Forgot just what a blast these Winders are!

[Wannaviper]

View attachment 147862 View attachment 147863 View attachment 147864 View attachment 147865 View attachment 147866 As my 3rd season on the 17 LTX-LE comes to an end, I still think that this thing is still the best rounded sled for my kind of riding!

Have enjoyed over 2400 miles of trail riding on this sled this season, most of it on spectacular trails all over our great State O’ Maine trail systems. Of course I have had some days when traffic or fresh snow, caused the trails to be less then smooth, but with this suspension and those type trails, this sled still shines.

Only other sled that catches my eye would be the 2019 SRX. That dam thing just looks sooo
Good on the snow. But I have to wonder if it could take the bumps as well as mine.

But anyways, with the way I have this sled set up, it really impressed me again this season.

Tunes, skis, track, clutching, etc. got this thing right where I want it!! Nice feeling for sure.

I do know first hand, How Much Of A Blast these Winders Are!!!

A few pics of how this season ended on County Trails!!!

Having a place in Jackman, it has been a while since I rode the County trails, but I remember them well. They were made for Sidewinders!

 

[JayM]

The good center shock is from the YAM LE models(pre-'19). -Dan

Great info Dan. Based on the pricing from Country Cat it's $1927 USD/~$2600CAD for all 3 QS3R's (2xfront and rear) plus the middle QS3 with Kashima.

Doesn't seem to include springs in that but that's not too bad, for a set of Elka Stage 5's you're probably at least $3500 CAD but includes everything and can be customized when being built.

Either way, not cheap lol

 

[Motorhead]

Having a place in Jackman, it has been a while since I rode the County trails, but I remember them well. They were made for Sidewinders!

Jackman area has a great trail system also, lots of nice loops huh!

 

[ROCKERDAN]

Thanks Dan, I bought the QS3R's for my front suspension, and would love to have found them for the rear. Are these diagrams and prices from someone who currently has them available for sale?

I get most parts from Country Cat....but check around as some others may be less. Be sure to check final cost tho as shipping differs from place to place. And some will charge tax while others dont.

dan

 

[ROCKERDAN]

Great info Dan. Based on the pricing from Country Cat it's $1927 USD/~$2600CAD for all 3 QS3R's (2xfront and rear) plus the middle QS3 with Kashima.

Doesn't seem to include springs in that but that's not too bad, for a set of Elka Stage 5's you're probably at least $3500 CAD but includes everything and can be customized when being built.

Either way, not cheap lol

Springs are around 35-45 or so....

Dan

 

[Mototown]

Great day of riding from Kirkland lake to cochrane today
Up to the canyon loop tomorrow

 

[74Nitro]

View attachment 148033 View attachment 148034 View attachment 148035 View attachment 148036 Great day of riding from Kirkland lake to cochrane today
Up to the canon loop tomorrow

Still looks great!

 

[number1kyster]

Having a place in Jackman, it has been a while since I rode the County trails, but I remember them well. They were made for Sidewinders!

I love Jackman. I usually go deer hunting up there every year.

 

[vmxrdr]

Just back from last rip in Cochrane to end season too. Great trails more bsing about sledding than riding but that is fun too. Trail south from canyon makes you remember what a blast winders really are and makes putting two dots of weld on your chain tensioner worth it. You can’t change the engine in any other sled to approach how a winder works as easy as changing an axle bearing and doing chaincase maintenance. Having lots of throttle left when you know your buddies on the best the competition has to offer is wrung right out is priceless.
This ride involved lots of swapping and brought an aspect of sidewinder performance that is way ahead of competition that never gets mentioned on here. Put a bunch of miles on an xrs turbo and a brand new backcountry doo as well. Not sure why a 50 yr old would take media’s input and ride an xrs backcountry on trails. No further comment on that one, I assume they must be great off trail.
My winder with QS3 upgrade revalved by a little shock shop here in Ontario rides amazing so I tend to be critical of other sleds ride qualities. Spring trails were rock hard in mornings with some small bumps. The evolved pro cross chassis we all have has the by far the least bump feedback and ski induced bump steer in the industry. My 52 yr old contractor for life elbows can rail the winder thru trail chatter but when I hopped on either brand new doo I felt a ton of judder from bumps and bump steer negotiating corners through the bars right into your shoulders. These sleds prob aren’t dialled like mine but the difference is immense, Yamacat feels like it has power steering in comparison.
Find a shock guy you trust and ask advice about damping qualities, two LEs in our group feel kind of dead on their feet compared to how my shock guy has my QS3s dialled in.
Final note I see American Snowmobiler must have actually had a battery and fluids in their real world shootout 900 ace turbo, 639.5 lbs is a far cry from the seat filled with helium and no fluids ace turbo that KRM was telling us about on here.

Have a good summer boys

 

[KnappAttack]

Just back from last rip in Cochrane to end season too. Great trails more bsing about sledding than riding but that is fun too. Trail south from canyon makes you remember what a blast winders really are and makes putting two dots of weld on your chain tensioner worth it. You can’t change the engine in any other sled to approach how a winder works as easy as changing an axle bearing and doing chaincase maintenance. Having lots of throttle left when you know your buddies on the best the competition has to offer is wrung right out is priceless.
This ride involved lots of swapping and brought an aspect of sidewinder performance that is way ahead of competition that never gets mentioned on here. Put a bunch of miles on an xrs turbo and a brand new backcountry doo as well. Not sure why a 50 yr old would take media’s input and ride an xrs backcountry on trails. No further comment on that one, I assume they must be great off trail.
My winder with QS3 upgrade revalved by a little shock shop here in Ontario rides amazing so I tend to be critical of other sleds ride qualities. Spring trails were rock hard in mornings with some small bumps. The evolved pro cross chassis we all have has the by far the least bump feedback and ski induced bump steer in the industry. My 52 yr old contractor for life elbows can rail the winder thru trail chatter but when I hopped on either brand new doo I felt a ton of judder from bumps and bump steer negotiating corners through the bars right into your shoulders. These sleds prob aren’t dialled like mine but the difference is immense, Yamacat feels like it has power steering in comparison.
Find a shock guy you trust and ask advice about damping qualities, two LEs in our group feel kind of dead on their feet compared to how my shock guy has my QS3s dialled in.
Final note I see American Snowmobiler must have actually had a battery and fluids in their real world shootout 900 ace turbo, 639.5 lbs is a far cry from the seat filled with helium and no fluids ace turbo that KRM was telling us about on here.

Have a good summer boys

I'd have to agree. I got a ride on my buds 900T this winter and was none too impressed by any of it. In fact I, was surprised on how I had forgot about the rough front end was on the Doo's in comparison to the Cat front end. I couldn't stand how it had no power and didn't even remotely scare me. You could run it WFO all the time. There for a time I was really thinking about buying one, but all one has to do is fix the known issues with Cat's lacking engineering SNAFUs and ride like the wind.

One other thing I'll add about the 900T is that awful ITC throttle, WTF is wrong with that? Its nothing like what was on the 1200. It lags behind on hitting it and letting off! Really unnerving! I loveed my old 1200's, but have no idea what Doo is doing with the 900T. Its a mutt for a turbo sled, they picked the wrong engine to turbo!

Good thing for TY so we can all address the Winder shortfalls!

The Cat chassis is really good at riding and handling fantastic, and the power and MPG is decent as well. If I was buying new, I'd be ordering up a new TCat actually. If I had to go Doo I'd be looking at a low mile late model 1200 and adding a Motec with Precision Sports turbo or even a MCX system to a 1200. I've always though the G4 to be quite ugly and honestly its not much different than the earlier XR or XS sleds. I know there would be ZERO chance on me back riding a two-stroke ever.

 

[ROCKERDAN]

I'd have to agree. I got a ride on my buds 900T this winter and was none too impressed by any of it. In fact I, was surprised on how I had forgot about the rough front end was on the Doo's in comparison to the Cat front end. I couldn't stand how it had no power and didn't even remotely scare me. You could run it WFO all the time. There for a time I was really thinking about buying one, but all one has to do is fix the known issues with Cat's lacking engineering SNAFUs and ride like the wind.

One other thing I'll add about the 900T is that awful ITC throttle, WTF is wrong with that? Its nothing like what was on the 1200. It lags behind on hitting it and letting off! Really unnerving! I loveed my old 1200's, but have no idea what Doo is doing with the 900T. Its a mutt for a turbo sled, they picked the wrong engine to turbo!

Good thing for TY so we can all address the Winder shortfalls!

The Cat chassis is really good at riding and handling fantastic, and the power and MPG is decent as well. If I was buying new, I'd be ordering up a new TCat actually. If I had to go Doo I'd be looking at a low mile late model 1200 and adding a Motec with Precision Sports turbo or even a MCX system to a 1200. I've always though the G4 to be quite ugly and honestly its not much different than the earlier XR or XS sleds. I know there would be ZERO chance on me back riding a two-stroke ever.

Yep 100% agree about the iTC!! Man o man its just horrible as Ive said many times. I wanted to like it Mike, as I wanted something different, but no way will I own a Doo 4s anymore. They are the most UN-Performance feeling sled Ive rode. I will take their 850 all day long over that iTC feel.

Dan

 

[cannondale27]

Yep 100% agree about the iTC!! Man o man its just horrible as Ive said many times. I wanted to like it Mike, as I wanted something different, but no way will I own a Doo 4s anymore. They are the most UN-Performance feeling sled Ive rode. I will take their 850 all day long over that iTC feel.

Dan

I wonder if the iTC will be the next thing the tuners play with. Should be pretty easy compared to hacking the engine management. Example is my Tundra. Back when people were slamming Toyotas into buildings and such and blaming it on the throttle Toyota wanted to reprogram all the drive by wire systems. Keep sending recalls to me to this day. I have driven the reflashed systems and they really are drastic difference but not responsive like mine so I wont do it. I bet Hurricane,TD and Precision will have options for the iTC soon. Cnat see liability being anymore of a issue than there current tunes so why not?

 

[74Nitro]

I wonder if the iTC will be the next thing the tuners play with. Should be pretty easy compared to hacking the engine management. Example is my Tundra. Back when people were slamming Toyotas into buildings and such and blaming it on the throttle Toyota wanted to reprogram all the drive by wire systems. Keep sending recalls to me to this day. I have driven the reflashed systems and they really are drastic difference but not responsive like mine so I wont do it. I bet Hurricane,TD and Precision will have options for the iTC soon. Cnat see liability being anymore of a issue than there current tunes so why not?

I think they have already improved it.
However, it's not just the itc.
With the single butterfly intake manifold, there is some volume there between the valves and butterfly that contributes to the delay, and that can't be tuned out.

 

[Motorhead]

Having a place in Jackman, it has been a while since I rode the County trails, but I remember them well. They were made for Sidewinders!

Did another end of season run because of some arm twisting from by best riding bud, and Jackman was it. We saw on Facebook that Pittston Farm was saying that they were doing some daytime grooming so be aware.
Have to say, trails were amazingly! Met the groomer partial way to Pittston Farms and again on way back!
Flat, fast and lot’s of snow! Everywhere I go with this Winder, many ask how I like this sled.
It’s

Having a place in Jackman, it has been a while since I rode the County trails, but I remember them well. They were made for Sidewinders!

It has been a while since we rode out of Jackman. My riding buddy twisted my arm for ONE more end of season ride and whereas Pittston Farm was saying “day time grooming so watch for us” we went for a Thursday ride from Jackman to the Pittston Farm and a bit more!!! Splendid day of great trails. Met the groomers both going out and coming back.

Hardly anyone on the trails, or at Pittston Farm for lunch, but I still answered many questions from people who asked about our Winders !!
Those that know about the Winders tuning abilities, ask what are you running under that hood? others ask, “How Do You Like It”?. There is nothing else unless it’s the 2019 SRX is my answer, or handles great, and the power with this tune is more then most need!! A lot of young guys just smile, I know they think they could hold this thing open anyplace!

 

[Doowithblue]

Hurricane and boost engineering have improved the drive by wire feel but i believe theres still more to improve if its even possible with the long runner.