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Had the opportunity to ride IceAge's elevate kit for the alpha today alongside my stock machine. I know not many people have had time on it yet so here's some thoughts.
I should mention I'm not sponsored by IceAge and have zero bias going into riding it, just wanted to give it an honest comparison back to back. Both my apha and the elevated one are totally stock and identical minus the elevate spindles and dropped skid. Bear with me as it's sometimes hard to convey how a sled handles without just saying “it's flickable”. Also for reference my last sled was a ski Doo 850 154, as are both alphas, and I regularly ride a Axy. I'm about 150 lbs without gear and I'm a pretty competent mountain rider, not a pro but fairly advanced.
First impression of the Elevate kit was WOW. I have over 500 miles on the stock alpha and had a good sense of how it was feeling in the snow today (we rode trail, some Ridgeline to basins and the deep deep trees on one sidehills, around 12-15 inches of fresh). It's remarkable how right away it feels different. You can feel the lift in the front end just in how it sits in the snow. Initiating turns in meadows was noticably easier with a bit less steering effort and definitely a less planted feel in the front end.
We lined up the stock and elevated sleds on a steep climb and did 3 pulls, I rode my stock for the first two. The other rider is about 30 pounds heavier than me and we were dead even up the whole climb, having to turn out very close to the same height up the hill. After we switched I felt like the Elevate kit had a definite advantage as I pulled ahead slowly through the climb and had to turn out at less of an angle, making it a decent ways further up the hill. Suspension was set on 2 for both sleds, not locked out and the Elevate alpha had a distinct seat of the pants advantage in the way it felt climbing, it's just dragging less side panel and running boards and I felt it really translated into better climbing machine, seeming to make up for some weight difference in the riders.
After that I got to rip it around on the open sidehills just playing around with some wheelies and re-entries. I always felt the stock alpha was a really fun and playful sled (at least my 154), the elevate kit just took that fun factor and dialed it up to 11. The ability to pop of pillows and old tracks into wheelies or spin it around and re-entry felt just more effortless. It was also notable in the deep snow how if you turned uphill it claw harder to turn you around. With how deep the snow was I could really tell when turning my stock sled for hop-overs it would get hung up on the running boards and slow you down, keeping it from rotating as well.
When it really shines in my experience was when you got into the steep sidehills situations. Coming off the ski Doo 850 I really was looking to get away from the t-motion feel, especially across old tracks. I felt like the alpha was an improvement but it still seemed to get thrown around a bit, somewhat unpredictable and sometimes if you hit a harder layer of snow it will wash out. I've also found in quite a few situations the stock alpha will buck a bit over bumps and try to shoot up hill, if you get your weight forward fast you can handle it but sometime it will just spin down and get hung up on the running boards. The Elevate kit “cures” or at least provided a very noticeable improvement in all these situations. Besides being more predictable in a sidehill situation, it also just doesn't want to get stuck. If you accidentally get thrown up hill, a little push and the front end will come up and you can set it back on edge. It's really crazy how well it climbs out of it's own trench without getting stuck, the pin and wiggle ability is much better than stock and it keeps you from getting stuck.
Bottom line- it works very well, in all the situations I had it I would 100% take the Elevate kit over stock. It does feel slightly less planted on trails but it's completely manageable, not “tippy” at all, it feels like an Axys. Yes it's a fairly pricey kit but I can't imagine any mods that will make this much difference in handling. This is what the alpha should have been from the factory and I can't imagine a Arctic Cat engineer riding one and not seeing this in the new machines from the factory very soon. Truly, hats off to IceAge for developing an awesome product, and oh yeah, it looks awesome having billet spindles and a lift kit on your snowmobile. I'm going to be getting one on my personal sled as soon as possible and if you like amazing handling and having a super playful snowmobile then you should too.
Feel free to ask questions, I'm happy to answer based on my experience
I should mention I'm not sponsored by IceAge and have zero bias going into riding it, just wanted to give it an honest comparison back to back. Both my apha and the elevated one are totally stock and identical minus the elevate spindles and dropped skid. Bear with me as it's sometimes hard to convey how a sled handles without just saying “it's flickable”. Also for reference my last sled was a ski Doo 850 154, as are both alphas, and I regularly ride a Axy. I'm about 150 lbs without gear and I'm a pretty competent mountain rider, not a pro but fairly advanced.
First impression of the Elevate kit was WOW. I have over 500 miles on the stock alpha and had a good sense of how it was feeling in the snow today (we rode trail, some Ridgeline to basins and the deep deep trees on one sidehills, around 12-15 inches of fresh). It's remarkable how right away it feels different. You can feel the lift in the front end just in how it sits in the snow. Initiating turns in meadows was noticably easier with a bit less steering effort and definitely a less planted feel in the front end.
We lined up the stock and elevated sleds on a steep climb and did 3 pulls, I rode my stock for the first two. The other rider is about 30 pounds heavier than me and we were dead even up the whole climb, having to turn out very close to the same height up the hill. After we switched I felt like the Elevate kit had a definite advantage as I pulled ahead slowly through the climb and had to turn out at less of an angle, making it a decent ways further up the hill. Suspension was set on 2 for both sleds, not locked out and the Elevate alpha had a distinct seat of the pants advantage in the way it felt climbing, it's just dragging less side panel and running boards and I felt it really translated into better climbing machine, seeming to make up for some weight difference in the riders.
After that I got to rip it around on the open sidehills just playing around with some wheelies and re-entries. I always felt the stock alpha was a really fun and playful sled (at least my 154), the elevate kit just took that fun factor and dialed it up to 11. The ability to pop of pillows and old tracks into wheelies or spin it around and re-entry felt just more effortless. It was also notable in the deep snow how if you turned uphill it claw harder to turn you around. With how deep the snow was I could really tell when turning my stock sled for hop-overs it would get hung up on the running boards and slow you down, keeping it from rotating as well.
When it really shines in my experience was when you got into the steep sidehills situations. Coming off the ski Doo 850 I really was looking to get away from the t-motion feel, especially across old tracks. I felt like the alpha was an improvement but it still seemed to get thrown around a bit, somewhat unpredictable and sometimes if you hit a harder layer of snow it will wash out. I've also found in quite a few situations the stock alpha will buck a bit over bumps and try to shoot up hill, if you get your weight forward fast you can handle it but sometime it will just spin down and get hung up on the running boards. The Elevate kit “cures” or at least provided a very noticeable improvement in all these situations. Besides being more predictable in a sidehill situation, it also just doesn't want to get stuck. If you accidentally get thrown up hill, a little push and the front end will come up and you can set it back on edge. It's really crazy how well it climbs out of it's own trench without getting stuck, the pin and wiggle ability is much better than stock and it keeps you from getting stuck.
Bottom line- it works very well, in all the situations I had it I would 100% take the Elevate kit over stock. It does feel slightly less planted on trails but it's completely manageable, not “tippy” at all, it feels like an Axys. Yes it's a fairly pricey kit but I can't imagine any mods that will make this much difference in handling. This is what the alpha should have been from the factory and I can't imagine a Arctic Cat engineer riding one and not seeing this in the new machines from the factory very soon. Truly, hats off to IceAge for developing an awesome product, and oh yeah, it looks awesome having billet spindles and a lift kit on your snowmobile. I'm going to be getting one on my personal sled as soon as possible and if you like amazing handling and having a super playful snowmobile then you should too.
Feel free to ask questions, I'm happy to answer based on my experience
