If there was ever a year to expand the snowmobile market, this is the one.

Frankly, after the numbers are tallied this year, it’s strongly suspected the snowmobile marketplace will have experienced some pretty impressive growth.

Many riders who haven’t been using their sleds or who have gotten out of the sport are either dragging their old blisters out of barns or shopping the internet to find something – anything – they can ride this winter.

The reason? They’ve been cooped up for months, and all plans for a cruise, southern holiday or a month at the spa have disintegrated. There’s been little money spent or set aside in advance for airline tickets, hotels, resorts or for condo rentals in the southern or island sunshine this winter.

Yes, there is unemployment and there are social issues that may restrict universal spending, but, fortunately, the snowmobile demographic tends to be quite mature, wealthy and secure. So where is the money going this winter? You guessed it; it’s going onto the snow.

We’re not just making a stab in the dark here. We’ve been observing a marked increase in the sale of all recreation vehicles since last April. Used stuff is really in limited supply and most dealers are sold out of new equipment. ATVs, Side-x-Sides, PWCs, boats, motorcycles – you name it. Supply is short and demand is high!

This year brings a gold-plated opportunity for the OEMs to get new snowmobiles into the hands of hungry consumers. Certainly, what 2021s are built now is pretty much all they can supply. However, next year is a different matter. We think the spillover demand for new equipment for the 2022 model year will be staggering. Why?

Simply, there’s no guarantee society will be 100-percent free from the pandemic by next season. Although we’re hoping (praying) it will have ended, it’s going to take some time for consumers to get enough confidence to go back to the sunny-holiday mentality.

Even if it ended by the beginning of snow season this year, we think a multitude are not going to take any chances travelling south and, besides, getting back into it, they’ll likely re-discover snowmobiling is an incredible blast!

What should the OEM’s response be to this development? First, to their credit, the response has already begun. We believe the demand for value priced sleds will go off the Richter scale next season. Ski-Doo has already introduced a down-priced line-up of Sport rated 600 EFI sleds that will be in increased demand next year.

Sleds like Arctic Cat’s Blast, Yamaha’s Venom and the Polaris EVO are more on-target than ever. All four OEM’s should consider adding more of this kind of value priced equipment to their brochures.

Summing it up, it’s almost like a reverse engineering of what has made snowmobiling work the past couple of decades. For years it’s always been about more power, more displacement, faster and faster.

This current situation may open the door to a new way of perceiving snowmobiling. Both new and rejuvenated enthusiasts may demand tamer sleds that are warm, comfortable and priced low.

Yes, inevitably performance will eventually enter into the equation. Right now though, it should be all about meeting the needs of a newly reborn marketplace!

Ten years ago trail sleds were pretty much locked into 1.25-inch lug depth tracks on any sled from 600ccs up. Today, with the availability of 160-plus horsepower 2-strokes and 180-plus horse 4-strokes, lug depth numbers are increasing into the 1.5 to 1.6 inch deep tracks.

It’s not a complete lock using these depths, as many manufacturers are still offering base equipped sleds with 1.25s or less and bidding you to early-order a new sled with the deeper numbers as an option or at least a swap-out on credit for the stock 1.25 with an upcharge for the deeper one.

After being exposed to these deeper tracks for a few years, we can really see the value in going deeper. The benefit goes beyond mere acceleration and traction and actually extends to far better braking. Yes, there’s actually a safety upside to having a deeper track – and it’s immediately noticeable.

On trail sleds or even on Crossovers, it’s a fact there is a slight penalty in top speed for going to a deeper lug depth. A 1.6-inch track weighs more and uses more power to rotate versus, say, the one-inch lugged track on Yamaha’s SRX.

Why? In order to support the extra lug depth 1.6s have more laminations and tend to resist rotation more than a 1.0 or a 1.25. Another issue is “packing”. These deeper lug tracks actually pack the close-off panel at the front of the tunnel with air which generates measurable parasitic drag and consumes HP.

Since the 1.0-deep SRX is built for the sole purpose of impressing your riding buds out on the lake with the sled wound out to its maximum, yes, there is the deficit of not being able to quite get the extra two or three mph your friend’s one-inch deep SRX is getting.

However, on the trails, you’ll likely run away from the stocker unless it’s fully studded. Once again, they’ll be adding considerable mass with steel traction equipment, so it may be a draw.

The decision high performance trail riders are forced to make is this: Do I want maximum top speed on packed powder lakes – or do I want maximum acceleration due to stellar traction on the same surface?

If you’re riding on ice – forget about it! Even a 1.6 won’t stick that well; the only solution is to go with a full set of studs.

With Crossovers, it’s a different situation. Most are offered with minimum 1.35 to 1.6-inch tracks and the whole idea is to get the best trail use while getting the sled to work adequately in powder. Top speed isn’t a priority.

If you’re thinking about upgrading your Crossover to a 1.75 or even a 2.0 track, you need to give it some serious consideration. Although you’ll gain some sweet bite in powder and be able to climb more like a vert sled, that extra track depth will tear up the trails you’re riding and not put you in a love situation with your grooming club.

Yes, you will gain a lot of extra deep-snow traction and bite from a 1.75 or up track, but you will get more slider wear on minimum snow-cover surfaces like lakes and hard-packed trails.

Once again, your decision on what track depth to invest in is up to you. It all depends on the type of riding you do and what kinds of surfaces you ride on most.

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For those of you who regularly read SUPERTRAX Magazine you may have seen my editorial opinion piece in the most recent issue

The topic was the ongoing legal battle between Ski-Doo (BRP) and Arctic Cat (Textron) surrounding an infringement by Arctic Cat on a Canadian patent.

The patent covers the pyramidal frame and bulkhead (engine cradle) and is owned by BRP. The Canadian Federal Court ruled in favor of Ski-Doo and last spring Arctic Cat was notified by the Court it could not sell any snowmobiles in Canada with the aforementioned pyramidal frame design.

Oh, yes, there’s the small issue of multiple millions of dollars awarded to Ski-Doo for every sled using the design going back to the mid 00’s.

I’ll cut to the chase. As of late last week a press release from Arctic Cat/Textron appeared here at SnowTrax/Supertrax World HQ boldy announcing a deal had been cut and an agreement consummated that will immediately allow Arctic Cat and its Canadian Dealers to resume sales again and deliver ordered sleds to dealers and to foaming-at-the-mouth early-order AC retail customers.

The collective sigh of relief emanating from Arctic Cat snowmobile dealers across Canada could be heard all the way to Thief River Falls, Minnesota.

Interestingly, this same situation cropped up a few years back between Arctic Cat USA and BRP. The issue was ruled on in the US judicial system and AC won. We’ve been told BRP’s US patents were not as airtight as the Canadian patents covering the same technology.

As a result Arctic Cat likely assumed it would win the issue in Canada and Ski-Doo likely knew Arctic Cat wouldn’t. Doesn’t matter. The deal has been struck and we couldn’t be happier.

The terms of the settlement are not known to the unwashed general public and media at this time. However, we’ll take a little stab here regarding an item that Arctic Cat has and BRP might just want.

A little bird (not a Cat) told us this story. It’s no deep, dark secret Ski-Doo may have looked at bringing its European Lynx snowmobiles to the North American market. A big clue was this: Arctic Cat refreshed its North American Lynx trademark just a few years ago. After many years of being moth-balled, the company even offered a domestic Lynx model to draw a line in the snow.

We gotta think when AC heard SD was sniffing around North America evaluating a Lynx introduction on this side of the pond, Cat’s legal counsel got a phone call to made sure it had boiler plate rights to the Lynx handle.

That’s how stuff in the sno-mo-biz works.

There have been lots of deals cut going back 25 years on licensed technology owned by the four OEMs. We wouldn’t be shocked to find out sometime in the future the Lynx trademark got thrown into the settlement between these two manufacturers.

In the meantime its good to know Arctic Cat can do biz in the Canadian market again and these two respected powersport OEMs can stop throwing copious amounts of jing at this contentious, energy and resource depleting confrontation.