AmSnow.com is now SnoWest.com
A couple winters ago, I competed in the USCC Ada 100 cross country race on my 2005 Yamaha Vector, which included several miles of pretty rough ditch and an equal amount of miles on the smooth, surprisingly straight Wild Rice River. Having pre-run the course in the morning, once it was actually time to race the minute I hit the river and tucked in behind the windshield like I was trying to set a speed record at Bonneville and let it loose. At one point, my digital speedometer showed 109. As my good friend Jesse Strege likes to say, "that's haulin' the mail." But was I actually doing the mythical 100+ mph? Who knows without a radar gun, but I still got that warm and risky tingle of excitement when my eyes focused on that 1-0-9 displayed across the instrument pod.
Maybe hitting 100 on a snowmobile is too much of a reminder to some of us of the sheer mechanics of it all. At 100+ every out-of-whack bearing seems to vibrate, every joint we forgot to lubricate cries for mercy, you remember that you forgot to adjust the track before you left, and if you're riding a 2-stroke, perhaps that recent jet change wasn't such a good idea after all when the motor suddenly dies. There was too much weight, not enough fresh air, and too much friction. Come to think of it, this whole scenario sounds an awful lot like what will happen if I turn 100!