1989 fancooled foursome

Ski-Doo Safari Voyageur

This is the single passenger version of the Safari Escapade. We consider the two-up Escapade to be one of the premier luxury sleds in the sport. The Voyageur, which was originally named Stratos, takes the best features of the two-upper and applies them to solo trail touring.

There is a problem encountered by the Voyageur and it has nothing to do with the name changes. In fact the problem has very little to do with the Voyageur at all. The problem is that Ski-Doo's Formula series of sleds are very popular and people tend to either think of the Formula or the more entry level models like the Safari Scout or Saga. This tends to make life a little tough for the Voyageur.

Solo riders should consider the Voyageur on its own merits. It has Bomber's strut-like front suspension which delivers five inches of travel, a quarter inch shy of the Formula's front travel. The rear suspension delivers seven inches of up and down movement, which is called torque reaction and isn't a progressive unit as that found on the Formula models. We have ridden the Voyageur and found the suspension to be perfectly acceptable for solo touring.

The unique hood and windshield area actually kicks back and keeps warm air directly toward the rider. On long solo trail rides in cold weather, it's a nice feature. The Voyageur has electric start and hand warmers as standard equipment. You can get these features on the Cat as an option and in the Indy ES and Phazer Deluxe as standard also. While the Voyageur's base price is about $4,400, adding these standard features to the other models bumps their base price up a couple of hundred bucks. You are really talking apples and apples when you add in these features.

The Safari models are based on years - and we do mean years - of first hand experience in trail touring by Ski-Doo's engineers and designers. Ski-Doo's research and engineering shops in Valcourt, Quebec, are right on the snowmobile trail system. Quebec, thanks to Bombardier, is the leader in travel development. Now you can understand why the Safari series is as smooth and well suited to trail touring.

The Engine Ski-Doo chose for the Voyageur is a very dependable 496cc Rotax design that powers a variety of sleds in this year's model line-up and has powered a wide variety of sleds in Ski-Doos of the past. It is a bulletproof design. The piston-ported twin develops very strong low end and mid-range power. It accelerates quickly, but the down side is that is peaks quickly too. If you're looking for top end, this is not a top end engine design. For its design purpose, the engine is exceptional and will give you years of smooth on-trail performance. Isn't that what you want?

We think that Bomber's engineers did you a huge favor by adding the Total Range Adjustable clutch. Once you learn the idiosyncrasies of this clutch, you'll love it. It can be adjusted on the trail if need be and doesn't require a vocational school education nor a doctorate in auto mechanics. It is relatively simple to figure out. Extremely simple to adjust. Best of all, once you have it tuned to your specific needs, it is unlikely that you'll mess with the clutch again. Frankly, if your dealer knows his stuff, we would doubt you'd ever even touch the clutch except for routine maintenance.

Other on trail comfort features include the new easy squeeze, two-stage progressive action throttle. Found on the Formula sleds, this throttle action is clever in its simplicity and easy on your throttle thumb to use. The instruments are easy to see, the seat is thickly padded and handlebars have a nice "cruiser" feel to them that makes it easy to roll on the miles with the Voyageur.