Yamaha pulls plug on Bravo snowmobiles-demise of northern workhorses

[slomo]

From CBC North:

"It's small, it's slow, and it's one of the most popular snowmobiles

in the North, and now it won't be made anymore.

For decades, the Yamaha Bravo was the snowmobile of choice for many

hunters in Nunavut but now the humble Bravo is riding off into the

sunset as sales have been drying up and the company has stopped

making them........................."

Full article here:

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...maha-bravo.html

Engine 2-Stroke / Fan

Cylinders Single Cylinder / 246cc

Bore and Stroke 70 X 64mm

Intake Design Piston

Fuel Delivery 32 mm KEIHIN X 1

Ignition CDI

Exhaust Piston

Clutch/Transmission YPZ, Variable Ratio

Disc Brake Type Mechanical disc

While in Baker Lake, Nunavut, heard a story about a guy and his Bravo out on the land miles from anywhere with a burnt piston. He removed the cylinder head, fired off a shot gun round, took the plastic off the spent shell and pounded the brass into the hole in the top of the piston. Then he re-assembled and limped home.

In actual fact, the 'modern' Bravo is not all that different from the old 1986 Skidoo Tundra LT I used around the NWT on ice roads north of Yellowknife and Fort Rae:

Except for having to clean gunk off a throttle pin in the carburator about every 30 miles or so, it was an extremely reliable machine. No hand warmers. Mine now rests on the bottom of Frank Channel adjacent to Great Slave Lake. (my 'native' guide was not from around there -who knew? ) There is a working one (?) up at Ron Quick's Gowganda Lake Camp.

I remember people hanging on to their old sleds which had 'bogey' wheels, as opposed to the newer larger idler wheels. It meant that as you didn't depend on snow to lube your track support, you could use your snowmachine well into June.

[The Groomer Guy]

The Tundra was used allot here, it was the sled of choice for the trappers, then they went to the Skandic now, most people here will ride a skandic, the market for a used tundra and Skandic is BIG here, hyou can't find any for sale, nobody sells them and if one of those are for sale they don't last long. One of our club director has a Skandic Wide track 600 liquid..... thats a hardcore bush machine