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No more Drone??


pretty much the only complaint I have with my Apex...damn awesome sled otherwise. Drone is pretty bad...fortunately only at a certain speed range....but it is right where tight trail riding....especially when riding in a group happens.

Earplugs help, otherwise blipping the throttle a lot, acc/decal instead of steady cruising in the drone range, not much else one can do.
Big 4 cyl exhaust system running thru an enclosed hollow space (tunnel)....is what it is.
The Apex shines the faster you go....smooths right out and the drone is gone....just an awesome wail outa the back..:):)

Apex's sound awesome to everyone around them....except the rider....no one else hears/feels the drone and most of the awesome exhaust sound is fired straight out the back....
 
terez said:
pretty much the only complaint I have with my Apex...damn awesome sled otherwise. Drone is pretty bad...fortunately only at a certain speed range....but it is right where tight trail riding....especially when riding in a group happens.

Earplugs help, otherwise blipping the throttle a lot, acc/decal instead of steady cruising in the drone range, not much else one can do.
Big 4 cyl exhaust system running thru an enclosed hollow space (tunnel)....is what it is.
The Apex shines the faster you go....smooths right out and the drone is gone....just an awesome wail outa the back..:):)

Apex's sound awesome to everyone around them....except the rider....no one else hears/feels the drone and most of the awesome exhaust sound is fired straight out the back....
Click to expand...

My thousand Cat triple with no tunnel exhaust had a drone at about 15 to 25 mph that you not only heard but felt in your chest! It would drive you insane. Yet same year 600 ZR had near nil at any speed or slider condition! T-Cat had drone same Chassis Year and Suspension as the ZR! Same Cat track lug spacing but different engine. Changing the sliders on my Thousand cut the drone in half! Putting the covers back on the Power breather lid cut it another half! Drone is not any one thing its most always a combination of things. Its resonance of the carbs. exhaust and harmonics of wheels over track lugs. When they get in syc you have drone. Years of RX and Apex also make a difference! Many have complained about the second gen Ventures being loud!

I added Duponts instead of larger idle wheels (11 XTX has wheels that are higher up on the skid then 12 on. With new slides the wheels can be turned by hand on the garage floor ie. barely touch the track) and have very little drone or none under most conditions but last winter running on melted and then frozen icy trail with a dust of snow on it I had considerable drone with half worn Duponts. The next day with a large snowfall I had none. The day after on fresh groomed hard trail I heard a bit of a drone but as the trail got chewed up it stopped. All in that 2o to 30ish range.

I'll also add that my First Cat helmet was loud, My second helmet was much better and my BVS2 the quietest, so even helmet and helmet choice plays a part! If I ride my Warrior with its Exccel Exhaust with my Helmet on its fairly loud when I get on the throttle hard! Yet if I go for a blast without my helmet its not loud at all when the flipper hits the bar!

Apex Drone some have it! Some have none! Most just go faster!
 
I am with Charley / Sasquatch on this. I do not think it is exhaust related as I could not reproduce it on the stand.
If you notice new slides and almost no drone. The more wheel on fiberglass rod of track load there is the more drone - makes sense why it is a track speed related harmonic. I am hoping my new Apex XTX with Dupont slides and Excell wheels will have less drone BUT only time will tell.

I believe there was once a post of someone removing wheels and having no drone..........slide wear may be a little fast but her pick your poison LOL
 
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As I mentioned in my track swap thread, switching from the Ripsaw to the Ice Cobra last year on the XTX cut down the drone quite a bit. To the point that I thought it was weird to hear chaincase sounds etc. I thought I had put the sled back together wrong. But in actuality, the drone used to cover up all the other sounds the sled makes.
 
biffdotorg said:
As I mentioned in my track swap thread, switching from the Ripsaw to the Ice Cobra last year on the XTX cut down the drone quite a bit. To the point that I thought it was weird to hear chaincase sounds etc. I thought I had put the sled back together wrong. But in actuality, the drone used to cover up all the other sounds the sled makes.
Click to expand...


Did you also change / replace slide the reason I ask as when I went to the Pre studded track on my old Apex I thought I had improved it as well, it came back after a 1500 miles or so. Hope yours doesnt.
 
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yamadoo said:
Did you also change / replace slide the reason I ask as when I went to the Ripsaw on my old Apex I thought I had improved it as well, it came back after a 1500 miles or so. Hope yours doesnt.
Click to expand...

That's a very valid point. Yes I did replace the slides. It was a logical time to do that while torn down. We will see this year I suppose. I have had pretty good slide wear on the XTX with Duponts, so I have only swapped sliders a couple times. The sound was not noticeable other times I did slide replacement.

On that note, my senses were on high alert after the track swap as well. As this was the first time I had ever torn down a chaincase, and I honestly thought if I screwed it up, it would blow up in the first 10 miles. All is good so far.
 
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Hi everyone, I know this is an old thread. I too hated the drone.
I used to wear a full face old style snowmobile helmet with electric shield.
When I went to a motocross style helmet guess what? No more done! The open helmet with goggles didn't echo! No more annoying electric shield cord either! Goggles did not fog. I used a quality Balaklava and was good unless the temps dropped below-20c.
Cheers!
 
its funny reading the comments on drone...I had a venture and the drone drove me nuts...tried everything..ear plugs, Bose noise cancelling earbuds, ported the track etc...nothing worked except going faster than 40mph...I did finally find a solution that worked very well...sold the venture, invested $10k in addition and got a Sidewinder...drone all gone...so if the drone bothers you...now you know the solution...took me a while to come to this conclusion.
 
sailor joe said:
its funny reading the comments on drone...I had a venture and the drone drove me nuts...tried everything..ear plugs, Bose noise cancelling earbuds, ported the track etc...nothing worked except going faster than 40mph...I did finally find a solution that worked very well...sold the venture, invested $10k in addition and got a Sidewinder...drone all gone...so if the drone bothers you...now you know the solution...took me a while to come to this conclusion.
Click to expand...

All you did was buy different problems.
 
sailor joe said:
its funny reading the comments on drone...I had a venture and the drone drove me nuts...tried everything..ear plugs, Bose noise cancelling earbuds, ported the track etc...nothing worked except going faster than 40mph...I did finally find a solution that worked very well...sold the venture, invested $10k in addition and got a Sidewinder...drone all gone...so if the drone bothers you...now you know the solution...took me a while to come to this conclusion.
Click to expand...
Me too. The Winder very quiet aside from that darn clutch.
 
I'm not even thinking I bought another problem...not even close, the GT sidewinder is stable, quiet and allot of fun and I feel very confident on the machine...my wife does too. This is supposed to be a fun sport to get out of the house in winter, with the GT, sledding has returned to that...fun.
There is something else I see on the trails as I ride alone 50% of the time...single riders, meaning guys and gals riding without a pack of others are greatly riding a Yamaha, I'd say 80% of these sledders are on a Yamaha.,what's great about the people in the sport no matter what brand they are riding, if you are stopped on the trail they slow down and ask if everything is ok...try that on the side of a highway lol. The STX Sidewinder GT is pure bliss.
 
Teamblue4 said:
All you did was buy different problems.
Click to expand...
That's for sure. Go read the Sidewinder forum.
Sold mine as it hit 2500 miles all the problems listed on the forum started happening one by one.
I really liked it other than fixing it constantly.
 
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