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When it comes to important snowmobiles, Yamaha's Phazer is among the most significant for the sport, especially for Yamaha. Its success made Yamaha the snowmobile sales leader through the 1980s!
Why was the Phazer such a hit? Think power to weight. Think overall quality. Think price and value.
For 1984, the Phazer represented a minor revolution in snowmobile engineering. It was the Ski-Doo REV of its day. It was different in very good ways.
First, you knew this sled was different as soon as you sat on it. If you think of a childhood teeter-totter (see-saw to Midwestern folks!), you as the rider sat in the center, oblivious to the sled's pitching from front to rear. Right away you had a more comfortable ride. Add in a new Yamaha rear slide-rail suspension and ride comfort became a premium.
Second, you knew the sled was different when you reached forward to grab the handlebars.
They were narrow and integrated with an aerodynamic fairing. The windshield was small, but the fairing cut much of the chill. The large headlight that sat like a Cyclops' eye in the fairing moved as you turned the skis. Check out the adaptive headlights that "see" around corners on some of today's luxury cars. Yamaha had that feature two decades ago!
Third and most importantly, the Phazer was a kick-butt trail performer with its 488cc fan-cooled twin and lightweight aluminum chassis. As other companies' snow machines added cylinders and weight, Yamaha dropped pounds, designed a high-torque twin and totally revised how sleds were balanced for trail running.
As a test rider aboard the early Phazers, it was easy to feel how different the Phazer was when comparing it to, say, an Indy 500 of the time. The rider positioning was more upright and though the Phazer's handlebars were narrow, the Yamaha's steering was extremely light. You could really push the Phazer through turns.
The use of Yamaha's telescopic strut front suspension (TSS) helped make the Phazer appear compact, but it was similar in overall size to its competition.
The front struts were unexcelled in straight ahead running through moguls as they could absorb nearly twice as much travel as a conventional leaf spring setup. But when compared to the Polaris Indy's trailing arm design, the TSS came in second in the turns. Because each strut acted alone, the earliest TSS sleds were prone to yaw as they dipped severely under load when pushed hard. Though the Indy might roll a bit under heavy cornering, the fact that both ski suspensions were tied together resulted in better control.
By the time the TSS was discontinued years later, Yamaha had refined the design to make it one of the best handling front ends in the sport. When hammering straight down a mogul-pocked power line trail, the smart money was on the Yamaha TSS.
An advantage of the strut design was how the steering linkage was housed inside the bulkhead and out of the way. The Indy design was more exposed to stumps and other trail hazards. For powering through deep snow the TSS had a cleaner profile, too.
Yamaha used knowledge learned from its first-ever strut-suspended SR-V models and evolved the TSS system to fit the needs of the Phazer buyer. The engine was placed low and back from the ski centerline as much as possible to enhance overall handling. With the rider mass centered and a low center of gravity, the Phazer's prowess on the trail quickly became legendary.
In fact, while many guys said they were buying a Phazer for the wife, they were the ones riding it the most. And, due to its excellent powder capability, many deep snow adventurers switched to the Phazer.
Yamaha scored a homerun with this historic model. Why not? It gave snowmobilers everything they wanted - and more - in 1984!
It became the best-selling snowmobile in the world and rocketed Yamaha to No. 1.