Thoughts on first ride on a new to me Apex

[bigreis]

The good:

I bought an 2007 Apex this past summer and was finally able to ride it this weekend for the first time of the season up in Grand Maris, MN. This sled is my upgrade from a 2002 Viper that had a 136" M-10 suspension in it with SLP triple pipes. My "new to me" Apex has a 121" M-20 Airwave plus several other minor upgrades (Cobra track, HID lights, Yamaheaters, RAM Air, nitrous.) My initial impression was "Wow, how can people possibly say bad things about the Apex?" It took about two miles to get used to the engine braking and the vastly improved seating position. I actually found that I liked the engine braking... much less time spent reaching for the brake! The sled had dually's when I bought is and it had zero darting and cornered really well.

After I got the air pressure in the M-20 set properly, I must say that the M-20 skid is an improvement over the M-10 I had in the Viper. It just felt like it soaked up the rough parts of the trails even better than the M-10 (which is still a great skid). One thing I noticed was that if I tried to adjust the air pressure while underway (I have the diamond option) it would end up completely flat shortly there after. Not sure if that is the way they all work or if I have some bad plumbing or if I was just accidentally taking too much air out without realizing it (the little air pressure gauge is hard to read at 40 mph), but if I would add or subtract air at a stop I would have no problems with it holding air.

The SledStart HID lights were absolutely amazing! I didn't have them aimed right yet, but sitting next to other halogen lit sleds it is literally a night and day difference. Best $200 I ever spent... and I am saying that after using them for a total of 3 hours! The Yamaheaters work awesome... at the max I had them turned up about half way when it was about 15 degrees F out.

The bad:

My brother's stock Viper also with Cobra track (and he weighs as much as I do), would beat my Apex off the line and stay ahead for about 200 yards. After that, the Apex would slowly walk past the Viper. We switched sleds and still had the same results. The Viper maxed out at 101 and the Apex was only seeing 104 on hard packed snow. Based on what others have posted, I was expecting to see at least 110 with stock clutching. I have the RTX... did Yamaha put different gearing in that sled?

After 101 miles of riding and 1 mile from the parking lot, the suspension dropped like a rock and wouldn't fill back up. This happened at 2 AM, and I didn't feeling like trying to troubleshoot it. I limped back to the trailer with less suspension than my dad's 1974 SM 292F! The next morning I found that the airline going from the inside of the tunnel to the air spring had sheared off at the connection that passes the air through the tunnel. Some quick thinking reminded me that the nitrous supply line is exactly the same as the the one that the skid uses, so I pulled out the nitrous system out and was very disappointed to find that the nitrous line was about 4 inches too short! Since nobody in the area had the airline that I needed, that was the end of the Apex for the weekend! I ended up having to rent a freaking Doo GSX500 for $220 just to be able to ride with my buddy for the day . Don't even ask how pissed my wife was when I told her how much I had to spend on a snowmobile that wasn't even mine! On top of that, I had to ride a POS Doo decked out in Yamie gear!

I will certainly be calling TEAM Fast to find out how often this airline gets busted and then making sure I am carrying at least two spares! The only things I can think of that could have broke the line is that there either was a freak chunk of ice (or a rock) that hit the fitting or my new track had stretched out so much that the inner lugs started hitting the air line and caused the fitting to fatigue to the point of failure from the constant impact/vibration.

The last complaint is about my new Triton trailer with the "clamshell" cover. Every time we needed to open or close it, it was next to impossible to get the locking/pivot pins in or our of the holes. I ended up just putting a 9/16" ratchet in my pocket so that I could loosen up the mounting plates for the pins. It seems weird that such a popular trailer has such a crappy cover design... anyone else having this problem?

All in all it was a decent weekend... the Best Western in Grand Maris was very nice and a reasonable price. The 100 miles on the Apex were awesome and having to ride the Doo for a day made me really happy to say I have ridden Yammies my whole life!

 

[ecopter]

I've had the same problem with my Triton cover. Brand new out of the showroom (so to speak). I drilled out the holes a tad to allow for a little play.

 

[yamaha1973]

Someone else chime in if im wrong but the apex RTX is geared lower than the standard?

 

[779cookies]

RTX is geared 22/38, apex 24/38, but I would say part of your lack of top end is the M20. It is not a high speed skid. You have nitrous and you only pulled 104??

 

[smoothride]

There is a aluminum bracket that holds that air line fitting inside the tunnel. I have never had a problem with it yet on mine.

 

[bigreis]

I wasn't on the bottle this weekend. I know that the M-20 causes you to loose a few MPH, but I thing the biggest factor has to be the different gearing (I had no idea they geared the RTX differently).

 

[VectorLTX2012]

i had to adjust my trailer a few times and drill out the holes a little. I found out that if the back works well the front may not and if the front works well the back may not. I only open the back and drive on and drive off using reverse. It works really well now and have no problems.

Chester

 

[bigreis]

There is a aluminum bracket that holds that air line fitting inside the tunnel. I have never had a problem with it yet on mine.

What is this "bracket" that you speak of? My braided line connects to the AN4 style fitting in the side of the tunnel and then flops over the rear torque arm and connects directly to the shock. I bought this setup used, so maybe it is missing a crucial component.

 

[kinger]

From what I seen the combo of cobra track and M20 is about a 10-12mph top end speed loss. With your 22/38 gearing you should be able to pull hard all the way up there and your out of gear. Each tooth you go up on the top gear will get you about 5 mph. Stock apex are 24/38 which would get you about 10 mph on the top end if your sled will pull it. If you have nitrous on there is the clutching heavy bringing the RPM's down so that when you use the spray it is actually clutched for that RPM on the bottle? That is a large drawback of the nitrous system I didn't care for was anytime I wasn't on the spray I was over geared and under clutched so to speak. What was your RPM at speed?

 

[bottlerocket]

M20 is eating more top end then you think.

 

[Essarex]

The M10s and 20s are nice for trail smoothness, but I find that if I stay in the motel and watch TV, instead of actually riding, I have the most comfort possible.

In all seriousness, those suspensions do not transfer weight, so fast starts are non existent, and on top due to their extra travel and track bends, they suffer top end speed losses.

For some riders, those losses are justifibly recovered through trail comfort. Many a rider has asked why his sled seems slow after running his new suspension.

 

[bottlerocket]

I had a 50 shot and clutched for 10400 which the sled ran hard off the bottle and 10900-10950 on the bottle. Thats and good starting point if your shooting 50 hp.

 

[bigreis]

Since it was my first day with the sled, I kept the bottle shut off and was running stock clutching. I wanted to get a feel for it before changing the clutching to be able to run the nitrous. I kept forgetting to check the RPMs during the day when we were racing and was going to do that on the ride across the lake back to the parking lot at the end of the night... but that was when my suspension went flat, so I never got to see what the RPMs were topping out at. As soon as I get the air line fixed, I will post back with the RPM results. Thanks for the advice!

 

[smoothride]

There is a aluminum bracket that holds that air line fitting inside the tunnel. I have never had a problem with it yet on mine.

What is this "bracket" that you speak of? My braided line connects to the AN4 style fitting in the side of the tunnel and then flops over the rear torque arm and connects directly to the shock. I bought this setup used,
so maybe it is missing a crucial component.

The aluminum bracket is bolted to the tunnel an clamped on the fitting so you don't brake it off. As far as speed lose my sled has hit 104 mph on the gps in the trail how much faster does everyone what to go in the trail.

 

[ranger1]

Your suspension is definately killing you! Kinger stated that your gearing could be the culprit but only so if you are on glare ice. In conditions other than glare ice, your 22 top gear will do fine, maybe even better when you are running on packed/loose snow!