From: dougr@meaddata.com (Doug Ritter)
Subject: Pre-Season Fever
Organization: Mead Data Central, Dayton OH
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 17:43:03 GMT
Distribution: usa

It's getting to be about that time - the first issue of Snow Goer is out,
Snow Week is starting to be delivered on a regular basis again, the dealers
have the new sleds on display, grass drags are beginning, winter sports
shows are just a few weeks away . . . and alt.snowmobiles is *dead*!!!!

Am I the only person on the net who's starting to get excited for the new
season?  Didn't anyone else get the August issue of Snow Goer?  Well, I
did, and I've got lots to talk about, so here goes:

Remember last spring when I posted about the new Ski Doo's?  Remember when
I asked about the patent on the Polaris front end?  Well, I'm not the only
one who thinks the new Ski Doo front end looks like the Polaris front end -
Snow Goer just flat out stated that DSA is a copy of the Polaris IFS.
Can Ski Doo get away with that?  In our litigation-crazed society, won't
Polaris sue them?

But other than that, Snow Goer says the new Ski Doo suspension works as
well as Polaris'.  So the MX Z and the Mach Z should be pretty good sleds,
no?  Snow Goer is selling a video of the tests they did on the '93s last
spring - has anyone seen it yet?  What do they have to say about the new
sleds?  In the magazine, they hinted that the Ski Doo Z chassis is very good,
wonder what they've got to say in the video?

Another topic.  There's an ad for a replacement flywheel that claims to
produce significant performance improvements.  Is this thing "snake oil",
or does it really work?  Anyone have any experience with it?

And yet another topic.  There's an article on performance shops and mods
for the mid-range sleds (Formula Plus, EXT, XLT, Exciter II SX) - can
anyone tell me why the Yamaha sleds seem to be able to get such a vast
improvement in horsepower with only a pipe change?  Are their stock pipes
really that bad?  And why can a new pipe bring the 569cc Yamaha engine
up to the mid-90's in HP (10 HP increase), and a new pipe for the 550cc
Suzuki only add 2 or 3 HP?  Is the 569 really that much stronger than the
550 Suzuki?  Seems strange to me.

Well, I had more to say about Snow Goer, but I forget what now that I'm here at
work.  I *am* pretty sick of that column that John Sandberg writes about the
"Barkmulchers Snowmobile Club" - what a bunch of garbage!  IMHO, it's a waste
of a page in an otherwise decent magazine.  According to this issue, the
"Barkmulchers" are real people - I sure as heck hope I never run into these
clowns.

So much for that, on to bigger and better things:  where can I get a trail
map for the Michigan Miss-Kal trail?  Is it worth riding?  Where's the best
place to use as a base of operations for the Miss-Kal?  I like Cadillac,
but you have to ride the ditches or trailer from there to Manistee to pick
it up - are there hotels in Manistee?

And one last thing: is there anyone on the net who lives in northern lower
Michigan who would be willing to give us snow updates starting in say, late
October?  I for one am chomping at the bit here - I've already cleared it
with my boss to take a couple of days off work whenever the first snow falls.
The Traverse City snow hot-line (talk about your basic oxymorons) is pretty
good, but I'd like to have a first-hand report from a snowmobiler if possible.

Think snow!

--
Doug Ritter (dougr@meaddata.com)          "Bo don't know snowmobiles!"
Newsgroups: alt.snowmobiles