Rode today in good spring snow for the first time after installing a newly designed skid from Toms Snowmobiles. For me, there was a good jump in rear performance when going from my 09 Dragon(with custom Zero Pros) to the stock 11/12 Assault. This skid felt that much better to me again. I liked the moto feeling the new stock Assault rear gave with the increased rebound and livelyness, but couldn't get the rear to stop clanking on g-outs and or keep the front down on climbs. Moving the front mount to the top hole helped with the climbing but then it lost some of it's fun in the bumps and bottomed more. Figured I could live with it but I was at his shop getting my front shocks revalved when he showed me the Polaris skid he's been working on and asked if i wanted to try it.
He now has a skid for the Arctic Cat and the Polaris Pro that uses some of the design ideas from his Evolution and QE Ski-Doo skids.
Only have a few hours on it so far but I like it. The rear sits a little taller and unlike my stock set up, it doesn't blow through the 1st half of the stroke and it has a nice linear feel to it. The stock travel sometimes feels like it has two parts where you feel the point it gets stiffer. I think the rear not wallowing up and down is what made it climb so much better. The front stayed low and way less sensitive to rider input. It was similar to when I moved to the upper hole except that it was more stable and felt like it had more travel available when you hit something during the climb.
Sled felt nice in the bumps, a little like it did when the stock skid was in the lower hole except it feels like you have more travel and it won't bottomout like before. I did speed up the rebound for more pop when doubling the trail whoops and adding a few pounds to the Evol chamber helped handled the g-outs without clanking.
The skid uses a Hi Flow Float in the front and a Evol R in the rear. The settings/pressures I used were Tom's best guesses and is what I ran for most of the day except the changed I mentioned above. One thing I had to do was stiffen up my front shocks(Fox Evol X) to balance it out. That was nice since I had them softer than I wanted when they were matched with the stock rear. This allowed the sled to run flatter on the trail but I didn't notice it affect the sidehilling at all.
I am going to ride a few more times this week and tweak on it. If I have any new findings I will post back. I'll try to answer any questions but Tom is the one to call for the tech stuff. Sorry for the long read but suspension is one of those things that is hard for me explain in a few words.
If anyone in the Truckee/Tahoe area wants to check it out let me know.
Tony
He now has a skid for the Arctic Cat and the Polaris Pro that uses some of the design ideas from his Evolution and QE Ski-Doo skids.
Only have a few hours on it so far but I like it. The rear sits a little taller and unlike my stock set up, it doesn't blow through the 1st half of the stroke and it has a nice linear feel to it. The stock travel sometimes feels like it has two parts where you feel the point it gets stiffer. I think the rear not wallowing up and down is what made it climb so much better. The front stayed low and way less sensitive to rider input. It was similar to when I moved to the upper hole except that it was more stable and felt like it had more travel available when you hit something during the climb.
Sled felt nice in the bumps, a little like it did when the stock skid was in the lower hole except it feels like you have more travel and it won't bottomout like before. I did speed up the rebound for more pop when doubling the trail whoops and adding a few pounds to the Evol chamber helped handled the g-outs without clanking.
The skid uses a Hi Flow Float in the front and a Evol R in the rear. The settings/pressures I used were Tom's best guesses and is what I ran for most of the day except the changed I mentioned above. One thing I had to do was stiffen up my front shocks(Fox Evol X) to balance it out. That was nice since I had them softer than I wanted when they were matched with the stock rear. This allowed the sled to run flatter on the trail but I didn't notice it affect the sidehilling at all.
I am going to ride a few more times this week and tweak on it. If I have any new findings I will post back. I'll try to answer any questions but Tom is the one to call for the tech stuff. Sorry for the long read but suspension is one of those things that is hard for me explain in a few words.
If anyone in the Truckee/Tahoe area wants to check it out let me know.
Tony
