Minneapolis, MN January 24, 2009 — Polaris Industries Inc. today launched its Model Year 2010 600 RUSH snowmobile, the first snowmobile with a truly progressive-rate rear suspension. The 600 RUSH’s bottomless suspension is designed to absorb the toughest bumps, transferring the load to the super-rigid PRO-RIDE chassis which isolates the rider from spine tinglers. No longer will riders leave the trail feeling bruised and beat up after a long day.
Scott Swenson, Polaris Industries Inc. Vice President, Snowmobile Division: “The new Polaris 600 RUSH truly marks a turning point for the snowmobile industry. The progressive-rate rear suspension has been proven in Motocross; Polaris is now the first company to bring it to snowmobiles. This innovative suspension combined with the new super-rigid PRO-RIDE chassis provides riders with an unprecedented level of rider-active control including improvements in acceleration and cornering.”

How about a super-trick dirt bike inspired rear suspension that re-writes the rules on what a rear suspension is capable of in a snowmobile? How about a smaller, lighter, more responsive sled that takes less energy to ride and makes the bumps all but disappear? Could this be the sled of your dreams?
SnowTech Magazine editors attended the snowmobile press introduction of the radically-different 2010 Polaris RUSH in sunny Utah, high above Salt Lake City. We were able to ride several prototypes of this rad new sled, first on drifted trails that had been groomed and then on rolling trails with many g-bumps. They were some of the first 70 pre-production units built, so they were by no means production calibration.
This is an all-new rigid chassis fitted with a single swing arm progressive rate rear suspension that places the rear track shock above the tunnel and under the seat. Walker Evans clicker shocks all around tell you this is a serious bump sled, but the true character is much broader than even Polaris may realize. While Polaris has chosen to leverage their snocross success and introduce the RUSH during the X-Games, this is far more than a younger-generation bump sled.
The RUSH could be called the “Bump Eraser”. The new PRO-RIDE progressive-rate rear suspension is seemingly bottomless, yet it provides surprisingly accurate rebound control as well, a tough combination to achieve. Kickback is minimal and pretty much a non-issue, giving this sled the ability to go through bumps with less pitching, and most importantly, greater control. Riders will be able to tackle rough trails and use less energy, and they will be able to go faster through rougher terrain. Those nasty G-bumps, the big dip in the trail that usually sucks the sled down onto the suspension for a bone-jarring THUD, have just met their match as the PRO-RIDE handles them with ease. . . .

This article was printed in SnowTech Magazine’s March 2009 issue. To read the full article, subscribe to SnowTech and we’ll mail you a copy of the March issue free to get you started. Just fill out the subscription form and enter the words “March 2009? in the comments field. We’ll mail you the March issue right away and you’ll receive 5 issues a year of the best magazine in the sport.

Yamaha just keeps chipping away at the 2-stroke snowmobile population with their all 4-stroke line-up. Back in 2003, only 40% of new sled buyers would even consider buying a 4-stroke. Now that number is up to 74%. Add to that the fact that 39% of Yamaha buyers are from competitive brands, and Yamaha keeps sneaking up their market share and number of sleds sold. Yamaha is now at their highest level of market share in fifteen years. Even of those who bought a different brand than Yamaha, 25% of them at least seriously considered a Yamaha.
Why and how is this happening? Yamaha knows the secret, which isn’t much of a secret any more. Their sleds offer reliability, and this translates to customer satisfaction. Right now, Yamaha meets the core needs of the market which are defined as performance, handling and comfort. Add to that quality, reliability and customer satisfaction and they continue to grow.
Now they’re out to increase their performance image. Part of this is with their continued emphasis on their racing program, trying to be more visible and successful in racing endeavors. This ranges across the board from traditional racing venues like snocross and cross country to their dominance on the drag strips to a new world speed record of 210 mph (G Force-1) and the X-games appearances, along with freestylers. . . .

This article was printed in SnowTech Magazine’s March 2009 issue. To read the full article, subscribe to SnowTech and we’ll mail you a copy of the March issue free to get you started. Just fill out the subscription form and enter the words “March 2009? in the comments field. We’ll mail you the March issue right away and you’ll receive 5 issues a year of the best magazine in the sport.

Back in 2003 when Ski-Doo came out with their industry-changing REV rider-forward platform, it was pretty much an experiment into uncharted waters. Little did they know it would be the start of a true revolution in how a snowmobile was built and where the rider would sit.
With the success of the REV platform came not only a return to the top of the snowmobile market, but the realization that the REV only was the beginning. The REV moved the rider forward, but also revealed the limitations of the first rider forward platform. Ski-Doo engineers quickly set their sights on making an all-new platform with rider-forward ergonomics as part of the equation right from the get-go. Those efforts brought us the XP platform for 2008, their two-stroke chassis that kept the rider in a centered position for excellent bump isolation and handling, but with a complete rework of all systems to make the platform as light as possible. 2009 brought us phase two of the master plan with the introduction of the 1200cc 4-TEC engine and the XR platform variation of the XP, specifically to house the physically larger 4-stroke engine, and the REV-XU variant designed for the utility market sleds.
2010 marks the completion of the XP conversion from the REV platform with the introduction of more REV-XU models and the conversion of their fan-cooled sleds from the REV to the XP family of platforms. Here we find a host of 550 fan-cooled sleds from a 550 Renegade to all-new Tundra models to a new MX Z TNT 550 Fan, along with many others.
A rapid conversion like this is enabled by the S-E-T nature of the platform construction and design; each platform consists of interchangeable Suspension, Engine and Tunnel modules. Depending on the application, Ski-Doo uses the right combination of the three modules and wraps them in uniquely styled body panels. This kind of modular design and construction not only let them convert their entire line-up in three short years, it also saves overall manufacturing and design costs as well.  . . . .

This article was printed in SnowTech Magazine’s March 2009 issue. To read the full article, subscribe to SnowTech and we’ll mail you a copy of the March issue free to get you started. Just fill out the subscription form and enter the words “March 2009″ in the comments field. We’ll mail you the March issue right away and you’ll receive 5 issues a year of the best magazine in the sport.

Each year after the editors of SnowTech Magazine get the chance to test ride the new for next year snowmobile prototypes in January, everybody wants to know what really worked well. Some sleds are truly stand-outs and rise above the rest as being the best new models we’ve tested. The new 2010 models are no different. We go into a test ride with preconceived notions about how something will work, but after you run them through the paces you quickly learn which ones are really dialed and work very well.
We spend time each and every year either traveling to each factory or meeting them at a secret location to get some saddle time on their latest and greatest. While every rider is different and has their own idea of what the ideal snowmobile should be, after riding most every new model offered for the past 20 years we have a pretty good idea of what sleds are the best and worthy of our mention and favor. So here they are, the new for 2010 snowmobiles that really caught our attention and outperformed the competition. This is the short and sweet version; we won’t bore you with specs or details here, just raw riding impressions. Our list doesn’t necessarily start with the best of all so don’t go reading anything into the order in which they are presented. We’d take any of these girls home in a heartbeat, as should you. . . .

This article was printed in the March 2009 issue of SnowTech. To receive this issue Subscribe and enter “March 2009″ in the Comments field on the subscription form. Subscribing to SnowTech means you’ll receive the best magazine in snowmobiling 5 times a year delivered right to your door!

One has to give the team at Thief River Falls credit; you never really know what they’re going to do next. One might think you have them figured out, then they throw you a curve ball. You gotta’ love this independence and free thinking, it not only makes for some very different and unique snowmobiles but it sure keeps the game interesting.
Case in point; leveraging their race sled dominance for the 2009 snocross season. Tucker Hibbert pretty much blew everyone else out of the snow with his complete and total dominance by winning every event he entered. What better way to capitalize on this success than to offer a consumer version of the race chassis Tucker used to do the house cleaning?
That’s exactly what Arctic Cat is doing with their 2010 Sno Pro 500. If you like having a sled that is as close as you can get to what Tucker rides, this is the ticket. Well, almost. Arctic Cat tells us this machine is THE race chassis with only slight changes to accommodate their 87-octane safe 85 HP dual- throttle body 500cc EFI engine.
Why would they do this? . . . .

This article was printed in SnowTech Magazine’s March 2009 issue. To read the full article, subscribe to SnowTech and we’ll mail you a copy of the March issue free to get you started. Just fill out the subscription form and enter the words “March 2009″ in the comments field. We’ll mail you the March issue right away and you’ll receive 5 issues a year of the best magazine in the sport.