Interesting Yamablog post about Skis

[Crewchief47]

A ski that is designed like the mountain ski, but with a little bit less agressive keel. That would be the pefect ski imo.

Shave a 1/4" off the mountain keel.......and give it a try!

 

[SledFreak]

So, why doesn't Yamaha just do that?

 

[Grimm]

Because they are too proud to admit that their skis suck.

 

[NY AttakGT]

Because they are too proud to admit that their skis suck.

And boy are they sticking to their guns!! how many years have the stock skis sucked now??

--Steve (O.C.)

 

[birkebeiner]

Anyone know where I can buy the Snowtracker?? Keen on testing out the semi-aggressive Snowtracker. Probably cheeper then buying new skis. What's the price of these..?

 

[snowbeast]

Agreed Chewchief. We should ask all these guys that that say the ski's are a POS, if when they change to an aftermarket ski, do they re-install the stock runner. My guess being no. Last year I changed my stock runners off my 05 Rage with a set my dealer had on special (not sure on make) and like zoom said, one hand all day long. Until you hit the fun flipper and need two hands. General all purpose seems to be yammi's target. Aftermarket specialty item in every area will always be there. No manufacturing company will make one thing for everyone. Good read Crewchief. Hoprfully everyone reads the whole thing rather than picking apart half a speach. "Read like a woman, take it all in."

This statement doesn't follow the normal flow of what people do. You ride the sled. Want better handling. Install better carbides. This causes better handling but with more darting. Then they start looking for other skis. I doubt most are comparing their 3in carbide to a completely new ski.

Some people dont care, they ride their sled oblivious to darting. I will ride others sleds and think, how can they stay on the trail. They say, I don't have a darting problem.

my dealer finally bought a set of Arrows for his demo sled and could not believe what a difference it made in the sled, easy steering and no darting, great bite, all the things lacking in the stock skis.

There are a few patten pictures out there of ski designs that yamaha have filled, hopefully they do something.

I remember seeing an artical you wrote last year about those arrow skis,but cant find it now,can you share more info about those skis,where to get them,how much are they,what colors they come in,and what carbides fit,and where to get replacement carbides,we now have a house in patten,so if i need to go to houlton to get them its only 35 miles. thanks pete

 

[kviper]

Nothing wrong with the ski's! If you want more float put the mountain ski's on with aggressive snowtracker's, If you ride groomed trail's just put the tracker's on the stock ski's. The Tracker's do not track (dart), Steering effort is Almost unchanged and they BITE on the hard stuff. I have about 3,000mi on my first pair in Wisconsin in a wide range of condition's. About $200 US from Royal Distributing. They work!!!!!!!! kviper

 

[BETHEVIPER]

Agreed Chewchief. We should ask all these guys that that say the ski's are a POS, if when they change to an aftermarket ski, do they re-install the stock runner. My guess being no. Last year I changed my stock runners off my 05 Rage with a set my dealer had on special (not sure on make) and like zoom said, one hand all day long. Until you hit the fun flipper and need two hands. General all purpose seems to be yammi's target. Aftermarket specialty item in every area will always be there. No manufacturing company will make one thing for everyone. Good read Crewchief. Hoprfully everyone reads the whole thing rather than picking apart half a speach. "Read like a woman, take it all in."

This statement doesn't follow the normal flow of what people do. You ride the sled. Want better handling. Install better carbides. This causes better handling but with more darting. Then they start looking for other skis. I doubt most are comparing their 3in carbide to a completely new ski.

Some people dont care, they ride their sled oblivious to darting. I will ride others sleds and think, how can they stay on the trail. They say, I don't have a darting problem.

my dealer finally bought a set of Arrows for his demo sled and could not believe what a difference it made in the sled, easy steering and no darting, great bite, all the things lacking in the stock skis.

There are a few patten pictures out there of ski designs that yamaha have filled, hopefully they do something.

I remember seeing an artical you wrote last year about those arrow skis,but cant find it now,can you share more info about those skis,where to get them,how much are they,what colors they come in,and what carbides fit,and where to get replacement carbides,we now have a house in patten,so if i need to go to houlton to get them its only 35 miles. thanks pete

Glad you made it close to the county. Mcguire Motorsports can order them, they come in red, blue, yellow, black and green. They really were the best ski I have ever used for trail riding. They have one flaw that I cold find and that is that they are not any wider than stock. No dart, track like they are on rails and they steer easy. If your looking for wide, these are not it. I am still searching for a great working wide ski. Right now, I ended with powder hounds with half pipes(dartless) on them.

Stop by if your up to houlton and say hi, come on a monday at noon and ill take you to dinner.

 

[Snomad]

I agree that with the weight of the machine the stockers may not be wide enough. For groomed trails they are. I have tried precisions and pilots on both an 03 RX1 (along with all the necessary suspension mods) and my 07 Attak. These skis were not the total answer either depending on conditions and also suspension setups as mentioned previously. Part of the "conditions" includes how many sleds with like skis you happen to be following down any given trail. The pilots weren't bad until year 2 when there were more of those tracks to follow. Search out "dartless" and spend the best $50 or so you ever did. Install these properly with the stock carbides give or take an inch or two and you will be a happy camper. The darting is gone. That means way better cornering because your machine isn't jumping around on other ski tracks. The length of and angle of the carbide as well as the diameter of the host bar are then what you need to play with to get the type of carve and ease of steering you want. With decent suspension setup it works and it's easy and inexpensive. Let me qualify this by saying that my 07 Attak has the mid keel on the skis if I am correct. I think this is the ski I would want to start with even on an RX1. I think this "dartless" (also called half pipes) is very similar in effect to the other product already described sold by Royal Dist. I think the real problem has been the weight that's riding on the skis and I don't mean you or me. It amplifies all the potentially bad characteristics of any ski/suspension setup.

 

[mike3577]

push the throttle hard enough and you can ride with no ski's.if ur on a yamaha

 

[iwillwait4u]

SO what do you do when it is a submarine and sinks in the snow?

 

[207nytro]

I don't understand why they can't just use one ski for all the sleds. Having a 5 inch vs 7 inch wide ski usually makes no difference as the edges of the skis on most designs don't touch the ground, like powder pros. Most other characteristics like keel design should be able to be accounted for with suspension adjustments.