R-Motion in a 2007 Apex RTX ?

[Teamblue4]

It all goes back to the conditions that you ride on.

 

[polarisconvert]

I have an 2005 RX1 with the mono and it fell apart. Yes I did ride it hard. After all the replacing, rebuilding and adding, I was still not happy with the ride. Last year I put a Arctic Cat Z1 128:skid under it. I heard great thing about the M10 and 20 skids, but I did not want to give up the hole shot or top end. I am very pleased with the Z1 skid. I rides very good. It has great traction and the sliders seam to be wearing very slow. I will say it was quite a bit of work, but I would definitely do it again. I am sure the R Motion is even a better ride than the Z1.

 

[Frozenstiff]

Every so often Team Fast will throw up their test skid for sale on their website for a good deal. I got my M10 at the spring cleaning house of my local ski doo shop and bolted it in my apex. It was missing the braided hose that goes to the air bag and so they basically gave it away. I wasn't even looking to swap my skid at the time but the offer they made me was INSANE!! Only complaint I had about that skid is I would have to pump up the air bag every couple of weeks but I attribute that to the cold. I bought the 141 they had and just pulled my 136" back a few inches to run the 141 with my 136 track. They had a 121" m10 still at the end of last year plus the annual open house is not this weekend but next. If they still have it I could let you know if your interested at all.

Thanks for the offer, but I,m sure shipping from Alaska to Ontario, Canada would be a deal breaker.
Great to hear others experiences with their skids.
I,m still looking for the shorty R-Motion, with-in driving distance to go and pick it up.

 

[Sasquatch]

It all goes back to the conditions that you ride on.

And I'll add how you ride.

 

[Frozenstiff]

As I mentioned before, our group rides on groomed trails, and sometimes they do get rough.
The older I get, the softer I want my ride.
We do scoot along at the high end of the posted limits, but my sled, compared to the new ones is the roughest in the group. After all, it,s a 2007. I would love to get a softer ride.
Love the torque of the Apex motor, and the reliability.
If it wasn,t for those couple of major items, I would probably ride a doo 1200. LOL

 

[MidwestMike]

My last 8 sleds had M-10s. I made the mistake of getting a 2007 RTX. I read everything there was about doing something with that suspension, tried a few things and had it up for sale after my second trip. (Had it for sale in the Milwaukee show. Told the rep I hated my first Yamaha because of the ride. He said he could get any of their suspension setup to ride good, and we started walking outside to the let him tweak the sled. As we were walking a I mentioned it was an 07 RTX, he stopped and turned around. Said that was a tough one... )

Picked up a Vector mono shock to get through the season. It was way better than the RTX (anything would be) but still not close to the smooth ride that spoiled me like the M-10s. I picked up a 1200 GSX SE at the end of the season last year, haven't even tried it yet. Everyone is telling me it will be like having the M-10 again. If it doesn't work out I will be putting an M-10 in the Vector.

My question is, why not go with the M-10 install? It seems like it is in your price range, but the biggest part is they have kits for it. You're on your own putting a Ski-Doo skid in a Yamaha, but with the M-10 you at least get a mount kit and instructions. And if you really wanted to drop the price you can find the old Polaris M-10s around. The later ones were a little different/better, and you can still get the mount kit if needed.

 

[Frozenstiff]

MidwestMike, thanks for chiming in. It,s great to hear I,m not the only one that thinks the stock suspension is way to stiff.
The problem I,ve got, is I live in Ontario, Canada, and our buck is in the toilet. Anything I buy from the states, basically costs me another 40% above what I have to pay for it in US dollars, to get it across the border, and back home.
So far, I,ve been able to find low mileage R-Motion skids in Ontario, but I,m looking at 8-10 hours total driving time to go pick it up and get back home.
The guys I,ve talked to that are selling these skids want to meet on a street corner, and I don,t have any interest in dealing with someone like that. I certainly don,t want to buy one site unseen and have it shipped, unless I feel comfortable after talking to the guy on the phone for a while and get a chance to look at several recent pics of it.
Can you really buy a complete M-10 for around 1K in US dollars ?
How soon in the season do you start riding ?
Maybe I,ll be able to buy your old R-motion for a good price ? LOL
I,ve got an email into Bruce Schrader, hopefully he might have some suggestions as well on how to soften things up in the stock suspension.
It,s basically only a couple of shocks and a couple of springs.
I,m surprised someone hasn,t come out with a " grampa kit " to soften things up. LOL

 

[MidwestMike]

Looking now, the M-10 is up to $1300 now. But they should have some kind of deal where you send a picture of the install and they give you $150 rebate. They are only showing it on air suspensions now, but it was offered when I called them up to talk to them.

The other part, two late now, is to get some of the summer deals. Besides them having the scratch and dents, they are absolutely dead in the summer and seem to come up with deals then.

The other part is find someone parting out a Polaris, and get the M-10 out of that. They did a slight change between metric and SAE in there somewhere, but you can find early 2000 models easy enough. I know I was considering that because I still had a pair of M-10 sleds, and I was only getting $1800 - $2000 for them, and then would spend another $1100 for a suspension alone. But the summer deals on used skids also applies.

If you find a Polaris M-10, FAST wants about $200 for the simple brackets. A used M-10, possible shock work, and the brackets start getting you closer to a new one. Although if you were planning on putting an rMotion in you should also be able to get an M-10 in without buying the brackets. I know I was able to find articles here and instructions on the FAST site that would get you real close. As for shocks, I probably shouldn't say this out loud, but I never had them rebuilt. I would put 10-15 thousand miles on these sleds and not touch a thing. (Including clutches, which makes me think as I'm reading about everyone rebuilding them every other season on the doo sites.. )

 

[ssgzag15]

While doing predelivery inspections on some new SR Viper LTX's, I noticed the similarity of the rear springs and the ones in my 2009 Apex RTX, I did some measuring and determined that they would fit nicely.
I ordered a right and left spring for a 2015 Viper LTX, the thickness of the stock RTX springs measure .429 in. , while the Viper spring cross section measures .389 in. I have installed them in my skid, using pieces of 1 1/2 in pvc pipe for bushings, (works well). Hopefully they will provide the much needed plushness the RTX skid is sorely missing, now just need some snow...

 

[MidwestMike]

Yamaha makes a lighter spring for the RTX.

Here is the thread with the lighter Yamaha spring:
http://www.ty4stroke.com/threads/07-rtx-softer-rear-springs.94966/
Part numbers in last post at the bottom.

And here is one on swapping to a mono in the RTX:
http://www.ty4stroke.com/threads/yamaha-apex-rtx-monoskid-switch-to-torsion-spring.117654/

 

[Teamblue4]

over 17,000 miles on my 07 RTX when I sold it, never once complained about it being stiff. I guess I'm the crazy one.

 

[Metallicat]

Maybe the Star kit plus a revalve?
http://www.starsuspensions.com/XTXA.htm

 

[Frozenstiff]

over 17,000 miles on my 07 RTX when I sold it, never once complained about it being stiff. I guess I'm the crazy one.

How muscular are you, since I didn,t want to offend you by asking how much you weight. LOL
I,m about 185, or so, with all my gear.

 

[sledheadgeorge]

I,m getting old, LOL, and lately I,ve been considering putting a complete R-Motion skid in my sled.
I would like to make the sled ride as soft and plush as possible.
I only ride groomed trails. Love the Apex motor, and would love to be able to ride 200 miles a day, 2-3 days in a row. With the stiff Pro-action CK suspension that is in the sled now, it just isn,t possible.
Has anyone already done this ? And if so, any tips on making the instal as easy as possible ?

What ever skid you decide to get the key to a good skid swap is to transfer the geometry from the donor sled to yours. Mounting points, clearance etc. Remove your track and drive axle/drivers and transfer all the points from the donor sled. You might need to make drop down brackets as well. Good luck

 

[Frozenstiff]

Hey George, thanks for the advice.
Looking forward to finding a like new R-Motion.
I,ve talked to one guy a while back that has done this conversion the start of last season, and he was very happy with the way his Apex rode all last winter.