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2011 Apex Ride Review

morrisond

Expert
Joined
Sep 10, 2003
Messages
472
Location
Muskoka/Toronto, Ontario
Having just got back from the trail and being to able to type on my Computer vs my iPhone here are my thoughts.

First a Big Thank You to Chris Reid, and the other guys on the ride. I'm terrible with remembering names but I remember Yellowknife, Dano and FXR. There were six others as well.

We left from Barrie and did a nice loop over to Blue Mountain and back, about 185km. Stopped in Wasaga for lunch and Chris bought lunch! Very nice gentleman and I applaud his efforts to include his customers as much as he can.

As the ride progressed we stopped every 10-15 minutes for someone new to try the sled. Everyone got to try it 2-3 times.

In a nutshell, it appears(as Chris would not confirm any specs at all) that it is an Apex refresh. Some of the plastic is slightly different, but the chasis and all hard points seem the same. The only differences I noticed from a cosmetic inspection were the new seat which raises your Butt about 2"(nice firm foam too very comfy) and new Skii's/spindles. The Spindles looked shorter and optimized for weight, with a different angle - flatter. The Skiis are a new profile and worked very well. A-arms appear to be the same so exisiting wide front end kits should bolt right on(my favourite mod).

Comparing the sled side by side with 121's and 136 Apex/Vector, the track is definitely longer than 121 and shorter than 136. On the proto it was a Ripsaw. There were no graphics on the sled so who knows what colours/graphics will appear. We all speculated that there will be a 128 and 144. The rear skid on the 128 was the mono, who knows what will come on the Long track version.

Me, I got three turns on it. First was some nice open fields with very fast sweepers, was able to hold it to the bar for quite some time and was able to see 10,700-10,800 rpm and speeds just shy of the c-note in MPH(on private property of course at all other times we all observed the 50kph Trail speed limit - I swear Officer...). Hit some junky stuff in the in ditch as well. My second ride was tight twisties, similar to Muskoka trails and last one was high speed through trees.

The sled had about 550 km on it, and when we stopped to fill up the machines half way it used about the same as everyone else, all of us on 4 stroke Yammies.

The first impression when you went to turn was "Does this thing have carbibes on it" - it felt so light it didn't feel like anything was happening but you were still turning nicely, very easy on the body, and the one of our group who had a slight mishap(not on the 2011) and banged up his shoulder was very appreciative of this as the day wore on. We were all speculating if in fact it did have Power Steering for the first few hours until we noticed a small 'EPS' on the display and then saw the Pump through the front opening.

Apparently it adds very little weight and combined with the longer track new seat combo providing greatly improved comfort, make this machine the potential king of 500km days in Northern Ontario, you'll get off the sled and still feel fresh.

The sled feels 100lbs lighter than non-eps Apex's putting the apparent weight and feel right in the midst of the light 2 strokes.

The suspension worked really well. I was very impressed. I'd say it's as good as the best rear skid out there right now - In my personal opinion - the Cat Sliding rear arm 128 out of the F series.

The mono was very plush, but was very hard to bottom, they did a great job on the valving. The sled (no studs) with the 128 had great traction and very nice braking. I'm not sure if you need to go for a longer length, but with EPS and the ability to put some really big Carbides and aggressive ski's on, the LT would probably be my choice (with 2 studs per bar for ice) as it would ride even better.

In terms of Power, I'm not really sure. I think it has a little more but not positive. It wouldn't surprise me if it was still 150 HP or on the flipside they gave it a small bump call it 160 HP, maybe they went the 1050 route like they did on the Waverunner. It felt like an Apex.

If I had any wish it would be for more power, particularly more torque. My pet peeve with these 4 strokes is that they just don't have the high end torque(without adding forced induction $$$$) to break a real 100 mph in any amount of snow. On glare ice big speeds are possible. But you get off in Powder on a small lake crossing and I'm always wishing for more (factory turbo please or Big Bore with at least 120 lbs of torque!)

All in all an incredibly well executed piece. I called it a BMW M6.

:tg:
 

Thanks for the Feedback. Like everyone else can't wait to see the specs. The power steering sounds great, and some additional power is always welcome.
 
Thanks very much for the report. Can you give us your impressions of the center of gravity, I guess the most obvious result would be ski lift. How was it in the twisties that you mentioned? It looks like the new spindles would help some, I wish we knew if anything was moved around under the hood. Soon I guess.
 
With the shorter spindles( I would guess 1" less) the front was dropped, it was really hard to detect Ski lift, didn't notice it.

The Sled didn't have studs and needed more carbide(and it isn't mine) so I didn't want to push it too too hard in the corners.

It was as good as an XP, which means very good.

I think it would still benefit from a Wide front end ( as almost any sled does) though which would offset lift from more aggressive skis which you could easily use without much extra turning effort thanks to the EPS.

Chris said the EPS stood for Extra Power System - a.k.a The Turbo, yeh right....one can dream
 
In the twisties it felt like a Snoscoot, the EPS almost made it too easy.

The sled just really works nicely. Just buy it and ride it and be very happy for years.

Overall a great improvement on the 1st gen Apex.

They fixed everything that was wrong from the 1st Gen.

I want to stress this last point, the seating position and longer track combines to make this ride significantly better, maybe the best out there bar none right now. Awesome sled for High Mileage people who like performance and want a no-fuss gas and go solution.
 
Hi morrisond, was nice meeting you today and also nice to see the others. Some were for the second time.
Also have to thank CR for this opportunity again and of course for buying lunch. :)

I too felt this new sled could be called "the improved Apex". Like previously stated, we were not privy of getting any actual specs of the new sled so we all took stabs at speculation. With no decals on sled, the sled did sound like a four-holer. To confirm this, I drilled my head under the tunnel to take a peek and noticed 4 pipes at the front of tunnel going into 1 outlet and then into a less bulky canister sporting the narrow double exits. While I was down there, I also noticed the extrovert drivers which seem the same as 2010. The engine sound seem to be Apex like, but was quieter and smoother then the Apex. I tried to get the common "drone" sound that the older 4-holer had at slower speeds and it seems that this engine/exhaust combo is bang on. My guess is this power plant is putting out 160 hpish. Thats just seat of the pants feel, but conditions didn't allow me to stretch its legs the way many of us wanted to. When finding good traction, the sled pulled hard and I'm sure it would smoke my Apex.

The common talk of the day was to figure out what the actual track length was. My guess is that its a 128-130" track. I can only speculate that this track will become the norm for the shorties and a 144 incher will be replacing the 136. As morrisond said, the front suspension geometry is all changed and was easy to notice when parked beside an older Apex, but would probably look the same to most when having no comparison. Nonetheless, the sled handled great when combined with the improved skis. On that note, I was surprised how well and easy the sled steered. While on a trail side break, Yellowknife spotted the EPS on the gauge which explained why the steering was light. The EPS seemed to be speed sensitive and didn't take away the handling feel of the sled. Keep in mind I'm used to stiff steering C&A Pro skis on my Apex, so steering the new sled really gave me a break.

The rest of the sled was very Apex like without actual Apex components. From small changes in the hood, two piece windshield and new seat, its an Apex makeover without venturing away from what Apex lovers grew to love. With all the little quirks the earlier Apex's had, it appears Yamaha addressed all issues such as ski performance, rear suspension durability, Idler wheel quality and just simple refinement all around which makes it feel like a true 10,000 mile per season runner without anything other then maintenance.

Looking forward to see the rest of the configurations of this sled for 2011 since my ol Apex is due for a change up.

Took pics today and will upload latter.

Dan
 
Sounds like a quad-cylinder motor(thank god),did the motor rev quicker than a stock apex?Was the difference in power like going from a RX-1 to an APEX?
 
If it only got to 100 mph are you sure it wasn't the new Vector efi with power steering, new skis and a little longer track. The 2010 Vector has the Apex sound but not as loud.
 
I am going to ask what may be a stupid question. Who is Chris Reid? I have seen his name in a number of posts on here lately. Thanks, G.B.
 
We counted 4 pipes in the Tunnel. Sounded like an Apex with a slightly mellower sound, less annoying(I peronally find the existing Apex a little loud and drony - it does sound mean though).

I was on an groomed open field, maybe 2000', I held it open for maybe 7-10 seconds as part of the trail ride, snow was not that fast(dry), I was not going for top end, I wanted to see where the engine was revving (10,700-10,800), to see if was the next gen R1 motor which I think makes it's power at 12,500, normally it was pulling 9,700-10,300.

Based on what I saw on REVs and seat of the pants impression, I would guess they bumped it to a 1050 like the watercraft, or increased the compression to get a little more.

On glare ice it would be a lot faster, I have no doubt that 120mph would be possible

I thought it was pretty good.
 
Gone Blue said:
I am going to ask what may be a stupid question. Who is Chris Reid? I have seen his name in a number of posts on here lately. Thanks, G.B.

Chris Reid is - quoting from his card "National Manager, Product Planning and Research" Yamaha Canada

He also writes the Yamaha Sled Talk Blog

Very nice gentleman, who has been involved with Yamaha and Snowmobiles for years.
 
morrisond said:
Gone Blue said:
I am going to ask what may be a stupid question. Who is Chris Reid? I have seen his name in a number of posts on here lately. Thanks, G.B.

Chris Reid is - quoting from his card "National Manager, Product Planning and Research" Yamaha Canada

He also writes the Yamaha Sled Talk Blog

Very nice gentleman, who has been involved with Yamaha and Snowmobiles for years.

Cool, thanks morrisond! G.B.
 
So reading all this, it's a refined Apex. Not a game changer.... Pretty sad, that it only got the 160hp... I guess you will have to wait and see what it's potential is....
 


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