This is the time of year we start to stick our necks out and make some educated guesses about the new sleds coming next year.

It’s hard to believe, but by the end of January we pretty well know what you’ll be shopping showrooms for next season.

Of course we can’t inform the public of details on the new stuff until the manufacturer’s embargo dates have passed and that’s usually sometime in March.

However, before we’ve attended the January OEM “Sneak Peeks” it’s open game on all the assumptions and best stab guesses we can think up.

You’ll be reading our estimations on all four manufacturers’ 2013 models over the next week or so, but here are a few we think might rise out of the Polaris camp.

This one’s a no-brainer: Polaris introduced a red-hot 2-injector 600SDI Cleanfire engine for the mountain market last season and we’re sure this engine is destined to inhabit all Pro-Ride Polarii for the 2013 model year.

We’ve experienced the kind of power this motor makes and its personality is so much like a 700 some of our riders thought it was actually a 700 “ringer” engine with 600 labels.

Not so, we think this mill will set a new standard for performance in the 600 2-stroke class, beginning this season.

How about a new Pro-Ride front clip with a conventional 121-inch in-tunnel skid to replace the expensive-to-manufacture IQ chassis for the Shift?

This sled would weigh a lot less; take full advantage of the more recent glued-together platform technology and 2012 revision of the non-parallel A-arm front end on the RUSH.

With a conventional skidframe, this would make a pretty cool competitor to both the new Cats and Ski-Doo’s various iterations of the XP while maintaining the RUSH’s separate, unique cachet as a performance model.

Think Polaris will offer an 800 Adventure? We do.

What about 4-strokes? If Polaris is gradually phasing out the IQ platform, then current one and 2-up cruiser style sleds will likely be phased out too and replaced with lighter, modified Pro-Ride tourers with the 4-stroke turbo adapted in place.

We think these cruisers will continue using skidframe-in-tunnel rear suspensions. An alternative would be a 2-up Adventure utilizing a new 600 2-stroke. That one makes sense, too.

Here’s a couple of things we think won’t be changing: We’d be disappointed if Polaris terminated it’s semi-direct injected 800 after what we’ve experienced with it this year.

It’s definitely one of the best 2-strokes in the biz and it would be tough to duplicate its durability, power and efficiency, even with a new DI engine. Same goes with the new 2-injector 600.

This is an absolute stab, but we wonder if Polaris may have a super-efficient 4-stroke in the wings waiting to replace the soon-to-be-terminated 550 fan.

We’d guess this motor would up the stakes to about 70 hp to make it a bit more appealing and worth the higher price to buy an entry level 4-stroke over a 550 fan.

Maybe you think we should be talking about the Sno-Pro version of this sled and not the toned-down LXR.

Fact is though Cat has reduced the ride compliance gap between its 2012 Sno Pro and LXR ProCross sleds.

Based on our own riding experience with Arctic Cat SnoPro models of the past, we’d been critical of the somewhat harsh bump calibration of the air-shock equipped SP series.

The old logic had been that performance customers demand a stiffer setup to get zero bottoming on square-edged hits and big-air landings.

The truth is, even the most aggressive riders aren’t happy sacrificing plushness through the stutters to achieve zero possibility of bottoming.

Perhaps a bigger influence is the fact the competition has recently been able to offer low and medium speed bump compliance without bottoming out on the big stuff.

With a sliding front arm (Slide Action), torque sensing links (TSL) and 2-way coupling melded with precise Fox Zero-Pro IFP gas shock calibration, Cat definitely has the proprietary technology in its arsenal of suspension tricks to get the job done with the ProCross LXR.

After riding both, we chose the LXR because it offers a great balance between anti-bottoming and plush ride. You can take an 1100 LXR and push it very hard in the bumps and it will respond beautifully – no swapping, no bottoming, no fear.

Of course, much of this is due to the all-new chassis the ProCross design team, led by Roger Skime and Troy Halverson, has come up with.

They started with a completely new blueprint, engineering out weight and building in balance. This is particularly important when juggling the extra mass of a 4-stroke.

After riding this snowmobile extensively both in Thief River Falls and in West Yellowstone last year, we’ve concluded it’s the best handling 4-stroke in the business right now. Go ahead Polaris and Doo fanatics, rant away. Ride this sled once and you’ll have to alter your bias.

We’ve spent a lot of time this summer trying to figure out why this chassis works so much better than the former Cat Twin Spar.

Stripped down, you can see it uses a similar triangulated design up into its steering head but it becomes glaringly obvious its DNA is closer to Cat’s highly successful Sno Pro race sled.

Although there are many differences between the ProCross and the race sled, what stands out the most is its widely spaced A-arm front end.

The engineers told us the wider stance provides less “leverage” on the upper A-arm when the sled is being plied through bumpy corners and allows the shocks to remain precisely aligned and free from stiction.

Less leverage on the upper A-arms means they can be lighter, transfer less impact into the bulkhead and wide spacing allows the lower ones to absorb the bulk of the energy when bumps are contacted.

Since the extra distance between the upper and lower arms actually lowers the center of gravity and affects camber angles when the suspension is cycling, the ski bottoms remain flatter when cornering, making turn-in sharper and more predictable.

We’d have to agree. Even with its longer-than-the-competion’s 128-inch track, the new ProCross is magic on the trails.

– CLICK HERE for specs and details!

Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA recently announced the release of a 2012 model year FX Nytro XTX kitted with a Camoplast Backcountry 15x144x1.75-inch track.

“We are excited to bring this special sled to market just in time for the season,” said Yamaha Snowmobile Product Manager Rob Powers.

“I had the opportunity to personally put this model through its paces last winter,” Powers continued. “I thought it was awesome on the trail, with great traction for accelerating but it also had just enough side slip to let the sled corner well. The deeper lugs also give this Nytro XTX better deep snow performance than the original 1.25-inch model. This sled is easily the most versatile model we have in the lineup.”

There will be a very limited number of units available to consumers near the end of December, 2011.

To find your closest Yamaha Snowmobile Dealer, visit www.yamaha-snowmobiles.com

Although we’ve had zero complaints with BRP’s still-available SC-5 skid, the rMotion design represents a quantum leap in ride compliance, particularly in high speed, evenly spaced whoops and chatter bumps.

The fact rMotion is at its very best with the throttle wicked in deep stuff belies the fact it also performs incredibly well at trail speeds.

Although Ski-Doo will tell you rMotion’s rising rate design’s most important benefit is its resistance to bottoming, we feel it provides a level of plushness that precisely suits riders shopping this category.

Despite the fact it’s being targeted at hardcore ditch riders, this suspension gives up none of the SC-5’s compliance.

Unless it’s never been explained, the term “rising rate” doesn’t mean much to the average rider. In fact, most snowmobile suspensions today are “falling rate” designs and that means as compression speed increases because you just hit a big sucker bump causing the slide rail to compress further up into its travel, shock dampening and mechanical leverage actually decreases.

This sounds like it could be catastrophic and cause incredible bottoming impact. That’s exactly what would happen if the acceleration of the rail continued at the same rate through the entire arc of its travel.

By various means, usually through front and rear arm coupling which spreads the damping resistance over the whole skid, by using dual rate springs (coilover systems only), by using urethane shock snubbers and by allowing the rate the skid is moving to decrease just before maximum suspension travel is reached, harsh bottoming is avoided.

With rMotion, Ski-Doo has played with the skid’s geometry, utilizing an extremely long front arm and separating the springs’ and shocks’ ratios so there’s less shock dampening at the beginning of the skid’s travel and increasing it as rail speeds move faster.

If you check out the rate of the shocks on a graph, Ski-Doo claims the actual amount of damping at full compression is 2.3 times more than it is at the beginning. At the same time, the torsion springs are actually falling in rate as travel is used up, allowing the shocks and the huge accelerator cam between the front and rear arm to do their jobs.

Since the springs are falling rate, the engineers have been able to use softer spring rates and this is what keeps the ride so good at trail speeds.

A big benefit of this design is that the rMotion gains a half-inch of travel (15.5-inches) without increasing the overall ride height of the sled. This skid can now fully collapse right to the running boards when full suspension compression is reached.

Keep in mind, you’re dealing with rising rate, so a bottoming impact is less likely to occur at the extreme end of the skid’s travel.

Seems there’s a double standard for noise in some areas of the North American snowbelt and here’s what I mean.

Ontario, Canada one of the top three markets for new sled sales in North America, is enforcing laws passed under its Motorized Snow Vehicle Act which provides fines for modifying any snowmobile exhaust system in any way, period.

Last winter I witnessed police officers spending serious time at ride checks lifting hoods in an effort to discern if everything was stock. I have issues with this behavior as I have on occasion had to look hard to verify if an exhaust system is stock or not.

Okay, I’m not for noisy snowmobiles and I appreciate the fact sleds today are exceptionally quiet, stock, out-of-the-box. I’m not proposing Ontario is wrong with this stance although I strongly suspect it’s being used to increase revenue more than decrease noise. However, something is wrong with our sport being pigeon-holed with this kind of intrusive enforcement.

Let me reveal my rationale here and explain why I’m ticked off. Last summer my wife and I were having dinner on a patio outside a restaurant located on a busy waterway. There were hundreds of people nearby and dozens of boats in a very confined area. I love this kind of place. Generally, the closer I can get to anything with a motor, the happier I am.

While I’m plowing back grilled chicken, a 30-foot Cat sporting twin 454s equipped with GMC superchargers and dual quads (times two) chugs up the narrow channel. Everyone is looking. The captain, after clearing the channel markers lets her go. The decibel level is nothing short of heroic. Wu-hoo!

This NHRA caliber auditory experience shook the teeth of no less than 125 people, mine included. Police did not dash out and chase the boat (not that they would have had a chance to catch the thing) and as far as I know there’s no law restricting this Grammy Award winning cacophony.

There’s more. I’m sitting in my relatively loud but stock Super Duty F250 diesel at a stop light when up next to me rolls one of Milwaukee’s finest motorcycles. It’s equipped with what appears to be straight pipes with no, zero, nada silencers whatsoever.

I remember reading somewhere the majority of domestically-built V-twins leave the dealer with aftermarket (read: loud) pipes. I have no way of verifying that estimate but I’m inclined to suspect it’s not far from the truth.

Back to the stoplight. The substantially overnourished wannabe outlaw is clearly enjoying the throbbing rumble and for the most part, I kinda like it, too.

When the light went green the V-twin shook the pilot’s impressive beer gut while rattling everything in my truck. Again, I’m not upset but I would estimate there were easily 250 people within earshot of this Kennedy Space launch dimension racket.

Are you getting where I’m going? Snow-mobiles are operated, for the most part, way out in God’s beautiful creation, far away from crowds. Even when snowmobiles come close to residential areas it’s in the winter and windows are shut tight. So how come snowmobiling is getting slammed with discriminatory enforcement on exhaust systems? It doesn’t make sense.

In other jurisdictions in the US and Canada, local ordinances have been adopted regulating snowmobile exhaust noise. I looked into a few and found it odd the level of intolerance people have for snowmobiles when these same jurisdictions are exposed to motorcycle straight pipes for three times as many months annually as they are snowmobile noise. Moreover, what percentage of sleds have modified exhausts versus V-twin cruiser and bullet bikes? Again, seems odd to me.

There will be a bunch of our readers who’ll think this is a pretty risky commentary, however, I want to underscore I’m not bucking noise restrictions for snowmobiles.

I want to make this 100-percent clear, there is something wrong with our industry being subjected to this kind of unfair scrutiny when motorcycle, marine and automobile noise limits are routinely overlooked and in many jurisdictions are un-enforced and tolerated.

Finally, I think there’s a more reasonable position for Ontario as it attempts to completely eliminate exhaust modifications. I think enforcing a reasonable decibel level consistent with what many aftermarket systems produce is palatable to the masses. I also think straight triple pipes with “glass pack” silencers are idiotic.

There’s middle ground here somewhere. I’m sure of it.