Ski-Doo vs Polaris: Handling differences?

[Dogmeat]

1.) Don't buy a Lynx if you want a sled that handles technical terrain well, I don't care how it looks on their promo videos. There is a reason dealers are trying to offload them at $6,000 under MSRP and are having a hard time doing so.
2.) The G5 chassis is harder to learn to ride in technical terrain than the Matryx chassis, period. The guys on Skidoos doing that kind of riding are a) Skidoo guys b) have spent a lot more time figuring out how to make the G5 work that way than most other folks and c) are usually not over about 5'9" from what I can tell.
3.) The Matryx is hands down no questions asked the best handling easiest to ride in all situations chassis on the snow. Just make sure you bring a tow rope, because the odds of your motor grenading or something else grenading on the Polaris is statistically higher than any other brand

 

[cbull]

1.) Don't buy a Lynx if you want a sled that handles technical terrain well, I don't care how it looks on their promo videos. There is a reason dealers are trying to offload them at $6,000 under MSRP and are having a hard time doing so.
2.) The G5 chassis is harder to learn to ride in technical terrain than the Matryx chassis, period. The guys on Skidoos doing that kind of riding are a) Skidoo guys b) have spent a lot more time figuring out how to make the G5 work that way than most other folks and c) are usually not over about 5'9" from what I can tell.
3.) The Matryx is hands down no questions asked the best handling easiest to ride in all situations chassis on the snow. Just make sure you bring a tow rope, because the odds of your motor grenading or something else grenading on the Polaris is statistically higher than any other brand

I've ridden the G5 Ski-Doo, most have been with the expert package and I don't find it that hard to ride, I like them a lot better then my 22 alpha. It's a pain in the ass to ride.

 

[Dogmeat]

I've ridden the G5 Ski-Doo, most have been with the expert package and I don't find it that hard to ride, I like them a lot better then my 22 alpha. It's a pain in the ass to ride.

There are a lot of things I really really like about the Skidoo sleds, but for the last several years ride after ride ... the guys really riding that sled in the trees are way above average riders. The newer folks seem to have a lot of trouble with those sleds in the trees. Take folks with 3-5 years riding experience, average weekend warrior types who are really into it, and it sure seems to me like they do better in the technical riding on the Matryx chassis than the G5 chassis .... IDK, I have to call it how I see it *shrug*

 

[cbull]

There are a lot of things I really really like about the Skidoo sleds, but for the last several years ride after ride ... the guys really riding that sled in the trees are way above average riders. The newer folks seem to have a lot of trouble with those sleds in the trees. Take folks with 3-5 years riding experience, average weekend warrior types who are really into it, and it sure seems to me like they do better in the technical riding on the Matryx chassis than the G5 chassis .... IDK, I have to call it how I see it *shrug*

I haven't spent enough time on a Polaris to know for sure. But does seem like the Polaris is the easiest and most controllable sled out of the 3.
I've ridden a couple 9rs briefly, and I liked them.
Just don't trust Polaris, I hate being broke down.

 

[Reeb]

I have zero time on the G5 but they are looking more and more attractive for some reason. Can someone explain if the G5 is like past Doo's or if it's different than my experiences with the past generations.

It's always been my belief(Since the XM) that Doo was the easiest to ride for newcomers and smaller people more than others. I could see this by the fact that the Doo chassis had lots of flex and wasn't rigid. You could stand on the boards and shift weight side to side and the front suspension wouldn't move at all. Try that on any Polaris in the last ten years and you'll find the Polaris chassis to be absolutely rigid. What you do at the back of the running boards, effects the front end and so forth.

The Doo is considered a limp noodle basically. Which is great for new or smaller riders. More input is needed to make small corrections. And if you over do it, the sled doesn't become unhinged. Bigger margin of error basically.

The Polaris is a weapon. Learn where your feet are and how to apply pressure to the boards and bars, absolute weapon. With that being said, the margin of error is slim to none when compared to a Doo chassis. The balance beam goes from 4" wide to razor thin. When I'm feeling good and in the groove, I love it. When I'm tired and just trying to get out of a drainage alive.....you gotta reset and really concentrate on your movements.

I don't care about the steering of either sled. I can adapt to either, but I do prefer the laydown design more. I like to lean and get aggressive and handlebars hitting the hips and keeping me behind the post isn't ideal. At least with the laydown steering I can lean over in corners and get up and over the front of the sled with more aggression. Not that it's always needed, but it's the little things.
Case in point was the old M7, when I put a laydown setup off the race sleds on my M, it changed my riding a lot. Aggressive is an understatement. I don;t feel the need to get up and over the Axys or Matryx like I did the M, altho I do find myself in spots that I curse the vertical steering of the Polaris. Not often enough to complain tho.

 

[Reeb]

I hit enter before I was done....

Sleds these days have almost zero balance point. I was on a Matryx last weekend and on the trail could ride it on one ski with my ass on the seat but it was a tricky balancing act.
For reference, I could ride my Rev or M-Series on one ski all day long if I wanted to.

My point is, todays sleds are meant to be driven whereas the sleds we used to have are meant to be ridden. If that makes sense.

For an overweight guy like me, that makes riding harder. But for those few moments where I can extract my potential and actually ride the sled like it's meant, I won't trade in for an older chassis no matter how tired I am.

It's funny tho, how wrong foot forward was the only way to muscle around 90's sleds in the mountains, and now that they are 200lbs lighter, we are still using the same technique, but for the opposite purpose(Keep from falling over vs getting the sled on edge)

 

[turboless terry]

Gen 5 is a million times better than an xm. They moved the motor back a touch so they don't do what I called the skidoo stuff. Stuck downhill with front-end buried. Narrower body work. Fat running boards and body were a huge downfall on the xm. Still not a fan of their spindle and twitchy front-end in certain conditions but that why they steer twice as easy as everything. I can ride a polaris or cat forever, on one ski, on even an icy trail. Good luck on a doo. I'm not a fan of t motion or flex edge but that is what they have to do, combined with 34 front, to make it easy to sidehill a 16 wide. I have a die hard doo buddy who put t motion on his expert. That surprised me with a 34 inch front end. He said his previous sled , a 22 turbo, was easier. I guess I was younger when riding the revs. Couldn't have gave me an xp. Wasn't a huge xm fan. My wife's 15 174 was great because 174 leveled out some of its downfalls like trenching and stuffing front-end and fat body. I just wouldn't want a 174 all the time. Liked gen 4, except turbo, but it wore off. I like the gen5.

 

[underpressure]

I have a 9r and a g5 165 expert. They do feel different but not night and day to me. The doo rides much smoother than my 9r. The polaris feels much lighter. But the summit feels very nimble for a 165. It feels like I can ride both in the same day and not take long to adapt if that makes sense. The 9r is hands down the best running na sled I've been on. The power reminds me of a full mod 800, pipes porting shaved head. 8500 rpm is the sweet spot on that engine.