Two things many of us found at ckmp including Denis P who had the most time on the expert. It IS harder to ride and initiate, many won't see this now as the snow is soft and you really don't notice the difference. But when the snow gets hard with some pow on top then you really do notice. We tried every configuration with t-motion x and xt, full rod track and flex edge, at the end of the day I want the easiest sled to ride that does not hold me back, Yes the t-mototion delete will work in about 10-15% of riding when its super steep and hard pack it works better, But you have to ask yourself when are you making the toughest side hills on an icy day or a powder good snow day. A quote from Denis who at the time had a couple thousand km on both, "when i ride the expert, I can't wait to get back on the freeride" and remember the freeride has a wider front end. If the sled is easier your gonna ride better for longer. This is why I changed my order to a summit x and a freeride and can ride those where ever i could take an expert. Having said that bigger guys often have a harder time over riding a t-motion sled due to being taller and heavier as it is harder for them to change direction quickly with that momentum, for little guys like me it is much hard to force a sled one way or another. My buddy Theo decided to stay with the 175 expert and he did t-motopn x right away and loves his sled. Then on the front end, people think the ds4 ski is better, it is not, it is different. It sits further forward in the spindle so there is less ski out the back to help with kick out when sidehilling. If there is more ski in the hill then there is more chance of it hitting something and kicking you off your line. But doing this also rakes the front skis out like a chopper so steering is harder. If you own an expert, hope on a summit x or freeride and you will feel this drastically. The keel on the ds4 ski also goes back further and flares at the back, again making steering harder but stable when sidehilling. Switching to the Ds3 ski on the expert is one of the biggest and best changes you can do. Both of these are not cheap, a mistake I made before on quoting the xt at 200.00 but the t-motion x is 500.00 to add, and the ds 3 skis all in can be 600 plus with loops and carbides, one thing you can do is find someone with an x or freeride who want the xt skid and exchange, the skis are easy as if you dont like sell them and lots of guys want that ski. Hope that helps. One thing that makes us lucky is trying all these things back to back and you really do see. Lots of guys just get use to stuff and think it is better, the power of the engine is making a lot of riders miss these points on the expert also the soft snow, but I have fielded at ton of guys who find the expert to be too hard to ride for them. People bought it thinking it was the best and it is not the summit x and expert are at the same exact level but they do it differently. No right or wrong, but ever since time the featured top sled . expert in the case, has been the easiest sled to ride, this year is different.
