I've been on a 12 month love/hate with our two ZR200s and can't quite sing the praises you guys can.
AC and Yamaha both failed on follow through with these sleds and left a lot of buyers (and young riders) frustrated over issues with these sleds. Almost every forum one visits that has any mention of the ZR/Snoscoot has very common themes.
There are upsides, and it isn't a total sob story, but there are folks at both AC/Yamaha that should be ashamed of themselves for putting these out on the market without fixes available or communicated.
My kids have close to 300mi on thier sleds now, with some fairly major trips under their belts. We ride 0-2000' elevations.
A few pics from the "high country" at our cabin...
First the ergos:
Mostly upsides to the ergos of the sled, from handlebar height to throttle position.
Big downside is the ground transfer vibration from the ski to the handle bars. I've ridden these sleds, and there is justifiable reason for my kids to want to stop fairly frequently to rest their arms. I have not found a fix for this yet.
Pilot jet: I get the EPA stepped in and they were jetted lean from the get go. Factory carb was a 50.0 pilot and they were leaned down to a 37.5. ****ty cold start and idle issues enter stage right... At least give an option for additional pilot jet sizes. Luckily for the sledding community you have folks like Rec Motors out there making a drill kit to open them up a bit (don't forget to open your air screw a bit too). There are NO stock pilot jets available right now, none, across the country. I find out that Yamaha is offering a 38.9 pilot, but AC is not. I also found a local guy that sourced me a 42.5 and a 47.5 to try. This will fix the cold start, the rough idle, and the bobble on take off.
Exhaust gasket failures: Multiple reports (including both of mine) of the failure of the exhaust gaskets failing, causing issues and damage to whatever the hot exhaust comes in contact with. I still have melted plastics (again, not available for order, at the time anyways).
Warm starts: Lots of complaints (mine included) of trouble with warm starts. Yamaha failed to put enough heat isolation on the gaskets on the engine side of the carb. Guess what, ride it long enough then shut it down, try to restart....pain in the but. The heat transfer is enough to cause the fuel in the bowl to vapor off. They put an insulator in place for MY 2019 to fix this, but guess what? You can't order that part, so if you have a MY 2018 you are SOL. I am currently working with a gasket company back east that is sending me a few different styles and thicknesses to try. I'm going to order a couple hundred of them!!
TSS: Still having idle issues? Yep, the TSS doesn't adjust well. At least they give you the option for adjusting it, but the first thing I did was disconnect it.
Other than "that" Mrs. Lincoln; I enjoyed the play.......
The kids are still rallying these sleds, and I'm still fixing them as fast as possible (two new carbs just showed up yesterday so I could steal the stock pilot jet out of them because that is the only way to source a pilot at the moment).
These sleds were a great idea; it was long over due to rethink the entry sleds. I've got a new EVO to transition sister off of her ZR200 next year and little brother will transition to an EVO in 2020.
It is just unfortunate that both companies failed on the follow through; compounded by the inability of the average joe to get feedback to either company and forced to go through local dealers.
Cheers and best of luck to you all with your kiddos and their new rides....
