AmSnow.com is now SnoWest.com
Competition needs wipers due to new Vipers
We tease our tech editor Olav Aaen for his Norwegian accent all the time (OK, we’re insensitive), especially when we’re talking with him about one of his favorite sleds in recent memory, the 700cc Viper … pronounced “Wiper” if you’re Norwegian. (NOTE: Vector is pronounced “Wector”… and you go to pick up groceries in your Wolwo station wagon, known to us as a Volvo.)
Kidding aside, Yamaha’s new Viper lineup is going to be blowing snow-spray all over the trails next season and the competition better have good goggle wipers because Yamaha is moving to the front of the pack in the tight trails.
The new Viper is the outgrowth of Yamaha and Cat sharing the best of their lineups with each other, and we’re excited about the gutsy move.
The entire Yamaha snow team from Canada and the U.S. turned out to unveil the blue team’s lineup to us media types, and the Yamaha honchos indicated that they have moved more engineers to North America and those on both sides of the North American border will be working as a team, with one voice and one mission ... to take Yamaha back to the top of the snowmobile world.
It all starts with Viper.
What IS this new SR Viper?
It’s a collaborative effort in the ProCross chassis that at its base starts in a coupled 129-inch track length in both a standard package with comfort-tuned HPG front coil-over shocks and comfort-tuned rear skid and an upgraded rough trail package called the RTX SE with FOX Float 2 shocks up front and rebuildable HPG aluminum shocks in the rear skid. The new Viper also will come in a coupled 137-inch length track and will be designated the SR Viper LTX, with an upgraded LTX SE version also available. Finally, there will be a longer tracked uncoupled 15x141x1.6-inch version dubbed the SR Viper XTX SE with Float shocks up front, a rebuildable HPG front track shock and a Float 2 rear shock.
Yamaha assigned all new Yamaha part numbers to everything on this formerly all Arctic Cat only chassis so you won’t have a problem finding parts at a Yamaha dealer.