Arrived in Old Forge for the 8:30 am departure from Yamaha trailer, temperature was 0. Besides me there were two other guys, one guy never showed up(his loss). We were greeted by Scott and Kirk from the Yamaha factory. All of us were on the new sleds and Kirk was on a 2010 Apex LTX we would swap out on for comparison. We hit the trails and the hand warmers definitely worked. Wind protection was good. Steering was effortless and I experienced no inside ski lift. Skis are a new design and a couple of the sleds had a different spindle rubber to provide more shimming at the back of the ski. I personally didn't notice the difference in steering effort but the other guys said they could. The 2010 Apex LTX definitely turned harder, it had stock skis with Woody's duallys. After lunch at Stillwater Inn we went across reservoir. I had it to the bar and saw just a touch over 10,000 rpm, speedo just went over 100 mph. Indications were lower than what I saw on my Apex last week here but maybe new speedo is more accurate. Sled was fast enough, that's for sure and throttle response is crisp.
Looking the sled over I noticed RA cable seems to be made with a heavier gauge metal outer sheath so maybe it will be less prone to breaking. Air box is redesigned and appears smaller. Bottom access cover for oil drain plug is much smaller than Apex or RX-1, more like the Vector or RS Nytro. Big enough for a filter to be located there too. Although I could see four header pipes at front of tunnel I'm going to stick my neck out and say I think this is a 3 cylinder. If it turns out to be a 4 it is not the same one the current sleds have been using.
As we arrived back to the trailer several Yamaha riders came by and made a U turn to check out the new rides. They all tested the steering and the lady in the crowd said WOW, I can do it with one hand!
We only ended up riding about 50 miles and the trails were icy in a lot of the corners so I didn't really get to put the true cornering capability of the sled to the test. All in all it was a great experience and I thank Yamaha for the opportunity.
Looking the sled over I noticed RA cable seems to be made with a heavier gauge metal outer sheath so maybe it will be less prone to breaking. Air box is redesigned and appears smaller. Bottom access cover for oil drain plug is much smaller than Apex or RX-1, more like the Vector or RS Nytro. Big enough for a filter to be located there too. Although I could see four header pipes at front of tunnel I'm going to stick my neck out and say I think this is a 3 cylinder. If it turns out to be a 4 it is not the same one the current sleds have been using.
As we arrived back to the trailer several Yamaha riders came by and made a U turn to check out the new rides. They all tested the steering and the lady in the crowd said WOW, I can do it with one hand!
We only ended up riding about 50 miles and the trails were icy in a lot of the corners so I didn't really get to put the true cornering capability of the sled to the test. All in all it was a great experience and I thank Yamaha for the opportunity.
