[Yellowknife]

Let's kick off the 07/08 Season!!

http://media.putfile.com/November-18-2007-Mileage-Installment

[tkuss]

Awesome

[Yellowknife]

Okay the video was a disaster in reality that we tried to have fun with. The wind was blowing so hard, you couldn’t hear what I was saying on site, so I wrote up a goofy script and there you have it.

Time to share more details on the latest purchase;

Yes, someone called it a couple of years back, I am now in the debt of team blue and no longer own a ski-doo brand snowmobile. I’ll never be brand loyal. I go after what I think will work best for me. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve purchased 5 sleds in the past 7 years, so while I don’t have a Doo right now, who knows what the future holds.

This year I hope to step it up a notch when it comes to the mileage log. It was a lot of fun last year, and I’d like to have more fun with it this season. It’s a lot of work, but I hope to stay on top of the video’s and put out a full video review of the 2008 MTX and the 2008 Summit. All of this will take time, miles, and ideal conditions so don’t expect anything anytime soon. I’m not about to declare a winner in any area until I’ve had significant seat time in the best conditions I can find that these sleds are designed for.

I decided to get another machine because the price was right. I received a great deal from my dealer. There’s some history here. I originally ordered the MTX, then cancelled it because there was no hitch available and I didn’t want to dump money at the welders shop and it wasn’t looking like the unit I thought it would be. Shortly afterwards Chris Reid at Yamaha Canada was in touch with me and told me that based on consumer reaction, they’ve decided to go ahead and build a prototype hitch. He asked if I’d like to test it. Naturally I said yes and he sent one up. On top of that, my Renegade was in mint shape from the work that Squish Band did on it, so it was going to get me decent value. I sold it for $6000. Everything lined up to order the MTX, not only the support and discussions with Yamaha Canada, but the price on the unit. I’ll never go back to having just one machine if I can help it. There’s always down time, and I don’t like being broken down. At the end of the day, the MTX is what appealed to me most – we’ll see just how good it is, or isn’t.

Ah yes, pictures, and riding. Strangely enough I forgot to check my odometer so I don’t know how far I’ve driven yet, but here’s what I do have to start off the season on the Phazer and the Nytro.

I took some stickers off, put some plates on, and I ordered $1200 worth of accessories for the MTX.


Here’s the unit’s oil tank and chaincase:


Clutches:


Location of a coolant heater I had installed:


The nose of the unit, with the accessory underhood bag in it. Some guys have spoken of a bag that comes with the unit, there was no bag in mine other than the one I ordered separately.


Rear view of sled and running boards:


This is the shovel bag, which I’ve already melted. The exhaust turnout is on there, but the clips that mount the bag down were installed too close to the exhaust. I’ll patch the bag and move the clips. Not sure if the sled came with these clips or if the dealer put them on. The tail-light is already annoying me. It consumes valuable rack space so I may move it or remove it altogether. Here’s the bag, exhaust turnout and rack:


After some miles:


Handlebars:


Front suspension:


Belly Pan and stabilizer bars:


Mountain Ski’s, same as Phazer Mountain Lite:


153” track, 2 and ¼ lugs:














With only a day of riding in, I can say first impressions are very, very good.

Over to the Phazer Mountain Lite and some summer updates;



I relocated the rear rack, moving it closer to the exhaust. There’s not an exhaust turnout on there yet, but there will be. The relocation will help with the bottoming out in the rear suspension when I have gear back there, and I think it looks a lot better than it did. A suspension stiffening kit will be installed soon too.

Last year I was the first to report snow entering the steering area and causing the bars to lock up. Yamaha came out with an update;


There are metal brackets installed that are supposed to prevent snow from entering around the A-Frame Protector. At first glace, I don’t think they are going to work. We’ll see what happens. They also have gaps around them, which really means they probably won’t serve any purpose.






When my motor mount decided to come lose last year, it shot a nut into the primary clutch and caused this, which will be warrantied:


I decided to put some holes into the running boards. Even for 2008 on the Phazer Mountain Lite or MTX, they didn’t do a good job with the running boards and snow evacuation. Even the stock holes are covered up by tunnel stiffeners, so I added some area for snow to escape:



I finally did my own oil filter change. What a major pain in the ass. I really need to find some K/N oil filters. Anyone in Canada sell them? I can’t find them here. I need K/N 147 with the nut welded on the end. I had to remove the oil cooler to get the filter out. I didn’t attempt the filter change from the bottom through the belly pan.

This is what over 6000 km’s did to my carbides last season:


On top off all this, an ECU update came down to assist with colder weather starting. I’ve got to say, since the update, my sled is even harder to start. Not sure what’s going to happen there when it gets cold. There’s also a decompression system update available, which I’ve got on order. Apparently there were a couple of airbox mods as well, one to help keep snow out from the top of the cover, and another to prevent the clips that hold the filter on from coming lose and being sucked into the motor.

I’m still waiting on side panel/tunnel panels as well. While initially they were going to install the aluminum ones under warranty, they’ve decided that they retain too much heat, and will likely provide the newer plastic ones that are found on the 2008 Phazers.

I think that’s it for the Phazer’s updates this summer – now to the fun stuff.


We headed out to Walsh Lake today and did some fishing. A few hits, and good ones, but no catches since we were out riding instead of paying attention to the lines.


Our first attempt onto Great Slave Lake failed, I measured 6 inches of ice on the shoreline in Yellowknife Bay, but it didn’t look too promising beyond that:


We loaded up the trailer instead and headed for smaller, safer lakes, only to find ourselves following a trail back to Yellowknife Bay and Back Bay, where we rode in an area that had frozen over earlier in the year:


And of coarse, it’s not an adventure without a huge fire:


And how could I forget the first picture of the mileage on the Phazer for the Mileage Log:


The Nytro obviously started with 0 km’s…I’ll get a picture next ride out.

Here’s to another great season everybody!

Cheers,
YK

[Lococoin]

I am really looking forward to this mileage log since the nytro is one sled i am considering come spring.

When do you plan on installing the prototype hitch, i didnt see it in the pictures.

thanks

[Yellowknife]

I'm hopefull the dealer will put the hitch on in the morning since they were supposed to have it on when I picked up the unit. I need it for the weekend coming up.

[gormleyflyer2002]

SLEDS / SNOW / FIRE...........YOU WIN. WHAT ELSE COULD A GUY ASK FOR......hum......!!

[DITCHBANGER]

how are the hand warmers on the nytro?..i demo'd a phazer last year at -25 to -30 and found the warmers very weak at full power...also great begining to your mileage log..keep it up

[Yellowknife]

I'm not sure yet on the warmers, but I would only be guessing to say they are delayed in heating up and better than my Mountain Lite but not as hot as they should be.

[08NitroRTX]

Thanks Yellowknife I look forward to reading your reviews and segments as you put on many miles this year. I'm ahead of you for now in milage but I know this will be short lived!! Wish Yamaha made a FX Nytro between 121 & 153!! HINT HINT! Betting mine will NOT be the first... @ 137" once I do it late Dec!

[Yellowknife]

Went riding this morning...this is not photoshop'd



Winds have already blown huge snow drifts into the shorelines of the lakes.

The MTX was busy getting the prototype hitch installed from Yamaha. I'll be trying it out Tuesday morning and will snap some pictures of both my reinforced boggan and the hitch.

While out on the Phazer, the throttle was sticking open. It got to the point where it was stuck open every couple minutes, so I took the sled in and they had it out within hours, both sled ready for pick-up. Now that's awesome service! Hopefully the throttle doesn't stick anymore. They think it was the cable.

[Safety Sean]

You still going to post your log on Dootalk as well? I just changed from yellow to blue and some of the guys on Dootalk are not that nice to anyone not bleeding yellow. To me snowmobiling is snowmobiling - do what you like & ride what you like.

[Yellowknife]

Yep, still going to post my log on dootalk as well. I grew up on dootalk, and I have many friends there, so I get the respect without it getting out of hand for the most part, even though I'm all blue now. I agree, do what you like and ride what you like. It's not all about the colours.

The other thing is, a lot of my friends and family that aren't snowmobilers and want to watch the thread are able to see all the photo's and video's without being a member on dootalk. On TY you have to be signed in as a member or pictures don't show up. That's cool, but many people won't bother with trying to sign up only to view posts with pics in them.

That brings me to this morning's ride and pictures!

Chris Reid at Yamaha Canada send out a prototype hitch for me to test...I'm forever greatful seeing as how I was crying for one a couple months ago!


The hitch is an assembly that is attached to both the tunnel and the bumper.



There are reinforcement plates under the tunnel. It was iced up so I didn't get pics underneath. Next time she's in the garage I will get some.

Basically two plates, one on each side are bolted under the tunnel. They extend to the edge of the tunnel, where you see 4 more bolts attached. Those are connected to the reinforcement plates. The bumper is complete with the hitch, as the bumper comes welded to the tongue of the hitch.



The tongue portion doesn't wrap completely around the bumper. I think it would be better if it did. Right now the only thing holding the tongue onto the bumper are a few spot welds by the look of it. I think the tongue should be secured better than that to the bumper, that way your entire load isn't on the welds. If the welds came loose, the hitch would bend upwards and the weight would then be on the tunnel reinforcement plates. It's an interesting design, made completely from aluminum. I think if the tongue wrapped around the bumper it would be indestructable.

Now to the ride...
I tried breaking trail into Tartan Rapids. I cut a couple trees out of the way, and hit a lot of slush and overflow on the way...


The boggan got a little iced up, and became pretty heavy and full of snow...


I had to turn around when a portion of the trail turned out to be moving water...


The hitch passed the empty boggan test...this boggan is reinforced with 3/4 inch fiberglass and weighs more than twice what it used to, plus the tow bar is built from scratch by the welders shop and weighs 3 times what it did originally. It's made to take abuse, hopefully the hitch can handle it loaded down with 160 litres of fuel and a couple caribou.



That's it for this morning's ride before work!

[DITCHBANGER]

yk hitch looks great..ill pick one up when availiable..isnt breaking trail through the forest the best..;-}

[Yellowknife]

Yes - breaking trail through the bush is awesome.

Tonight's ride saw more of that, but there's a cool story with it, more on that later.

This morning before work, a co-worker at CBC needed shots of someone on their sled. He was doing a story about sled theft, so we headed for the trails and he took some video of me riding around. I will get a copy of the item and post the video here.

This was during this morning's sled theft shoot:


So after work I decide to head to the gas bar on the MTX. I'm sitting there waiting for a free fuel pump, and watching this guy who's on a Nytro. I thought it was a short track. Suddenly he fires it up and rides over to me, and it's another MTX!!

When I was ordering mine, I knew that there was one other guy in Yellowknife who ordered one as well, and here he was! We talked for a bit and ended up breaking trail into Berry Hill!

Here's an experimental view of the city from 30 km's away by air, straight line:


Anyway we hit LOTS of slush and overflow, but the MTX's make quick work of that...the torque is unexplainable...

Here's on top of the hill...




And the twins...


What was cool about the ride was we swapped sleds for awhile. Mine is stock, and his has the complete sea level kit in it. We are at about 700 feet above sea level here I think.

The RPM's on my stock machine were 400 to 500 rpm higher at the same speed that he would do with his sea leveled MTX. Both of us are on break-in still, so we didn't open it up, but I'm sure I'll hit the rev limiter if there is one with my stock setup, we'll see.

My clutch engages at roughly 4000 rpm while his engages at about 3600 rpm. It was interesting. I felt like mine had more jump off the line and was far more 'touchy' in the trails, but he thought the opposite so who knows. I think we both just like our own sleds!

I broke 200 km's on the MTX tonight, and I keep forgetting to take an odometer picture, but it's coming.

Oh yeah, and first fuel mileage calculation is 11 MPG (U.S.)

[08NitroRTX]

Right On Yellowknife!!
I think we all enjoy following along with you through your posts!