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Moto-Ski is one of those brands - like Massey-Ferguson - that had its own identity for a time, but then as the snowmobile industry contracted in the 1970s, it became part of something else and lost its uniqueness.
Moto-Ski vs. Ski-DooOriginally produced by a group in LaPocatiere, Que., Moto-Ski snowmobiles actually were a serious rival to Bombardier's Ski-Doo brand. Well… sort of!
In those earliest of the early days, nothing would stop the Ski-Doo roll. Moto-Ski made an effort in meeting the competition head-on at the racetracks and on the trail. Moto-Ski advertising touted it as being one of the toughest snowmobiles ever made, but it was not enough, as the brand, like many of the time, ran into financial hard times caused by a surge in gasoline prices, tough snow years and serious overproduction of sleds by all manufacturers. That was the early 1970s, but sounds familiar, again.
Bombardier, the former rival, "rescued" the Moto-Ski brand by acquiring it in 1971. While incorporating the orange sleds into the Ski-Doo mix didn't seem to make much sense to stateside industry observers, Bombardier marketers were well aware that French-Canada was Moto-Ski's largest niche and that it seriously competed with Ski-Doo in sales. There also was a solid following of Moto-Ski fans in the northeastern United States, but in any other place, Moto-Ski was not of any great significance.
Initially, Bombardier tried to retain the models as separate brands with their own style and engineering. Moto-Ski used BSE engines. Ski-Doo had Rotax. But for Moto-Ski, which started production in 1963 and once enjoyed a dealer network of roughly 1,500 dealers throughout North America, the merger of brands couldn't last. The snowmobile business was in turmoil, and to cut costs, Bombardier essentially converted the once proudly unique and independent Moto-Ski line into little more than "orange Ski-Doos."
On the way downOne of the best examples may have been the Moto-Ski Spirit, a kissing cousin of Ski-Doo's Elan. By the mid-1970s, the Spirit was not an evolution of the former Moto-Ski Cadet (a carryover design from the "real" Moto-Ski line), but an orange replica of the diminutive Ski-Doo.
The 1975-'76 season saw just one engine for the Spirit. The Ski-Doo Elan offered a choice of the base 246.8cc Rotax single, which it shared with the Moto-Ski, or a 247.3cc twin for the sporty Elan SS. The future was easy to read even in the 1970s. Moto-Ski was doomed as a brand.
The basic simplicity of the Spirit model made it popular with trappers and those living in the far north of Quebec, but it had no real following as a recreational sled. Ironically, that would prove to be the fate of the Elan years later. They were popular in the wild because they were simple and easy to fix. At $945 they were cheap enough in 1975 to use up and replace a season or two later.
Like the Elan on which it was based, the Moto-Ski Spirit relied on a steel chassis, simple bogie wheel rear suspension, leaf sprung skis and an easy-to-repair Tillotson carburetor. At just 290 lbs., the lightweight machine tracked easily through powder thanks to its huge footprint from a rubber track that measured 114 inches in length and 15 inches in width.
The Moto-Ski Spirit, as the brand itself, lasted only into the early 1980s. Most of the late model years were confined to Quebec sales territory where a number of loyal Moto-Ski riders refused to switch to Ski-Doo, even though the last Moto-Skis were in essence Ski-Doos with orange trim. True Moto-Ski fans, like Sweden's Elan Man(
www.geocities.com/elanmannen/indexE.html), retain their passion on the Internet, and you can find some nice examples of Moto-Ski models (both pre- and post-Bombardier) at vintage shows across the snowbelt.