For the most part, the West is
experiencing the best start to a season in decades. Snow covered many
riding hotspots starting in early November and continued to pile up
through early December. It looks like this season could be the best
in a while to get out and rack up some serious miles on a new
mountain sled.
If you were going to buy a new 2011
sled, odds are you’ve already bought it. This article is a
follow-up to the October 2010 issue's Tools of the Trade
feature, where we dissected the 2011 mountain 800 sleds and got into
how the three work with the current riding styles. We lined up the
three machines and explained how their geometry affects their
respective handling. So now that you have your sled, we’re going to
turn to on-the-snow analysis of how the three machines are best
ridden to maximize their potential.
Achieve The Summit
The Summit XP 800 is best controlled
with its skis. If you watch guys who ride the Summit with expertise,
they will usually stay centered on the sled with each foot on its own
running board. They keep their body mass centered. For downhill
powder turns, the body mass is shifted forward and the front of the
sled is handled like a huge snowboard. Lean to initiate carves.
For uphill riding, the weight bias is
still centered with the legs straddling the seat. The rider shifts
his weight back to make quick directional adjustments and shifts his
weight forward to maintain lines. Foot positioning is important. If
you want the Summit to have a light front end feel, move your feet
farther back on the running boards. Of the three 800s, the Summit XP
has the longest spread between the spindle ski bolt and the rear
scissor arm mount. That and its engine placement give it handling
characteristics of a long chassis. That makes for a stable ride that
is very efficient at keeping the track planted in snow and making
traction. And the Summit does best when the track stays planted. The
key for the rider is to work with the chassis, staying neutral over
the sled and using slight body shifts to manipulate the sled's
direction.
You may not see as much sidehilling
action from the Summit compared to the other two. But the Summit can
carve a long line through technical terrain. The 2011 Summit's
narrower front end and longer front shock give the sled an advantage
over its predecessors on long sidehills. The chassis is very
manageable and controllable in technical situations. It does respond
to the wrong-foot forward style of riding, but still handles well
with the rider centered over the sled. You just keep your feet back
to keep the track planted in the snow and to keep the sled's body
panels from lifting the track out. It's harder to make quick
directional changes in this position, but it works.
M8 Balance
The modern style of all-over-the-sled
riding was born and bred on the Arctic Cat M-Series chassis. The M
has been such a rider-friendly chassis over the seven-year span of
its existence. Sure, it handles totally different in 2011 than it did
in 2007, but it deserves a lot of credit for pushing mountain sled
design in the right direction.
The M8 works best in technical
situations on any sort of incline. For the most basic of mountain
riding—riding down trails and playing off in openings—it's not in
its element. Although it did get a revalved rear shock, the M8's rear
suspension still doesn't handle the rough terrain as well as the
other two 800s. But when you are in deep snow trying to pick your way
through trees down an unfamiliar drainage, the M8 is the lead dog.
It doesn't matter how you twist the
chassis or how you try to carve across a mountainside. The M8 doesn't
have any glaring negative traits on the side of a mountain. That
said, here's how to get the most out of it.
Find the sled's balance point before
you go trying any sidehills above a cliff line (this is true of any
sled). Go out in a meadow with some powder and lean the sled over.
Try it in any foot position you can think of. The great thing about
the M8 is how you can stand pretty much anywhere on it and make it do
what you want. Then one thing you need to watch for is for the sled
to come over too far when you pull it over or for the front end to
come too far around when you try a quick turn. Being familiar with
the M8's tipping point gives you the ability to predict what it's
going to do.
The M8 also reacts extremely well to
the wrong-foot forward riding style. That's where you put your left
foot on the right running board and use your right leg to
counter-balance or push with on technical sidehills. Keep the inside
ski pushed into the snow and use it to control the sled’s
direction. To turn the sled uphill, move your foot back on the
running board, turn the skis out to get sled to roll into the hill
and then turn back into the hill as the sled carves into the turn. To
drop to a lower line, there are a few things you can do. With the
sled moving slowly across the hill, use your free leg to push the
sled into a slide downhill. Control the slide with the throttle. That
is, when you get on the gas, the sled starts moving forward and the
downhill slide stops. Another option is to turn the skis downhill and
let the sled begin to drive down, cutting it quickly back into the
hillside to stop the decent.
Pro Potential
The 2011 Polaris 800 Pro RMK takes a
very similar riding style to the M8. The main differences between the
two as far as handling goes is the RMK has a more stable feel in
rough terrain and at speed. The M8 is more nimble in certain
technical situations, but the RMK may have an edge when it comes to
sidehilling and holding lines.
One reason for that is the narrow
profile of the RMK’s body panels. The track stays planted in the
hillside better because there is less plastic being pushed into the
hillside. Another reason the RMK holds lines as well as it does is
the design of the running boards and toe holds. In the wrong-foot
forward position on very steep sidehills at moderate to slow speeds,
your inside foot can be turned perpendicular and placed at the very
front of the foot bed. This allows you to get your body mass farther
forward in situations where you need to keep weight over the inside
ski to hold the sidehill. If you were to try this kind of line with
your body weight shifted farther back, the track might drop out and
leave you pointed straight uphill.
The Pro RMK’s chassis also responds
well to the rider neutral position, where you stay centered over the
sled with both feet on their own running boards, using the sled’s
balance point to hold lines and leveraging the sled with the inside
of your leg to control the sled’s direction. On the IQ-based Dragon
RMKs, you almost had to stay in this position to keep the sled from
over-reacting to chassis roll and directional changes. You sometimes
couldn’t jump from one side to the other fast enough to correct how
quickly the front end could change direction.
On the 2011 Pro RMK, Polaris changed to
a straight rail beam in the rear suspension and redesigned the skid
frame geometry to make the Pro RMK more predictable. But Polaris did
not move the steering post forward or change how the rider’s body
is positioned relative to the steering post. It lets the sled track
straighter without excessive ski lift. The Pro chassis also lays into
a hill without wanting to set the outside ski back down.
The key to getting the most out of
whichever sled you’re on is to just get out and ride. Like we said,
the snow season is off to a spectacular start. Let it be a record
year for you.
