Ski-Doo vs Polaris: Handling differences?

[mn.nytronut]

What would this look like if one transposed ski- doo and poo poo with my wife, your wife? If one is curious, one has to ride both to truly know the difference

 

[Calvin42]

Sounds like you need a trail sled.

 

[hansenmac]

our group of 8 all thought the gen 5 skidoo was the hardest to ride in mediocre snow. it felt like the bars fought you the whole time. the matryx was much easier to ride but everyone whose ridden my catalyst thought it was easy to ride. I absolutely love my catalyst its easy to overide but you get used to it and its so easy to ride i'm not tired at the end of the day.

 

[turboless terry]

our group of 8 all thought the gen 5 skidoo was the hardest to ride in mediocre snow. it felt like the bars fought you the whole time. the matryx was much easier to ride but everyone whose ridden my catalyst thought it was easy to ride. I absolutely love my catalyst its easy to overide but you get used to it and its so easy to ride i'm not tired at the end of the day.

That's the skis and their spindle

 

[AdrenalineAddict]

I feel the Gen5 is just overly weight forward and still quirky. I have a friend who purchased one two seasons ago and cussed out the quirkiness for an entire season and he is the best technical rider I know. I think he put it best when he said it’s still doing that stupid Ski-Doo sh:t to me every now and then.

 

[Cinno]

This has the potential to open a can of worms. That's not my intention. I'm an ex-Cat guy, I have a Khaos 850 now that I can barely ride (been out of it too long). But it does have me wondering what the difference in handling is between the Matryx platform and Ski-Doo (or Lynx). How easy is it to carve, is it stable on firm snow, that sort of thing.

Years ago I started with a Ski Doo Summit (Rev, 2003 model) and hated it. But I was a noob. A year later I went to the Arctic Cat M7 and it was a huge difference and I rode that for several more years before exiting the sport due to relocation. I'd been watching sleds over the years and concluded Polaris was the way to go due to the lowest weight. The Arctic Cats had gotten too heavy when ProClimb came out and then Ascender too. Catalyst seems to be back down where it should be, but they aren't out yet.

I find my Matryx to be very hard to manage, particularly on California (Tahoe area) firm snow. It's very hard to get up on one ski, and it tips over in the opposite direction (when countersteering) VERY easily. I'm too out of shape right now to be able to try that new opposite-foot-forward method that I see in all the YT videos. I haven't even been able to get the sled truly "on edge" like Dan Adams shows. If the snow is soft and deep enough, I can make it carve fairly well but it still feels like it's ready to fall all the way over; it's NOTHING like I remember from my old M7.

So I thought hey let's post and ask if somebody who has ridden both machines can describe how Ski-Doo (is the current one Gen5?) handles compared to the Matryx. Maybe another sled switch is in order. I really want to ride a Catalyst next year to see how it handles too... before making a decision.

Thanks.

I have a 2019 skidoo 850 sp 175", have had arctic cat 800 alpha and polaris axis in the past. Went to the skidoo for reliability issues and length as my group loves the deep stuff. Also had problems with overheating in setup snow picking my way thru the trees going slow on both the Polaris and Arctic Cat. Had a hard time adapting to the difficulty getting it on edge with skidoo. I struggled with that in my first year (2023) and then decided for my second year (2024) I would attempt some changes. I added the Rasmussen post forward kit, deleted the T-motion, installed Fox QS3 air shocks and deleted the sway bar. Those mods did the trick, can't say which was most effective as I did them at the same time, probability the shocks. The QS3 has two air cambers with compression and rebound adjustability. The front suspension on the Alpha is similar without a sway bar so i figured I would try that on the Skidoo. Worked good.

Cinno

 

[jcjc1]

deleting t-mo makes the sled harder to get on edge but in deep/soft snow the diff is prolly negligible.

 

[Pickin’ Boogers]

A modern twin-rail setup is easy to get on edge. T-motion and the single rail Alpha are solutions without problems.

 

[Teth-Air]

A modern twin-rail setup is easy to get on edge. T-motion and the single rail Alpha are solutions without problems.

I disagree. The problem the single rail and the T-motion addresses is too much track for the conditions. When the snow is soft and you have lots of power on tap, the twin rails are great. It is when a sled is tipped downhill and the snow is rock hard and you have no room in front of your sled to grab a handful of throttle and roll the sled uphill. This is when the rolly-polly suspensions can work in your favour to get some pulling up momentum. Smaller people or less experienced may benefit more as good riders likely will not get in such a situation. Aslo open bowl riders and meadow munchers are less likely to to get into that kind of situation. I have a P-motion on one of my sleds and not on the other and see the gains and the losses.

 

[Cinno]

deleting t-mo makes the sled harder to get on edge but in deep/soft snow the diff is prolly negligible.

Yes but it all about going too far, without sway-bar but with T-motion, the sled was out of control for me. I really want a sway-bar but needed an adjustable one where I could control how much sway I need to get on edge but maintain stability in most of all the other conditions. Really looked into making my own sway bar but decided on the fox QRS shocks instead. I made my decision after reading that "Tom Shocks" has custom valving for them for use without a sway-bar. The two chambers on that shock behave like a sway-bar when adjusted properly. That was "the ticket" for me so to speak. I got an early season discount and a money back performance guaranty from Tom. No reason to return as I'm happy with them.

Cinno