Will Darting be More Pronounced on Hard, Icy Trails?

[sd5500]

Man was my curves hunting and darting like crazy today. Trails were hard with lots of ice and very little loose snow. Is what I felt somewhat normal for those conditions, or do I have a lot of work to do on my skis/front suspension?

 

[YAM182]

I just did 185 miles starting early Friday. Rode some freshly groomed trails and while I am still dialing in the handling with the Curves and the Hygear additions I did have SOME darting with the Curve skis. I rode in the ski lines of a couple sleds on purpose to see how my sled would react and it did skate a bit but not much.

The occasions when this happened the trails were mostly freshly groomed (probably thurs night) and fairly firm. First sled on fresh hard groomed trail there was a little darting but not bad.

--I do need a little bit more ski pressure and less air in the floats. I checked ski stance before I left but I will do it again. Edit-I have the 4.5 shaper bars on the Curve skis to start with.

 

[Grimm]

Hard and icy are the best conditions for darting, especially when there are ruts on the trails.

 

[AKrider]

I've got Curves on my sled and I'm happy with how they calmed it down. I rode a bunch yesterday and the off trail conditions were hard, frozen snow with just an inch of fresh snow sitting on top. The sled seemed more stable at speed than with the stock skis. Funny thing is, I then took my old, '91 Trail Indy out for a ride with my daughter sitting on the front and in the same conditions, I could go faster with more control on the Indy! Part of this is due to my Nytro shocks being revalved stiffer. They are not plush anymore while the Indy is super soft and soaked up all the little rain runnels in the snow. Still, I was amazed by how stable the Indy was! Sure it wouldn't be able to go through the bumps like the Nytro but the handing was a heck of a lot more predictable.

So now I'm wondering if the twichy handling is just something that can't be tuned out of the '08?

 

[shanesz28]

best thing i have done is the pipe trick you can read about it on the apex fourm it works i have 08 rtx i can be going 80 take both hands off the bars it goes straight as an arrow i have tried icy road, rutted trails no darting and no drag try it you will love it

 

[FxsX24]

what carbides are you running on the curves?

 

[sd5500]

what carbides are you running on the curves?

I'm running the nytro specific very aggressive trail. I'm also running the front suspension suggestions from Sean and Nick of curve, which is 70 PSI, 4 clicks back from full compression, and 2 clicks back from slowest rebound.

 

[nate007]

70 psi sounds like alot, but I can't say I know the SE's very well. Dont just crank the pressure of the front up without adjusting the rear to compensate.
Try shimming your skis as well. I don't know if the Curves use the stock ski rubber or not, but look at your skis while sitting on flat pavement. You should be able to see daylight under the FRONT of the carbide. If not, you need to shim the skis. Yamahas tend to have a lot of front ski pressure, which causes much of the darting.
Even with the different skis, it's not always a cure-all.

 

[greenmntpass]

Here in central Vermont we haven't had any measureable snow in over a month. A few snow showers and thats it. We have super hard packed trails
that our groomers are trying to do their best with. Yes hard packed trails equal perfect recipe for darting. My Slydogs rail thru the corners even in these super hard packed conditions. But the downfall I have is that the trail is so hard the ski profile is not being used, only the shaper bar is protruding down so minimal center keel is used. Where corners have loose snow in them its a different story. In the starights they dart like crazy. I've toed in, toed out, shimmed the front, taken the shim out, tried ski savers, different carbides ect... Bottom line hard packed trails create darting.

 

[BLUEBALLER]

frozen azz trails here in 'toba yesterday. NO darting with the curves. toed out to the recommended 1/4" and all is well.

nytro specific aggressive carbides.

keep dialing it in - took me awhile.

 

[antpal22]

you may consider buying the 09 front end , I did and WOW what a difference
the thing totally rocks now ...I just saw a complete set on Ebay ...wish I would have seen it last year ..I spent bout $1700 ...but now my sled is PERFECT!!!

 

[FxsX24]

your limiters could be set for too much ski pressure also

wow, i am surprised sean or nick have not posted in this yet

 

[AKrider]

I took ski pressure off my sled by letting the limiters out completely. That helped out. The Curves are more aggressive than the stock skis so you can get away with less ski pressure.

One of the problems with setting up a sled for handling is everyone has their personal preference. People don't weigh the same, ride the same, snow and trail conditions are different, etc, etc. There is no one set up that is going to make everyone happy.

 

[Curve Industries]

We just ran a 4" round bar with 5/8" toe out PER SKI on our '09 SE and are quite certain it's a dead ringer . Trails were locked up real good with these cold temps and sunny days; so much in fact that the skid rails warmed up enough to melt all the ice off them.

Darting was less than apparent 95% of the time. At high speeds and under power it was non existent and only occasionally on decel was it remotely present. All this when out of the box, decel would walk the front around like MC Hammer 'breaking it down'.

Furthermore, wound out on Lake George, the speedo reads 105mph which leads me to believe top end did not suffer. The Excell exhaust howls a rather curious note at 9krpm.... All the ice fisherman had to step out of their shanties to see what the commotion was about.

Still need to pull some weight off the front and dial in the skid for big holes. Full report to come.

- Sean

www.CurveIndustries.com
www.RideWithRobbie.com

 

[justinator]

We just ran a 4" round bar with 5/8" toe out PER SKI on our '09 SE and are quite certain it's a dead ringer . Trails were locked up real good with these cold temps and sunny days; so much in fact that the skid rails warmed up enough to melt all the ice off them.

Darting was less than apparent 95% of the time. At high speeds and under power it was non existent and only occasionally on decel was it remotely present. All this when out of the box, decel would walk the front around like MC Hammer 'breaking it down'.

Furthermore, wound out on Lake George, the speedo reads 105mph which leads me to believe top end did not suffer. The Excell exhaust howls a rather curious note at 9krpm.... All the ice fisherman had to step out of their shanties to see what the commotion was about.

Still need to pull some weight off the front and dial in the skid for big holes. Full report to come.

- Sean

www.CurveIndustries.com
www.RideWithRobbie.com

5/8" toe out measured off the ski or measured off the carbide bolts??