Sksman

My friend from Austria said Canada is the poorest rich country. Europeans laugh at how we have so many resources and could be such a wealthy country across the board but our governments keep us down.

One big issue that the younger generations face is growing up now with so many accepted and encouraged drains of the wallets! That have become like a necessity! Cellphone bills internet bills Tim hortons or Starbucks multiple times a day fast foods Uber Eats or Skip Uber itself Just so many more ways to easily spend little bits of your money these days.

I have a buddy that wants to go. Always chirping that he will come and I can loan him a sled. I tell him buy a nice used sled for $7,000-10,000 and he says I can’t afford that. I have too far to drive….. I say sorry I don’t loan my sleds to friends. I will loan my sleds to the right friends who can afford to buy it if they wreck it. My main riding buddy and I will happily switch sleds any time. But if you crash it they take yours until it’s fixed. Just our deal

They were trying to get away from sleds there I heard the last couple years. It’s a tough location to sell off road stuff.

Did they refer the older bikes because their techs were too busy? Or no parts in stock to lower inventory? Or not enough techs to service all business? If turning away service then no doubt they would suffer eventually

So where does the price need to be? I have a cottage in an area close to lake Simcoe. I can ride unassumed roads to Lake Simcoe. There are lots of people who just ride lakes. I spoke to a number of riders who buy permits but maybe won’t next year. After a great snow winter and no trails in our area due to technicalities they might be hard to get back. Whether you like it or not they are price sensitive. And the OFSC needs more permit sales or less costs=less trails! I have ridden over 11,000km total or so last 3 years. Safe to say I am not as price sensitive. And will buy permits.

Unfortunately not all trail permit buyers are snowmobile fanatics who read snowmobile forums 12 months of the year and will pay anything to ride. Or buy $25,000 snowmobiles every couple years. There has to be a balance in order to get the local when convenient to ride from home sledders to buy when they might ride the trails a few times a year. For them maybe there is a monetary tipping point. Last thing anyone on here should do is post up negative comments and make judgement on another person based on financial decisions to buy a permit. Maybe it is a big decision in a retired guys life to buy a trail permit when he can ride 10 year old sled down a road allowance to the lake and fish and he can be happy with that. Not everyone is as financially secure as most of the guys reading and commenting on this forum. Part of the problem with this sport is the cost and making it an affordable package to attract the new and hold the old riders In my mind to survive the trail system needs the revenues from the on the fence to buy permit riders buying also.

The issue OFSC has for permit sales is not how to get the 5,000 - 10,000 die hard sledders to buy a $350 dollar permit but to get the occasional 3-5 time a year convenient I buy a pass for the year because I might ride guy to keep buying. There are a lot of those guys! Where does the supply price vs demand curve cross on the charts? My area last year had no club. How will that impact next years sales? Down 1 permit possibly in my garage because I permitted 2 sleds last season and might not buy 2 this season if trail access not restored. I know another guy that bought 2 and never rode the trails because of no connection. So OFSC could be down 2-3 permits because of poor management decisions! And there are a few others. It’s a tough game they are playing!

That was Murray Motorsports I believe

Was out on Simcoe today from Beaverton area. Hard crust on top with pockets of snow. Great running for sleds. And fast If you break through crust in more sheltered bay areas you could have issues.

Expedition’s do not get stuck anywhere near as easy as a Renegade. It’s a different sled for different type of riding. 20” Expeditions are everywhere on QC trails. A friend trail rode a 24” Expedition for 500km on a 2 day trip. He was able to keep up with us but was working it

Are you still running the Titan? if so how do you like trail riding it?

Thanks. My buddy said the same.

So how were the trails around Midland?

We rode that area Friday and Saturday. The C trail and rail line were in great shape. As mentioned above any section follow road to trail will be bare asphalt or gravel. We hit a number of sections that were pretty hard on carbide runners before the melt. We started on the 304 and rode down 303 to C and cut across to B into Orillia and back up B105 to C to 307 to 303 to 304. I am not sure I would jump at that route this weekend.

Great thank you

Thank you Likely drop in Brisbane

I am thinking of dropping sled in Erin tomorrow afternoon for a few hours. Anyone ever ride that area?

We follow the ITG and have a good idea where we are going. Saturday the E and B trails were beat up bad. We were able to find trails down Benoit and Elephant lake that locals used on Polaris gauge. Also the feature to mark your trail and then follow your old route is very helpful. We could easily follow our route home in the dark on Baptiste Lake. No I did not leave in dark or intend to come back in dark but it happens!

I will never go without my Polaris 7s gauge! Well worth the spend! Especially if you travel lakes! I have used the original Polaris PIDD gauge and now the 7s on last 2 machines. In my mind it makes no logical sense not to have a GPS gauge on a sled as a standard! The ability to backtrack on your trail or follow a previous ride is for me a must have. And Polaris Maps are based on trails from previous years and show old trails on lakes. Very handy to allow you to find shortcuts down lakes instead of road rash for kms.

So Zoso any update? Thoughts on your new Polaris?

I run the orange capped standard VES oil. Never had an issue. The VES Extreme is thinner for colder weather my dealer told me.

We ran across Haliburton lake yesterday. Trail south of Haliburton lake was pretty rough but needs snow. Hydro line down from Whitney was pretty good. Most of trails around Bancroft are in need of snow. Yellow yes and lots of rocks ticking on skis. Good news is snow in forecast!

Where do you live and where is the sled registered?

Zoos do you have a gps unit already? If not consider adding the 7s display. trail maps not quite accurate all the time but close enough you can follow.