Some things I tried this year

[Metallicat]

I made a few adjustments to my ride this year and added HID lights, snowtrackers, gearing change to 20/39, and a stainless header. Other mods include Ulmer clutching, Yamaheaters, and Pioneer revalve on the rear shock. Also using an Ultimax XS belt.

Best mod by far is the Yamaheater. If your hands are cold your experience will be miserable. My hands still hurt when I think about riding my sled in 0 deg temps without them.

Second best...probably the clutch kit. It engages smoothly, is easily adjustable, and pulls harder throughout the rev range. I particularly like it with the softer Ultimax belt.

Third would have to be the revalved monoshock. The revalve lets me ride with the tunnel dial at the softest position. It erases small bumps yet does a good job on the larger hits too. The rebound is much improved and the compression is more fluid and progressive.

HID lights - not sure if I notice a huge improvement over the Silverstars I was using. The lows seem good, but I expected more out of the highs.

Gearing and header - I'm traction limited with the stock Ripsaw, no studs, and transfer set to min so mostly I am just spinning the track. When I was able to find a decent hard trail I thought it pulled better in the 60-90 mph range. Still saw 108 on the speedo on a good stretch, 100 in softer conditions, about what it was before. Turns 8500-8700 right now. It will still make good power up to 9100rpm so I could pull more rpm if I wanted to by removing a washer from the weights.

Snowtrackers - very easy steering, no darting, but still lots of push in the corners on the trails we were riding. I have some 8" tripple points I'm going to use next time for comparison. I was using 6" tripples before this year. They were worn down to nothing so I'll try another new set, 8" this time.

 

[4strokeluvr111]

Good review Mike! I really like my DDM Tuning HID's at night......so much better vision than any other bulb I have tried. FWIW - I might jump into a FAST M10 or M20 instead of spending money on a revalve and the Hygear dual rate spring.

 

[smokingcrater]

HID lights - not sure if I notice a huge improvement over the Silverstars I was using. The lows seem good, but I expected more out of the highs.

Very likely you have LESS light than the silverstars... HID's in a housing meant for filament bulbs automatically means you have less light.

 

[Metallicat]

Very likely you have LESS light than the silverstars... HID's in a housing meant for filament bulbs automatically means you have less light.

I never thought about that, because most reviews have been extremely positive.

 

[steiner]

HID lights - not sure if I notice a huge improvement over the Silverstars I was using. The lows seem good, but I expected more out of the highs.

The Yamaha light housing has a large spread from high to low no matter what bulb is in there. I have a remote adjuster for the light pod and adjust it so that the highs are in the sweet spot.
I think one would see a bigger difference from the stock lights to the Silverstars than the Silverstars to HID's.
I changed from PIAA to HID. Color was almost the same but the intensity of the light was improved. When I see stock headlights now they remind me of candles glowing during a power outage.

 

[steiner]

Best mod by far is the Yamaheater. If your hands are cold your experience will be miserable. My hands still hurt when I think about riding my sled in 0 deg temps without them.

One of my favorite mods. Yamaheater with boost and Thumb boost.

 

[steiner]

Snowtrackers - very easy steering, no darting, but still lots of push in the corners on the trails we were riding. I have some 8" tripple points I'm going to use next time for comparison. I was using 6" tripples before this year. They were worn down to nothing so I'll try another new set, 8" this time.

I had 8" triples with the shim and ski saver. Very little darting and could actually turn on pavement at the gas stations. I was impressed.
Bolted on a set of Aggressive Snowtrackers. Zero darting and a lot less shoulder fatigue. Don't grab well on pavement but sure do grab on wood floor trailers.
When these wear out I will bolt on another set of Snowtrackers.

 

[4strokeluvr111]

Very likely you have LESS light than the silverstars... HID's in a housing meant for filament bulbs automatically means you have less light.

This was my first try at HID's. For what the DDM kit cost I said what the heck...why not? Only a few bucks more than good Xenon bulbs. If I have less lumens IDC....I can see BETTER than I ever have at night and that's important to me.