Thanks a ton for the info and the pics! That's great.
What I've experienced so far... keep in mind I had a very bad experience so this is gonna sound pretty negative... is that this thing handles more like the 2003 Ski-Doo Rev that was my very first sled (sold it after one season). That thing would either stay stuck to the flat ground or tip all the way over. There was no in-between. It was difficult to steer on flat ground (with the skis) and was just not at all fun. The M7 was the complete opposite.
This new thing... like I said, when on the trail, if I turn to go right it felt like it wanted to tip over to the left. Yeah, countersteering. BUT... when I'd get it on a hill and need to get it up on one ski, I would do like I did on the M7 -- standing centered, just apply a little bit of pressure on the floorboard and the M would come right up and be super easy to hold. This thing wouldn't budge AT ALL. If I got both feet on the board and gave it some counter steer and pulled HARD it'd come up a little. Very hard to keep on anything resembling edge. This is why I was asking about shock settings... maybe they were set too stiff.
On my M7, I had a 3" riser and a nice lefty. The thing worked GREAT. But now I'm told by everybody that the opposite is true. No more lefty, and you want the lowest bars possible. I've watched tons of sled videos.. Burandt, Kesterke, Turcotte, Muskoka Freerider, Next Level, etc, and it seems the "new thing" (to me anyway) is the whole opposite-foot-forward thing. It seems that the only way these things are gonna get on edge is if you do it that way. If I could get my bars up another 2-3" it'd make a world of difference for me... but I went to do that and discovered Polaris doesn't give you ANY free cable to play with. I have the mid bars on mine... I thought for sure you'd get the same length cables and wires that came on the high bar models in case you wanted to change. Nope.
My next problem... at 55, I desperately need to hit the gym, and my knees aren't what they used to be. So the opposite-foot-forward thing is gonna be a problem. My right knee is the worst one, and I have a feeling that I'm gonna start trying to ride like that and my knee is gonna fall out from under me. This makes this sled a complete no-go for me.
I'm going out again this coming weekend... I'll try it again, but to be honest... if it's not a significantly better experience, I'm just about ready to sell the thing and walk away.
Thanks for the advice, btw... I really do appreciate it. So much better than Facebook where you'll get 30 replies and 25 of them will be from jerks and five won't understand the question.
