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How BIG of deal will the Sidewinder be to the History of sledding / Yamaha?

yamadoo

yamadoo

Yamadoo is a snowmobile ' aholic'.
Joined
Jun 3, 2003
Messages
3,645
Location
Duluth, MN -North shores Lake Superior
Country
USA
Snowmobile
15 Viper STX DX red/white- GPS and KING AIR suspension 4kmiles
13 Apex XTX 45 anniversary RED/WHITE/BLACK 3K miles
10 Vector LTX Blue 9kmiles
11 Venture GT 4k miles
86 SnoScoot(2) for grand kids
I am thinking the huge jump in HP will change the sport, sales and plans for the future. Heck will our trails hold up if throttle happy guy spin all the time...........lots of implications.

If we see that turbo's are reliable, non maintenance time / $ killers with huge HP#s will we see the sleds and sport itself change significantly?

Once the Turbos are designed and proven the cost per unit goes down, one would think # of applications will go up.
 

yamadoo said:
I am thinking the huge jump in HP will change the sport, sales and plans for the future. Heck will our trails hold up if throttle happy guy spin all the time...........lots of implications.

If we see that turbo's are reliable, non maintenance time / $ killers with huge HP#s will we see the sleds and sport itself change significantly?

Once the Turbos are designed and proven the cost per unit goes down, one would think # of applications will go up.
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Seems like every other car big or small , now has a turbo or 2.
Turbo diesel sled with a 200 + mile range ????
 
I would look at the PWC industry as an example. It was not too long ago where 225hp was a really big deal. Now 300hp along with all the new tech...
 
Bigbluemachine said:
I would look at the PWC industry as an example. It was not too long ago where 225hp was a really big deal. Now 300hp along with all the new tech...
Click to expand...


Seroiusly !
I have not had a PWC , since it came with the similar 3 cylinder engine that I had in my SX 700 !
No wonder I see the PWC 's racing off shore boats , out on the lake !!
 
Only boats that will keep up with a built 4tec, fzr, svho, cost a couple hu dred grand. Skis are hitting 77 with speed limiter taken off, and doing over a hundred in the hydro drags
 
88kawi said:
Only boats that will keep up with a built 4tec, fzr, svho, cost a couple hu dred grand. Skis are hitting 77 with speed limiter taken off, and doing over a hundred in the hydro drags
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That is bizarre !
 
Be careful what you wish for. Everyone wants more power, better handling, lighter weight, and more technology and then complains about the price of a new sled. In my opinion the snowmobile consumer has handcuffed the oems into either pricing a majority of people out of the sport or recieving low profit margins. It's to the point if an oem doesn't come out with something new and groundbreaking every other year they are put on be back burner and people move on to the next best thing
 
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Cfpdscott said:
Be careful what you wish for. Everyone wants more power, better handling, lighter weight, and more technology and then complains about the price of a new sled. In my opinion the snowmobile consumer has handcuffed the oems into either pricing a majority of people out of the sport or recieving low profit margins. It's to the point if an oem doesn't come out with something new and groundbreaking every other year they are put on be back burner and people move on to the next best thing
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Exactly, if they please the enthusiast; who - what young family guy-can afford to enter the sport. I get it so maybe will be a history of snowmobiling change.
We can think of it as only a problem but I am sure on a white board somewhere some committee in the Snowmo industry is trying to think of it as an opportunity.
 
But then again I thought I was nuts for the cost of my Loaded F150 ecoboost, but I see them all over.
 
To me the turbo sleds are amazing. I've been running boosted turbo cats for 6 yrs. The best part of owning a boosted sled is that it will cruise the woods trails all day long and you can hop on a lake and do 120mph. Yrs ago it was one or the other.
 
this sled will be bittersweet....its going to prove to be the most potent motor yam has ever produced for the snow...yet the writing seems to be on the wall with the cost of each unit and the number of sales dwindling...and then after the snowcheck season ends...the closing of USA testing etc. ...its looking more and more like yam wont be in the sled business for long...sad...IMHO their development and marketing team left a lot on the table...skidoo out markets them with what is a less quality powerplant ...the skidoo sheeple keep ordering and taking the mass of market share..I hope Im wrong
 
I think the sledding industry needs a "spark" like revolution. But as the enthusiasts seem to almost frown on the low cost of entry units and always want the bigger badder faster units. At this rate this sport is going to price itself out of existence. I'm on the fence about what YMC plan is with the snow mo division. Moving headquarter to NA should be a good thing for us. But sacking the research in the USA kinda sucks. Hopefully they get a quality test program established up here north of the border.

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Does everyone forget hyper sleds ignite the sledheads but sleds like the vector is what makes the sales. Yammie needed a hyper power sled to get sledheads talking. I just wished they could have only offered that engine in the sidewinder only and not the thundercat as well. Families can still buy very nice sleds and not be priced out. They are not going to buy 4 sidewinders.

Yammie is not on the way out, why would they continue to invest in R&D and patents? To me it feels like they are jumping on the opportunity to replace suzuki as the engine supplier and buying time to build their own all yammie sled with some sort of innovation that can start to convert the masses.

Ski doo are the smart ones putting a fricken 860 two stroke motor that pails in comparison of technology and cost and selling XRS's for over $16K AFTER the exchange rate.
 
I think it is highly likely that with the drop in cats share price that they are ripe for a cheap takeover bid. Rather than getting sucked up into a company they don't want to work with, Yamaha will take majority stake and run it as a subsidiary of Yamaha and run the sleds/4 wheelers and utes side by side where they can. Yamaha has the excess cash to do it without wasting a reath and it makes financial sense. Neither has the R&D money to strike out on their own successfully and with the economy the way it is and the drop in overall sales continuing to decline to 100k units a year it looks all the more likely. Just my 2C. I do know that many workers at Cat are very worried about the future as most see the writing on the wall 2 - 3 years out!

Jester
 
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