ski-dog

He was fortunate to be close to highway 11. Ran on one cylinder when cooled down and with a few stop starts made it to the highway.

When I was in Cochrane last week stopped to help a person stranded with a 23 Polaris 650. It had quit on him. Had to give him the bad news that he lost a cylinder. Haven’t heard of many 650’s going down but like any it happens.

I like the idea of identifying road running which is becoming more prevalent with continued loss of private land owner trails. Especially this winter many of want to avoid the road rash……

Son and I staged out of Baysville Monday and looped up around Kearney and back. Traffic was light and trails overall were better than what we expected. Road runs were not great but passable. Also saw the dead deer and there were about 20 ravens performing natures clean up. Guess they call it Raven Lake for a reason. Coming back on Lake of bays there was a small herd of deer that jumped on the lake to catch the last of the afternoon sun. In total did 237 km. With the snow in the forecast this week this area should be in good shape for a while.

I had a number of triples back in the day. Those engines were smooth, powerful and seemed to last longer than most modern day 2 strokes. I would love to see a modern day compact 3 cyl 2 stroke……………

I have the quali pieces adventure bars this year on my 23 renegade XRS and have been quite impressed thus far.

So I personally do not know what all the drama is about but I can say this. While I’m not a regular chatty person Ihave been part of this forum for over 20 years.if I recall a crash or something back in the day that eliminated my profile once maybe twice. Recall this was started by LMV way back and rode with a number of members way back. This site at one time was where you needed to go to find trail conditions in Ontario as there was no ITG or anything close. There was a tight knit group of folks and back in the early 2000’s I likely posted far more regularl back then. Times change, people change and ideals change. I always enjoyed the snowmobile focus of the group. I believe it will survive, it’s the folks that remain part of the group that will ensure that. I continue to check in during the season and if I feel I can contribute in a meaningful manner will do so.

This will be hard to believe but I have a 2000 Suzuki Quadmaster ATV that I have owned from new. It still has the original battery from new that continues to start the machine without issue. It was never charged while sitting until a few years ago. I will throw the charger on it if it sits for a few months just as a precautionary measure. Given its age it has no draw on it while sitting which I’m certain helps. As a test wen’t out to the garage and started it and fired right up. It hasn’t been started since November and not charged. If it was -20C maybe result would be different. The battery has Suzuki stamped on the side, not sure who made it for them but has outlasted its expected life many times over….. on the flip side we have a newer Cat ATV and after 2 years the battery was toast and had to be replaced. It also has draw on it mostly from a clock but after about 6 to 8 weeks if not used will need to be charged before it can start the ATV.

Regarding warmth of oxygen it is a warm helmet and has no wind penetration. I have had one for 3 years and never had temp higher than lowest setting. You can get away without wearing a balaclava but I still wear one as it seems strange sledding without one. Great field of view and easily accommodates communicators. It is extremely quiet to the point you may have difficulty hearing folks talk to you with the helmet on. I almost never plugged in any of my previous helmets but the oxygen almost always needs to be plugged in to function properly. That is the one aspect I do not like but have gotten used to it over time. My son has the mission and he likes it. Does not easily accommodate communicators as you will need to carve out some foam for speakers. If you read the owners manual it does state not to do that. Field of view is less but it rarely needs to be plugged in. Noisier than the oxygen and field of view is less although in line with most other helmets. As for glasses I did experiment with some sunglasses to formulate an opinion with the oxygen. My take is that glasses can fog for the first minute or so but after that no issue. Didn’t do a test on the Mission.

It is a smart move buying something like that new. As you note the used price on this stuff holds its value so when it comes time to sell you will likely get most of your money back thus the cost of ownership will be low at the end of the day.

Always carry my LinQ fuel can. I haven’t used it but others on the trail have benefited from it. In the end when it comes to fuel I would sooner be looking at it then looking for it.

I own a rift jacket and still have my keeweenaw jacket and pants. Kim just uses the floater jacket and you use the regular bibs so I wear my keeweenaw bibs. The jacket is warm just like my keeweenaw. I will say at -4c and above I sweat more in the rift as it doesn’t seem to breathe as well. I find the quality of the rift less than than my keeweenaw especially the zipper which can easily catch on the material flap on the jacket and get stuck. my son has the FXR adrenaline in which both jacket and pants have float technology. No idea if one is better than the other if you go through the ice but both should give you an extra few minutes of survival time. My son really likes his FXR suit and is always warm. I would suggest trying both on and going with what fits and feels best.

As many said to really solve the issue muffs really work. I have the ski doo muffs and at -40c my hands were frozen. I put my muffs on and couldn’t believe the difference. At low settings on my grips my hands were toasty hot. Haven’t used them for the last few years as haven’t ridden in extreme cold.some folks won’t use them for fear of being ridiculed. I say screw them and be comfortable. Difference between a good ride and miserable ride......

For about an hour or two. Main sections would have been groomed again last night but traffic is just too much for them to hold all day. As an example yesterday when we went trail was freshly groomed in the morning, by afternoon looked like it hadn’t been groomed in weeks. The other day on a 200 km trip counted about 500 sleds that we saw in that timeframe. Unreal, even during the week traffic is generally like I’ve not seen before.

Went by twice they were handing out tickets both times and checking all documents. One person was getting ticket for modified exhaust when I was there. That B trail went through some major surgery with recent reroutes...