Power is easy to remedy. Handling is not
Sorry Polaris riders, Snowest "experts",say you're on the wrong sled
- Thread starter Overthehood
- Start date
Turbo your khaos. Leave the doo in the dust
They put all their money on that 16 wide track and i don't think it makes the difference they think. Then you add all the stuff to compensate for it. Lenght means more than their little footprint theory otherwise a 154 16 would be even with a 165 kaos. All my griping and I have a 850t sitting in the garage. I'd get the 165 kaos.
I thought the Hardcore was Cats top of the line sled? Its the most $$$, I know that.
Cold water on your enthusiasm is maybe needed LOL... it’s a DATED 10 year old chassis, with the smallest (and you can absolutely tell) motor- and it’s reliability appears to be questionable. The Alpha has ONE really good thing going for it, the track, and they emphasized that. Not sure what else you want them to say, there aren’t alot of other things to rave about on that sled.
Oh, the tether, the tether is really good.
.... they can’t let people who ride technical terrain do the reviews, Poo would have been the clear winner for the last 10 years and the meadow mashers would lose their minds ?
I got the opportunity to do that travelling 2019 ski-doo demo last year. Thanks again to Ski-Doo for that. They really put on a great thing there.
It took me a while to get used to it. And the trail ski-darting is real - but I don't care about how a sled feels on the dang trail.
After about an hour, maybe 2, I found myself having to think a lot less and being allowed to just ride. At that point I was having a lot of fun and just having a great time snowmobiling. By the end of the day, I was definitely saying "shoot, I could own one of these just fine. Great sled" And I still stand by that. If you only ride your buddy's doo for 10 minutes and then decide you don't like it and hop off, you didn't give it a fair chance.
With that being said though, I went out 2 months later and bought another Polaris...for a few various reasons.
First and foremost is weight. The Polaris is lighter and absolutely feels lighter. Sure, I haven't tried the expert. But I was baffled at what I was reading those guys saying about the Doo feeling lighter. In what universe? Are they crazy? The Polaris is lighter and the Polaris feels lighter. I can't imagine saying otherwise.
Flickable: I'm really sorry to use that word. But I have to. OK, I will replace it with "playful". I felt like the Ski-Doo was a sled that wanted to take me on adventures and see where I could go. My Polaris just feels like a sled that wants to treat everything like a playground and immediately start playing around everywhere. I prefer playful.
Polaris still has that great rear skid that just gets right up on the snow, where the Doo has to dig first and then eventually the surface area of the track and the power of the bigger motor kick in and get it going.
Price: Polaris offers nothing as "spring check only" that I really find to be of value. Ski-Doo offers very meaningful things as spring only (like better boards for example). So I can find a holdover Polaris in-season model for several grand less than I would be spring checking a summit X or expert for. In my world several thousand dollars is a lot.
I understand Doo definitely has the better engine, and that lead just grew tremendously with the turbo, but right now, the way I ride currently, feeling light and playful is everything, and raw power is quite secondary - although, who wouldn't love more power, I'm not insane after all.
Anyway, even though I bought a Polaris a year ago, here I am recommending to my father in law to get a ski-doo right now. His priority list is a little different than mine, and I think he will like the ski-doo more than the Polaris even while I am over here liking my Polaris more than the Doo.
I had a couple thoughts going through my head while reading the article.
"Maybe they just ride primarily Ski-Doo throughout the year so it has homecourt advantage when it comes time for the shootout"
"Maybe they just want to give the "expert" package some love since it is new and it really is all good things for mountain riders and they want to encourage all the manufacturers to head that way"
"Maybe they don't ride very tough terrain"
Like you, I was a little bit puzzled by some of the things they said, but oh well. Maybe it will just help me get that much better price on my next holdover RMK I buy.
It took me a while to get used to it. And the trail ski-darting is real - but I don't care about how a sled feels on the dang trail.
After about an hour, maybe 2, I found myself having to think a lot less and being allowed to just ride. At that point I was having a lot of fun and just having a great time snowmobiling. By the end of the day, I was definitely saying "shoot, I could own one of these just fine. Great sled" And I still stand by that. If you only ride your buddy's doo for 10 minutes and then decide you don't like it and hop off, you didn't give it a fair chance.
With that being said though, I went out 2 months later and bought another Polaris...for a few various reasons.
First and foremost is weight. The Polaris is lighter and absolutely feels lighter. Sure, I haven't tried the expert. But I was baffled at what I was reading those guys saying about the Doo feeling lighter. In what universe? Are they crazy? The Polaris is lighter and the Polaris feels lighter. I can't imagine saying otherwise.
Flickable: I'm really sorry to use that word. But I have to. OK, I will replace it with "playful". I felt like the Ski-Doo was a sled that wanted to take me on adventures and see where I could go. My Polaris just feels like a sled that wants to treat everything like a playground and immediately start playing around everywhere. I prefer playful.
Polaris still has that great rear skid that just gets right up on the snow, where the Doo has to dig first and then eventually the surface area of the track and the power of the bigger motor kick in and get it going.
Price: Polaris offers nothing as "spring check only" that I really find to be of value. Ski-Doo offers very meaningful things as spring only (like better boards for example). So I can find a holdover Polaris in-season model for several grand less than I would be spring checking a summit X or expert for. In my world several thousand dollars is a lot.
I understand Doo definitely has the better engine, and that lead just grew tremendously with the turbo, but right now, the way I ride currently, feeling light and playful is everything, and raw power is quite secondary - although, who wouldn't love more power, I'm not insane after all.
Anyway, even though I bought a Polaris a year ago, here I am recommending to my father in law to get a ski-doo right now. His priority list is a little different than mine, and I think he will like the ski-doo more than the Polaris even while I am over here liking my Polaris more than the Doo.
I had a couple thoughts going through my head while reading the article.
"Maybe they just ride primarily Ski-Doo throughout the year so it has homecourt advantage when it comes time for the shootout"
"Maybe they just want to give the "expert" package some love since it is new and it really is all good things for mountain riders and they want to encourage all the manufacturers to head that way"
"Maybe they don't ride very tough terrain"
Like you, I was a little bit puzzled by some of the things they said, but oh well. Maybe it will just help me get that much better price on my next holdover RMK I buy.
Good review. I think a big part of these forums is poking fun at other brands, sitting at a keyboard its easy to do. I have done it. Without any authentication it will always be that way. If we had to fill out our credentials like: I am a professional hillclimber. or I work for an outfitter as a guide or I am a certified Polaris or Ski-Doo mechanic then it would hold some good weight when it gets posted. Of course the mechanics will say bring it in I will look at it, the professional guide or hillclimber prolly just reads some of these and laughs. Good post anyway whoever you are.
Just read through the article. They threw quite a few compliments to the RMK just to turn around and unanimously declare the Doo better. It is Coke vs. Pepsi to some degree: I think the terrain a good rider can comfortably cover would differ very little between the three once they got used to the sled and dialed it in. That said, I see more people riding into technical terrain on RMKs than everything else combined, and that tells me there's an edge they're finding. Part of that has to be weight: you can't hide 30lb forever.
I notice the foot loops and lack of tether were mentioned again; why won't Polaris change that? That said, I bet the talk about the Doo having more "grunt" goes away with QD2 and the new tracks. The Summit is geared almost 20% lower than the current QD sleds, but QD2 will bring Polaris much closer. I wonder if those improvements will be too much to downplay. Might be a slam dunk even with those reviewers if Polaris would rework he footwells and add a tether.
Personally, if I had cash in hand, I'm not sure what I'd buy today. I've rode an AXYS for a day, and a Summit 850 briefly; I'm not skilled enough to make much of a comparison, but I have to wonder if I would enjoy riding a Summit more for a while, especially if I stuck with a 600. I guess coming off an older sled, I expected more responsiveness. I think the 850 motors are neck and neck, but Doo has a much better option for a smaller motor, and I don't think the 650 will change that. If I had money to burn, I could see myself going to a Doo 600, then back to Polaris when I'm ready to step up to an 850.
I notice the foot loops and lack of tether were mentioned again; why won't Polaris change that? That said, I bet the talk about the Doo having more "grunt" goes away with QD2 and the new tracks. The Summit is geared almost 20% lower than the current QD sleds, but QD2 will bring Polaris much closer. I wonder if those improvements will be too much to downplay. Might be a slam dunk even with those reviewers if Polaris would rework he footwells and add a tether.
Personally, if I had cash in hand, I'm not sure what I'd buy today. I've rode an AXYS for a day, and a Summit 850 briefly; I'm not skilled enough to make much of a comparison, but I have to wonder if I would enjoy riding a Summit more for a while, especially if I stuck with a 600. I guess coming off an older sled, I expected more responsiveness. I think the 850 motors are neck and neck, but Doo has a much better option for a smaller motor, and I don't think the 650 will change that. If I had money to burn, I could see myself going to a Doo 600, then back to Polaris when I'm ready to step up to an 850.
Since when did we all have to share the same opinion?
Since when did we have to accept an opinion from a magazine or web forum as gospel vs. entertainment value?
Draw your own conclusions, people...make up your own mind!
Since when did we have to accept an opinion from a magazine or web forum as gospel vs. entertainment value?
Draw your own conclusions, people...make up your own mind!
I thought magazines books, newspapers ,news, reporters and such always told the truth. Now i don't know what to buy.
This is the most on point comment in this thread. I also have rode the turbo doo, its prety slick and runs damn good, BUT, making a doo handle in tight tech terrain takes a lot of money (as much or more then boost) and a signigicant amount of time to do everything. And when all is said and done, the sled really isn't worth anymore then a stock one either.
In other words, a Jerry Bassett review........let's read the brochure together.....
plus you have to work on the weasel engineered thing. French Canadian arrogance fights you every step of the way.
special tools, random fastener types, shrouds and covers over every service location.
So in your testing what parts does it take to make it handle good in tight tech terrain?
I tried Zollinger A arms, Munster t motion lock out, Zbros torsion spring elimination kit with X2 shock, SLP skis and it wasn’t close to handling like a Polaris in technical terrain. Not sure what other items are out there other then the lift spindles.
The Ski Doo is a great sled as I stated before just not near as good in technical riding as the Polaris.
Nothing is easy, how many reflashes, internal engine updates and DIY bandaid electrical fixes for the 840 now?
Exactly! I was thinking about getting a poo this last sled purchase, but my doo 850 in the 2017 ran flawlessly and I didn’t have confidence that poo had the bugs all worked out. I know they don’t all run bad or seize up, but seen to many with problems. I bought the Expert, and have not been back to the dealer in over 900 miles it runs flawlessly. Maybe it doesn’t handle the best in every sledding conditions, but then non do.
Skis(gripper or mohawk) ZRP spindles. This helps the front end but still has some dumb characteristics. Post forward. Narrow tube style boards. Non flex edge track. T-motion lockout or full skid like k-mod. Also its 40 or so # behind and it shows by the end of the day. I also am very familiar with riding post over the motor sleds, i started on rev's rode xp's and xm.s so riding a DOO isnt exactly "new" to me. I can hop on one and have a lot of fun. But these are all the complaints I have when trying to use the sled. I have a list on polaris too! lol.
I will be the first to admit that doo has a smoother operating sled. Almost no vibration, starts flawlessly etc. The frenchies sure have put a lot of thought into some of their systems and it shows. That being said, handling is still erratic and very challenging to keep going in a straight line in steep terrain especially as snow gets firmer or inconsistent. The skis want to hunt around and rip the bars out of your hands and the skid and track slide out and dont want to hold a solid edge. The boards which are 2" wider also act as a big rudder and pull the sled around and lift the track out of the snow as side hills get steeper.
My poo is so smooth compared to my 850 doo. The doo has the mounts shimmed to prevent the motor from moving around and extending belt life. The doo runs "cleaner", but definitely not smoother. Doo is a very good sled, but not in the axys domain for riding, and been riding doo since 93. I would not buy another doo until there is a chassis change that addresses weight/ rear and front suspension/engine mounting/floating secondary and a hood that doesnt use screws!!!
Rasmussen changes the steering and the tmotion.
Well let's see here:
Ease of steering - DOO
Peak horsepower - Poo
Extreme sidehill capability - Poo
Predictability on edge - Poo
Floatation in deep - Poo
Weight - Poo
Narrow Chassis - Poo
Ease to work on/access - Poo
Apparently the ease of steering thing is kind of important.
Well let's see here:
Ease of steering - DOO
Peak horsepower - Poo
Extreme sidehill capability - Poo
Predictability on edge - Poo
Floatation in deep - Poo
Weight - Poo
Narrow Chassis - Poo
Ease to work on/access - Poo
Apparently the ease of steering thing is kind of important.
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