Happy New Year! It was nice to have a few days off over the holidays and I hope you all had some of your own. I have been busy today getting caught up with the desk duties and spent a bit of time in the shop to install a couple of accessories on the Apex. I did have a chance to get out for a good run between Christmas and New Years with Mark and Kent Lester (Supertrax Intl Magazine). Mark had made a couple of inquiries (always nice to know the groomer guys) and we found some absolutely brilliant trails to ride.
The temperature had fallen to a very brisk, minus 18C following a couple of milder days with some rain and wet snow. The sun was shining and the light dust of fresh stuff on top of the glitter made for some stellar riding.
I am more impressed with the Yamcharger ever time I ride it. Huggy tagged along and the boys brought along the new Skidoo 4-stroke and a Polaris Rush for us to try. So we had an Apex, a doo and a Polaris but what was the fourth sled you ask? Well lets just say it’s new, it’s special and it’s a Yamaha of course.
We logged on about 230km and I had a good chance to try out all the sleds. I had forgotten how to ride a 2-stroke but once I remembered where the brake lever was and stopped sneezing, I got along quite well with the Rush. Mark had the skid set-up for our weight but really I wasn’t even thinking about the rear, it was more the balance and handling that caught my fancy but Polaris generally have that figured out.
The skidoo 4-stroke was interesting and I’m embarassed to say this is the first chance I have had to ride one. Part and parcel of being a desk jockey these days. It did a lot of things well but I had a hard time adjusting to the throttle response which felt like there was an elastic band attached to the throttle cable and the steering effort was a lot more than what I was used to. It felt quite heavy but handled flat however and the motor pulled hard. It was the warmest sled in the group and showcases their latest technology nicely but back on the Apex I felt much more at home.
For the record, I maintain that all the current snowmobiles are worthy of ownership and I would ride any one them on a regular basis. That said, I have developed a deep relationship with Yamaha products from years of exposure but I am not brand blind. All the new sleds have continued to evolve, they all have their own character, their strengths and their weakness. The trick is in understanding what they are and how they apply to you but more on that later.
I know you guys are beyond this but I feel the need to urge everyone to use some extra caution during your first outings of the season. Pay extra attention to whats going on around you and anticipate the other guys aren’t. I had some bad news about a real good friend of mine over the holidays and if it could happen to him it could happen to any one of us. Get well Damian.
Well it does appear we are in for a soft La Nina winter. Odd things are already happening. Ontario has been mild with no snow in the GTA during the month of November (a record) but that is all about to change this weekend. The Environment Canada guy says this mild La Nina can cause above average snowfall east of the prairies but look what is happening out west at Whistler. They just smashed the record for the snowiest month ever and are already nearly half way to their season average of over 30 feet…
My sled is on its way back here today with the ‘prop heads’ who are just coming off one of our biggest outboard product launches in years. Most of my friends know I am a big fan of fast boats. In my mind nothing defines speed better than a performance hull ripping at the surface tension of the water, held aloft by negative air and propeller thrust in a delicate balancing act of trim and torsional counter steering. When it comes to lightweight outboard performance, we have had some beautiful engines in our older Vmax and V6 HPDI 2-strokes but the advent of large displacement 4-strokes has kind of put us out of the lightweight performance game. That is until now. I am truly excited about the fact that someone finally built a (4-stroke) outboard motor designed more like a sled or bike than a farm tractor. The new 4-stroke Vmax 250 SHO is actually lighter than our 2-strokes and offers up more torque than anything else in its class. The engineering execution is a work of art. I can only imagine- if somebody was to take one of these, add a supercharger, open up the intakes and exhaust and bolt it onto a 21 foot tunnel hull… ah yes, I can hear the sound of howling thunder in my dreams.
Sorry about that little aquatic digression… my Apex should be back today with the Yamcharger installed, not sure if the PDI is done but I’ll be staying back here a couple of evenings to finish the prep and install some additional goodies. I also need to spend some time on the Blue Blog Sled which we stripped down to check out the chassis and now needs to be reassembled. We had a great response to the idea of making the BBS available to the ‘needy’ and I’m pleased to say we have the internal support to move ahead with the project. I’ll be getting in touch with some of you in the near future.
I’m also trying to gain permission from the mother ship for the ‘YBTT’ and if all goes well, I may hook up with the BBS pilot for a little spin early in the new year. I was talking with Kent Lester from Supertrax this week who told me they are going to run a story on G-Force and the worlds fastest snowmobile, very cool. He also mentioned they have done some kind of real world evaluation and once the snow dust settled they selected as the best all-round trail sled based on performance, reliability, handling, comfort, resale value, efficiency etc…etc…short drum roll… winner- the Yamaha Apex. Funny comment he made, even though some of the ST staffers are pretty jazzed on our competitors sleds, when it comes time for a long epic, the Yamaha 4-strokes are never left back in lieu of a 2 smoke… sorry Kent but I had to say it
OK; Until next week when I’ll post some photos of the BBS, update the MT09 ski (which btw is almost ready for release pending final sign-off from engineering) and hopefully show you my boosted Apex with hot hands and remote start… think snow!!
Yesterday, July 1 ‘Canada Day’, was a good one. It felt to me that Canada as a whole, is showing more pride and patriotism than years past. Perhaps this is somehow related to our resilience to the current global economic downturn, or perhaps a result of some collective realization that we do live in a great, independent country and should be damn proud of it.
Based on this muse, I thought it would be appropriate to remember an old friend in this post. Steve Brand has been involved in motor sports as long as I can remember. He is an avid snowmobiler, dirt bike enthusiast and more recently a ‘wheel chair’ (ATV) pilot spearheading the annual invitational Brando rides held in Haliburton county.
You might not know who Steve is but I bet you are familiar with his acclaimed body amour, Tek Vest . He designed this exclusive product and established his company Tekrider shortly after retiring from a long stint with BRP Skidoo. I first heard of Steve when he was involved with the Canadian ISDT teams back when CanAm was a competitive dirt bike and ATV’s had only three wheels. He went on to resurrect the Skidoo snowcross effort in the early nineties as their factory race team manager before banging heads with someone who was too dull to realize a good thing when he had him…
What many don’t know about Steve– he is also a lieutenant colonel in the Canadian military reserves and currently deployed in Afghanistan. I received this Word Document, update from Steve [ Brand Afgn ] with a few photos included which I thought I would post for download as a tribute and salute of support from the home team, smack dab between Canada Day and Independence Day in the States.
A couple of background notes, Steve is known as V-man these days for his affection towards Yamaha touring sleds which he rides the wheels off, surprising many of his ‘X-man’ pals. He still competes gregariously through his sons Jeff and Kevin who race yellow sleds for Northland Rec on the CSRA circuit. The photo with Steve standing beside the pasty civilian is our Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper (closest thing we have to Obama). Happy July 4th to my American friends and thanks to Steve and all our troops!
One would think by the time May rolls around, our thoughts and actions would shift focus from sleds to wheels, water and warm weather, but that is not the case here at Yamaha. In fact the snowmobile business is becoming more prominent in my daily activities than it has in years. I was intrigued by a post over on TY with the subject Yamaha…. are they okay???? It is interesting to observe how small snippets of info can lead to so many oppinions and conjective conclusions. For the record I’ll toss in a couple of more tid-bits and see what filters down.
First, no worries, we are still in business. The total snowmobile industry has taken another hit in the USA with sales down about 20% over the previous year. In Canada we fared better on par (no change) over the previous year. The market share inside of the totals moved around quite a bit mostly due to non-current liquidation and individual OE programs. In the US a lot of focus was on moving non-current models. Yamaha started the season in pretty good shape compared to some others but we still felt the impact of the economic crisis. So far this year it appears the ’spring order’ has softened with more people opting to sit on their wallets until the fall to decide on whether to pop for a new sled, which really comes as no surprise.
It is interesting to note that Canada and the USA are now within about 10,000 unit sales of each other (approximately 10% of total North American sales. ) To put that in persepective it was not long ago at all, when the USA accounted for more than double Canada’s sales. So it is no surprise that Polaris and Cat, along with Yamaha are looking much closer at the Canadian market than they ever have in the past. Skidoo, being a Canadian company, has always been in tune with this market and has put significant effort and resources (with the occasional help of our government) into building more touring, trail and utility variations to cover our more diverse needs.
Our relationship with Yamaha USA has long been one of a ‘little brother’ partnership where we work closely with regards to our product planning ideas and willingly except the marketing direction and support that always came as a result of the well funded and managed planning and marketing team in the USA. Our factory has always listened to the total market but generally followed the direction put forth from the USA.
Now in light of the current situation, we find a lot of attention is being given to our market and our thoughts on how we should proceed as a company. We are engaged almost daily with our friends south of the border and are working hard to change things up and work much closer on the planning and execution of projects that have been done quite independently in the past. I am predicting that you will see a new Yamaha begin to emerge next season. One with a less traditional voice and a lean / mean and ‘connected’ approach to marketing.
I could go on about some of my own feelings and ideas but that would be somewhat premature at this point. Team USA will be in town next week and we will be ‘rolling up our sleeves’ to lay the foundation for our new joint strategy. You can rest assured Team Blue is not going to back off from the snowmobile business. I believe we need to exercise restraint with regards to pushing wholesale at our dealers and focus on improving our quality and reliability at every step. The seasons are getting too short to find yourself on the wrong end of a tow-rope, right? I’ll keep you posted.
Just for giggles, I mentioned in some recent posts how many of our old guard has taken retirement, most recently my friend Greg Marier. Greg sent me a picture this morning that made me stop and reflect about the years of past planning. Here we are seen in Japan back in the pre-trailing arm days… the back row says it all with (left to right) Greg, Jim, Tim, myself and Haga… the planning foundation for USA / Canada and Europe for over 20 years. Like the people, the times have changed. We have some young guns at the helm now and new challenges to meet. That said, Yamaha is quite okay, damn straight… and thanks for asking!
Most lakes in southern Ontario are glare ice now after the most recent melt down, quite a shame considering the temperatures have been arctic cold for days. The good news is in the bush, where the trails are still in great shape (at least until you have to run a road). Up north I am told the conditions are stellar. My cousin Brian called me last night to pick my brains about the new sleds and if he should be trading his hi-mileage Attak…
He had just returned from a week long tour (2500km) in northern Ontario. He was traveling with 3 other sleds -all of them yellow- and had some good stories for me. I won’t go into the details, lets just say his Attak provided some extra pulling power for all three at one time or another (one of them twice) nothing serious, but good hot-tub fodder!
Another good buddy Chris H, just returned yesterday from a five day northern Ontario epic and reported the same stellar conditions but with a twist. South of Sudbury the ice really took its toll on his group. He is running an XTX and had the foresight to install some ice scratchers on his skid-frame, not everyone in his posse did. On the return they jumped onto Georgian Bay near the French River and ran all the way down to Moon River well south of Parry Sound. His XTX was happy-happy showing no wear on the hy-fax, Chris figures that over the whole trip if he had any wear at all it was no more than a 1/16 inch. The sleds without the scratchers all destroyed their hyfax (including the Poos and Doos) with a couple of guys getting right into the aluminum and wrekcing their rails… On top of that they were dealing with over heating engines. Chris sent me these picks of the Bay… you can just smell the plastic!
So whats my point? Ice Scratchers work. I have known this for a long time but because we haven’t been able to sell them as accessories in the past, we haven’t done much to promote them on our sleds. With the advent of the 2010 Nytro MTX SE, which is sold with our new scratchers included, we are now able to offer them as an accessory item. A little background on the mountain market; light weight has a much bigger impact on their riding than it does here on the trail. Also running 2+ inch lug tracks presents some isues for hyfax. Some riders, in a quest of additional weight savings started removing their idler wheels and adding scratchers. They unload at low altitude, drop the scratchers and carefully walk the sleds up several thousand feet of packed trail to access the pow, game on. By including scratchers with the new air Nytro, owners can realize over twenty pounds total of weight savings over the 09, nice! Kind of ironic that the deep snow, powder guys were the ones to break open the ice scratcher biz, while the majority of hyfax and overheating woes are due to hard packed conditions our sleds are constantly subject to in the east. When you figure the cost and hassle of dealing with baked hyfax, overheating (additional heat exchangers) and pooched idler bearings, a good set of ice scratchers are pretty cheap insurance.
The Scorchers brand scratchers we are selling can be mounted on practically any sled. They have an adapter that lets you mount them behind the second idler wheel on a mono-skid but the torsion skid (twin shock) requires mounting them back of the idlers so as to clear the main spring when not in use. Probably the biggest concern is remembering not to back up with them down, especially on packed snow where they will dig in and bend (right Chris? ). I predict we’ll see a lot more of these being used here in the east in the coming seasons.
I must admit, I was waiting in anticipation for the release of the all the new sleds from our competition. After all the comments I read and received regarding the lack of new models from Yamaha, I was fearful that one might drop a serious trump card. In the end it didn’t happen, that’s not to slight the new chassis Polaris has released. I am sure they have put a lot of time and resource into it but in the big picture, I believe we did pretty good. Matter of fact, take out the Rush from the equation and dang-it we clearly had the most changes with the Air Nytro and new Vec.. It’s a little perplexing to see how gentle the forums have been to the other guys… Most of the comments I am seeing are along the lines of ‘oh well it must be the economy’ and ‘I didn’t really expect much anyways…’ sheesh, maybe we took the brunt of the venting by being first out of the blocks, I wonder what 2011 will bring? cheers cr
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
It has been an interesting week. I drove out to Drummondville Quebec, home of the Soucy Group to meet with their engineers on a couple of projects we are working on. You may not have heard of this company but I guarantee you have experienced one or more of their products at one time or another. They are a major supplier within our industry, building parts for BRP, Polaris and Arctic Cat. The Soucy story is really quite interesting.
The founder, Gilles Soucy an avid snowmobiler, had the vision to purchase much of the tooling and parts for all the old sleds back in the late seventies as most of the original parent companies abandoned the snowmobile business. He started a distribution network for these parts (persoanlly delivering them out of an old school bus) which were still in demand and soon after, entered the manufacturing business to replenish and supplement his new business. His wholesale company, ‘Kimpex’ grew quite large and was later sold-off by Gilles as he shifted his focus to the design and manufacture of OE spec parts.
His venture readily expanded with the award of many OE contracts starting with Skidoo and branching out from there. These days the company specializes in metal fabrication, rubber track and UHMW / plastic products. I had the chance to do a full factory tour and was truly amazed at some of what I saw being produced. The rubber division is making track systems for most of the commercial and agri applications (such as groomers, tractors, combines etc…) and more impressive- secretive military stuff.
I have met Gilles several times over the years (unfortunately he was in Florida on this particular visit). He is a very intelligent and engaging man. One thing is clear when visiting his modern conglomorate, he has somehow preserved the essence of a grass roots ‘mom and pop’ family run operation. It’s reflected in all his employees and it’s not uncommon to see Gilles himself wandering the factories floors, speaking to his people, still an active part in the day to day business. I find there is something very ‘human’ about this big company which leads me to my next visit.
A couple of hours to the south and west of Soucy lies a quaint little town called Coaticook nestled in the hills close to the US Vermont / NH border. I made a point to visit here while in ‘the hood’ because this is the home of G-Force and the worlds fastest snowmobile. Gilles Gagne and the staff at Gagne Lessard Yamaha, the local dealership and parent to G Force, have something truly amazing going on in the back of their shop. I have had the fortune (sometimes misfortune) of visiting / working with many different performance tuners and modification gurus over the years. I have learned to never take the performance gain claims at face value without asking a few questions and perhaps performing my own validation. I’ve seen enough to know when something is not transparent or too good to be true and I also know when someone is doing it right and is worth a second look. I can tell you one thing for sure, G-Force is the ‘real deal’. Gilles himself is brilliant and he has surrounded himself with a team who reflect his passion, ethic and vision.
I am thinking G-Force is one of the performance industries best kept secrets but if Gilles dream becomes true this is all about to change. I am going to write a detailed report of what I saw in his back room and include a bunch of interesting pictures of some of the mods including his world record (210mph) slipstreamer. He also has developed some special parts to help dial in the Nytro for improved groomed trail riding and is working on some easy and effective (affordable) bolt on horsepower for Yamaha 4-strokes but more on that later.
I couldn’t help but think of sir Tony and the Worlds Fastest Indian when I had dinner with Gilles. If you have never seen this movie, I highly recommend you rent it, throw a little ‘bean oil’ in a hot fry pan and crack a brew. It is a tribute to all back-yard tuners and motor heads with a dream and the passion to make it real. Gilles Gagne is one of these remarkable guys…
Okay, you can call me superstitious but last night I found myself suddenly awake. My old Lab, Soda, was barking from his bed in the basement, it was 4:00am and something was not right. I heard my wife make her way downstairs and the dogs whimpering subsided. Oddly enough, he has never done that before. I can’t get back to sleep, something is wrong…
My morning routine here at the office started off like most days. Boot the computer, grab a cup of Joe and check the ‘to-do’ list. As I reach for a pen I notice the red light of my voice-mail message alert is glowing. As I listened to the words my heart began to sink before the bad news was even delivered.
The snowmobiling community lost a truly great supporter last night and I lost an old friend. Many of you have seen the television show ‘Snowtrax TV’ and will remember big John Massingberd, the executive producer and for many years, the show’s amiable host. John, thank you for your gifts you will be missed by many (including your old pal Soda, he always lit up whenever he saw you…)
Here is John’s bio in his own words:
Full Name:
John Massingberd
Your Role on the Show:
Host/Executive Producer/Truck Driver
How did you connect with Snow Trax?:
Been here since the beginning! Too stupid to get a real job!
# of Years in the saddle:
First ride was in 1968 on a Ski-Doo Olympique! My best friend and I proceeded to run over all the neighbors gardens! Suffice to say we were in deep $hit that night!
Favorite Sled Last Year and Why:
While I rode a SabreCat 700 EXT most of last season, Our Yamaha Venture 120 was an absolute standout. This sled surprised everyone on the crew Great engine, terrific suspension, a very well rounded package! Plus it was our Snowtrax Real World Sled of the Year for 2005!
What are you looking forward to this year? (Destination/Sled):
Everything! I love everything we do in this show, even truck driving, cant wait to get on the road again!
Most breathtaking destination so far:
I like them all! Every place we go offers something different, which for me is the appeal of snowmobiling
Where is your ultimate destination of choice?:
I would still like to ride in the shadow of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota!
What you LOVE about snowmobiling:
Friends! It’s all about the people you meet, and the friendships you forge! There are no better people than Snowmobilers!
What you would CHANGE about snowmobiling:
We need to get more young people involved in the sport! This is a lifestyle where you can ride ’till the day you die!
I know better than to discuss politics or religion at a party but I have to say I am happy that the US election has finally taken place. Perhaps we can get on with things under more stable conditions. Funny how only moments after the Canadian election our strong dollar began to plummet and now moments after the US election our price per liter for gas started to rise.
I know, there is no direct connection or greater conspiracy but…
Now I’m looking at some interesting stats on Yamaha. The global revenue was down in the first nine months of the year (less than 4% but nonetheless down) mostly blamed on slumping North American and Euro sales. The company generated a nine month revenue of just over 13 billion USD or 1.3 trillion Yen. I can tell you one thing for sure, those clams weren’t harvested selling snowmobiles! Motorcycle sales were down in NA about 20% as were ATV / Snowmobile but overall motorcycles saved the day with similar increases elsewhere.
To put things in perspective Yamaha sold close to 4.5 million motorcycles in those same nine months which was up from the previous years nine month yield of 3.7 million bikes. Now where did all those motorcycles go you ask? Good question.
117,00 motorcycles were imported to North America and about 300,00 made it to Europe. That still leaves about 4 million and change elsewhere… read: Asia. The forecast sees the year ending at 6 million motorcycles sold and 17 billion in the coffers. Not bad for a down year I guess. Now lets get back to snowmobiles. Last time I checked the totals it appears world wide sales for all sleds combined (that’s at least 5 manufacturers) adds up to about 160,000 units.
Let me see now 6 million bikes versus 160,000 sleds. That’s very humbling math for a former product manager! So where am I going with all this you ask? Well I really don’t know but the numbers are public and thought provoking to say the least.
I can’t help but wonder how the rest of the world views us here in North America, with our affluent, albeit aging population. We are consuming goods at a much higherrate per capita than most other countries and becoming extremely demanding with regards to our products and lifestyle.
To make matters more interesting we have developed a ’system’ where-by we are not held responsible or accountable for our own actions more often than not. This clearly ties the hands of many would-be entrepreneurs as they try to market products through a quagmire of potential liability and risk exposure.
From a global perspective, I am willing to bet the golden fruit that used to be the North American market is getting very ripe on the vine. I sincerely hope the new administration in the USA can invoke some positive change for all of us. And for my American friends, please don’t assume I am taking sides here, I am not. Either party can invoke ‘positive change’ and I don’t know squat about politics and whose really driving the bus.
Being a ‘cup is half full’ guy, I’ll be patient and as I await the first freeze and some falling flakes I realize that snowmobiling has never been more important as a vehicle to escape from the world and put a fresh perspective back in my life …(even if it does cost me 2 bucks a liter.)
Early Sunday afternoon, I found myself standing at the foot of the Horseshoe Valley Ski Resort / CSRA snowcross track watching the vintage sleds challenge the ‘bunny hill’. The mercury was over 15C (60F) under clear blue skies, awesome conditions to spectate the final races of the season. Greg Marier and the Yamaha Factory Race team were on site and both Martin and Taylor had placed very well in all their qualifying runs. The Pro-open main was set to go off later in the day so I had to entertain myself cheering for the only other Yamaha on the track. An old black Enticer 340 that was dicing it out with a cherry red Rupp in the vintage class, (the ET won by the way )…
I met several Sled Talk ‘bloggers’ at both the Big4 spring show in Barrie and last weekends snowmobile race. I was reminded-amongst other things- of my obligation to write the SRX development story which currently resides as a stack of old documents in my ‘to-do’ basket. It’s clear to me in talking with many you, we are coming off a long snow season and most have had the opportunity to rack up some serious miles on their sleds. We have a lot of new potential customers looking at Yamaha now, after one too many expensive engine repairs or, riding days lost. Many of our existing customers are considering a new sled if not this season, then next and everyone is considering what maintenance and parts are required before putting the sled away for summer storage… This all helps to preserve snowmobiling in a healthy state going into next winter.
Total industry snowmobile sales in Canada are up over last season and the pipe line of non-current models has been largely depleted. The mountain segment has shown the most growth, which now represents almost a quarter of all the sleds sold in Canada. Yamaha Motor Canada also attained growth within this market and we still retain our market share position of second (next to Skidoo). The sales of trail permits are reported up in the key provinces and it appears snowmobile related, serious injury (and death) is in decline. This is especially good news considering the extra miles and hours spent by everyone on the snow this year.
…So here I am 100 feet in front of the start line with my daughter perched on my shoulders. Two blue sleds are in the front row and the flag is about to drop for the Pro Open final. Braaaap, a blur into the first corner and Taylor exits in first place for a strong drive up the long ski hill face with Hayden in second and Martin on the other Nytro in third. It looked good for Taylor until a bad line at the half way point saw Hayden slip by and hang on for the win with Steve a couple seconds behind. I snapped this shot of Taylor and Martin making a Hayden sandwich at the start finish line. It was really cool to see (and hear) the power of 4-strokes going up the mountain. I spoke with Greg at length today as they are staying on at Horseshoe for a few extra days of testing in preparation for next years snowcross assault. He’s already getting pumped for next year. It was apparent to me, standing in the crowd, how big an impact these two sleds are having on the spectators, especially when they are running stronger with each outing. Perhaps winning isn’t everything-yeah I know… but it sure is exciting to be in the hunt.
Jon and Pete are attending important meetings in Japan and a bunch of interesting events are happening around me, here at Yamaha but that’ll all have to wait until next week. Until then, if you are getting out for another rip as the snow melts, I envy you. But I have lawns to rake and tires that need air not to mention the makings of a ‘winter boiler’ that’s demanding some serious ‘cardio’.
Heres a couple of last minute race reports out of YMUS
