AmSnow.com is now SnoWest.com
QUOTES FROM THE MANUFACTURER
“There were many challenges in developing a new trail ski,” says Wade West, Yamaha Snowmobile Marketing Manager. “On one hand, we had the 8HG ski on the 2011 Apex models enjoying broad market acceptance, so we hit the targets with that design. We knew that setup would be excellent on our rider-neutral, EPS trail models— Apex, RS Vector and RS Venture GT. But on the other end of the range, we had to address our FX Nytro family, which is full-on rider-forward for an aggressive rider. The 8HG proved OK, but not great for that user. We had more work to find the right calibration to meet the expectation of both kinds of riders, and everyone in between.”
“I’ll admit that some of us were skeptical of the new package at first,” says West. “On paper, it has the exact same keel design as the 8HG, so we were unsure that it was worth changing an already-accepted ski. When we rode the new skis the improvement was noticeable, but it was subtle. At that point we decided to put a few expert magazine test riders first from
AmSnow and then from other media outlets on the ski to get their feedback.”