Our fave 7000 ZR was the ProCross 137 variant using Cat’s all-new 137-inch floating front arm, Torque Sensing Link (TSL) equipped, torsion spring skidframe.

This skid gives the perfect balance of traction and mogul bridging for any trail rider disposed to occasional forays into deeper fluff.

You can still get the XF 7000 with a 144-inch skid sans torsion springs and a floating front arm, however, unless you’re riding preference is more than 50-percent off trail, go with the 137. It is exceptional.

We anticipated handling with the 1049 in the ZR (Pro Cross) platform would be similar to the 5000 ZR (the new nomenclature for the Suzuki 1100 4-stroke twin in 2014), but the sled proved us wrong.

The Yamaha triple is actually 12 pounds lighter than the 1056cc Suzuki twin and you can feel it. Turn-in is precise with just a hint of understeer that’s easily controlled with the throttle and forward weighting.

What we’re saying is this: Turn-in is not so aggressive it would upset a less experienced rider, but intuitive enough to satisfy an apex clipping, aggressive rider.

At mid-turn, the triple loves to be whacked, even with the 137-incher biting white top. The resultant instantaneous, torquey response tails out the chassis, exiting with skis planted and snow dust in the air.

Arctic Cat’s suspension calibration has taken a quantum leap in 2014 with the new 137 FFA skid. The floating front arm concept is widely accepted as the best way to eliminate vibes from trail jigglers. With the extra length of a 137 the sled literally vacuums trail trash.

Rear torsion spring calibration on the protos we rode in West Yellowstone was a real departure for Arctic Cat. Obviously someone got the memo trail riders only occasionally, not regularly, clear 100-foot doubles. Cough!

XF 7000s with the 137 track were sweet riding and will definitely get Cat back in the mainstream with trail riders who prioritize plush ride over bottoming resistance.

Here’s the secret formula. Take a legendary engine, shoehorn it into a sweet chassis, clutch it for hard acceleration and top end, stick in a smooth riding, mogul bridging skid and guess what?

You get a really good snowmobile!

+ ARCTIC CAT 7000 PROCROSS: PART I

There’s no question Arctic Cat has been making solid, strategic and successful moves the past two seasons. To prove the point they’re about to bend the rules and minds of the sno-mo-industry for a third year in a row.

Enter the Yamaha/Arctic Cat engine supply relationship. Yep, check out your 2014 Arctic Cat brochure and there proudly for everyone to see is the proclamation certain 2014 models will use a Yamaha 1049cc triple for motivation.

Really, seriously? And Cat ain’t shy about it either. Frankly, why would they be? In what is sure to go down in history as a landmark homerun for Arctic Cat it somehow negotiated itself into a position where Yamaha is selling them their best 4-stroke engine – and, IMO, the best 4-stroke powerplant in the biz. Nice.

So what have we got here? Clearly, this engine loves living in the ProCross chassis. While it’s mounting and plumbing appear unusual – the exhaust makes a complete 180 under the fuel tank, turning forward to the right fender well, the shoehorning of this potent mill into the AC chassis feels about as good as any quad stroke package we’ve ridden to date.

Cat elected to use its effective and very tunable primary and secondary clutches for the Series 7000 ZR models the 1049 resides in. This is a smart move.

Arctic Cat has more tuning parts available for their clutches than Yamaha does for their clutch duo and maybe most importantly, the Cat secondary is a roller cam unit. Yamaha’s driven is not.

The sound of the new 7000 ZR when first lit is audibly pleasing. The 120-degree firing cadence of the triple is genuine gearhead music.

The exhaust header is exposed to snow from the tunnel and did not produce any noticeable heating in the right footwell.

Throttle response from first blip to full whack is exactly what you’d expect from this 130-plus-hp triple. The engine responds with 2-stroke urgency and actually feels like it has a healthy mid-range hook where the motor stands up and beats its fist on its chest.

This is a pleasing engine to ply and to prove it the 7000 ZR package was an instantaneous hit with every one of our riders.

+ PART II: 2014 Arctic Cat 7000 ProCross

A couple of weeks ago Supertrax had the opportunity to ride all the new 2014 models in Montana. Just so you know, the elevation was about 6,600 feet above sea level, so some of our engine evaluations are tempered by the high altitude. However, we did get a good chance to check out suspensions, clutching and handling on the key new sleds you’ve been waiting to hear about. Over the next days we’ll be filling you in on our riding experiences with these new sleds.

This is the sled so many readers have been waiting to hear about. We deliberately chose the 137-inch Viper here because it was the one that impressed us the most.

The slightly longer 137 track combined with the calibration of the 2-way coupled falling rate skidframe equipped with a sliding-style front arm and torque links on the rear arm delivers a premium ride.

The SE version with air shocks on the front is a slight bit less compliant at trail speeds but still close. We think the ride quality of the coilover equipped version is the best overall, however, and certainly amps itself with the 137 inch length.

The engine? All we can say is WOW! This is the sweetest sounding 4-stroke mill – and nothing has been compromised with the loss of rear exiting exhaust.

Its power delivery is just too suh-weeet! There’s no throttle lag, it has a midrange hit that makes you run for the Kleenex box to stop the nosebleed and then revs out smoothly and with big-time authority to the big end.

Remember how we’ve always stated that 4-stroke engines in the Cat ProCross chassis feel more like 2-strokes the way they handle? Yup, this one makes you forget it’s a 4-stroke. There’s very little push in the corners; the sled feels balanced and light – very neutral.

The biggest deal will be calibrating Yamaha’s clutches to work with this package. While we were at West Yellowstone a bevy of engineers were working feverishly to dial in the Yamaha clutches (the decision to go with Yamaha clutches was a fairly late development) and they were making real progress.

We think this package is gonna be a very good one and is certainly good enough to convert some 2-stroke lovers over to 4-stroke.

A couple of weeks ago Supertrax had the opportunity to ride all the new 2014 models in Montana. Just so you know, the elevation was about 6,600 feet above sea level, so some of our engine evaluations are tempered by the high altitude. However, we did get a good chance to check out suspensions, clutching and handling on the key new sleds you’ve been waiting to hear about. Over the next days we’ll be filling you in on our riding experiences with these new sleds.

This sled takes riders in a completely different direction from what we’re used to.

Using a super-smooth, super quiet 4-stroke in a category that may not exist yet is a pretty bold move by Ski-Doo’s product planners.

We’ve had an opportunity to ride the 900 ACE in three different settings (two at sea level, the other at elevation) and we’re impressed.

Right now Ski-Doo is settling on final calibration with this new engine package utilizing drive-by-wire technology, and is very close to perfection.

The best one we rode was the MX-Z 900 at altitude. Although the engine couldn’t rev out as well at 6,600 feet as it did at sea level (we recorded 88-mph at this altitude), we were taken with the engine’s extreme smoothness and near-silent exhaust note.

Throttle tip-in on the units we rode in Montana was very smooth and linear and we can’t help but think this DBW technology will find itself on all Ski-Doo 4-strokes in the future.

With extremely light throttle pressure it really is a nice engine to ply for a long ride. We rode the MX-Z about 40 miles in Yellowstone and back home (sea level) we’ve experienced several 80-plus mile jaunts.

We think the biggest challenge Ski-Doo will face with this powerplant is tweaking hardcore snowmobilers’ mindsets to the fact this is sufficient power.

The truth is, with a very responsive midrange and a nice power delivery from engagement to trail speeds, it can run with some pretty heavy duty sleds and really is perfect for a large segment of riders. Certainly the riding experience is excellent – probably unlike any other snowmobile we’ve ridden.

Here’s a thought: Think this is a “tiny” 4-stroke? It’s only a measly 150cc’s smaller than Yamaha’s 1049cc rocket and Polaris has gotten mega power out of a 750cc twin with a turbocharger.

Any ideas where we’re going with this?