Just got the email from ‘Red’ regarding the Alcan 200 point to point race up in the panhandle. Once again the boys from Yukon Yamaha won with their turbo Apex maintaining an average speed of 119mph in near white-out conditions (yikes!). This marks the fourth year in a row that this race has been won by an Apex but the all time speed record average (121mph) set by an SRX still stands. I would think some blue skies and a bit of packed snow will see a bigger number from the mighty 4′s if ever mother natures lets them run full out. Congrats to the Whitehorse crew, awesome job!
While on the racing topic. Its no big secret that Yamaha USA is supporting some FX Nytro’s to compete in the USCC cross country circuit. Pine Lake saw some good results for Yamaha (and of course some protests from the other manufacturers). It is my understanding that the original rules allowed for certain ‘kit’ parts to be installed to production sleds in order to be competitive and durable under the rigors of full out racing. Kits had to have a minimum build of 50 and be commercially available. Well the boys in our advanced engineering group in the USA had a little time on their hands and developed some slick mods for the FX chassis a couple of years ago which have evolved into a cross country race ’kit’. Contrary to some opinion the kits are not identical to the original skunk works design but for all intent and purpose they perform the same function. As with anything this limited, there have been a few bugs but they are being ironed out one at a time.
The basics of the kit is comprised of essentially a complete front clip (A-arms, spindles, sway bars the whole enchilada). You also get a 128 inch track which requires relocation of the rear skid and a large capacity fuel tank. The end result yields a chassis with improved high speed ‘manners’, read into that what you will. Now I anticipate a few questions arising from this post so let me jump ahead a bit. No it is not going to be a production model in 2013. Is it planned to be a production model ever? … certainly not in its present form. Can I purchase one? Sure, the part number is SMA-XCRAC-KT-OO and the retail price is (you might want to sit down for a minute) US$ 8,284.00.
Needless to say as soon as the sled showed some potential, red flags went up in a couple of the other camps and as of yesterday the ruling committee was hearing from the stakeholders on whether we will be allowed to continue to run our heavy four-strokes against the lightweights 2-smokes with our suspension kits installed. It seems one manufacturer in particular is quite worried about Yamaha getting in the game but they seem to have a bug up their butt about a lot of things in the industry these days. The rules evidently have been modified recently and it was just confirmed to me that Yamaha is being tossed from the production classes. It’s interesting to note that one of our competitors sells a race specific chassis for the production class and the owner has to come up with their own engine, that’s okay. The other guys are running limited build, dedicated race machines in the stock classes, no problems there. Yamaha was bolting a front end onto a full production sled (a heavy 4-stroke at that) and gets tossed, go figure. Rules are rules, spirit and intent aside, the decision didn’t go our way. Too bad because win loose or draw I think having all four manufacturers in the game would put on a better show for the fans. Guess I’ll have to root for team green as the underdog now
Finally I have the privilege of hosting an ‘on-snow’ meeting for our snowmobile service and accessory development team. The guys will be flying up from the US on the 6th and I have blocked rooms at a top secret location just south of Parry Sound for a good ride and some meetings. I rode some of the local area trails around there last weekend and things were surprisingly good. Speaking of that, I was on board my new ride. I had to decide between two good ones this year, the 128 SE or the XTX. I chose the SE, added an Ice Attack, some Trackers and HID’s so far so good, no regrets leaving the XTX to another man but I know I’ll miss her somewhere down the trail especially if things get really rough or steep and deep. Soft side up.
I am grateful for the many comments on my last post. It supports my thinking that a hole is opening up in the market for less powerful, less expensive snowmobiles. I am curious how many experienced sled heads would consider taking a backwards step with regards to the performance levels of their current machines. And I wonder what we could do to bolster the fun factor in a smaller machine in the absence of the arm stretching pull and ballistic top end of todays sleds in order to attract you. Then there is the subject of new riders, family riders and returning riders. I have drafted up a survey to help answer some of my questions and will get it posted after a few more tweaks.
In the news, the Grand Prix of Valcourt held last weekend, experienced a nasty storm in the form of Team G-Force. Many of you will remember G-Force for the world record setting slip-streamer created by Gilles Gagne, principal of Gagne Lessard Sport (Yamaha) in Quebec. If that doesn’t ring a bell Gilles is also the invenotr of the Yamcharger blower for the Apex and Nytro. It wasn’t a huge surprise that they ran away with top honors at the drag races but things got really interesting when they won the ATV races on the ice-ovals as part of the main program.
Heres the visual. Valcourt is home base for BRP and the race track is actually part of the factory testing facilities. The whole town is employed by team yellow in one way or another. The passion of the French for motor-sports is unparalleled and the Valcourt Grand Prix is an exciting event with packed stands and non stop action. G-Force entered a YZF450 quad with pilot Marc Antoine Auger. He was lined up against home town favourite Richard Pelchat on his factory CanAm. 5 laps into the 10 lap main, Auger stuffed the CanAm and made it stick with Pelchat finishing 5 lengths back at the checkered. I am told the crowd went completely silent, even the announcer failed to recognize what happened. The trophy presentation was done on the QT and rumor has it there were some tears in the beers being consumed in the yellow VIP booth. Congratulations Gilles, I hope you got out of town unscathed!!!!
We are scrambling to have everything in order for our 2012 sled introduction this Monday. I am going to be up north with Mr Yanagi and Mr. Kato presidents of YMC and YMUS respectively, riding during what now appears to be an impending, rainy melt-down. I am crossing my fingers that the weather forecasters are a bit off and we duck the bullet. I wouldn’t mind so much if things are mild but it will really suck if it’s raining. I want these gentlemen to get a good taste of what snowmobiling in northern Ontario is all about. cheers cr
We had some great early conditions going into the holiday season but in traditional southern Ontario fashion, a major meltdown occurred before New Years. I decided against heading north with the sled, not wanting to splash about on the slushy trails, opting instead to air up my tires and play in the forest closer to home. First week into the New Year, sledding was still not happening so last week I made a last minute reservation for my family in Cuba, packed up and parked on the beach for a few days with a big tube of SPF 30 coconut scented Yamalube
I returned home yesterday to nearly a foot of snow on the ground and minus 30 at my house this morning. Tonight, I ride!
As some have already mentioned next season will be the 10th anniversary of the RX1 and Yamaha commitment to 4-stroke snowmobiles. I think it’s cool that the Totallyamaha forum is also celebrating ten years and should be recognized as the number one, privately owned, online community for Yamaha fans and interested riders from around the world. Tom and his posse of moderators have done an excellent job of keeping it real, providing a great service and lots of entertaining reading, (even the stuff I don’t want to read about!).
Going through the email this morning, I found the latest OFSC bulletin announcing snowmobile safety week, nothing any repsonsible rider hasn’t already reflected upon this year but I’ll paste it in anyways… OPP OFSC Safety Week MR
Jeff R our western rep, sent me an update on the Alcan 200 which you might recall is the crazy fast, out and back race held up in the Yukon and Alaskan pan-handle. Heres what Jeff had to say:
Good day, Bubba wasn’t the only guy winning a race this weekend
Great news about the most awesome snowmobile race on the planet, the Alcan 200 was run this weekend (I think this is the 43rd year) and there was only 1 four stroke running and it took the only place that mattered, #1
To refresh your memory, the race is 80 miles on a frozen highway, short break while they sweep the dead Cat’s and Doo’s off the road, and they race back, the word Extreme does not have enough X’s in it for this race
Yukon Yamaha has a dedicated Apex Turbo race sled for this with a cruising speed of 140 Mph which was ridden by Jarrid Davy
Weather was brutal with -30 – 35c temps, average speed record (including gas stops) is over 120 mph, this year Jarrid averaged 99mph and was still 9 minutes ahead of 2nd place
The wind and blowing snow was so bad at times that racers were racing neck and neck @ 50mph
5 minutes later Jarrid was running over 150mph on bare pavement…..Wow!!
After re-reading what Jeff wrote, I think I should mention a couple of things to keep everyone happy. First of all, the highway these guys run is closed to cars and trucks, however caribou and moose are allowed. Second I wouldn’t want anyone to be offended with his remark about removing broken down sleds of the specific brands mentioned. I am sure there was a Polaris out there somewhere and possibly even an old Yamaha 2-stroke, although if I recall, before the RX based models, this race was dominated by SRX’s. Congrats to all the good folks s at Yukon Yamaha
In closing, I am sorry I haven’t been regular with my posts thus far this season. I am hoping that a good ride tonight will spark my imagination and once I recover from my Vitamin D exposure and the over hydration from my week in Cuba, it’ll be business as usual.
For some reason I had to chuckle when I saw our new ad… then I thought it would provide a nice little segue into my first post of the season. I’ll give you a snap shot from a ‘mile up’ on some of whats been going on this summer.
First we have a couple of changes in the corporate line-up. Rob Powers has taken the helm of the snowmobile division in the United States. He is certainly no newcomer having held down a regional sales manager position as well as assistant product manager when Mike Doughty was wearing the hat and marketing communications prior to Greg Marier. Rob is a hard core sled head and I’m stoked he’s running the show in the US. Here’s his official intro. Rob Powers
We have been short one key member on our team since Vic Ikuta was called back to product planning in Japan. Ace Oyama is now in the process of moving to Canada and will be the official snowmobile voice (assistant to the president) for North America at factory, (no pressure there!).
I went on record last spring as saying the new Apex had around a 5% increase in horsepower and a wider torque curve with no drops… Dynotech has had the opportunity to flash a production unit and heres what they came up with: (you can click to enlarge)… under promise and over deliver?
I don’t mind saying it’s been a ‘rough row to hoe’ through-out the rocky global economies but the atmosphere here at Yamaha is now one of cautious optimism. We know real snowmobiler’s are in the game for the long run and we have our fingers and toes crossed for good snowfall with lasting trails this season. The big fall trade shows are getting ready to kick-off and if Hay Days is any indication, the attendance will be strong and there will be bargains to be had.
On the out, I want to thank you for your support and encouragement in keeping Sled Talk up and alive. I will do my best to offer more insight into our business and continue to share in your passion for snowmobiles and Yamaha.
I have been watching this link on PassionYamaha where the journey from Quebec to Utah has been unfolding for the G-Force team and the planned assault on Bonneville. Between Coyote (Richard Hotte) and Gilles there are lots of cool pictures and updates however you’ll need to have a basic understanding of French or try the Google translation tool.
Today will be their first test session and they plan to limit the speed to 200mph while they dial everything in to the traction offered by the salt. Sounds like they have already encountered some of the unexpected. Personally I am finding this quite intriguing. I just hope the tracks hold together and the boys return home safely.
There was quite a send-off for the team in Coaticook and I understand the Discovery Channel has taken quite an interest in the project. On another note, I was privileged to speak at the OFSC AGM last week in Ottawa, opening their first convention session along with Mark Lester from Supertrax and Claude Aumont from Ontario Tourism. I was please to report that the snowmobile industry in Canada is coming into this fall stable and healthy. From the Federations point of view, permit sales last year were strong and there will not be any increase in the cost this season. They are making good use of the federal grant money available and this organization is still a shining example of how it should be done.
Mark challenged them with the topic of ‘free-ride’ / off trail riding and how it should be viewed by organized snowmobiling with infrastucture in the future. His point; that most young enthusiasts entering the recreation are coming from the X-games, vert-park mentallity and are not attaracted by seeing how many miles they can cover in a day, opposed to doing tricks and challenging themselves off-trail. Mark is a brave man!!
I was reminded twice this week about a statement I made in the post ‘Blackflies and Snowflakes’ regarding my decision to once again ride an Apex. To reiterate I was completely sold on the new Vector for next season, it is our best handling snowmobile out of the box and the injected motor leaves nothing on the table for corner to corner acceleration. So what made me change my mind?
I finally got to see the factory Nytro’s run yesterday and run they did… Iain Hayden took the holeshot and never looked back. Taylor was on his snow-flap for most of the Pro-Open main but dropped a couple of positions towards the end due to what appeared to be a broken track tensioner. Prior to the mains both Yamaha sleds dominated all their heats and Taylor won the previous days ‘Blair Morgan ProAM Tribute’ race hands down. The 4-strokes were definitely pulling hard up the long steep Horseshoe face, even the very special ‘one-race’ engine dropped into the Royal Polaris just for the occasion, couldn’t make up any ground on the climb. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and I just happened to have my trusty Canon along.
There was another tid-bit of information attached to the press release. My old friend Greg Marier has officially announced his retirement. Greg has been overseeing the factory snowcross team development for the past couple of seasons but more importantly has given many years of his life to Yamaha snowmobile planning and engineering. Greg has already forgotten more about snowmobiles than most of us will ever know.
Shifting gears, I spoke with Randy Swenson this morning and the Revelstoke Yamafest went off without a hitch. He reported about 300 blue sleds on the hill, close to 150 demo rides on the new Air Nytro mountain and a good time was had by all. He sounded a little rough so I asked him if all was well… turns out he was bitten by his big turbo after he tried to park on a rock outcrop on the edge of a vertical chute during a slight detour on the way up… A little banged up and some wrenching ahead of him but they plan to have the cameras rolling on another first ascent attempt later this week.
Finally the OFSC has announced our provincial trail system is officially shut down for the season. This is for your safety… heres the scoop trailclosuremr
Our friends at G-Force had a pleasant surprise recently. As some may know Gilles and his crew established the ISR world speed record for a snowmobile last fall with his Apex powered slip-streamer. He has been working with the officials at Bonneville to run his machine on the salt. As there is no classification for ‘tracked’ vehicles within the organization, Gilles ‘Bonny’ attempt was postponed for a couple of years to allow the technical and classification aspects to be addressed.
Well he had the call last week from the officials after receiving pictures of the sled and details of Gilles world record run in Val D’or, seems they have fast tracked the entry and welcomed Gilles to run this September. There are some concerns regarding the small wheels under the skis causing some unusual ruts in the salt that might affect other vehicles so Gilles may be asked to run at least one test session if required. Pressure is now on as the team thought they had 18 months to prepare, this is now changed to 6. I’ll keep you posted as the worlds fastest snowmobile gets ready to take on the salt…
Left Gilles, center Richard, right Bob
Gilles recently hooked up with another Yamaha world record holder, Bob ‘HONDO’ Davis. Bob achieved his record from Guinness for the ‘most miles in 60 days’ on board his Yamaha RS Venture. The cool thing is the Venture had well over 30,000km before setting out and is currently kissing 60,000km on the odometer, aside from oil changes and a valve adjustment the engine is completely original having never been apart. You can get caught up with all of Bobs adventures on Totallyamaha.
Here is a picture that features Bob and Gilles together with PASSIONYAMAHA’s Richard Hotte. Richard was instrumental in getting the ‘worlds fastest’ together the the ‘worlds most reliable’ for an official introduction and photo session.
Out west another fast guy left his mark on Revelstoke’s Boulder Mountain. Our own Randy Swenson took on all comers at the annual Big Iron Shoot-out and ended up ‘top dog’ in this colorful outlaw event. Turns out his propane powered and boosted Nytro spoiled the day for some fast-talkin, turbo-charged mustard-tubs… ata boy Randy!
In other racing news the factory racing snocross team is finishing up the season in strong fashion. I am looking forward to watching Iain hit the slopes at Horseshoe for the CSRA finals… heres the latest release. round-7-isoc
And overseas our old pal Yuji Nakazawa has locked down the Japan SX championship, heres a few pics from ‘Ace’ Oyama our newest member of the snowmobile development team, (pardon the ‘Jenglish but you’ll get the picture
Last week was one of those ‘pinch me I must be dreaming’ periods where I am reminded how cool it is to be working for Yamaha. I found myself at our testing facility in Wisconsin along with several guys from Yamaha USA, Victor from Russia and a few engineers from YMC. The agenda entailed some very focussed meetings and an opportunity to test ride some new project prototypes. Snow conditions were not that great around Minocqua so we travelled up to Hurley Wisconsin where the trails were in surprisingly good shape. We had some awesome riding conditions under sunny skies at 12F and even manged to run into some fresh grooming.You can see by the smiling faces on this rag-tag bunch of outlaws, at times life in the ‘office’ is pretty good!
Jeff Ryan an old pal of mine from BC, sent me the following story and I found the concept quite amazing. It’s about one of the best kept competition secrets in snowmobiling, the Alcan 200. Imagine if you will, taking a wide sweeping section of highway close to a hundred miles long, hitting it with a giant Zamboni, and running an out and back, no holds barred ice / road race rally for snowmobiles. Welcome to the Alcan.
Here’s what Jeff had to say:
“The race happens in a place that most people have never heard of, smack-dab in the middle of no where. The track is a twisty highway covered in a thick layer of ice, 86 miles one way with 2 fuel stop’s, racer’s leave 2 abreast and 15 second’s apart. After the racer’s arrive at the end of the first leg the ambulance and sweep truck’s clear the track and then they race back to the start. There is some more info on the Alcan 200 website. This year was the 40th aniversary of the event.
In 2008, the Alcan 200 was won by an SRX700 Big Bore with an average speed of 117 mph. The all-time record average speed is held by the same machine at120.08 mph. To my knowledge this is the only snowmobile road race in North America. There is typically about 40 entries in this race of which only half will make it to the finish. The race is held in the Alaskan Panhandle and BC running into the Yukon and took place on Jan 17-18. This years winning rider is Travis Adam’s from Whitehorse, Travis was the last Canadian to win the overall in 98, he has had 3 first place finishes in different classes since first running the Alcan.
Yamaha has long dominated this event, the average speed record is 121mph and is held by a mod SRX, (these thing’s are legendary for their aerodynamic’s and engine reliability.) The second fastest average speed came from a near stock SRX600, remember the 2 fuel stop’s each way, these sled’s are moving FAAAST… Most rider’s dont need the fuel but they MUST stop, remove the cap and put the jerry can spout in the gas tank This year #2 and #3 were the Hill brother’s from Alaska on a pair of RX1 turbo’s.
Travis ran a 2008 Apex RTX, extensively modified specifically for this one single race. It is not a trail sled for the rest of the season and will sit til next January. The build is based on a McXpress 270hp turbo kit, due to lack of soft snow for lube and cooling a Nytro rad is installed on the back and a rail spray lube system is added. It’s geared as high as possible and the sled will exceed 160mph on GPS, tracks will not last long at this speed so a little control is required. Travis held the machine at just under 140mph to minimize a possible disasterous track explosion. Travis told me that he has seen a pile of track debris on the hi-way and the trackless sled 1.5 miles up the road, no brakes and just idler’s on glare ice makes for a long, scary glide
Travis had his sight’s on not only the overall win but also the average speed record but unfortunately the second half of the race went through bad weather and ‘white-out’ condition’s. Travis still took the overall but was unable to get the new average speed record, his average was 113mph. Get this, Travis started in 11th– so on the 6th row–that’s 90 second’s back of row 1 and he was 1 minute ahead at the half way point (86 miles). Last year Travis lost when he ran out of fuel almost within sight of the finish line, he was leading by a long shot. Travis is funny, I dont know if you can say this but pre race jitter’s get to him big-time, he get’s diarea and vomiting prior to to any race he enter’s… the whole family is involved in racing, have been for a long time. Interesting folks as they aren’t in it for the glory, it’s simply what they love to do.
Unfortunately there was a tragic death in this years race, a Yamaha loyal rider, running in the vintage class on board an SRV540 Jeff Peede, saddly, did not make it through to the end.”
So there you have it… 120 mph AVERAGE over 200 miles, good thing there are no Caribou in the north! Congratulations Travis and Yukon Yamaha, job well done!! and a special thanks to Jeff for sending in the details.
Man, things sure heat up around here when it comes to new product launch time… I seem to have an abundance of unrelated topics to share and very little time to be creative. So- I figure I may as well ‘shotgun‘ today’s post and let you pick and choose the subjects that interest you:
Competition Stuff, X-Games report from the US boyz, you have likely heard but here is the official word.
Here are a couple of pics from under the hood of the worlds fastest snowmobile… I was thinking what a great ad it would make to get Hondo and his world record mileage sled togther with G-force and their world speed record sled. I see a simple caption, something to the effect of: What does the worlds fastest snowmobile have in common with the worlds most reliable snowmobile? Yamaha engines!
This supercharged G-Force Apex has a potential of over 500 hp, the view from the cockpit is somewhat intimidating. The large central tank contains ice water for engine cooling, the tank on the right side is water used specifically for the liquid-cooled, inter-cooler, then flows over the exhaust system, exiting via a water jacketed exhaust pipe (makes for a cool looking vapor cloud out the back). Some long travel MTB shocks up front for a comfy inch or two of suspension, The steering is achieved using cables like an old style F-I boat… The tank on the left running board hold the fuel (100% alcohol) and the one you can barely see up front holds the oil. They lost an engine to this at one point due to the extreme acceleration duration which forced the oil into the back of the tank causing the front mount oil pick-up to suck air… doh!
I have seen this fluid primary clutch before that Gilles is helping bring to the next level. There are pistons in each of the cylindrical chambers which are oil filled. Under centrifugal force the pistons force the oil into another chamber through tunable passageways causing the shieve to close. Note the schrader valve: the top of the main chamber uses air pressure to replace the primary spring to return the shieve, forcing the oil back into the the piston cylinders. It is infinitely adjustable by varying the amounts of air and oil. It also is not limited (durability) by RPM like a conventional clutch, which in our case, could negate the need for a reduction gear. They have developed a very cool feature with a hydraulic, remote control which allows the driver to hold the clutch shift on the line regardless of RPM, can you spell ‘holeshot’… boggles the mind!
I had mentioned that Gilles has developed a clutch spec for the Nytro which in his words is clutched ‘similar to a 2-stroke’. Our OE clutch spec is intentional delivering a very hard hit for the purpose of bump timing and lofting the front end over obstacles . He has discovered- for the guys running around on the groomed trails- that lowering the shift RPM, keeping the engine in the fat part of the torque curve allows for superior trail manners with increased fuel economy. He has machined his own fly weights which shift out sooner than stock and keeps the engine working, they have re calibrated the secondary and applied a little magic, the end result has more than a few Quebec trail burners smiling.
When Gilles was explaining his tuning theory for the Nytro, I was reminded of the old ‘wind-shield wiper’ analogy. This is where the tach and speedo needles advance at the same rate, kinda like a couple of windshield wipers, as opposed to a narrow power band engine (2-stroke) that ideally should tach out to the optimum max RPM then drag the speedo needle up to speed. I wagged my index fingers to demonstrate and Gilles gave me a big grin…’nough said.
Looking to tame the beast, putting more power to the trail with no loss to top performance? Give Gagne Lessard a call, don’t be shy they have English speaking staff… what I’m hearing is all good! cheers cr
New Stuff
My friends over on Totallyamaha have probably seen the latest ‘teaser’ but in case you don’t know… Johnny is back (and thank the powers that be… so is Bunny). I would have posted this sooner but I just stumbled out from the mushroom patch
The embargo date for the 2010 sleds is Feb 10 at 12:00 noon EST. We will have all the specs up on our web-sites and after the dust settles, I’ll add my .25 to the controversy.Yes you read that correct. I anticipate that we will have controversy after reading all the conjecture on what we are about to unveil… I do hope the 300hp turbo Apex rumor won’t disappoint too many if it doesn’t happen… cheers cr
