got a couple hours on the 2010's yesterday without a guide so we got to go in places they would not have wanted us to go, snow varied in conditions between typical april heavy wet spring to decent on the backside with some decent powder back in the trees, we had a couple of the 10's and 09's so we could do a lot of side-by-side comparision.
the tunnels on the 10's were slightly better but was hard pressed to tell much difference, the taper I aure will help out in teh deeper powder days but as far as feel there was no perceptable differencer while riding either, the design and hole pattern were were near identical.
the front susp is stiff as hell even on some of the larger 60-80' jumps I tried the front barely moved and was very harsh, with the sway bars still on them and the stiff shocks boondocking and carving was a big chore especially on the stiffer snow conditions it was very unstable sidehilling or rougher terrain, softening the front shocks would help a ton. on the trail it handled great, steering was stiff but again turning the shocks down would help that, almost no body roll in corners with the stiff shocks and sway bar. handling up front is better and lighter feeling that the apex for sure but was exactly like the 09's
rear supension on all the 10's was extremly soft, felt great on the trail but as soon as you started playing in the back country it would bottom out on the lightest jump. the rear skid would cause some ski lift on the harder snow but was well within control, maybe too much for my liking, making tunouts on the hill more difficult.
2 of them had the engine light on and no functional hand warmers, little dissapointing considering yamaha's known dependabilty.
power was good but typicall yamaha clutching made them feel like riding a 600 class machine, very linear pull with a low engagement.
we did a lot of climbing and it ability fell short on the hill, part due to the tracks partly due to the bad clutching (the 162 and 144" both made it to the same spot on the hills), the couple 2-smokers 700 doos and the apex in our group way outclimbed any of the nytros with ease. but I am sure with some work that it can be tuned to run a whole lot better
The gauge is just like the 09's way too small to get a good sight on rpm, mph etc when on the move,
handle bars are to low for taller riders just like the previous years, no change there
would I pay more to get an 10 over an 08-09, not a chance, they are almost identical in ther ride, handeling and performance a few bucks in lightweight parts and your still way under the price of a 10' and just as capable, the tunnel is the only perceptable change and is nicer but not a big improvement and certainly not worth the money. the suspension is still ill tuned front and rear and will require work to make it right but just like previous years,
the float 2's were defiinately more coil-over like in their feel, if you like that then great, to me it took away the major reason to have air shocks, the progressivness of their rate, thats what makes an air shock so pliable and easy to sidehill in the first place take that away you might as well have a coil-over since they weigh the same (within 1/2 lbs anyway)
Like most factory yamaha's with some work like better bars, major suspension retuning, and completely reworking the clutching it can be a kick *** sled but for most is very dissapointing in stock form and well below the competition in its overall performance on the hills,