Should PRO's come standard with a voucher for one free helicopter extraction?

[BigMan]

Some would consider that when you put a few big words in a post and then later post a link for a dictionary directed to a few members as a insult... Maybe a "classy" one in your eyes. lol

Read some of their posts and you'll understand my concern.

I see now... Your actually serious... Wow!!!

Well yeah. A $1000 heli flight bill from a Chinese grade piston failure is no laughing matter.

 

[Jaynelson]

That's something like it was except sleds were just breaking into the 130"ers so it only took a dozen skiers and headlamps were still in the mines so candles were used and candles on the tail of the dead sled so your buddies didn't wump you as they pinned it to get some speed up to pass the ski team in the fresh on the side of the trail.
The emergency Schnapps was used to motivate the skiers because they always only brought hot chocolate??. Luckily every one had emergency Schnapps. you just had to hope that there had not been any other emergencies that night.

Those were fun times. Lot's of late nights because of breakdowns with no whining but in reflection I have to wonder if we did wrong. Is this the reason cross-country skiers hate us today?
We used all run the same trails. We made them better for them. Was it the fact that we introduced them to Schnapps? Was it because we had to pin it in the fresh to get by them? Was it verbal abuse when we used the term "mush"? Could it have been our comments on how good the ladies look in those tight cross country pants? Maybe it was just that we called on them too often.
I don't know but with all the changes in political correctiveness since then I'll apologise now. But they did hang out with us at the "wienny roast til dawn",,,??

LOL....good stuff

I've certainly never been on a night ride that didn't involve several "emergencies"

Well yeah. A $1000 heli flight bill from a Chinese grade piston failure is no laughing matter.

Breakdowns happen Bigman....if you sled long enough (likely won't have to be very long) you're gonna have to deal with them, period. Might as well get used to the idea. In my short 9 ish years sledding, a few memorable moments have been:

- Blowing a chaincase and having to drag my feet for brakes the whole way down. Dragging my whole self off the rear bumper for brakes on steeper sections.
- Tying a front end together with logs and sticks....tying to another sled to use as steering out of some pretty gnarly terrain
- Laying a sled on its side over a log and jumping on the rails to get them "straight"
- Hanging a sled in the air, by its rear bumper, from a beam on a backcountry cabin porch....and beating the rails and tunnel "straight" with firewood at about 3am on a work night.
- Blown engines requiring tow outs involving cum-along's, chainsaw winches, rope, swearing, a day off work, etc
- Leaving sleds till the next day because you didn't have the people and/or parts to get them out that day.
- Running out of gas
- Friends running out of gas
- Everyone running out of gas simultaneously

No one died, no helicopters required, and most were pretty funny when it all came out in the wash.

 

[BigMan]

LOL....good stuff

I've certainly never been on a night ride that didn't involve several "emergencies"


Breakdowns happen Bigman....if you sled long enough (likely won't have to be very long) you're gonna have to deal with them, period. Might as well get used to the idea. In my short 9 ish years sledding, a few memorable moments have been:

- Blowing a chaincase and having to drag my feet for brakes the whole way down. Dragging my whole self off the rear bumper for brakes on steeper sections.
- Tying a front end together with logs and sticks....tying to another sled to use as steering out of some pretty gnarly terrain
- Laying a sled on its side over a log and jumping on the rails to get them "straight"
- Hanging a sled in the air, by its rear bumper, from a beam on a backcountry cabin porch....and beating the rails and tunnel "straight" with firewood at about 3am on a work night.
- Blown engines requiring tow outs involving cum-along's, chainsaw winches, rope, swearing, a day off work, etc
- Leaving sleds till the next day because you didn't have the people and/or parts to get them out that day.
- Running out of gas
- Friends running out of gas
- Everyone running out of gas simultaneously

No one died, no helicopters required, and most were pretty funny when it all came out in the wash.

I know all about it Jay. I've been at it for nearly 30 years. I also know a lot of manufacturers these days go with the lowest bidder for a supplier.

 

[Jaynelson]

I know all about it Jay. I've been at it for nearly 30 years. I also know a lot of manufacturers these days go with the lowest bidder for a supplier.

Fair enough.....all I'm sayin is, there are no guarantees. Even with a 100% reliable sled, you could so easily tear up the front end, or mushroom the drivers, etc, just turning around off the side of the road....and be just as dead in the water as with a blown piston.

Given that....I just don't understand why you need to pound on this issue so hard.

If reliability is your number 1 priority, buy a Yamaha. It gives up some on the performance end for gains on the reliability end. You can buy a Ferrari and have a lightweight finicky car that's built with performance as #1 priority....at the expense of more frequent maintenance and rebuild schedule. Or you can buy a Mustang, that still performs very well compared to the vast majority of vehicles....but gives up some performance to a Ferrari so that the maintenance schedule is fairly standard.

Wonderful world of choices we live in. In a perfect world....do I want a Ferrari, at a Mustang price, with Toyota reliability? Sure do....it's just not going to happen.

 

[Jay]

Ah, night rides and peppermint schnapps. Good times. Geo it sounds like you and I would have been good friends back when. I have had 2400+ mile seasons and never seen the sun, well maybe the odd time going home. Met my wife on the road more than once when she was going to work and I was skulling it home. Me, morning baby, her, your an a$$, me, love you to honey see you at supper. If a piston or crank was going to let go it always seemed to happen at 3 am in a blizzard. Years ago I became very comfortable dealing with "emergencies" on the hill. One of my best friends and riding buddies is a newfie and those guys don't get excited about very much, kaos and carnage, no problem, run out of beer?? now we got a problem! Times have changed and those days are long gone but I was there and I remember.

 

[geo]

Having fun while on a sled is what it is all about. Anybody that's been in the game for a while can chuckle at the stories because you know.

Enough nasty threads already. Big Man if you've been in the game for 30 yrs then you should know. Throw in an lol in your first post and nobody gets nasty.

If you meant it,,, well either your having tax time type issues or you haven't been in the game for 30 yrs. Oh yeah,,, lol.

 

[glassman]

22 years riding Mountains. I have flown out one of my sleds, 2 buddies, pulled out at least 10 others. They all break.

We actually talked about creating a "pot" for helicopter rescue.

I think you should get backcountry insurance when you ride in the mountains. Should come standard for all mountain sleds, not just a specific brand.