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Shock upgrade recommendation
In stock form the Indy 800 is no snocross sled, but that’s not the target market for this machine. The stock FOX IFP shocks in the rear skid are capable, but once you get into big trail moguls or sudden dips and square-edged bumps, the Indy bottoms out frequently and harshly. However, this can be easily rectified with a simple shock upgrade and most of us test riders found that the Indy chassis actually is more predictable and maneuverable through the whoops than the Rush chassis. As we alluded to in our Real World Shootout article (Spring issue 2014) we took the stock shocks off and added a set of Hygear custom Axis Shocks (not to be confused with the new Axys sleds from Polaris).
The Sport Series Custom Axis shocks come with springs settings made and compression adjustability. A few features of the shocks we liked were dual rate springs, custom calibration done by the folks at Hygear for personal riding style, heavy duty 5/8-inch shafts, big reservoirs, friction free mount pivots, ice scraping seals and heavy duty bottom out bumpers. Our package came with all the hardware, plus a new rear arm for the rear suspension to accommodate the remote reservoir shocks. Install included removing the rear skid to access the rear shocks. Some quick tips include using the holes pre-drilled into the idler wheels to take the stock shock bolts out and having two people to flatten/compress and move around the rear suspension. It is not difficult, but certainly helps to have two sets of hands. The same stock bushing is used in the new rear arm so hold onto that if opting for this new aftermarket shock package. Ride-height stayed the same.
We put a small custom graphics wrap on the tunnel of this sled. Our crew agreed that the SP graphics on the front were some of the best Polaris has done in a while so we elected to just finish off the look of the sled with the tunnel wrap by StickyBoyz. This sled got plenty of compliments at every stop we were at all winter. Even more-so than we were prepared for because many people began asking us if it was a 2015 pre-production machine!
This sled is slightly down on power compared to some other newer 800s, but its lightweight makes up for it. The Indy came in second by only a slight margin to our Ski-Doo X-RS 800 in our ¼-mile acceleration test at our Real World Shootout.