1990 sled roundup

YAMAHA - PHAZER II, TOP GUN O

Perhaps no company in snowmobiling has changed its product line as much as Yamaha over the past few years. It has converted almost all of its trail sleds from leafsprings to struts. It has tried to create a new "snow vehicle" market. It created a new class of "Exciter" styled sports sleds. It promoted Formula III racing before anyone else. It hit a home run with the lightweight, affordable Phazer. And yet, entering the decade of the '90s, Yamaha is on the verge of becoming Number Two in American snowmobiling.

Yamaha has tried to take the high road. It has totally revamped its touring sled models. The Inviter is a unique solo touring machine with a single cylinder liquid-cooled engine. The Ovation is a strut-suspended replacement for the very popular Enticer series. The Snoscoot is a unique low buck, low displacement, low performance most-fun-per-dollar winter buy you can get outside of a pair of skis. The Exciter created a new class of liquid-cooled 500cc trail sports machines.

Yamaha has been the Lone Ranger in trying to downplay speed and play up trail riding enjoyment. This play for responsibility and leadership has come at a huge cost. Because, for right now, it seems that "Kemo Sabe" may mean "tough sledding" for this masked rider of the snow plains. What the Japanese-based company has failed to give its customers has been a "top gun" shoot-out sled like a Wildcat or Indy 650 or even the Mach 1. Yamaha dealers and loyalists have been screaming for one. And when they haven't gotten a suitable replacement for the SRX and Vmaxs they tended to hold onto what they already had or bought the speed machines from the competition.

A top line speed machine is an image machine. Pure and simple. When you walk into a Chevy dealership to buy an econo-car, you look at the Corvette sitting on the showroom floor and dream about driving it. The $40,000 sticker brings you back to reality and your econo-car. But the knowledge that Chevrolet makes such a king of the road makes you feel good.

Well, maybe the road to wellness is approaching. Yamaha executives told their dealers what they wanted to hear - sort of. They said that Research & Development would look at building such a vehicle. Will it come? Probably. Anytime soon? Not soon enough for dealers sitting with last year's inventory which is already being offered a blow-out prices.

Frankly, it's too bad, because Yamaha has done a very good job revamping its lineup. This year's major accomplishment is the re-creation of the Phazer. Called the Phazer II, this sled is worth trading up if you already have a Phazer One.

Basically the running gear is all original Phazer. The fan-cooled engine and drivetrain are the same. The chassis and dimensions are similar to the Exciter, but created expressly for the Phazer.

The Phazer has been Yamaha's best selling snowmobile ever. It has kept them Number One. When you think of Yamaha, you think Phazer. Now you'll be thinking Phazer II with its wider ski stance, longer track, new suspensions which offer six inches of travel front and rear, and a more efficient attack angle for the track. The latter means improved deep snow ability. That's saying something since the original Phazer has been regarded as one of the best deep snow machines going to date.

The drivetrain remains the same. Everything else is new. The Phazer II is, in some respects, a fan-cooled Exciter since it is dimensionally about the same as the Exciter. Performance-wise it runs extremely well and likely will make its share of Indy Trail and Cat Prowler owners unhappy. Everything that was right with the original Phazer has been retained. New "right stuff" has been added. Yamaha has had a few lumps lately, the Phazer II isn't one of them. We give the Phazer II a "thumbs up" rating for 1990.

The Phazer II gets a new strut suspension with double tube oil shock absorber - the Exciter uses nitrogen-charged shocks. The self-adjusting brake seen on the Exciter last season is now standard on the Phazer, too. There is an optional sway bar, which we'd recommend for any strut suspension.

The Exciter, which has been beset with annoying and minor problems over its existence, has been refined and improved so that it may end up being one of the most trouble-free Yamahas this season. It has a pair of slide valve Mikuni carbs for trouble-free operation, CD ignition, and liquid-cooling for its 569cc twin. Both the Exciter and Phazer II have the same 36.2 inch wide ski stance and 15 inch by 121 inch rubber track.

Other Yamahas for 1990 include the second year edition of the 340cc Ovation, a strut suspension replacement for the Enticer series. As with most of the trail Yamahas, there is a choice of base or "LE" models. The more deluxe LE series offer electric start, handlebar warmers and instrumentation. You can get an LE model in the Ovation, Phazer II and Exciter series. Given the choice, we think the LE versions are worth the difference in price.

An old standby, the SRV makes another appearance. This was Yamaha's first strut sled. It still features the tried and true 540cc fan-cooled twin.

That engine is the base unit for the two-up XL-V touring model and the utility VK540 power wagon.

You can still get the diminutive Bravo, the long tracked Enticer LTR longtracker and the 80cc Snoscoot.

New for 1990 is a very sweet little SnoSport. This is a bigger Snoscoot. The "Sport" has a 125cc single, a longer track, better rear suspension and Yamaha's first IFS-type coil-over-shock front suspension. This is a sweetheart snowmobile with a top speed of about 35 miles per hour. The little single delivers about 11 horsepower at 7,000 rpm, about 50 percent more than the Snoscoot.

This new market segment is proving popular at resort areas in the snowbelt. It suggests that Yamaha is onto something, but unfortunately, the vast majority of snowmobilers is thinking big sleds and wanting "image" machines like the Vmax to reappear at Yamaha dealerships across America. Will it happen? We bet it will.

Why hasn't it? Well, one theory is that Yamaha has underestimated the aggressive nature of Arctco and Polaris which have been more shrewdly positioning their models and taking full advantage of the dollar-to-yen price advantages that used to work in the other direction. Or, maybe Yamaha worried too much about Honda entering the market and not enough about the existing players.

In any case, Yamaha has seen substantial cuts in its marketshare by these two Minnesota companies. Arctco probably looks at it with a sense of revenge, since many Cat owners turned to Yamaha when Arctic Cat went on "vacation." Now the Cat is getting its customers back. Polaris has learned to fight the Japanese effectively on price and features. But, this may change when Yamaha re-enters the "top gun" sweepstakes with a mega-hauler of its own. Then, all those econo-sled buyers can feel better about owning a Yamaha, knowing that Yamaha's high performance "Shogun" sled is out on the snows kicking some serious butt.