The problem is it's owned by the conservative Japanese and how many Japanese do you see riding sleds? They've always been sub-par in the Mnt. sector and only glimpses of glory in the trail sector. They've ALWAYS BEEN TO HEAVY!
To say you heard them complain about sells because a lighter more functional rear suspension would raise the price to high is a CROCK OF ScHITTT! That's an excuse, at least come up with something believeable to tell your customers and Dealerships. Someone said it best, loose 50 lbs with a light exhaust and timbersled designed rear skid and run a challenger track and you'd have another machine.....are they so blind as to not realize how truly simple this could be and NOT cost prohibitive!
If Yamaha decided to actually design a TRUE mountain sled and went through the Nytro removing parts like Cat and Skidoo and not using huge bolts on every thing etc. etc. they could loose 50 lbs and cut costs or at least keep them minimal! YES Yamaha knows this but THEY DON'T CARE!
How long have we suffered with poor valving in thier shocks.....this does NOT cost a thing to change for them. How long did we all suffer with there Proaction CRAP on the MM and 15 years worth of other sleds before they switched to a torsion sprung rear skid! Everyone complained then and eveyone is still complaining but the problem is it's owned and ran by Japanese, which has is pro's and con's. Quality is top notch but suffers in to many other area's, the bottom line is they are business minded and they know the sleds don't make them much money. Bikes and other things sell tons more so they get first priority! Until Yamahas sled division is heaed by someone with a desire to drive the competition who personally rides a sled A LOT, this won't change and even then it would have to be backed by the.......guess who............Japanese! Sorry to sound pesamistic but this is the facts! They could have copied an RMK skid in 99' and ran an 800CC tripple and dominated but they didn't want to and so they just got by with selling a reasonable amount of sleds to make a reasonable profit. This is Yamaha through and through, they build sleds for the ordinary guy , solid reliable and that's the goal. The reps say this over and over in all the video's i've seen for years! You watch the AC or Doo reps and they talk about buiulding dominant sleds, the best in it's class, dominating the competition and being on the cutting edge of what the "RIDERS" want. I've never heard a cat rep say, "we build sleds for the ordinary guy, solid and dependable"......blah blah blah. Put me to sleep Yamaha.....
