Following the resurrection of the legendary Indy name, Luke evaluates the 2013 Polaris Indy SP featuring the potent 600 Cleanfire mill.
Depending who you talk to in the industry, opinions on whether or not 4-strokes are gaining popularity or losing it, varies.
It’s been ten years since Yamaha rocked the sno-mo-world and introduced the RX-1, the world’s first true high performance snowmobile. It’s been longer than that since Arctic Cat brought out the Yellowstone Special – a somewhat tame but very credible and reliable 4-stroke sled based on the old ZR platform and sporting a miniature 660cc 3-cylinder automobile engine.
Although some of the OEM’s management teams aren’t observing the sales of 4-strokes gaining ground, others feel there’s an increasing demand for these extremely bulletproof high performing engines in the future.
Surprisingly, one of the problems appears to be the 4-stroke’s longevity. Think about this: If you buy a sled with a 4-stroke and after three years the engine essentially runs as good as the day you bought it and its performance is the same or better, where’s the motivation to get rid of it and buy another one.
It’s been a fact for decades that older 2-strokes tend to offer less long term reliability (than 4-strokes) and by the time they’re 3-5 years old, may need considerable maintenance.
This is strong motivation for 2-stroke owners to shop for a new sled. Certainly with the new, leaner burning injection systems these 2-strokes have, the costs can be high to work on them.
If current reporting groups are claiming 4-stroke sales are not increasing, here’s why: 4-stroke owners are keeping their sleds longer. The potential 4-stroke buyers may have peaked in numbers simply because they are holding onto their sleds longer and are not rolling them over for a new one every couple of years.
Honestly, the last two years, in our conversations with many high performance 2-stroke owners, we’ve been very surprised at their sudden approval of 4-strokes and their intention to buy one in the next couple of years in lieu of another 2-stroke.
We think there’s plenty of room for new 4-strokes in the future and their success is only limited by the OEMs’ commitment to build more variations.
The Quebec federation of snowmobile clubs (FCMQ) and its 205 member clubs are proud to invite you to our Open House event to be held on February 9th and 10th, 2013.
While you’re there, enter our contest to win a $4,500 Fairmont Hotels Snowmobile Dream Vacation.
No trail permit will be required to ride our 20,000-mile trail network. Legal requirements apply. To learn more, visit our Web site at www.freesnowmobiletrailsfcmq.com
The International Grand Prix in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec was the second stop for the CSRA National Series. The event took place at the cities snow dump site so there is no shortage of snow and allowed for a large track to be built. This event seems to get bigger and bigger every year as spectators line the massive snow hills to watch the races.
Clear skies and a brisk -16*C was the forecast for Saturday’s Pro Open races. Jamie had an exciting battle in Moto 1 finishing 5th. In Moto 2 he finished 6th placing him in the backrow for the final. Snow dust played a visibility factor on the first lap of the final. Nearing the end of the race, the cold temperatures froze Jamie’s hands and he had a near get off finishing 10th.
The temperatures dropped drastically over night going to -25*C, -35*C with the wind-chill, with snow and wind for Sundays racing.
Jamie decided to jump on his 2012 race sled to try something different as his 2 sleds are set up differently. He strapped on a large set or Powermadd handguard flares to block some of the cold and keep his hands warm.
Jamie placed 5th and 6th in the Motos, again starting in the backrow for the final, which wasn’t too much of a disadvantage on the outside.
He got a good start and was able to stick down on the inside of turn 1 and get up to 6th. He had a great run going but made a couple mistakes and another near get off on the rough track and fell back to 10th.
“The jump into the Pro class this year is a lot bigger than I had thought, all the riders are fast and I need to step my game up to finish closer to the top.” Jamie said after the tough weekend. “I’m going to take these next two weeks to practice and work on some areas before the next race.”
The next scheduled CSRA Event is National Round #3 at the Lindsay Fairgrounds in Lindsay, Ontario February 2-3.
Thanks to All our Great Sponsors: Supertrax Magazine, Byers Equipment Motorsports – Polaris, Dayco Belts, Gamma Sales- Fly Racing, Coldwave, Dragon Optics, Amsoil, Woody’s, Creechers Design, CMSports.com Clean Media – Photography, Powermadd, TekVest, Digatron USA
After 5 weeks since the CSRA Season Opener, the Supertrax/ Byers Motorsports/ Polaris crew headed up to Cochrane, Ontario for the Cochrane Gold Cup.
What should have been a 7 hour drive turned into 12.5 hours, due to a Highway closure from icy/blocked roads from accidents. The team had to detour through Quebec to bypass the road closure and get to the races. The weekends weather went from plus temperatures and rain on Saturday to -7*C and snow on Sunday.
Jamie placed 6th in Saturday’s Pro Open Moto 1. In Moto 2, he got a great start going into the first corner in second place before getting tagged from behind, flipping the sled.
By the time Jamie got the sled upright and controls back in place he was a half lap behind finishing 6th. Jamie started back row in the rainy final and struggled with lines and visibility finishing 13th.
On Sunday, the track got hard which created underlying ice edges. Jamie struggled with the sleds handling on Sunday’s hard track. He finished 6th and 7th in the qualifiers, which put him in the back row for the final. Still struggling in the final, Jamie rode a smart race and was able to salvage a Top 10 finish in 10th.
“It was an off weekend for us, things just didn’t go our way.” Jamie said after the weekend. “I would have liked to get some testing time in over the break but we didn’t have much snow in central Ontario. Hopefully we can get things figured out for the next race.”
We would also like to welcome Digatron USA to the Byers Motorsports team. Digatron USA is a world class company specializing in Data Acquisition Systems.
We will be running their 50 Series instrument, which will provide us with race data to tune the sled for maximum performance. This will be an important piece of equipment for us to be competitive in the Pro Class.
The team is staying in Cochrane this week to do some riding and testing for the next race this coming weekend in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec for National Round 2.
Thanks to All our Great Sponsors: Supertrax Magazine, Byers Equipment Motorsports – Polaris, Dayco Belts, Gamma Sales- Fly Racing, Coldwave, Dragon Optics, Amsoil, Woody’s, Creechers Design, CMSports.com, Clean Media – Photography, Powermadd, TekVest, Digatron USA
Hosted by Outdoor Channel, the 13th annual Golden Moose Awards (GMAs) was recently held in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel. Winners of the GMAs are determined by a discreet group of fellow Outdoor Channel program producers. This peer-to-peer evaluation and recognition sets the GMA’s apart from other awards due to the higher level of judging discretion used in determining the winners.
With three submissions, Supertrax Media Inc. was nominated for Best Videography for Dirt Trax Television along with two nominations in the Best Off-Road Show category for Snow Trax and Dirt Trax Television respectively.
Luke Lester, host of the two shows had this to say; “Looking at the caliber of the other nominees for Best Off Road Show and Best Videography, we knew that winning either of the awards would be a great achievement.”
Standing out as the only Snowmobile themed show amongst all other nominees in the given category, it was SnowTrax Television that stood victorious as winner of the GMA for Best Off-Road Show.
“Accepting this award from the Outdoor Channel on behalf of our entire cast and crew was an honor. It means so much to everyone here at SnowTrax Television that our passion and hard work is appreciated by our peers” Luke Lester went on to say: “From writing to shooting to final production, we are dedicated and driven to create exciting and informative episodes that we hope make our passion addictive to all our valuable viewers.”
This now marks the third GMA won by Supertrax Media Inc. In 2011, Dirt Trax Television walked away with Best Videography and Best Off-Road show. “We’re all exceptionally proud of the recognition the shows have received.” commented Vern Putzer, Director of Sales and Marketing. “Winning Best Off-Road show for SnowTrax Television is especially meaningful seeing how SnowTrax is also celebrating its 20th year of production. We are forever grateful to the unwavering support we receive from our fans and from our sponsors; It is what has made the shows the most watched in North America and what drives us to continually improve the viewing experience.”
Celebrating its 20th year, SnowTrax Television is a magazine format show that is packed with editorial content that is tailored to every type of rider. Each episode features in-depth product evaluations, instructional tech tips, destination features along with the latest news in the industry. Affiliated with national broadcasters OLN and Wild TV in Canada and the Outdoor Channel in the United States, SnowTrax Television is the most watched snowmobile show in North America.
For more information and the complete broadcast schedule visit the SnowTrax Television website at www.snowtraxtv.com
Dear Motorhead:
Is the Backcountry X, the same as the Summit? I ride all over the Adirondack mountains in New York and need really strong shocks, a long track and relentless acceleration.
My intentions for the next Ski-Doo I buy Is that I can go anywhere and hit as many drifts and play all day in deep snow. Is the summit too much ? How does it ride down the trail?
Also, please let me Know where to apply to work at the Ski-Doo Manufacturing plant.
Again, thank you for you help.
Ryan
Thanks for your email!
I would highly recommend you not use a Summit based Ski-Doo for flatland deep snow riding. Choose either the BC-X as you’ve stated or a Free-Ride.
Summits are built for non-stop deep snow, vertical riding and use a suspension (SC-5) and shock calibration to meet these uses head-on.
A BC-X has r-motion out back and can be ridden all day on trails in superb comfort while still being able to play and boon-dock off-trail with a 1.75 lug – 16 wide by 137 sneaker. The BC-X is the best choice for you.
Another issue is cooling – mountain sleds when ridden on hard-pack trails (like when traveling to a free ride area) can get hot as they depend on not just a little but tons of snow on the coolers in the tunnel.
Go to BRP’s website and follow to employment opportunities.
Good luck!
Motorhead Mark
We think there’s a pretty good chance Yamaha is coming with something all-new this year.
Last year’s less-than-exciting new sled line-up may have been a harbinger of corporate hold-back to get all the company’s ducks in a row for a blockbuster 2014 sled to be revealed.
So what’s our best guess? We’ve already talked about the possibility of an all-new chassis and we think it’s more than just a rumor. The question is, what sleds will be replaced by the new platform?
Our thinking is that two Yamaha chassis configurations have been around the longest and if Yamaha wants to simplify its model line in the future, it could whittle its brochure down from three to two platforms in one fell swoop by using the new body to replace the Phazer and the Nytro, both at the same time.
Does this mean Yamaha would scrap the 500cc 4-stroke twin in the Phazer? We doubt it, but we do think a universal platform that would fit both the Phazer’s existing powerplant and the Nytro’s 130-hp triple would simplify production and enable the Yamaha engineering team to focus on weight reduction.
We don’t think the best-selling Apex and Vector will be replaced this year. These sleds have both received EPS upgrades and other tech changes and still remain Yamaha’s foundational sleds in its product line. We’ll know in a week or so.
Wow, it looks like we really stirred the pot with our last Online Supertrax Poll on this website. About a month ago we started the rumor about Arctic Cat’s new 600 2-stroke (if, in fact it really exists) possibly using Yamaha’s retired outboard 2-stroke DI system called High Pressure Direct Injection (HPDI).
Seems it got everybody’s juices going and the results of our poll show that fully 47-percent of those that responded believe this system will be what Cat will use in a new-generation 2-stroke. It’s a pretty big stretch to think Yamaha would sell some of its most prized technology to a direct competitor.
Anyway, 25-percent of you think it will be an SDI (semi-direct injection) engine similar to what Ski-Doo gave up on and what Polaris now uses with Cleanfire.
17-percent think Cat will stay with the same EFI system it’s been using on its 800 (exhaust sensor tied to the onboard computer) and only 12-percent believe Cat will use a low pressure DI system like Orbital.
Now that the truth is coming out, we personally would bet money on it being the last and least popular choice – Orbital.
Why? This technology is the least intrusive into the competition’s territory and the most readily available from a licensing perspective.
Hey, who knows? We’re anxiously waiting for Sneak Peek in Minneapolis in a week or so to see what Cat is coming out with for MY2014.
SnowTrax Television Co-Host Luke Lester evaluates Yamaha’s 2013 Nytro XTX.
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