I had a feeling someone would take that statement to the extreme. I said "many" not "all" or even "most" of you.
I know that many people are not mechanically minded and don't know how to work on their own equipment, so I don't expect them to understand the forces involved in designing a power sports machine. That statement is for those people. If you know your stuff, great, that statement is NOT intended for YOU. I was not intending to slam anyone.It didn't take me two forks to find the weakness. Just ask Mike. I was trying to get AD B to make me larger dowels right after the first time. They said [paraphrasing] "oh the bolts weren't torqued properly" and sent me the same parts. That was a viable possibility, though I thought unlikely, so I put them back on and ended up breaking it again. Turns out (like I thought) it wasn't the torque of the bolts that was at fault.
I wish I could afford a snow hawk, I would prefer to have one of those hands down.
As for the set up DefBoy, the bike is set up for my summer riding with my weight, riding style etc. I had to put on a heavier rear spring after getting the bike but the fork springs were OK (per the Race Tech website). Either way, unless I get a bunch of ice built up all over the bike I'm not changing the sprung weight (the bike came right out of the garage at the time of the second failure). The ski's weight may be different than the wheel but that change shouldn't affect how easily the front end bottoms. It would affect the handling in high speed situations, but I'm not worried about that as my problems have been low speed impacts that eat up the travel. The point I was getting at though is that the kit is sold as a plug-and-play operation. The literature says that there are no modifications necessary to the bike so I SHOULDN'T have to buy extra parts and change my fork setting all around. I'm riding the same terrain I do in the summer.
Super moto to enduro would require different suspension for someone serious, but you could throw super moto wheels on an enduro and have a blast even though you're sitting up higher. Enduro to the snow isn't that big of a change. If anything the snow is less demanding as you don't have all the roots, square rocks etc, not to mention that when the suspension fluid gets colder it tends to be more viscous anyway.
As for the high speed summer hack, those older Yamaha's are notorious for that in stock form. They can get better with professional revalving, but for the cost to to it I can deal with the hack as it's not THAT bad, just annoying. They work great until you start running 60+ mph over washboard terrain, then you start feeling it through the bars.
I picked up replacement forks off eBay. I can get the pair cheaper than the approximate $230 that Yamaha wants for the lower fork tube alone.
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