Yamaha caught pretty much everyone by surprise when the Japanese company unveiled one of its newest snowmobiles for model year 2013.
Nobody expected this.
New for 2013 is a youth sled, the SRX 120. This sled, obviously aimed at the youngest of sledders, is ironic in a way. Ironic in that the engine, a 123cc Yamaha 4-stroke, is the same engine you'll find in Arctic Cat's 120. Yamaha has been building and supplying the small four-stroke engines for Arctic Cat for the past three years. Now Yamaha has decided to offer its own youth sled for 2013.
And if it looks familiar, you know, kind of like Cat's 120 but painted blue, that's exactly what it is. Yamaha supplies the engine and Cat builds the mini sled painted Yamaha blue with a Yamaha logo. And, of course, Yamaha stays true to its 4-stroke only-offering of sleds.
And that includes the three well-known mountain sleds, the FX Nytro MTX 153, FX Nytro MTX 162 and Phazer MTX.
Nytro's New Features
On the Nytro MTX 153 and 162 there are, quite literally, a handful of new features, starting with dual controls for the hand and thumb warmers. Next is a new mountain strap as well as a lightweight, low and thin windshield.
Both Nytro mountain models offer the same three-cylinder, 4-stroke engine with advanced fuel injection and engine braking, along with MT-9 mountain skis, ProMountain Air rear suspension with Fox Float 2 XV shocks. The front suspension of each sled also had Fox Floats, giving the sleds an all-air shock package.
The key difference between the two Nytro MTX sleds is the track. The bigger track is a 15x162x2.25-inch Camoplast Ascent track while the shorter 153 is a 15x153x2.25-inch Camoplast Maverick track. The Ascent, special built for the Yamaha Nytro, has a unique design in that the top third of the lug controls the lift component while the base or bottom two-thirds helps determine the forward acceleration. Yamaha, in working with Camoplast on the Ascent, wanted to keep the lift component of the track lug while improving forward acceleration and performance of the track on snow that is hard pack or set up.
The Phazer MTX returns pretty much unchanged for 2013. Powered by a two cylinder, 4-stroke engine, the Phazer MTX has a 14x144x2-inch Camoplast Maverick track and ProMountain 144 rear suspension.
All three Yamaha mountain sleds offer electric start, a standard feature on all Yamaha full-size sleds.
If you're going to buy a Nytro MTX and want to boost it, then springtime is the smart time to do it because you can add a turbo for $1,500 compared to the near $4,000 price tag the rest of the year.
The Mountain Performance turbo is still not a factory-approved turbo, but despite that Yamaha is offering it with a pretty sweet deal when you buy a sled in the spring. While not factory-approved, the MPI turbo-which pumps out 180 hp when installed-is included in Yamaha's parts and accessories catalog, which, to us, is some sort of a stamp of approval. As one Yamaha official said, "We've moved a lot of turbo kits with zero engine issues and zero kit issues."
When you buy under Yamaha's Spring Power Surge, you also get a new jacket.
Yamaha, which is celebrating its 45th year of building sleds, also introduced a couple of new sleds aimed at the Alaska market. Technically, these two models-the Venture TF and Venture MP-aren't new. These two models have existed in the Canadian market but are now available to U.S. sledders. The Venture TF has the bigger engine, a fuel-injected 3-cylinder 4-stroke while, the MP has a 2-cylinder 4-stroke. Another difference is the track. The TF has a 15x151x1.25-inch Rip Saw while the MP a 16x144x1.25-inch Rip Saw.