205 lbs, 6'1", ride mostly technical trees in the Rockies, 5000-7000 ft (except today which was 90% road and 10% steep given low snow conditions). Today was 50-60cm of fresh powder on rain crust. Coming from a 2022 Polaris Matryx Slash na 163 3" std. screen with Cycles and Sleds clutch kit, 2" riser and finger throttle. Loved the sled, felt perfectly comfortable on it and wanted to try something different. New sled is a 2023 Skidoo Expert na 165 3" standard screen with iBackshift clutch kit, Salazz King ski rubbers, post forward kit (2") and finger throttle. I'd never ridden a Skidoo before today.
Overnight we got a dump, 50-60cm fell in an 8 hour window so we went to bed sad about all the rain this week and woke up jazzed to ride. We were going to head to Revy today but given the dump we got, stayed local. We were on mostly untouched roads the whole day except for a stab into one of our favorite steep zones...with no carnage thankfully.
I didn't ride the Skidoo before making the above-mentioned mods. I did, however, go to the dealership and stand on a stock Expert. I found the stock handlebar position odd, it felt like they were sitting back in my lap and the bars were uncomfortably low. Based on this I ordered the post forward kit and damn am I glad I did (more on this in a bit). Based on my experience with the CnS clutch kits on the Poo I ordered the ever-popular iBackshift clutch and based on reading many of the complaints about the DS4 ski and ****ty OEM ski rubbers I ordered the Salazz King units. I like riding with the finger throttle so that was a given.
The other thing I did before riding the sled was have our local suspension shop, shout out to Ion2 Suspension in Invermere (great people and excellent service), do a service on the ski shocks and rear track shock. I bought the Doo with 790 km's and the oil that came out of the ski shocks was black as night. The rear track shock would occasionally loose pressure and cause major skid sag (turns out it had low nitrogen pressure). So the Doo had a shock service where I never touched the
Before riding the sled I was happy with the post forward mod and how it made the sled feel immediatly comfortable in the attack position. I was surprised to find that with the OEM Skidoo Expert riser in the post forward position, the handlebars on the Doo were about the same height as the bars on the Poo with a 2" riser. Where the Doo bars in the OEM position felt odd, cramped and way too low, the same setup in post forward felt perfect. As I've said, I didn't ride the Doo before doing all these mods so I can't comment on before/after, just how my Doo setup worked compared to the Poo setup.
When reading the following comparison keep in mind that the riding we did today was easy, nothing like what we normally do (save the aforementioned poke into the one zone). I'll report back with comparisons later in the season once I've been able to ride our normal, treed and steep terrain.
I'll start with what I didn't like about the Skidoo. The glovebox is a joke. It's tiny, doesn't seal, fills with snow and isn't heated. Sure as **** there has to be a way to design this rig with a functional space to keep extra gloves warm and dry. The Poo glove box does this in spades. The plastics are a handful to take off, nothig major but damn Poo has this nailed too. A few clicks and side panels and hood are off. The same thing on a Doo is a minor event. And for some reason I struggle to get the belt cover off every time, it's hanging up on something and I haven't yet figured out how to get it off easily. While I'm a big fan of the Linq system I find the OEM Linq bags wanting. The BCA Mtn Pro bag works well for me and the thought of rummaging around in a Skidoo bag seems like a pita. I thought about the Slim Waterproof as it has a larger footprint...but it has a larger footprint and would eliminate the possiblity of using Linq position 2 to carry extra fuel. So I removed the belt cover, put the spare belt in my avy bag, and mounted a BCA Mtn Pro tight up to the tank and just offset the Linq brackets on the Mtn Pro a bit. This keeps the weight of the bag further forward (and I carry enough stuff to overnight). The thought of having a tunnel bag sitting right at the end of the tunnel all day just makes no sense to me when I'm often looking for every advantage to move in the mountains. Using position 1 for the BCA bag leaves too little room for a Linq gas caddy in position 2 so I've dropped a hint to my wife about the Giant Loop Armadillo Fuel Bags as a Christmas gift. It'll work perfect and I'll dump the fuel in as soon as we get to our riding zone to get it off the ass of the sled. Well, thats about it. There is very little I don't like about this sled. And I'll see how I feel after we really start to get into it.
Now on to what I like, and there's a **** ton of stuff I like about this sled.
I immediately felt comfortable on the Doo, there was no transition period for me today. The sled felt quick and easy to initiate a turn, more so than the Matryx. It also felt lighter than the Matryx, which surprised me. I was out today with my friend who rides a '23 9R and we swapped sleds for a bit which confirmed my previous statement. The Doo is super quick to initiate a turn and feels very light. Once on edge it does take a bit more rider input to keep it there and it isn't quite as precise as the Matryx. This difference isn't huge and I'm sure with more seat time I'll sort out what I need to do to be more dialled in on edge. The real test will come when we start riding our normal terrain with lots of treed sidehilling.
Shot! Need I say more? Sweet mother of God I like Shot. Despite the easy ride today the snow was really deep and we got stuck a few times and aren't as fit as we will be in a month or two. We were tuckered by days' end. As the day wore on I watched my riding partner have to pull start his 9R several times to get it started, many times. And I just hit the button. So nice. This alone is enough to make me love this sled.
The Doo seat is nice, small and doesn't get in the way. Where I would often catch my foot on the Poo seat, with movement side to side today my foot didn't catch once on the Doo today. We stand almost all the time so the smaller, harder seat isn't an issue for me.
The sled over revved a tad most of the day so after dinner I pulled out an allen key and, never having touched the clutch before (I hired a guy to install the iBackshift for me) proceeded to turn the clickers down one notch in oh, say about 3 minutes flat. It took me almost as long to get the damn clutch cover off as it did for me to adjust the clickers on the clutch. That there is a sweet clutch design. Speaking of clutching, the iBackshift worked well, quick off the bottom, very responsive at low throttle and while we didn't ride terrain to really test it I think it'll work well for me. While I can't compare to the stock Doo clutch it did feel similar to the CnS clutch kit which works really, really well.
Now this may sound silly, but the large levers on the high/low light and handlebar heat switches work really well and are easy to use will riding. Unlike the small and cheap feeling Poo switches which I had to work at to adjust light and heat while moving, the Doo just works and feels better.
The adjustable limiter strap! I should have put this further up the list because this is just plain sweet. My last sled was a Pro and I've ridden a Khaos and the limiter strap makes the Doo able to perform similar to both Poo sleds. Honestly, I thought it was going to be a bit of a gimmick but it really changes the handling characteristics of the sled. One extreme makes the front light and very playful, the other planted and more precise (just how precise remains to be seen). On the venture into dangerland today we were climbing up a steep cut block and I had the limiter set to agile and rear shock on soft. As I was wheelying up the hill just asking to take out my track on a landmine, the wiser part of my brain took over and I let off the throttle, sided out and adjusted the limiter to precision and stiffened up the rear shock. The rest of the way up the hill was done in a much smarter way.
The skis. I'd read a number of threads about how ****ty the 4 series skis are which is why I bought the Salazz King rubbers. The skis peformed well today, as good as ones on my Polaris. Perhaps I'll experience something different when I'm sidehilling and hit an old track or when the snow is crusty. For the powder we rode today along with the occoasional old track I came across, the DS4's worked fine.
Back to suspension. My Polaris had the Walker Evans shocks and I found that they dove. Now, I didn't have the Poo suspension serviced and probably didn't have it set up properly, so there's that. Regardless, the Doo suspesion just flat out worked well, no diving and it soaked up the few bumps I hit nicely.
Everything about the motor just feels more refined. Starts first pull, shot works smoothly, reverse is seamless. On my Poo it would take two or three pulls to start it, especially once it was warm. And I've heard the bag of bolts sounds that come from the Poo starters, they sound like they're going to grenade at any moment. My Poo reverse would occasionally stall (both cylinders had 125 psi after 2400 km so I don't think this was due to loss of compression.
Well that was long winded. The two things I like most about the Doo are the shot and how the machine handles...quick, light feeling, very responsive and so easy to initiate a turn in powder. Perhaps the latter has more to do with my size but nonetheless, I like it. I'm curious to see how I like the sled as the season and riding difficulty progresses. So far I'm glad I made the switch. So is my right shoulder. I'll post more in a month or two (and be more brief about it too).
Overnight we got a dump, 50-60cm fell in an 8 hour window so we went to bed sad about all the rain this week and woke up jazzed to ride. We were going to head to Revy today but given the dump we got, stayed local. We were on mostly untouched roads the whole day except for a stab into one of our favorite steep zones...with no carnage thankfully.
I didn't ride the Skidoo before making the above-mentioned mods. I did, however, go to the dealership and stand on a stock Expert. I found the stock handlebar position odd, it felt like they were sitting back in my lap and the bars were uncomfortably low. Based on this I ordered the post forward kit and damn am I glad I did (more on this in a bit). Based on my experience with the CnS clutch kits on the Poo I ordered the ever-popular iBackshift clutch and based on reading many of the complaints about the DS4 ski and ****ty OEM ski rubbers I ordered the Salazz King units. I like riding with the finger throttle so that was a given.
The other thing I did before riding the sled was have our local suspension shop, shout out to Ion2 Suspension in Invermere (great people and excellent service), do a service on the ski shocks and rear track shock. I bought the Doo with 790 km's and the oil that came out of the ski shocks was black as night. The rear track shock would occasionally loose pressure and cause major skid sag (turns out it had low nitrogen pressure). So the Doo had a shock service where I never touched the
Before riding the sled I was happy with the post forward mod and how it made the sled feel immediatly comfortable in the attack position. I was surprised to find that with the OEM Skidoo Expert riser in the post forward position, the handlebars on the Doo were about the same height as the bars on the Poo with a 2" riser. Where the Doo bars in the OEM position felt odd, cramped and way too low, the same setup in post forward felt perfect. As I've said, I didn't ride the Doo before doing all these mods so I can't comment on before/after, just how my Doo setup worked compared to the Poo setup.
When reading the following comparison keep in mind that the riding we did today was easy, nothing like what we normally do (save the aforementioned poke into the one zone). I'll report back with comparisons later in the season once I've been able to ride our normal, treed and steep terrain.
I'll start with what I didn't like about the Skidoo. The glovebox is a joke. It's tiny, doesn't seal, fills with snow and isn't heated. Sure as **** there has to be a way to design this rig with a functional space to keep extra gloves warm and dry. The Poo glove box does this in spades. The plastics are a handful to take off, nothig major but damn Poo has this nailed too. A few clicks and side panels and hood are off. The same thing on a Doo is a minor event. And for some reason I struggle to get the belt cover off every time, it's hanging up on something and I haven't yet figured out how to get it off easily. While I'm a big fan of the Linq system I find the OEM Linq bags wanting. The BCA Mtn Pro bag works well for me and the thought of rummaging around in a Skidoo bag seems like a pita. I thought about the Slim Waterproof as it has a larger footprint...but it has a larger footprint and would eliminate the possiblity of using Linq position 2 to carry extra fuel. So I removed the belt cover, put the spare belt in my avy bag, and mounted a BCA Mtn Pro tight up to the tank and just offset the Linq brackets on the Mtn Pro a bit. This keeps the weight of the bag further forward (and I carry enough stuff to overnight). The thought of having a tunnel bag sitting right at the end of the tunnel all day just makes no sense to me when I'm often looking for every advantage to move in the mountains. Using position 1 for the BCA bag leaves too little room for a Linq gas caddy in position 2 so I've dropped a hint to my wife about the Giant Loop Armadillo Fuel Bags as a Christmas gift. It'll work perfect and I'll dump the fuel in as soon as we get to our riding zone to get it off the ass of the sled. Well, thats about it. There is very little I don't like about this sled. And I'll see how I feel after we really start to get into it.
Now on to what I like, and there's a **** ton of stuff I like about this sled.
I immediately felt comfortable on the Doo, there was no transition period for me today. The sled felt quick and easy to initiate a turn, more so than the Matryx. It also felt lighter than the Matryx, which surprised me. I was out today with my friend who rides a '23 9R and we swapped sleds for a bit which confirmed my previous statement. The Doo is super quick to initiate a turn and feels very light. Once on edge it does take a bit more rider input to keep it there and it isn't quite as precise as the Matryx. This difference isn't huge and I'm sure with more seat time I'll sort out what I need to do to be more dialled in on edge. The real test will come when we start riding our normal terrain with lots of treed sidehilling.
Shot! Need I say more? Sweet mother of God I like Shot. Despite the easy ride today the snow was really deep and we got stuck a few times and aren't as fit as we will be in a month or two. We were tuckered by days' end. As the day wore on I watched my riding partner have to pull start his 9R several times to get it started, many times. And I just hit the button. So nice. This alone is enough to make me love this sled.
The Doo seat is nice, small and doesn't get in the way. Where I would often catch my foot on the Poo seat, with movement side to side today my foot didn't catch once on the Doo today. We stand almost all the time so the smaller, harder seat isn't an issue for me.
The sled over revved a tad most of the day so after dinner I pulled out an allen key and, never having touched the clutch before (I hired a guy to install the iBackshift for me) proceeded to turn the clickers down one notch in oh, say about 3 minutes flat. It took me almost as long to get the damn clutch cover off as it did for me to adjust the clickers on the clutch. That there is a sweet clutch design. Speaking of clutching, the iBackshift worked well, quick off the bottom, very responsive at low throttle and while we didn't ride terrain to really test it I think it'll work well for me. While I can't compare to the stock Doo clutch it did feel similar to the CnS clutch kit which works really, really well.
Now this may sound silly, but the large levers on the high/low light and handlebar heat switches work really well and are easy to use will riding. Unlike the small and cheap feeling Poo switches which I had to work at to adjust light and heat while moving, the Doo just works and feels better.
The adjustable limiter strap! I should have put this further up the list because this is just plain sweet. My last sled was a Pro and I've ridden a Khaos and the limiter strap makes the Doo able to perform similar to both Poo sleds. Honestly, I thought it was going to be a bit of a gimmick but it really changes the handling characteristics of the sled. One extreme makes the front light and very playful, the other planted and more precise (just how precise remains to be seen). On the venture into dangerland today we were climbing up a steep cut block and I had the limiter set to agile and rear shock on soft. As I was wheelying up the hill just asking to take out my track on a landmine, the wiser part of my brain took over and I let off the throttle, sided out and adjusted the limiter to precision and stiffened up the rear shock. The rest of the way up the hill was done in a much smarter way.
The skis. I'd read a number of threads about how ****ty the 4 series skis are which is why I bought the Salazz King rubbers. The skis peformed well today, as good as ones on my Polaris. Perhaps I'll experience something different when I'm sidehilling and hit an old track or when the snow is crusty. For the powder we rode today along with the occoasional old track I came across, the DS4's worked fine.
Back to suspension. My Polaris had the Walker Evans shocks and I found that they dove. Now, I didn't have the Poo suspension serviced and probably didn't have it set up properly, so there's that. Regardless, the Doo suspesion just flat out worked well, no diving and it soaked up the few bumps I hit nicely.
Everything about the motor just feels more refined. Starts first pull, shot works smoothly, reverse is seamless. On my Poo it would take two or three pulls to start it, especially once it was warm. And I've heard the bag of bolts sounds that come from the Poo starters, they sound like they're going to grenade at any moment. My Poo reverse would occasionally stall (both cylinders had 125 psi after 2400 km so I don't think this was due to loss of compression.
Well that was long winded. The two things I like most about the Doo are the shot and how the machine handles...quick, light feeling, very responsive and so easy to initiate a turn in powder. Perhaps the latter has more to do with my size but nonetheless, I like it. I'm curious to see how I like the sled as the season and riding difficulty progresses. So far I'm glad I made the switch. So is my right shoulder. I'll post more in a month or two (and be more brief about it too).
