When our Supertrax crew of test riders rode Ski-Doo’s new Summit with t-Motion last March, they literally jumped out of their boots raving about the difference it made side-hilling and changing direction against gravity in deep powder.
The combination of a flexible edged track and the tilting, side-to-side motion of the t-Motion skidframe allowed riders to simply shift their body weight left or right and the sled would respond telepathically.
Initially, everyone was pretty skeptical about whether or not it would make a real difference, but riding the t-Motion Summit really put everyone’s doubts to rest.
Based on this experience, if you’re asking if the new mountain skidframe will be an instant success, we’d have to say “no”.
What we strongly believe is this winter a reasonable number will be sold and hardcore mountain riders will get a chance to ride their friends’ Summits.
Once those riders experience the radically improved deep-snow handling this technology offers, there’ll be a much larger demand for t-Motion.
Another thing: It’s really easy to forget about the other improvements Ski-Doo has made to the new XM Summit simply because t-Motion overshadows everything about the sled.
The new bodywork offers way better footrest area maneuverability, weight shift and foot grip and the bodywork has the same kind of storage amenities the REV-XS offers.
Certainly the direct-injected E-TEC 800 and 600 are the engines of choice for the Ski-Doo mountain rider and their ability to generate consistent power at high altitudes makes them very appealing to elevation addicts.
We think it’ll take one year for mountain fans to get hooked on the sled. Once the hook is set, however, the Summit has the potential to move a lot of riders off their familiar brand the following year.
