Last weekend Dan and I decided that 2 years of riding , the ski dampener in our ski were fatigued out. Ski too floppy, specifically, when turning or sidehilling the loose dampener was allowing the ski tip to rise up tooo much, which is way bad on a snow bike.
Hawkster had mentioned the DuraPro dampener might be a good stepup in performance. Found the DuraPro website, looked like only one model of dampener available for Polaris ski, $79.00 a pair +shipping, ITEM # 1018901. By Friday they were on the bench. Pulling Riot ski off and comparing stock with the DuraPro we were not sure this setup was going to work. Profiles different by quite a bit. Way stiffer material than stock, which is what we were after, so should we blow $80 and try to make them work, went for it.
1. DuraPro was made for entirely different ski base. Nubbins on the back of DuraPro had to be cut off in the band saw, ok return option done.
2. the new much wider DuraPro fits, no problem width wise, so a much wider support was going to be a plus.
3. DuraPro would be too thick if you place it on top of the raised boss cast into the ski. Never ever get a bold in. The RIOT ski has an oblong plastic boss the stock dampener sits in. We could see that has to go, and inside that oblong boss was only a grid / not a flat supportive surface for the dampener to sit on, that had to go.
4. We have all fought with trying to cram a ski dampener in place and get the bolt through and it was obvious this was never going to happen, we unbolted the aluminum ski holding block so when it was time to put all together, we put it in a press.
5. We cut a 1/4 thick piece of aluminum to fit inside the boss, then took a sharp wood chisel and planed the boss plastic flat to the aluminum.
Putting that together in the press was too much pressure on the ski and the bolt , might bend a bolt might explode the ski. Back apart and cut the next thinner aluminum to go in l the boss and replaned the boss plastic down to this thinner aluminum. Almost good, but still to tight. Next aluminum thickness seemed about right, replaned boss and pressed it all together. So we settled on 1/8" thick base with the plastic trimmed to fit.
Trimming the ski plastic boss would not preclude you from putting the stock dampener back in and running it stock. If you trimmed the boss away entirely, you should be able to put the DURPRO in and the ski bolt through as per stock set up. since we already had shims under the stock rubber, the 1/8 aluminum gave us a nice tight fit. One day of riding, its loosened up for sure.
6. Back on the bike, dropping the bike down, now the ski has a forsure ski up attitude. Hmmmmm, not sure how thats going to work, what it does do is on hard surfaces like icy roads and old sled tracks, you ride on the back half of the center carbide when your ski contacts any bump/rut/, and that could be good.
7. Next morning a good test. Bluebird day with hard packed road for 1 mile, old sled tracks and bike tracks from the sunny day before. Right away its a noticeable improvement . We crossed back and forth on the sled ski ruts, ran down sled ski ruts, that ski up attitude and always defaulting to the back half of the carbide making contact as you cross ruts, way good.
8. Will the already ski up attitude be a screw up as we climbed into dense powder, nope. We cut some near vertical road bank side hills with 6" of dense fluff on old base, great. More precision in turning tight in the trees......that was good. End of a 6 hour ride, for now we think a positive all the way around. Lets you carve a turn with no surprises, carve a turn across old ruts without being as grabby. At least we though so.
9 Would replacing the the shot stock dampener with a new one been just as good ? We might try that now. For my Riot, I don't think so. The last half mile going to the truck, really hard packed sled trail /cross county ski trail, ATV tracks, and starting to get soft in places, best my bike has ever handled a junk trail WFO in 6th, Dan on his ARO..........well not so sure.
Hawkster had mentioned the DuraPro dampener might be a good stepup in performance. Found the DuraPro website, looked like only one model of dampener available for Polaris ski, $79.00 a pair +shipping, ITEM # 1018901. By Friday they were on the bench. Pulling Riot ski off and comparing stock with the DuraPro we were not sure this setup was going to work. Profiles different by quite a bit. Way stiffer material than stock, which is what we were after, so should we blow $80 and try to make them work, went for it.
1. DuraPro was made for entirely different ski base. Nubbins on the back of DuraPro had to be cut off in the band saw, ok return option done.
2. the new much wider DuraPro fits, no problem width wise, so a much wider support was going to be a plus.
3. DuraPro would be too thick if you place it on top of the raised boss cast into the ski. Never ever get a bold in. The RIOT ski has an oblong plastic boss the stock dampener sits in. We could see that has to go, and inside that oblong boss was only a grid / not a flat supportive surface for the dampener to sit on, that had to go.
4. We have all fought with trying to cram a ski dampener in place and get the bolt through and it was obvious this was never going to happen, we unbolted the aluminum ski holding block so when it was time to put all together, we put it in a press.
5. We cut a 1/4 thick piece of aluminum to fit inside the boss, then took a sharp wood chisel and planed the boss plastic flat to the aluminum.
Putting that together in the press was too much pressure on the ski and the bolt , might bend a bolt might explode the ski. Back apart and cut the next thinner aluminum to go in l the boss and replaned the boss plastic down to this thinner aluminum. Almost good, but still to tight. Next aluminum thickness seemed about right, replaned boss and pressed it all together. So we settled on 1/8" thick base with the plastic trimmed to fit.
Trimming the ski plastic boss would not preclude you from putting the stock dampener back in and running it stock. If you trimmed the boss away entirely, you should be able to put the DURPRO in and the ski bolt through as per stock set up. since we already had shims under the stock rubber, the 1/8 aluminum gave us a nice tight fit. One day of riding, its loosened up for sure.
6. Back on the bike, dropping the bike down, now the ski has a forsure ski up attitude. Hmmmmm, not sure how thats going to work, what it does do is on hard surfaces like icy roads and old sled tracks, you ride on the back half of the center carbide when your ski contacts any bump/rut/, and that could be good.
7. Next morning a good test. Bluebird day with hard packed road for 1 mile, old sled tracks and bike tracks from the sunny day before. Right away its a noticeable improvement . We crossed back and forth on the sled ski ruts, ran down sled ski ruts, that ski up attitude and always defaulting to the back half of the carbide making contact as you cross ruts, way good.
8. Will the already ski up attitude be a screw up as we climbed into dense powder, nope. We cut some near vertical road bank side hills with 6" of dense fluff on old base, great. More precision in turning tight in the trees......that was good. End of a 6 hour ride, for now we think a positive all the way around. Lets you carve a turn with no surprises, carve a turn across old ruts without being as grabby. At least we though so.
9 Would replacing the the shot stock dampener with a new one been just as good ? We might try that now. For my Riot, I don't think so. The last half mile going to the truck, really hard packed sled trail /cross county ski trail, ATV tracks, and starting to get soft in places, best my bike has ever handled a junk trail WFO in 6th, Dan on his ARO..........well not so sure.
