What they need is a ski wth infinitly adjustable ski stance and heal and toe adjustablilty to counter act for this..

certainly a huge part of the factor but we may have a different solution… stay tuned… cr

YK

Thanks YK, I know you spend a ton of time preparing content for the forums and have a huge following. Appreciate that you understand what goes into creating a worthy story! cheers cr

I remember when Polaris had a deal back in 2001 where you could custom build your sled when you ordered it.. You had a choice of a M-10 or a Edge (both rode better than anything yamaha had at the time by a long ways)

Why doesnt yamaha do something like that.. Swallow there pride and just buy skis from someone else?

Actually we have tried to acquire from others and still hit the wall. Most recently, we negotiated the use of a design that wasn’t properly protected in the first place. The lawyers looked at it and advised not to proceed. On another front we negotiated another deal and instead of a simple monetary transaction, they wanted us to release them from a patent infringement issue… it really is a b*tch! cr

Mike

No… thank you! comments like yours make it all worth while… cheers cr

“If you remember, you and I touched on the ski issue once before, having the stock shallow keels on my Sx-R and having Ski-Doo’s Precisions on my wife’s Viper ER (that came with it when we bought it). Well, obviously I don’t ride my wife’s sled very often, but this week I rode her sled into work, (a perk of living in the UP) and I don’t know how she rides that thing. I’m going to try some set up adjustments on it, but it pushes hard throught long sweepers and then on iced corners feels like it has so much ski pressure that it is extremely hard to turn the bars, to the point that I had problems with it. So in one breath, you would think that you would need more ski pressure to take away the push in the sweeper, but then it feels like too much ski pressure on the ice. I guess that I’m trying to back up your assessment, that maybe because these skis weren’t designed for this chassis, they just may not work right.”

And now you are telling me that you thought that those were the way to go??? Maybe I should try one with the stock skis to see how bad it is in stock form, because if the prcisions made it better, then it mush have been REALLY bad in stock form.

And since this is the apparent end to the Viper story, it begs the question, What’s next?

-Ben

Hey Ben, at the time I did really like the Precision, I went as far as purchasing a set of Simmons skis (remarkably similar) the following season which after spending more time over a wider range of conditions, caused me to change my mind. This was somewhat effected by the proliferation of the ski profile due to the large number of yellow sleds running around with the OE Precisions, causing the tracking and darting to increase. I ended up giving them to a buddy and going on to experiment with other solutions. Couple of things on your wife’s Viper. The mounting point of the ski (bolt hole) plus the rubber profile will have a bearing on steering effort and darting, as well as the suspension calibration but I think you know this well… cheers cr

I’d love to read about the development of the FX Nytro and early 80′s SRX/Vmax. The Phazer would also be a good story. I feel the latest Phazer has missed the mark a bit from the orginal ’84 model simply because that sled floated really well and really went over the snow. The 14″ wide track on the new one was a bad move, IMO.

As far as Yamaha skis go, I’ve done my fair share of complaining about them, but, after lots of testing using other aftermarket skis, I’ve found they are predictable and forgiving on groomed or set up trails. The main issue I see is that the 5″ wide skis do not work in unpacked snow. They make the 4-strokes feel like they weigh another 100 lbs since they don’t float and knife in. Maybe the skis could be marketed a 5″ wide for trails, 6″ as a more general conditions ski and the 7″ wide for mountains and powder. I think 8″ wide skis would work even better for the mountains and powder.
Cheers,
Scott

Hey Scott, good comments… we are currently working on a pretty cool accessory ski solution that may work very well in your back yard, stay tuned for announcement… cr

I pushed hard for that XTCP and in hindsight, think we were too far ahead of the curve, it was a blast to ride off-trail but did not sell well enough to continue. The Venom was a compromise sled, dropping the Vmax engine into the Viper styling, required very little investment the intent was to purchase some time. We were already working at the RX 4-cylinder follow-up… the RS Vector, to replace the 2-stroke 600 mill category. cr

Can´t really understand the softening of the suspension… That is just not what we have here. But, in really flat gromed trails it just might be in order.

Ike

Hey Ike, hopefully someday you will have the chance to ride our groomed trails in northern Ontario and Quebec. When the conditions are perfect you would be amazed at how far and how fast you can travel. If conditions were always like this there would be no Nytro or 14 inch sleds, we would be low and wide… or at the very least, plush. cr