Yamaha Cutting Production for 2019

[journeyman]

I think its too late to be a flop; the Ctec 600 has been in production sleds since 2014 and they have sold tons of them. From what I see and read its a very reliable 600 with similar hp has the Doo and Poo. No one is complaining about them.

Since Cat started building their own 2s in St. Cloud I have not heard anything about engine failures. Shortly before they did I ran into a guy in the UP that had a brand new 800 Suzuki/Cat that blew up on his first ride and was in the process of renting a sled for the remainder of his trip.

The number of Doo 800's and now 850's E-Tec engine failures seem like a dime a dozen. I have seen a few 600 E-Tec's go down too.

Now the latest 800 Polaris I haven't heard much about, Kip at Pat's says he's had good luck with them. Others have posted here about some issues but as said I haven't heard much.....other than that recent new 850 RMK prototype failure.....who knows.

Just my opinion with these 2s direct injected engines.....they want to keep decreasing fuel and oil consumption.....2 strokes need oil to survive. Starve them and well, you know what happens!

 

[journeyman]

I agree. My old sxr was 130hp ish. That thing would smoke the new 150hp ish new 800s often. I wish that Yamaha would bring that engine back in a 900cc tripple.

You mean SRX?

The SXR (redhead) models never had 130HP unless you piped them.

 

[mikextx]

No I meant sxr. I'm probably wrong on hp#. I know that thing was fast as fk

 

[ClutchMaster]

Idk......after riding a turbo or even an 800/850......I don't think you'd expect to come away impressed. That's a tough one.

Once geared down, clutched, right track & set up. They can be fun. That's about it.

The 600 stays on the pipe corner to corner. Little suckers like to take a pounding.

Oh I still ride my old F111 a couple times a year. 1” track with picks it’s a lot of fun. Every 600 I have every raced I have beat. Including SRX 600’s and ZRT 600’s. The only 700’s that got me were all triple piped and one 700 twin curse those dam firecats!
Brand spanking new 800 poo dead even on a 4 mile lake run, 150hp my a$$.

 

[mikextx]

I have yet to see a poo 800 held to the bar for over a couple miles. They're usually on a strap, low on compression before that

 

[Doc Harley]

Clutchmaster, ain't what it used to be.....I love when these rider forward sleds start to argue over who's is faster......

The Skidoo 850 is King! King of what? Lol! I think the guys that just started racing sleds the the 10-15yrs. Don't really understand what the low output triple can do.

But, we've exchanged speed for comfort. Which on a whooped out nasty ride back to the crib at the end of the day......I do appreciate. Lol!

It's all good.

 

[ClutchMaster]

Sorry I’m a serious Johnny, back on topic,.
I’ll STFU.

 

[Farmer 73]

How do you know this?

Yes how does he know this? We all hope its true! I wouldn't care if the retooling took 5 more years, I just want Yamaha to stay in the sled business!

 

[ClutchMaster]

Johnny says.....But seriously what ever happened to paint you can actually buff?
It just looks so much better!

 

[74Nitro]

Very true!! I went to some of Olav Aaen's clutch tuning course years ago. In his class at the time he said the redhead 700 was the most bullet proof 2 stroke he'd ever been around. He was using it all season long in his go-kart for testing clutch parts. He said "I have literally beat the tar out of that motor without one failure and it keeps coming back for more!!"

Since Cat started building their own 2s in St. Cloud I have not heard anything about engine failures. Shortly before they did I ran into a guy in the UP that had a brand new 800 Suzuki/Cat that blew up on his first ride and was in the process of renting a sled for the remainder of his trip.

The number of Doo 800's and now 850's E-Tec engine failures seem like a dime a dozen. I have seen a few 600 E-Tec's go down too.

Now the latest 800 Polaris I haven't heard much about, Kip at Pat's says he's had good luck with them. Others have posted here about some issues but as said I haven't heard much.....other than that recent new 850 RMK prototype failure.....who knows.

Just my opinion with these 2s direct injected engines.....they want to keep decreasing fuel and oil consumption.....2 strokes need oil to survive. Starve them and well, you know what happens!

Plenty of my friends ride new 800's and 850's Doo and Pol. My observations have been that the newer ones are lasting better, but also are using much more oil than they were a few years ago. Even the owners of these machines openly admit to me that these new machines are absolute pigs on oil. And it ain't cheap!

 

[mikextx]

Sweet srx, 2002?

 

[journeyman]

No I meant sxr. I'm probably wrong on hp#. I know that thing was fast as fk

700 model? All stock those were 110-115 HP.

We had a couple of them, a 1998 in the XTC package and a 2001 SXR. The 2001 was the fastest year being it had the better ignition with the 300 watt magneto. On my 2001 I also ran a thinner head gasket to bump compression and installed reed spacers being that engine had some back ports that got partially blocked by the reed cage. The spacers allowed the cage to pull out about 1/4" and it got rid of the low engine speed babble. It had a slight hesitation from the longer intake track w/spacers but the midrange was thicker.

 

[journeyman]

Yes how does he know this? We all hope its true! I wouldn't care if the retooling took 5 more years, I just want Yamaha to stay in the sled business!

Well I see Marty is also from Minnesota, maybe he knows someone inside the Cat facility....? I know 2 people affiliated with Cat, one that works and races for them and one who writes their magazine and runs their forum.

 

[mikextx]

yes, it was a 01 700. all my buddies said it was a freak cause it was so damn fast. i left it stock when we all had yami tripples (one srx, one viper and my sxr). When those guys moved on to polaris 800s i too peeled my headgasket, drilled the silencer, and put reed spacers on. That thing was hard to beat on the trails, or drag racing. The problem with hanging with those new poos in the ruff was it beat the hell out of me. It was truly an animal. One of my buddies used always say, "some japanese guy got laid the night before that thing was built". lol. Shoulda kept it

 

[ClutchMaster]

Sweet srx, 2002?

2000, Her name is Shake-N-Bake.