There are two sleds we think you just don’t hear enough about. Certainly, the new Indy 600 is a fresh offering not many people have had a chance to sample yet.

When they do, we think they’ll be impressed at how much they’re getting for their money.

The other blockbuster bargain is Ski-Doo’s REV-XP Sport equipped with a carbureted 600 2-stroke.

This sled has been buried behind the pricier E-TEC and 4-stroke Ski-Doo offerings in the brochures and certainly hasn’t been given much credit for its great value.

Both the Indy and the Sport are extremely light sleds incorporating all the latest weight-saving design techniques and utilize great mass centralization.

Both have basically been around long enough all the bugs are worked out. You could argue this doesn’t apply to the Indy but it is basically a front-half RUSH and a back-half IQ.

The Indy offers Polaris’ most advanced SDI engine technology in its 125-hp 600 and the Pro-Ride’s newly renovated non-parallel A-arm front end offers incredibly good handling.

The extremely light, strong glued-together bonding process is used in the manufacturing process and the Indy’s falling rate skidframe is fully coupled.

Although the XP Sport relies on a carbed, older-tech mill, it makes impressive power in the 110-hp range and its long-travel SC-5 skidframe offers incredible ride results.

All the lightness of the XP comes through in the riding despite using simpler, steel bodied gas cell shocks to keep the cost down. The Indy comes with aluminum adjustable Ryde-FX MPV gas cell shocks.

There’s about a $1000.00 difference between the Sport and the Indy but the two sleds measure up very closely.

Yes, you’re getting a better shock package and more power with the Indy but the Sport is an amazing buy when comparisons are made on the snow and not in the showroom.

There’s some pretty significant scuttle circulating Yamaha is coming with a new sled or series of sleds for model year 2014.

That means as soon as next winter there could be an all-new Big Y platform on the snow. What are the goals Yamaha’s engineering team would be reaching for?

Certainly, the first thing would be weight. Although the Nytro platform is not overly heavy for a 4-stroke, it’s been a fairly polarizing sled from a consumer perspective.

The Nytro does well as a crossover and a rough trail sled but just isn’t the kind of sled Yamaha could base a whole model series on including touring sleds and long distance trail runners.

Probably the likely target for change is the sled that’s been the bread and butter of the Yamaha line-up for a long time: The Apex-Vector platform.

There’s certainly good opportunity to pare weight out of the Apex but it may mean Yamaha will have to walk away from some of it’s best and most established technology.

For one, rear-exiting exhaust in the style the Apex and Vector use is not a lightweight system. Its sizzle is in its exhaust note and in order to lose pounds it may have to go.

Even features like EX-UP and EPS add a lot of extra weight and a new design may not have room for these attractive Yamaha-signature benefits.

Even the 4-cylinder Apex engine may require a rethink and be deep-sixed. The extra parts and complexity of this fabulous motor may be (literally) outweighed in a quest for lightness and lower manufacturing costs.

Sometimes, the very thing that makes a company famous is the same thing holding it back.

We’ve heard some comments about the published weight of the new REV-XS indicating it has gained weight.

On the surface it would appear, compared to some other super-lightweights like the Polaris Indy 600 or even the current REV-XP, the new XS bodywork has caused the sled to plump up.

Here’s the fact: The maximum net weight gain on the 2013 XS, with it’s much more ergonomically pleasing bodywork, is less than three pounds over the XP.

Sure, the spec charts will tell you there’s a much bigger difference (over 20 lbs more) but the published weight figures showing an overall gain in mass is because all 2013 REV-XS models now come with electric start.

Ski-doo is so serious about including ES on its newest platform, there isn’t even a recoil starter included. The right knee panel has no location for a pull cord at all and it looks like a 4-stroke panel. Only the XM mountain sled has a recoil and optional ES.

Although weight is weight, we are absolutely in favor of this move toward electric start on all snowmobiles.

It’s been a long time coming and now that the industry has worked miracles to get the mass down on sleds, we think the pull-cord argument has zero validity.

With the heavy onslaught of 4-stroke sleds over the last decade and so many buyers ordering 2-strokes with ES, it looks like the majority of owners are making a strong statement it’s time to come out of the dark ages with our sport and make ES a standard feature on every sled.

Industry stats are indicating sales of sleds with 136-inch and longer tracks are beginning to dominate. Does this mean buyers are moving away from 120-inch-range footprints to something more?

More specifically, does it mean the conventional short track, high performance buyer is losing traction (literally) in the marketplace?

Here’s what we think is happening. We think there are just as many high-perf focused buyers out there as ever. What is different is these same buyers are looking to increase the usability of their sleds over the course of the season.

Fact: If you’re paying 10-plus Gs for a new sled you want it to be usable in more conditions than just one venue, like groomed trail riding.

Furthermore, performance buyers demand the ultimate for their bucks these days. If they’re anteing up big dollars, they want acceleration, top speed, traction, gas mileage and a sled that won’t be made obsolete by EPA numbers anytime soon. A tall order.

The fact is, the very same rider who has owned 120 and 121-inch sleds the past decade may be opting for a longer tracked high-output sled that can be used off-trail once in a while or even adapted to 2-up riding with an aftermarket seat. For the price they’re paying, new-sled buyers want more than just an all-out lake rocket.

Another factor is the blasting of the theory longer tracked sleds are slower. This is simply untrue. You can often achieve the same acceleration and even higher top speeds with a 136-plus than with a short tracker.

It’s all about traction and, at the high end of your speedo, your sled is losing some. A longer track bites better and reduces track slippage so all the power is getting to the snow. More on this later.

One of the most exciting industry developments this year is the rebirth of the iconic Indy nameplate.

In fact, a whole generation of snowmobilers has missed the fascination of the legendary Indy and unless an old one is sitting in a garage and still being used, those more recent buyers just won’t fully understand how important and influential those sleds were over a decade ago.

The truth is, a whole series of trailing arm IFS sleds from Ski-Doo and Yamaha broke out because the Indy was such a dominant sales force throughout the Eighties and Nineties.

The idea was: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em and build your own version of the Indy. It wasn’t until the mold was broken by the REV all the rules changed.

This year, Polaris is taking back its own turf and, with the intro of the new Indy, has attempted to get back a lot of the hype and flavor of the original sled.

Certainly, it uses more up-to-date front end tech than the old trailing arm setup and the new Indy’s non-parallel A-arm system delivers way better control than the original’s trailing arms.

The lightweight, simplified, bonded bulkhead and fully evolved chassis technology is light years better than the old riveted setup or even the more recent IQ.

Where the old sensations start to come through, however, is in the riding. This sled is so reminiscent of the original it makes our eyes water with nostalgia.

This sled is the logical evolution of a sled that dominated our industry for a long time. It’s better in every way but hasn’t lost the original Indy tang.

We’re impressed.

Yeah, we know some of the things we write seem a bit “off-the-wall” sometimes, but there’s more than a little truth to this rumor.

We’re very sure at least one OEM has been experimenting with a remote adjustable air suspension for the front shocks on prototype sleds.

Although remote adjustment isn’t a new thing in the industry (Ski-Doo has used an adjustable-from-the-handlebars setup on its touring sleds for years), it’s always been focused on improving the rear suspension ride and not the front.

These systems deliver an almost uncanny ability to smooth out bumps and make the riding experience better.

Usually an onboard pump is employed and a gauge is used on the dashboard to monitor settings depending on the terrain the sled is being ridden over or the weight of the passengers and cargo onboard.

The difference here is a very similar setup being used on the front end of, not a touring snowmobile, but a performance sled.

Apparently the upside is the immediacy of recalibrating the suspension to handle different types of terrain while you’re in motion.

You can literally be riding smooth trails in comfort one moment, hit a bunch of deep whoops and barely lift off the gas while adjusting for the rougher trail – everything controlled by your left thumb. Get past the rough section and go back to the softer, plusher setting again instantly.

Another twist to this type of adjustment is being able to sync the front and rear air suspensions simultaneously or separately with two different controls.

For cross-country style riders this would be a distinct advantage and the benefits of a fully adjustable on-the-fly front and rear suspension would more than offset the extra weight of the air pump.

Front air shocks are certainly not new-tech (both Cat & Yamaha offer them) but on-the-fly adjustability could be a really big deal.

Thanks goes out to one of our supertraxmag.com viewers (see post: Arctic Cat’s New 2-strokes) who sent us a link to a website describing another possibility for Cat licensing someone else’s Direct Injection technology instead of re-inventing the horse and coming up with a system of its own for its upcoming family of USA-built 2-strokes.

This version of 2-stroke DI technology was originally developed by small engine maker, Tohatsu, and has been in use on outboard motors since 2000.

Unlike Yamaha’s system, which delivers liquid gasoline to the injector under very high pressure (thus the name High Pressure Direct Injection), Tohatsu’s system delivers pre-vaporized fuel to the injector at relatively low pressure (80 psi compared to HPDI’s 700 psi).

Understandably, Tohatsu calls its DI setup TLDI, an acronym for Two-Stroke Low Pressure Direct Injection.

TLDI uses a compressor and a chamber to pre-vaporize the fuel and air mixture before it is distributed to each individual cylinder’s injectors via fuel rails.

One of the advantages of this system is an extremely fine spray (about 10 microns) is introduced into the cylinder at the optimum time to allow a very lean, clean burn.

All of this is controlled by an onboard computer that calculates throttle, position and other pertinent combustion data.

Apparently, these outboards produce very little smoke, idle smoothly, start really easily and make plenty of 2-stroke power. Another advantage is low oil consumption as oil is only metered into the engine as demand requires it.

Licensing TLDI is a very distinct possibility for Arctic Cat and would eliminate any cross-branding spats between two competitors in the snowmobile biz.

So far, we’re pretty sure Tohatsu isn’t thinking about getting into the snowmobile business with sleds of its own.

You can find out more on Tohatsu’s website here.