6000 Mile Catalyst

[boondocker97]

Was driving down the street after work yesterday, and I noticed a sled in the back of a pickup at a gas station. I had to do a double take and realized it was a black Catalyst mountain sled with the blue accent! I was across the median and took forever to get up to the light and make a U-turn to stop and see it. I pulled up next to it just as the driver was getting into the truck. Had very plain, commercial-looking Arctic Cat Enterprises stickers on the doors.

I dropped my window and asked if he minded if I took a quick look since I hadn't seen one before. He reluctantly said "sure." He seemed pretty tight lipped, but did say that particular one was a test sled and has over 6000 miles on it! It definitely looked used too. Very little shine on anything, road rashed side panel with a spot where the secondary bolt tried to come through, ripped handlebar grip end, scraped up running board edge, one tweaked a-arm up front...you know, standard used sled issues lol. I wish it would have been on the ground to sit and stand on, but at least I got to see it. I only got to eyeball it for a minute and he said he had to get going.

He did say he was taking it back to Island Park to continue spring testing. As I pulled away I saw another pickup with the same door stickers pulling a 4-place enclosed trailer parked on the cross-street by the hotels there. Hopefully they were all back at the factory getting fitted with the "bigger than 800cc" engine to flog it until the snow melts!

 

[Albatroz]

It sure does look good!

 

[BLITZKRIEG]

I've ran into AC testing next years sleds in cooke in May many years in a row. Talking to them theyre goal is 4,500 miles on the sled then they take them back to MN strip them and see how how the parts hold up.

 

[simnil]

I've ran into AC testing next years sleds in cooke in May many years in a row. Talking to them theyre goal is 4,500 miles on the sled then they take them back to MN strip them and see how how the parts hold up.

A non brand specific question I've asked a lot of times.
Who test rides these test sleds?? Because, and this from all OEMs to one degree or another, we see time and again new models coming out with "thousands and thousands of testmiles" and regular guys still end up breaking them, or having problems, in no time.

So either
- They are lying about the amount of testing done
or
- Test riders ride like my 74 year old mom
or
- They test one version, change some stuff, and don't test the changes.

As an average, or perhaps just above average, off trail rider nothing should to me be obviously wrong with a new mountain sled. And as long as I don't hit anything it should be able to take anything I can throw at it for several days.

Yet most new models show a long list of problems that should have been obvious after the first few hours of proper testing!?!?!? ...and 6000 miles.... that sled should be more or less clapped out and ready for recycling if ridden as "a test sled" for durability control....

I guess I have to volunteer as a test rider, so if any OEM would like a throttle happy middle aged mechanical engineer to take their new rides off trail and pin it for a few days they can contact me =D

 

[NHRoadking]

Prototype sleds vs production is the issue, i.e., hand built versus mass-produced sleds.

The production sleds never seem to be as good.

 

[simnil]

Prototype sleds vs production is the issue, i.e., hand built versus mass-produced sleds.

The production sleds never seem to be as good.

But belt life and clutching specs and stuff like that, stuff that should be easily tested, verified and then replicated regardless of production batch size??? First year ProClimb and first year Summit G4 for example. A regular dude could grenade a brand new belt in 5 minutes with no problem on either of those, that sort of things shouldn't happen if they tested properly.

 

[jarred kale]

Was driving down the street after work yesterday, and I noticed a sled in the back of a pickup at a gas station. I had to do a double take and 192.168.100.1 192.168.1.1 realized it was a black Catalyst mountain sled with the blue accent! I was across the median and took forever to get up to the light and make a U-turn to stop and see it. I pulled up next to it just as the driver was getting into the truck. Had very plain, commercial-looking Arctic Cat Enterprises stickers on the doors.

I dropped my window and asked if he minded if I took a quick look since I hadn't seen one before. He reluctantly said "sure." He seemed pretty tight lipped, but did say that particular one was a test sled and has over 6000 miles on it! It definitely looked used too. Very little shine on anything, road rashed side panel with a spot where the secondary bolt tried to come through, ripped handlebar grip end, scraped up running board edge, one tweaked a-arm up front...you know, standard used sled issues lol. I wish it would have been on the ground to sit and stand on, but at least I got to see it. I only got to eyeball it for a minute and he said he had to get going.

He did say he was taking it back to Island Park to continue spring testing. As I pulled away I saw another pickup with the same door stickers pulling a 4-place enclosed trailer parked on the cross-street by the hotels there. Hopefully they were all back at the factory getting fitted with the "bigger than 800cc" engine to flog it until the snow melts!
View attachment 404251

Looks amazing

 

[rkm]

A non brand specific question I've asked a lot of times.
Who test rides these test sleds?? Because, and this from all OEMs to one degree or another, we see time and again new models coming out with "thousands and thousands of testmiles" and regular guys still end up breaking them, or having problems, in no time.

So either
- They are lying about the amount of testing done
or
- Test riders ride like my 74 year old mom
or
- They test one version, change some stuff, and don't test the changes.

As an average, or perhaps just above average, off trail rider nothing should to me be obviously wrong with a new mountain sled. And as long as I don't hit anything it should be able to take anything I can throw at it for several days.

Yet most new models show a long list of problems that should have been obvious after the first few hours of proper testing!?!?!? ...and 6000 miles.... that sled should be more or less clapped out and ready for recycling if ridden as "a test sled" for durability control....

I guess I have to volunteer as a test rider, so if any OEM would like a throttle happy middle aged mechanical engineer to take their new rides off trail and pin it for a few days they can contact me =D

Part of it is they basically have the same group of guys testing sleds every year.
I have one guy in our riding group that rides the same speed as me but destroys clutches in half the time. But hes never lost a motor. Not even a 800 Pro. Consistently over the last ten years. Doesnt matter the sled.
A customer in his 60s destroys motors at an incredible rate. All locating pin failures yet the rest of the sled looks new. He gets multiple motors out of a clutch.
So when the same guys that have the same failures concentrate on the failures they create, they can miss other problems easy.

 

[kanedog]

A non brand specific question I've asked a lot of times.
Who test rides these test sleds?? Because, and this from all OEMs to one degree or another, we see time and again new models coming out with "thousands and thousands of testmiles" and regular guys still end up breaking them, or having problems, in no time.

So either
- They are lying about the amount of testing done
or
- Test riders ride like my 74 year old mom

Please post a pic of yo momma

 

[NHRoadking]

Please post a pic of yo momma

She charges for those pics.

 

[kanedog]

My mom has an Only fans too!

 

[simnil]

Please post a pic of yo momma

Not much to see, just an average 74 years old lady slowly riding her Lynx Boondocker 600 E-tec between their mountain cabin and the fishing lake of the day.
If she has an onlyfans I don't know about it, but since she has trouble just to manage her cell phone I doubt it.

 

[zl5600]

Prototype sleds vs production is the issue, i.e., hand built versus mass-produced sleds.

The production sleds never seem to be as good.

These sleds were built on the assembly line, not hand built.

 

[boondocker97]

I'd wager the one I saw wasn't from the most recent run that went down the production line that most people were doing demos on. To have 6000 miles it might have been in the hand built category and had more production plastic put on at some point but really no way to know.

 

[rkm]

I'd wager the one I saw wasn't from the most recent run that went down the production line that most people were doing demos on. To have 6000 miles it might have been in the hand built category and had more production plastic put on at some point but really no way to know.

I bet it was the assembly line sleds. I got to see a handbuilt one and it wasnt pretty. I was told saturday that they moved the requirement for Catalyst test/demos to have 6k miles before they go back to Cat.
Lots of the short trackers got that in two weekends of demos.

 

[boondocker97]

6000 miles in two weekends? No. The theoretical math doesn't even support that. If they were 4 day weekends that's 750miles/day @ an average speed of 62.5mph for 12hrs. If they were being ridden all 14 days that's 430 miles/day. Those are some hardcore SOBs to put on that kind of miles running WFO. Magazine editors aren't in that good of shape! I'd believe it was in the first batch of 60 sleds down the line, but not the more recent second batch.

@TRS probably puts on more miles than any of us here. Tony, how long would it take you to put on 6000 mountain miles if you were really trying?

 

[TRS]

Most miles I put on in a year, just over 5000.

 

[Old & slow]

I read a magazine article quite a few years ago (i think in the 90's) about A/C test riders and at that time they were riding 200 miles a day. At the time I thought that would be a great job but by the end of the article I was rethinking that career move. 200 miles on whopped out trails didn't sound like much fun. It was definitely a job for the guys doing the riding. They would ride, wrench and report everyday some days were good but lots of 12 hour days.

 

[rkm]

6000 miles in two weekends? No. The theoretical math doesn't even support that. If they were 4 day weekends that's 750miles/day @ an average speed of 62.5mph for 12hrs. If they were being ridden all 14 days that's 430 miles/day. Those are some hardcore SOBs to put on that kind of miles running WFO. Magazine editors aren't in that good of shape! I'd believe it was in the first batch of 60 sleds down the line, but not the more recent second batch.

@TRS probably puts on more miles than any of us here. Tony, how long would it take you to put on 6000 mountain miles if you were really trying?

The short trackers sleds were rode constantly during the demos sessions. Not by one person obviously since that escapes you. Two weekends might have been a stretch but more than that in a month. Have you ever ridden a good trail sled? 60 mph is boring. Hell 80 is boring on a two lane.

Pre wife and kids, I could do 1000 mountain miles a month with a full time job. Could easily do 5000 trail miles by myself if i had a reason to.

 

[boondocker97]

The short trackers sleds were rode constantly during the demos sessions. Not by one person obviously since that escapes you. Two weekends might have been a stretch but more than that in a month. Have you ever ridden a good trail sled? 60 mph is boring. Hell 80 is boring on a two lane.

Pre wife and kids, I could do 1000 mountain miles a month with a full time job. Could easily do 5000 trail miles by myself if i had a reason to.

I'm not failing to grasp anything...I'm aware that multiple people are riding them during demos. You just changed your statement and doubled the time to accumulate those miles to a more plausible number. I'm also aware that trail sleds are going to be ridden at high speeds comfortably. However, there are still corners and occasional stops. That brings the overall average speed down quick.

And we are not talking about a trail sled here. 6000 mountain miles if they are making their 200mile/day quota for durability testing at 5 days a week with no major breakdowns works out to 6 weeks. That is plausible for an assembly line sled produced in late February I suppose.