02Sled

Four times in one day would be a pain in the butt... I'm going to guess the increased presence would be the radar runs and an increased tendency for many of the increased traffic to have a few there during the day. So was it really a complete stop or did you just slow down and get waved on. They could do that 10 times a day for all I care... especially if they get some freeloaders off the trails. Also if you don't have a val tag I'm going to guess they likely don't have insurance either, perhaps even a drivers license.

We tend to ride from Port Severn, heading to places like Orillia, Midland, Penetang, Elmvale, Wasaga, Bala, MacTier, Gravenhurst, Severn Falls, Coldwater and also use Georgian Bay. Rarely do we see the OPP and even more rarely do we see them more than once in a day. We have trailered to the Seguin as a starting point as well as Wasaga sports park and ridden from there. Even there we haven't come across OPP frequently or more than once. Maybe I'm just lucky.

I'm with you... when I do see OPP out on the trails typically you simply slow down. They look for the sled to be licensed with a val tag, a trail permit and perhaps listen to the sound of the sled for a can and wave as you go by. If your val tag or permit isn't current or visible then they are likely going to stop and check for drivers license and insurance. Occasionally they will ask you stop and check for license and insurance but I haven't had it very often. The other is if you are speeding. Again, typically they seem to pay attention to the people who are way over and not just a bit over. If I am out for 6 hours on the sled and I spend 5 minutes showing the OPP my insurance and license I don't have a problem with that. If they ask me to take another couple of minutes to validate if I have been drinking or not.... I have nothing to hide. Because they can ask for a breath sample doesn't mean they will. Surprisingly I didn't see one RIDE check this Christmas season. I'm not going to believe the sky is falling.

We usually go to the little place right across the road for lunch. We aren't looking for anything alcoholic so it is the better choice. Last time we were in the hotel we got semi frozen chilli and one of the guys never did get his lunch but they did bring him a bill.

Could be something like the gauge of metal used and not evident from a picture... you never know.

How about the Blake cam. You need to get your camera set up blue tooth to transmit live through your cell phone for real time conditions.

Have you heard the latest politically correct term for plow guy? They are snow fighters. Not to be confused with fire fighters

I tried mine on yesterday. I had it on for the sled show and it seems to have shrunk a bit over the summer. I have been working on stretching it over the past few weeks since the show and checked to see if it was working. Somewhere I have a picture of a couple of unnamed crazy people sitting on the dock in July with modular helmets, t-shirts, shorts, snowmobile boots and gloves with a cold drink. Their wives refused to join them on the dock to watch the reactions of passing boaters.

Somehow I just knew you would be the first to spin a track on the snow.

what about an unlicensed sled on a public road or off their property even?

I fully understand the email aspect and agree as the means of communication for updates. As you said it provides an auditable record. The phone call aspect was to alert the person to the fact an email had just been sent with updates and to please look for it then act if it is something you would like updated right away. As for 5 clubs changing status... the person wouldn't know that there were only 5 clubs with changes until all the clubs report in that day to indicated EITHER no change OR here are our changes. It isn't really an efficient operation of an office to at random times throughout the day, on the scheduled day for updates, where you expect all clubs to report in to do them one at a time scattered throughout the day rather than do them all at one time. If there were changes being made on i.e. a Friday, outside of the mandated days it would make sense to do them as they come in on an ad hoc basis. For those the phone call to alert the person to a just sent email would likely help.

I'm going to suggest that if you want an update made as promptly as possible email may not be the most efficient or reliable means of communication. If you are using email perhaps a phone call as well that lets the person know to check their email for the update, particularly when the email is sent on a day that the district person may not be expecting an update via email. I know in business I didn't have the luxury of seeing and reading every email as soon as it arrived in my inbox. As you indicated you would have been updating the status to be reflected Thursday. Since Thursday is the day for all clubs to update the trail status perhaps the person doing the updates for the district was doing all the clubs in the district at one time rather than get one email, login to the ITG make the changes for that club and logout then 15 minutes later get another update login again and repeat. For District 7 that would mean logging into the system perhaps 11 times throughout the day rather than just once.

Updates are required Tuesdays and Thursdays but are not limited to those days if a club needs to make a change on other days as well.

Sorry to hear that... I would have thought that there would be lots of snow there similar to Newfoundland. A friend of mine went back home to the rock when he retired and they get lots of snow. I recall him sending me a picture of his dad climbing out a bedroom window since they couldn't get out the front door for all the snow. But then I saw Halifax on the news yesterday and not a flake of snow to be seen.

Honey Harbour - Click on view web cam middle of page - http://www.hhbc.ca/ and https://delawanaresort.ca/webcam.htm Sans Souci - http://thebowens.name/ Severn Lodge (north end of Gloucester Pool) Port Severn https://severnlodge.com/about-us/webcam/ (you need to scroll down the page a bit for the webcam view) Healey Lake (Mac Tier area) https://healeylake.org/webcam/

It could be there is only so much band width available and that can't be upgraded. By having limited coverage on the grounds that is a way of imposing a degree of control over the amount of use. People will go to the main building for access if they really need it. Friends of ours own a campground near Waubaushene. Even there they can only get so much band width in from the road on the cable and according to the service provider they have the maximum that will be available for the foreseeable future, The problem is that they get groups of kids going online to play video games, people streaming movies, some people conducting business from their campsite and much more. This eats up the band width quickly. On some occasions they have had credit card processing for customers paying time out and fail since the system was too busy with a dozen kids playing video games. I was downloading printer drivers for them and based on the bytes per second it showed download time as about 2 hours. The PC was hard wired. We shut down the wireless and heard a bunch of upset kids but the download time was now under 2 minutes,

Something like traveling around Lake Muskoka by boat a few years ago.... The cell phone had one bar, two bars, one bar, two bars. Suddenly it went to a solid fiver bars and stayed there. We figured we must be getting close to Ted Rogers cottage.

I'm still game for contact if needed.

I made a trip to Country Corners for a warranty fuel gauge problem on one sled. Same scenario as you. We scheduled an appointment and they did it while I waited. Outside of warranty I take our sleds to WildBill

I know I would find it a tough decision in many ways. Especially after having no complaints with my old Suzuki. My understanding is that the Suzuki engine has undergone very little in modifications as it's a don't fix what isn't broken scenario. I've been lead to believe there may have been some modifications on fuel delivery and definitely on clutching. I guess one of the things for him to decide is he already said he would like to have the Yamaha engine but how badly does he want it really. As I ponder it myself for a $3000 difference even considering I don't flip sleds every couple of years like some do I suspect I would maybe be opting for the 5000 Suzuki. Actually the 5000 LXR is what I first started looking for at the end of 2015 and couldn't find any. Then I came across what could be called a sweatheart of a deal on the 7000 that I couldn't turn down. It really comes down to personal preference as I think they are both solid motors. One thing to maybe consider is the placement of the battery. I don't know where it is on the 5000 but on the 7000 it is under the seat. Personally I find it inconvenient since you need to remove a torx screw and lift the seat to access it. On my old Suzuki engine Jag Z1 it was easily accessed just inside the right side panel. I've also found on my 7000 there isn't room for the spare belt on top of the clutch guard like there has been on my past sleds. None of these are deal breakers. One thing to do for sure though is swap out the tunnel bag at the time of purchase and maybe get a bigger windshield and mirrors... oh and a spare belt. It's the cheapest and best time to get it done. I've had great service from Country Corners, in particular Scott (the boss) and Brock in service.

There WERE some extreme cold starting issues with the Yamaha engines but that has been addressed with a reflash of the ECU. There is no doubt the Suzuki engine is very reliable. I had it on my last sled and it was bullet proof. I find the Yamaha triple has more get up and go than my Suzuki twin did.

Country Corners buys up left over inventory from the factory in huge volumes each year and blows them out at really good prices. That's how and where my wife and I got our 2015 ZR7000 El Tigre sleds at the end of the 2015 season. One thing to consider is that what is available as surplus varies each year. When we got the 7000's there weren't any of the 5000's available at anything near bargain prices. If you buy the 5000 with the plan to go with the 7000 in a couple years there may not be any bargain inventory available and you may end up looking at a much higher premium price than a $3K difference. You have to watch your timing on making a decision. Part of the price you would be paying would be a factory rebate that will end on a specific day and if you miss the window you will miss the price. If they replace it with another rebate it may well be less and put the price higher. I would check when the rebate ends so you know when you have until to make up your mind. Are you dealing with Scott.

Think of the amortized $3,000. How long do you plan on keeping the sled. Five years is $600 per year but then you need to factor in the increased resale value of the sled when you sell it which would drive that annual cost down even further. Depending on how long you keep it for you could conceivably recover that $3,000 in additional resale value toward your next sled.

From my perspective if you volunteer your information to be on the oh sh*t list you have access to the other people on the list. I would think for example that before heading out to perhaps Parry Sound I would check the list for contacts in that area and take the information with me. If I broke down I would call from the list and hope to get help

Call scott and make him an offer. They move a huge number of sleds. He can't say no unless you try. We have the ZR 7000 El Tigre and so far they are great. Plenty of power for me. My wife really likes the heated seat and it's growing on me.