From: brian@Schultz.ON.CA (Brian Manion)
Subject: Re: All tuened up and no place with snow
Organization: Sutherland-Schultz Limited, Kitchener, ON
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 22:28:34 GMT

   With a snow forcast like doug's, he better have a good trailer and alot
of time off.  There actually was someone on the net in the spring who had
a total mile accumulation for last winter of 7 miles.  

   As for the MX Z, the front suspension does not only look like Polaris,
but the Ski-Doo dealer even admitted it, and said "The Z series is intended
to have the best of all the manufacturers technology put into one sled."
The two significant items are the front suspension and the fact that it
is alot lighter.  I personally think that the Formula Plus EFI is the one
to watch.  They kept the Rotary, and added port injected fuel injection
as opposed to throttle body fuel injection, and knowing Bombardier it will
probably be a significant improvement in EFI technology and they will
have a patent agreement on it with Mikuni.  Bombardier has always had 
their technology patented, the most important being the "Rotary Valve", 
but it would be interesting to see how Polaris handles the potential
technology theft.  They also have a teloscopic suspension on the Tundra
(I think that is the model) which looks alot like the Yamaha Phazer
telescopic strut.  Maybe the manufactures will spend the winter in
court instead of going to the races.

   On another note, the question was asked on the net about Yamaha and
their reliabilty/customer relations.  I believe that Yamaha Canada is
controlled seperately from Yamaha U.S., so there may be some slight
differences in Marketing etc. In Ontario, there are alot of
Yamaha sleds around.  If they do not sell the most sleds, they are close.
As for reliability, by brother was a mechanic for a Ski-Doo dealer for
several years and has now worked for a Yamaha dealer for about 2 years
and in his opinion the Yamaha sleds are far more reliable.  There are
alot of people who run them for a whole year and only need plugs, a
belt and sliders to get ready for the next year.  One difference he
noted was that if Ski-Doo found something wrong with a new sled, it 
would take years before it would appear on the newer models, it became
and "update" for years.  Yamaha would have it rectified on the next
year.  This is probably more of a manufacturing problem than marketing.

   Also they seem to have the idea that if you want a faster sled, you
will have room to make improvements - hence the large aftermarket for
pipes, etc.  They seem to stress the safety side of things and keep their
sleds "de-tuned" at production time.  As for Ski-Doo, they seem to have
the most that you will probably get out of a Formula when you buy it,
with a few exceptions - hence little aftermarket for tuned pipes, etc.
A good example is the famous V-Max 4,  it did not do as well as the
general sled public thought it would, again the V-Max 4 has alot of room
for increased performance - with this years increase in "muscle sleds",
they may beef it up a little, but the V-Max 4 will be around for quite
a while and I think all the manufacturers know it.

  Think Snow!

			      Brian.

 



 
   
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