AmSnow.com is now SnoWest.com
Growing up, I simply couldn’t fathom a family without snowmobiles. My father was a small business owner who got into sleds about the same time most other people jumped on the bandwagon in the early 1970s. His first machine was a used 1969 Arctic Cat Panther. Then dad took the plunge and went out and bought a brand new 1972 Ski-Doo Nordic 440, complete with a Ski-Doo branded trailer and a Ski-Boose, tow-behind sleigh to drag the kids around.
Even though dad wasn’t an avid rider and hasn’t ridden in decades, that purchase was, basically, the beginning of a life in snowmobiles for me. What followed was a string of different machines he purchased for the family including a Ski-Doo Elan, a couple of Arctic Cat Jags, and a 1980 Yamaha ET340 Deluxe. I was fortunate to have ridden and, admittedly, abused them all mercilessly as a young kid and into my teenage years.
No Nintendo for you!
Now, the snowmobile business faces a growing crisis, kids are not taking an interest in riding like they did 20 or 30 years ago. During a conversation, Arctic Cat’s legendary engineer Roger Skime once took his hands and mimicked the manipulation of a video-game controller to explain part of the decline. I knew exactly what he meant.
I see it everywhere and not just with snowmobiles. Youth and high school sports are even feeling the brunt of gaming. Kids would rather sit home and play “Madden NFL Football” or “MLB, The Show” than go signup for their hometown teams. One can “experience” competing in X Games snocross from the comfort of their Lazy Boy, without actually clearing a jump or breathing the fresh Aspen, CO air. I want to channel my inner ‘soup Nazi’ like on Seinfeld and say NO NINTENDO FOR YOU!
So, what’s the problem? For one, and this is strictly my opinion, parents aren’t doing enough to interest their kids in snowmobiling, or anything outdoors, even if they ride themselves. And, parents aren’t shutting off or, better yet, not buying the gaming consoles causing some of this in the first place. They are giving in too easily to generational norms of gaming, social media and, in some cases, sheer laziness. Obviously, it’s difficult to force a 14-year-old to go out and ride something they have no interest in and that’s why you start when they are 4 or 5, like my dad did and I did with my kids. There is no replacement for a genuine adrenaline rush, especially not a TV screen, laptop, or smart phone.
Money talks
The industry is partly to blame too. I like messing around with inflation calculators (typical academic, I know). It’s interesting to see what the cost of something years ago equates to today. The 1972 Ski-Doo Nordic my dad bought was a family machine, with a larger motor (for the time) and 2-up seat; certainly no beginner ride. He estimates he paid about $1,500 for that sled new, which would equate to around $8,500 in 2013 money. A customer today will have a difficult time purchasing a brand new sled in that category for $8,500, but it CAN be done. However, the average price of a sled today is over $10,000. In the past few years, the cost of sleds has appeared to outpace the rate of inflation due to a variety of factors, which, obviously, affects the affordability for younger riders.
Snowmobiles, over time, have not, historically, aged well compared to modern equipment either. In 1992 I purchased a new Polaris Indy XLT Special, a decent example of which would probably fetch about $1,500 used today. Certainly affordable, but equally dated, especially if a young person found themselves riding with people who were on newer equipment. Some people say “too bad, kids should ride what they can afford.” Reliability, however, is major concern with these older machines. Nothing depletes someone’s zest for riding more than a $300 (if your lucky) repair bill for a burned down cylinder on an old 2-stroke sled that’s probably not worth fixing. You just don’t attract new riders to the sport with those kinds of economics.
I will repeat a refrain from previous articles I’ve written calling for a major shake-up in the snowmobile business. Not just a new, trendy, or budget priced model either. Yamaha, Polaris, and Ski-Doo already tried that with the Phazer, the Shift, and the Freestyle. I’m talking involvement; getting out there and promoting youth riding with events and riding days organized by the manufacturers. The OEMs upgrading their 120s might help too, to make them look like something out of, oh, maybe, 2009, instead of 1999! Even seven year olds like styling. What about something in between the 120s and a full size sled that doesn’t suffer from being a novelty piece like the Ski-Doo Freestyle was? My 9 year-old is set to move up to the “Youth” class in cross country racing, but the only sled option currently available is a Cat Sno-Pro 500 or equivalent. Make sense to you? Me neither.
Harley-Davidson has, actually done an excellent job adapting to generations. H-D has identified the wave they have ridden the last 20 years, baby boomers, has crested and it’s time to usher in a new generation of riders who don’t share the same brand affiliation. As a result, now I see guys in their 20s and 30s in open flannel shirts, white t-shirts, blue jeans, work boots, and bucket helmets riding around on new, customized, bobber-style Sportsters. These dudes are more likely to be listening to Foo Fighters than Steppenwolf or Lynyrd Skynyrd. The snowmobile biz has to accomplish this on an even younger scale. I fear an uncertain future if we cannot get kids back into the sport with the same obsessive passion I experienced almost 40 years ago. Just please, don’t bring back the Nordic!