Was on the first group this morning with demo ride in Michigan, they took us for 15 to 20 minute 7 mile ride and the trail were smoother than the highway US131 so it was not any test of the suspension and the Jordan valley trail in this section has very few turns that were only wide sweeping ones...now for the real dirt on these sleds...
1. They had a 129/137/141 length sleds to try all were SE versions.
2. Rode the 141 XTX first and love the snap out of the hole, yes it had the 1.50 paddles so the bite was instantaneous and pulled just like the Nytro motor.
3. Tried to see if there was any ski lift in the corners even though they weren't any twisty I purposely stabbed the throttle half way through the corner and she stayed glued to the trail.
4. Next was on the 137 LTX SE length sled, it seemed to be a little less abrupt on the power delivery but the motor was very smooth and surprisingly quite when the rpm smoothed out.
5. The last sled was the 129 RTX SE power was spot on and then icy corners were a challenge to get a bite with the 1.25 paddles and just like with the two other sleds try as I could it wouldn't lift in the corners.
6. After the short demo the engineer from Yamaha spoke about the sleds, he assured us that all the reliability issue that plague the Sno Pro were being address...ie the reverse switch...using proper sealed connections which Arctic Cat failed to use. The clutches using Yamaha only. The gearbox using Yamaha specified gears. The jackshaft using Yamaha specified components.
7. Asked whether they would be able to upgrade the shocks to the same Fox Evol in the front and Fox in the rear as the Sno Pro RR model and he wasn't able to answer that for me.
8. Overall it was what i was expecting with the Sno Pro chassis and now I will have to work out the details with the dealers at the "sneak peak" preview in Novi on the 26th.
Wish I had time to get some detailed pics but they had groups of people waiting to demo the sleds so it wasn't in the cards.
1. They had a 129/137/141 length sleds to try all were SE versions.
2. Rode the 141 XTX first and love the snap out of the hole, yes it had the 1.50 paddles so the bite was instantaneous and pulled just like the Nytro motor.
3. Tried to see if there was any ski lift in the corners even though they weren't any twisty I purposely stabbed the throttle half way through the corner and she stayed glued to the trail.
4. Next was on the 137 LTX SE length sled, it seemed to be a little less abrupt on the power delivery but the motor was very smooth and surprisingly quite when the rpm smoothed out.
5. The last sled was the 129 RTX SE power was spot on and then icy corners were a challenge to get a bite with the 1.25 paddles and just like with the two other sleds try as I could it wouldn't lift in the corners.
6. After the short demo the engineer from Yamaha spoke about the sleds, he assured us that all the reliability issue that plague the Sno Pro were being address...ie the reverse switch...using proper sealed connections which Arctic Cat failed to use. The clutches using Yamaha only. The gearbox using Yamaha specified gears. The jackshaft using Yamaha specified components.
7. Asked whether they would be able to upgrade the shocks to the same Fox Evol in the front and Fox in the rear as the Sno Pro RR model and he wasn't able to answer that for me.
8. Overall it was what i was expecting with the Sno Pro chassis and now I will have to work out the details with the dealers at the "sneak peak" preview in Novi on the 26th.
Wish I had time to get some detailed pics but they had groups of people waiting to demo the sleds so it wasn't in the cards.
gmcman2012
Veteran
great post i agree with you.
