some more suspension setting dial in and new bars on the skis. I'm pretty sure I'm near the potential of the handling for my trail riding style but I need to now get bars on, dial back in some skid pressure, and consider picking the track (probably next year). My dealer had suggested trying the track without studs, and I have to admit, after riding on lakes, some icy trails, loose snow, the track is fantastic. Although, I still think the extra traction will be a plus.
Hope you guys are getting some snow. Look forward to hearing more setup report.
I went for a ride yesterday with my son (on his SXR-700) and the R-TX-DX much closer to the trail sled handling I'm seeking. The ride was much "plusher" and the push was gone. For the first time it was a blast to ride. The snow was loose and deep on most of the trail so the back end could get very loose if I got heavy on the throttle. On the areas where the snow had been packed a bit the handling was very neutral and I could power through the turns slightly sideways and control the hookup. If anything I went too far and now could use some more hookup so I'll experiment with the front skid shock (add a little more spring load). I also am at the point where the stock wearbars need to go. I'll be researching that now that I have a good feeling about the ability to tune this sled for trails.
What kind of bothers me is that all the settings were so extremely on the far end of what it took to get it to steer and handle neutral through turns. The softer front skid shock setting really smoothed out the ride through the bumps and even landing from some air excursions. It did not bottom out yet but I haven't hit any really nasty bumps. No more poundings over small/mid bumps, and tippiness when on the throttle. For some reason the acceleration is much smoother and not so jumpy. Either the clutch is broken in or the much softer setting on the front skid shock smoothed out the power hookup. I suspect the latter since it was a big change right after the suspension changes and very noticeable smooth takeoffs.
Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions. I have now raised my rating on this sled to a 7 of 10 with potential to improve with some more suspension setting dial in and new bars on the skis. I'm pretty sure I'm near the potential of the handling for my trail riding style but I need to now get bars on, dial back in some skid pressure, and consider picking the track (probably next year). My dealer had suggested trying the track without studs, and I have to admit, after riding on lakes, some icy trails, loose snow, the track is fantastic. Although, I still think the extra traction will be a plus.
Hope you guys are getting some snow. Look forward to hearing more setup report.
