It’s an interesting trail I have followed to this place. I’ve spent countless hours online reading forums frequented by snowmobile, ATV and motorcycle riders. I believe the internet is a great resource for companies who want to discover what is being said about their industry, their business acumen and their products. It is also a frightening place for the old school ‘marketers’ who have traditionally delivered carefully crafted ad campaigns to the masses, in support of new product sales with precious little, direct communication outside of the corporate boardrooms.

Suddenly we have thousands of people saying whatever they wish about us, some good, some bad and some ugly. I have tried posting on some forums when I felt I could help address or diffuse an issue with answers I knew as fact, only to discover the next person would jump on my post and quickly dispel it as tripe, because it didn’t fit into their own context.

Now I basically lurk, read, smile and shake my head, which brings me to ‘Sled Talk’.

So on that note what are we going to talk about here? Well I can offer my insights into product development, how ideas are formed and brought to production as new models (or not). We can look at how our system is designed to investigate and react to market information. The subject of four stroke snowmobile development and how we view the future poses many potential questions. And the current and future health of our sport, the interpretation of regulations, poor snowfall years, media attention and aging demographics. These are but a few of the topic headers so if you have a comment or question you would like to introduce here, please ‘let ‘ur rip’. I’ll do my best to publish as much as I can and promise to keep my comments ‘smoke free’.

One last thing, I personally maintain all sleds are worthy of ownership and all snowmobilers have a common bond with an inherent responsibility to co exist with other outdoors folks both motorized and non-motorized alike. As such I welcome comments and questions from everyone regardless of brand loyalties and riding preference. Please remember there are some rules for engagement, nothing too surprising but you should check them out.

So lets get started, we just introduced the all new 2008 FX Nytro along with the rest of our 2008 lineup on Sunday, what do you think so far?