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Should I Go 2-Stroke or Remain 4-Stroke?

Motorhead Mark Lester
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Dear Motorhead:

I have been riding for 40 years and now drive an RX-1. I would like to know if there is a faster sled out there with the long lasting dependability of a Yamaha?

I seem to be first on the long straight trails where we travel 110+ miles per hour for 30 to 40 minutes at a time.

I have had no problems with the RX-1 and now have 22,000 on it.

Just looking for a change with more speed.

Thanks,

James

Dear James:

Thanks for your email!

Sounds like you’re riding very fast!

Okay, if you want to stay in the Yamaha 4 stroke camp you can buy the new 160 HP Apex – it is faster than your 03 RX-1.

If you want to look in the other camps there are three very potent 800 2-strokes from Arctic Cat, Ski-Doo and Polaris. All of them will out run your RX-1. So will the 4-stroke Turbo AC, the 1200 4 TEC SD and the 750 Turbo Polaris.

The dependability question is a good one. Nowadays, perception is that 4-strokes are more reliable, however it is mostly a perception. In the past it was probably more a reality than it is now.

Hope this helps.

Motorhead Mark

2013 rMotion 120-inch MXZ X vs. 137 Renegade

Staff Report
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2013 rMotion 120-inch MXZ X vs. 137 Renegade

You’ve already read about our Sno-Shoot opinions on the 2013 137-inch Renegade and how well it rides.

We were especially impressed with the 1200 4-stroke (4-TEC) version, although the lighter 800 rMotion Rennie is extremely capable, too.

We had a couple of hours after our 4-day photo shoot and specifically took the 120-inch MX-Z X 800 E-TEC and the Renegade for a lengthy comparison ride.

Here’s what we think. Although the 120 rMotion is a very good riding sled and pretty much matches anything the competition has come up with, we think the 137 is more compliant, more controllable and takes suspension a complete notch higher.

We even compared it to the extremely plush (and expensive) air ride system on the GSX and found it to be “just as good” in washboard, chatter bumps and even in 6-inch deep uniformly spaced bumps that inevitably cause a sled’s suspension to pack up.

Our test riders concluded this would be our first choice for a sled we’d want to ride on ungroomed trails for a long day.

Even with this high praise in stutters and smaller stuff, we found the compliance of the skid was very linear and resisted bottoming and packing in the heavier going, too.

We messed with the damping settings on the front shocks and discovered they were most compliant in the one to three click range (from the softest setting) and with the front end set relatively soft, the marriage between the front end and the rMotion was just about perfect.

Two of our riders, one weighing 190 lbs and the other 245, found the settings didn’t need to be changed back and forth when each was riding, to get fantastic compliance.

Once again, we set the rMotion running board adjusters to full soft and a maximum of two clicks above soft and the spring preload less than halfway on the adjuster.

We were riding pretty aggressively on choppy trails with G-out bumps thrown in with some deep stuff (8-inch plus) and were thoroughly impressed how even the relatively soft settings wouldn’t bottom.

Although the difference between the 120 and the 137 is marginal, we felt the 137 performed better over the full range of trails we rode that day. We’d gladly pay the extra for the longer track.

E-TEC RELIABILITY AND LONGEVITY

Motorhead Mark Lester
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Dear Motorhead:

Love the show (SnowTrax Television) and watch it every week. Wish I could ride as much as you guys do.

A couple questions hoping you guys might have answers to. Currently I ride a 2009 Ski-Doo MXZ TNT 600 HO E-TEC. I love everything about it and have about 2400 miles on it right now.

I’m starting to ride more often as I have friends to ride with now and I’m curious if you guys know how many miles I can expect out of my 600 E-TEC before I start running into engine trouble?

I ride with 4 Yamaha Apex riders and They’re always telling me to trade to a 4-stroke and I’m hoping to get a lot more out of my E-TEC before spending a couple thousand to upgrade again.

Hope you have an answer and hope to hear from you.

Thanks and keep up the good work on the show and the mag.

Tyson

Tyson!

Thanks for your email!

Sounds like you need to start riding with some guys who own Ski-Doos! Just kidding.

Here’s the deal – your E-TEC has thousands of trouble free miles left in it. It is absurd to make blanket assumptions like your friends have. Do you ride a 4 stroke engine’s durability or do you ride a snowmobile with a 4-stroke engine? If the only criteria one has for a good snowmobile is durability get a diesel!

I would fully expect your 600 E-TEC with reasonable care and maintenance to last for 10,000 miles. At this point in time I have to ask you – and your Buddies with 4 strokes this question – do you really want to keep the doggone sled at this point?

At ten thousand miles any sled – doesn’t matter what brand – will need serious drive train attention like full primary and secondary re-builds. Suspension bushings front and rear and idler bearings – not to mention drive axle and chain case bearings – will all need attention.

Oh, I know there are people out there riding all different brands of sleds 20, 30, 40 thousand miles and more to prove their point about 2 strokes and 4 strokes. Take this advice – when your sled hits about 6000 miles start thinking about dealing it. In our opinion this is the sweet spot for re-sale.

Beyond that number – and it doesn’t matter if it’s 2 or 4 stroke – re-sale will begin to drop as a result of mileage – not year of manufacture.

Does Yamaha build great engines that last? They certainly do however you need not cower in fear from your bud’s assertions your E-TEC is about to self-destruct. Ride it. Enjoy it. Trade it at 6000 miles and you’ll be in the best place you can be with any sled – no matter the engine.

If you want to ride it 20,000 miles there will be more things to worry about than engine reliability.

Hope this helps!

Motorhead Mark

TEAM ARCTIC CONQUERS CROSS-COUNTRY AND HILLCLIMB

Press Release
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Twenty-Nine Victories in Warroad XC; Pro Open Victory at ERX National Snocross; and Six Wins at the RMSHA Hillclimb in Afton, Wyo.

Leaving nothing but table scraps for the competition, Team Arctic marched through last weekend claiming 29 class victories in two days of USCC cross-country, a huge win in Pro Open at the ISOC snocross national in Elk River, Minn., and six victories at the RMSHA hillclimb in Afton, Wyo.

The all-conquering cross-country performance unfolded in Warroad, Minn., during the final weekend of USCC competition during the 2012 season. With two separate events during the weekend, Team Arctic had double the opportunity to dominate.

The Arctic Cat/Christian Bros. Racing juggernaut continued their claim in Pro class competition, with Brian Dick and D.J. Ekre claiming Pro 600 and Pro Open on Saturday, followed by Ekre winning Pro 600 on Sunday.

Ryan Simons was on the podium in all four events during the weekend to claim his second consecutive USCC Pro 600 Championship, while Ekre took the Open Class Championship.

In addition to conquering the pro classes, Team Arctic unleashed an all-class beating of historic proportions. Eight Team Arctic racers scored multiple class wins, while there were 19 different winners. And of the 29 total class victories during the weekend, 14 were full podium sweeps by Team Arctic.

“We’ve been highly-successful in USCC cross-country racing for many years, but the team’s performance in Warroad reached a new level,” said Mike Kloety, Team Arctic Race Manager. “I believe the word “dominate” gets used a little too loosely sometimes, but it’s the only way to describe winning 30 out of 39 total races. Arctic Cat is immensely proud of all our racers, crew and the USCC staff for a truly outstanding season of competition.”

While the cross-country team was conquering Warroad, Team Arctic’s Tucker Hibbert returned to the top of the ISOC Pro snocross podium with a win in Elk River, Minn. Hibbert led the strongest performance of the season at Elk River, with Team Arctic Pro’s taking five of the top-8 positions. Other Team Arctic winners in Elk River included Tyler Adams, Trent Wittwer, Ryley Bester, Ethan Aune and Evan Christian.

Team Arctic’s hillclimb contingent captured six class victories at the RMSHA event in Afton, Wyo. Proving the ability of the M8 HCR in the ProClimb chassis with wins in the big-inch classes were Kyle Tapio (with two wins), Nels Tapio and Trace Tupper.

They were joined on the top step of the podium by Sid Archibald and David McClure.

About Arctic Cat – Arctic Cat Inc., based in Thief River Falls, Minn., designs, engineers, manufactures and markets all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and snowmobiles under the Arctic Cat brand name, as well as related parts, garments and accessories. Its common stock is traded on the NASDAQ National Market under the ticker symbol “ACAT.” More information about Arctic Cat and its products is available on the Internet at www.arcticcat.com.

SAE Snowmobile Challenge 2012 A Great Success!

Press Release
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Clarkson University of Potsdam, NY, captured first place in the 2012 SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge, which drew to a close March 10 at Michigan Technological University.

Kettering University, of Flint, placed second, with the University of Wisconsin-Platteville earning third place in the internal-combustion category.

The University of Alaska-Fairbanks won the zero-emissions category.

The Clean Snowmobile Challenge is a collegiate design competition of the Society of Automotive Engineers.  Engineering students from participating schools re-engineer a stock snowmobile, while preserving the riding quality demanded by snowmobile enthusiasts.  A total of 12 university teams participated in the internal combustion category.

The Challenge’s zero emissions category, for battery-powered sleds, is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.  NSF uses electric snowmobiles while conducting atmospheric research in pristine arctic locations.  The electric or zero emissions challenge is running up to 20 miles with one battery charge.  Five teams participated in the zero emission category.

This was the 13th annual challenge.  The snow was great and all the events ran smoothly.

Awards were presented for recognizing the best balance between cost, fuel economy, performance, design, handling and acceleration.

The Clean Snowmobile Challenge is sponsored by Michigan Technological University by the Keweenaw Research Center and the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics.

The members of the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association (Arctic Cat, BRP, Polaris, and Yamaha) are gold sponsors of the event and support the competition throughout the year.

Plans for next year’s event are being discussed and preparations are under way for another great event.

MALINOSKI AND MULLER WIN AT ERX NATIONAL SNOCROSS

Press Release
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BRP’s Ski-Doo X-Team riders posted another series of top finishes at the ISOC ERX National snocross this past March 9-10.

X Team riders claimed 10 of 18 Pro podium spots including Pro Open, Pro Lite and Pro AM Plus 30 wins during Friday night’s racing.

The track at ERX Motor Park was the longest and one of the roughest X-Team riders had seen to date on the National snocross tour and featured deep holes, tight turns and double- and triple-jumps.

X-Team rider Robbie Malinoski, of Scheuring Speed Sports, got a monster holeshot to start the Pro Open final on Friday night. Malinoski quickly put a gap between himself and the rest of the field and set a blistering race pace.

Tim Tremblay came out of the start in fifth place on his Foremost Insurance/Warnert Racing MX ZX, but the points leader set to work making up ground on the riders in front of him and was also helped by a competitor’s sled breaking down.

By the time the checkered flag flew Tremblay had slotted into second just behind Malinoski who led flag-to-flag, taking the win. Tremblay came back Saturday to take a third place podium spot.

Over the weekend Tremblay stretched his points lead in the Pro Open class and is 27-points clear of second place headed into the final two rounds of action set to take place March 16-18 in Lake Geneva, Wis.

In Pro Lite racing, X-Team rider Travis Muller took his first class win on Friday night besting the highly-competitive field of riders during a hectic race that featured its share of position changes and crashes.

Muller on his NSK/Warnert Racing sled put in a steady ride, steering clear of the on-track drama on his way to the win while podium regular Derek Ellis on his Jimmy John’s/BOSS racing MX ZX backed him up taking the third place spot. On Saturday Ellis returned to claim another third place podium finish.

Ellis sits in second place in the Pro Lite points chase a comfortable 104-points clear of the third place rider and 39-points out of first place.

Ski-Doo X-Team riders took the first five spots in the highly-competitive Pro Am Plus 30 class with Josh Zelinski taking the win on Friday. Mike Schultz finished in second place; extending his points lead in the class.

Steffanie Lemieux-Bell, stood on the second step of the podium in the Pro AM Women class. Lemiueux-Bell posted a strong challenge for the win in the class but ran out of laps.

Ski-Doo riders dominated the Sport class on Friday with Eddie Neubauer, Riley McLelland and Kevin Wallenstein claiming the Top 3 spots in the final and Ski-Doo X-Team riders taking 6 of the Top 7 spots in the race. Daniel Dolecki represented Ski-Doo on the podium during Saturday’s racing claiming a second place finish in the class.

FIRST RIDE: 2013 POLARIS INDY

Staff Report
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FIRST RIDE: 2013 POLARIS INDY

With the re-introduction of the Indy name to its 2013 lineup, we were concerned Polaris might be polishing off this legendary Moniker in an attempt to pry some sales out of a price sensitive segment.

Our fear? Revive an iconic name and tarnish it’s memory with a yawner sled. Thankfully our concerns were totally unfounded The 2013 Indy is a knock-it-out-of-the-park, bases loaded home run.

The Indy repeatedly impressed our test riders all week long in West Yellowstone earlier this month.

Its insane power from the new 2-injector Clean Fire mill in this low friction, 30-pounds-lighter-than-a-600-Shift chassis is not just quick – dudes, this thing hauls donkey.

On top of amazing power comes Polaris handling from the company’s patented variable castor IFS bolted to the full-on RUSH cast bulkhead and associated architecture.

The 2013 Indy is good to its lineage and it rails corners in a way only an Indy could and can.

The lighter chassis is entirely flickable and downright fun to ride fast. The new parabolic skis are a solid improvement and the long overdue one-piece bars with hookers on the SP are superb.

We suggest shelling out the extra grand for the SP version of the Indy. Its upscale shocks are tangibly better than those found on the base model and there are enough extras that you’ll be more than satisfied with your decision.

One gripe – where are the back tires?

2013 Ski-Doo Renegade rMotion

Staff Report
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2013 Ski-Doo Renegade rMotion

After our first exposure to the new Ski-Doo XS body work we were left maybe just a little wanting.

The new look is better, works better and is over-all a good move. However, it’s more about sizzle than steak.

The steak though is about to be served and it is the new rMotion 137 skid used on the 2013 Renegade fleet.

Let’s keep this short and sweet – the best riding snowmobile we’ve ever ridden was any of the 2013 Renegades (600 E-TEC, 800 E-TEC and 1200 4-TEC) just a few weeks ago in West Yellowstone at the manufacturer’s Snow Shoot event.

Our crew was able to capably power through enormous chatter, huge moguls and mine fields of bumps at speeds exceeding any other sled and remain in complete control.

Simply ridiculous and almost unbelievable is the best way to describe the rMotion’s ability to eat trail junk.

When it was all said and done the new rMotion 137 skid gets the highest praise from the Supertrax crew and we simply can’t wait to run a full season on a 2013 Renny.

CLARIFYING THE WEIGHT ISSUE

Staff Report
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CLARIFYING THE WEIGHT ISSUE

We got some negative feedback on our article a while back [ IS WEIGHT STILL THE ISSUE? ] commenting on the fact snowmobilers are still weighing (no pun intended) in on sleds that are as light as possible when making buying decisions.

It seemed like a pretty cut-and-dried commentary but one reader wanted us to define more clearly what a “light” sled was or is.

Without sounding insulting, we would define a light sled as one that weighs less. There.

Seriously, the reason the editorial was written was because of some recent industry data we had been exposed to that stated light weight was about fifteenth on a list of desirable features new-sled buyers wanted when choosing a new ride.

We were pretty stunned by this because it was 100-percent opposite to the feedback we had been getting and frankly wondered where the info was coming from. It spurred us to poll some of our readers and to gather as much data as we could about what makes people choose certain models.

Turns out, our research, based on info we’d been gathering even before the above statement was made, was consistently telling us snowmobile buyers were strongly influenced by the weight of a sled they were considering. On the other hand, if a sled had a reputation for being heavy, it counted as a negative.

This info varied depending on the class of snowmobile a buyer was shopping. For instance: A touring sled buyer was less influenced than a pure performance prospect.

Likewise, a buyer would negate the extra weight on a long track sled over a short tracked one because they wanted the deep snow advantage and didn’t care about the extra weight it carried in the track.

The biggest holdback in making a decision to buy a 4-stroke was the weight factor and the belief it would impede handling and ride – a factor we see as being less of an influence than a couple years ago.

The fact is, weight is still extremely important when checks are being written – and consumers are ever more aware of it as a factor when opening their wallets.

Is There A 1200 HO Coming From Ski-Doo?

Motorhead Mark Lester
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Dear Motorhead:

I’m a long time reader of Supertrax and love the show. I have followed the drama on Dootalk about the 1200 throttle lag and seem to be one of the few that also find this trait annoying.

That said. I bought a GT 1200 for our family about 4 weeks ago and absolutely love this sled and engine so much so that I’m gonna spring order a 1200X for me. Which brings me to my question.

Do you think the 1200HO is coming? I would hate to buy this sled and Ski-Doo early release a 1200HO in Jan. I am sure you have the inside scoop and maybe you can’t tell me. Any info would be appreciated.

I have a cottage on Lk St Peter and have seen the Supertrax crew more this year than ever. Keep up the great work!

Thanks,

Jason

Jason:

Thanks for your email! Next time you see us on the trail or at a pit stop come up and say hello!

There’s no 1200 HO for MY 13. Your appreciation of what we’re trying to say about the throttle lag and your appreciation of how good the 1200 is really squares with me! We too think the engine is a home run, but if there’s one thing we would improve – it’s the lag at low RPM!

You’ve got the right idea with the X with R-Motion – and consider a 137 as well. The best riding sled I have ever personally roosted was last week in West Yellowstone at the annual new sled photo shoot event and it was a 2013 Renny 4-TEC with R-Motion. The 137 Rmotion is just ridiculously good!

Motorhead Mark

Thanks Mark for a quick response!

I will consider the longer track Renegade X. Our GT 1200 is by far the most comfortable sled I’ve rode and I’m thinking the suspension calibration and longer track must be the reason for this.

I try to convince my wife to ride my MXZ 800R every chance I can so I can enjoy the GT. But she’s catching on! We also pull the kids in a Snocoach and with the torque of the 1200 its like nothing is even their.

One more question if you don’t mind. I love my Ski-doo’s but I’m used to more top end performance than the 1200 unmodified provides. I’ve also considered the F1100T and the Apex.

I also have a 2001 SRX ( my favorite sled of all time ) in my collection so a bleed a little blue from time to time. I always hear about the trouble plagued new Cats and I’ll be quite honest, my experience with Cats is with my Poppa and they do bring back a lot of memories of being towed out of the cabin in the back country of Newfoundland. That was the late 80’s and into the early 90’s.

Hearing the problems of today’s Cats are eerily similar. It was never a engine problem it was always little things like suspension pieces falling off or boggy wheels and one particular Pantera that loved to strip it reverse gear but only when we were miles from civilization.

Anyhow, sorry for the book! What are your thoughts on the F1100T and Apex? Are they riddled with problems and is the Apex a heavy and terrible handling sled with a great Yamaha engine?

Many thanks for your time,

Jason

Howdy!

The new Pro-Cross chassis with the F-100 mill is a great sled and by the end of this season has been entirely de-bugged of a few first year issues.

The engine has been around for over 5 years and is bullet proof. The Apex is a solid and reliable sled from every standpoint. However, you need to ride one before you buy if you’re predisposed to Ski-Doo’s XR chassis.

Hope this helps.

Mark

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    SNOWTRAX has established itself as the most watched snowmobile TV series in North America.
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