September 7, 2007
It’s Show Time!
It’s been a crazy week around the office. We are preparing to host a national conference for all our dealers across Canada up at Deerhurst Resort on the 17th and 18th. It looks like we’re going to have a blast with close to 800 people already confirmed (not including nearly 100 staff). We are planning one and a half days of demo riding on motorcycles,
ATV’s, WaveRunners, boats and Rhinos at Yamaville. I know what you’re thinking, and yep, Jon might even have the sleds available with wheel-kits and summer cooling systems (we’ll be sponsoring some sled rides at the upcoming Go Snowmobiling Show in Toronto).
A good dealer conference always has, at its heart, some cool new products to debut and this one is no different. If you are interested in some of our other products outside of snowmobile, you might want to check out our web-site any time after noon this coming Monday (10th). wink wink 
…
Now for the important stuff… snowmobiles. I was given a list of accessories which have not yet been released. They will be in the near future but so far our dealers do not have any pricing or details yet, here you go…
Some of these accessories I have already told you about. The soft bag fuel carrier system for FX Nytro and the heavy duty trailer hitch for Nytro MTX, (not sure if these retrofit to each model application at this time). Also we have racing skid
plates coming for the FX Nytro in your favorite flavor. Other notables, we are going to stock the Camoplast Ice-Ripper tracks in both 121 x 1.25 and 136 x 1.25 lengths for replacement applications. And the new Superglide plate to assist in loading.
On the luggage side we have a custom fit, combo sport saddle bag and rear trunk system, also separate tank bags in either red / black or blue / black. If you want to dress ‘em up a little, there are A-arm protectors for the Nytro as well as a radiator cover and colored snow-flaps. Last but not least there is a rear rack and mirror kit. I’ll try to roll over a couple more rocks and see what else may be in the works.
On another note, I have been watching a neat thread Tom is pushing along over on TY. Riders are posting the mileages of their sleds with pictures of the odo’s and comments. Dano has a pal who clicked over 30,000 on his RX-1 before moving up to an Apex… I guess after all the training we have put our service technicians through, we finally get to adjust somebodies valves. 
On a closing note, I had made reference to some of last years advertising in my post ‘What Meets the Eye‘. I was critical of some of the bashing we received from one competitor in particular in their print ads. I am happy to see in the first round of ads this season, they are playing nice for the most part, still focusing only on weight. The data has been nicely spun in their favor but thats to be expected. Time will tell if I was wrong in assuming another campaign similar to last years is yet forthcoming. At any rate, I anticipate we will continue to grow based on our reliability and quality.
Next week things will be absolutely nuts with last minute prep for the conference but I’ll try to do a little fall house-cleaning and go back through as many of your comments as I can to answer some of the questions. Oh yes, some other good news, the 08′s are arriving in a steady stream now and we are shipping units to our dealers (including Nytros) on a regular basis.
cheers cr
Great to hear you are working on some more accessories for the FX Nytro. I spring ordered a 40th RTX FX Nytro …. any idea when they will show up in Manitoba? Last year I heard rumors of some locals not getting their sleds until late in December …. hopefully mine will be here in November at the latest …. we had great snow here last year and I had over 1000 miles on my sled by Christmas and I’m looking forward to a repeat!! This will be my first season on a Yamaha …. I am really fired up about the Nytro ….. can’t wait.
Terry
Hey Terry, we don’t ship province by province, units are allocated based on region and dealer orders. We try to fulfill based on early deposits but at the end of the day the dealer decides who gets their sleds first based on what they receive. The majority of Nytro’s should be in dealerships by mid to late October. It’s not a bad thing to keep in touch will your dealer and make sure they know you are chompin’ to receive the new sled…It would be a good problem to have too much early snow while we’re still shipping units
hope you find its worth the wait! cheers cr
September 8th, 2007 at 7:23 pmHey cr,
It’s getting close.
I have photos of Blanket Mountain, taken today.
Snow,(ice field) a very welcome sight, and +5 c, overnight. + 21 at 3 Pm.
Also note I have a record 5,700 km on a ‘Mountain’ Yamaha sled.( FULL Throttle all of it’s life!!!)
And now It’s all wore out.
But it is a good “all worn out”.
Virtual quote Gary Larson… “The Far Side”
Just needs to be ‘spruced up’ a little.
Hey DNR, let me know when you are ready to ride… does that poor Yamaha still have a hair dryer connected to the intake?
cr
September 9th, 2007 at 6:22 pmChris,
There is a thread circulating on Doo-talk and Hardcoresledder that Yamaha is not going to provide a taller lug track for Nytro’s used in sno-x racing. According to the post, this will mean that Nytros will be less than compedititive because they are stuck using the OEM 1.25″ track in order to meet ISR rules. Additionally, because of the lack of a taller track, Yamaha will not be racing in the stock classes in sno-x because they are at a disadvantage.
Any truth to this? I wouldn’t think it would be a big deal to offer a sno-x track as a dealer accessory to meet the ISR requirements. After looking at my Nytro, I’m not sure a 1.75″ would fit? Anyway, just curious.
Thanks,
Scott
Hi Scott, I have sent a request for clarification on this.
(note I have edited the original content with this update)
Okay, I just the received some information. The lug height cannot be changed within the rules, even if we filed an optional OE track. Also a 1.75 inch track would not allow enough room for studs. Yamaha would have to produce a model with smaller sprockets to facilitate the studded 1.75 and build (and test) a bunch of them which is not our current focus. Even if we could get an exception to swap out the track as I originally suggested, the clearance wouldn’t be enough
Officially, Yamaha is NOT competing in production class racing. We are fielding a very limited team on mods as part of an ongoing development program aimed at future models and technology. There is no ‘X’ version Nytro racer for the masses and as such, anyone choosing to race a Nytro in production class snowcross, will be at a disadvantage compared to the competition who all have specialized equipment designed to maximize their ability to snowcross while working within the official rules and minimum quantity requirements for ‘production’ class racing.
Yamaha is supporting USCC cross country racing with sponsorships and generous contingency in the USA. It’s too bad the television / spectator component is not very feasible for cross country because it is a lot closer to real world riding than snowcross at least from my POV (and we are very competitive at it.)
Hope that answers your questions Scott … cheers cr
September 10th, 2007 at 3:08 pmHey Chris,
Thanks for your reply on TY about the hitch. Can you share an approximate ballpark for its availability?
Basically, I need one on the unit by end of November or I’d have to get a custom job done. Think it’ll make it in time?
An MTX arrived at our dealer in Yellowknife. I had a look at it in the crate yesterday. I see what you meant when you said the exhaust was sealed and shouldn’t spray snow like my Mountain Lite does. The only spot they didn’t put a shield was at the very rear of the exhaust, I think that’s still going to make a nice mess for me of ice buildup on the rear of the tunnel. There’s some weird square holes in the tunnel behind the exhaust that I don’t understand.
Cheers,
YK
Hey YK, I am out of the office for a few days but will try to get an ET on this for you. If I can get my hands on a proto-type I’ll shoot one the Force 1 to get your feedback. As far as snow / ice build-up, in your conditions, you might consider a little extra detailing, with a piece of Crazy Carpet (thin UHMW) and some silicone seal, ice won’t stick to the stuff and if it will easily fall off… this is just my own personal idea nothing to do with engineering… cheers cr
September 16th, 2007 at 11:18 amI would be forever grateful if you shipped up a prototype hitch. I was into Force one yesterday chatting with Doug Witty about it. He also mentioned the Crazy Carpet idea. Never thought of that! Thanks!
YK
I spoke with our accessories development guy and he was quite positive about getting the first hitch proto-type up to you for testing. I asked him for an update on how they are making out and will follow-up. If the Krazy-Karpet idea works out, we should build a kit and go into business, I know there is several thousand sleds that could benefit from it
September 28th, 2007 at 12:40 pm