In TEST RIDE Luke lights up the trail aboard the highly-anticipated 2025 Polaris Indy XCR featuring the race proven Patriot 9R engine.

Then Luke dives into FXR’s line of snowmobiling products and the innovative technologies that have set the company apart from its competition over the years.

AJ walks through installing the all new Ski-Doo RAS RX front suspension upgrade kit onto a 2024 MXZ-X and showcases the dramatic improvements to on-trail handling that owners of 2023 and 2024 model year Ski-Doos can expect with this kit.

Then, Luke hits the trail aboard the 2025 Ski-Doo Backcountry XRS 850 TurboR featuring the new 43-inch wide front end and highlights how this wider, more trail-focused front improves handling during on-trail riding.

On paper its specs look appealing and in pictures it looks even better, but the performance this combo delivers makes it one of the most impressive sleds of the season.

The Patriot 9R’s crank is substantially lighter than the Patriot 850’s, generating less vibration and of equal importance is the lighter crank’s ability to instantaneously “spool” RPM. Let me tell you this – I cannot remember a twin cylinder 2-stroke of any displacement with throttle response as sharp as the 9R.

This combination of quick revving throttle response and a wide spread of ski-lifting torque creates positively heroic launches. Our XCR is a 136 and this track length is perfect for a sled capable of delivering trench digging track speed in the blink of an eye. So far in the sno-mo biz there hasn’t been an engine this strong without a turbo strapped to it.

The new MATRYX-based Indy XCR chassis is perfectly suited for the 9R powerplant. This sled handles incredibly well and although Ski-Doo has stepped up with all new front IFS geometry closely mirroring the Polaris IFS, the XCR with its ditch banging credentials firmly intact can hone the roughest trails and approaches with finesse.

While the XCR’s legacy is rough terrain prowess, the addition of the Patriot 9R engine takes the platform to new heights of performance and capability. This sled can carve the tightest, twistiest trails effortlessly. Its turning posture is delightfully flat relying on its legendary Polaris IFS to maintain forward bite. Throttle-off, on corner entry while you drag the brake mid-turn to complete corner exit using near telepathic 9R throttle response.

Clearly, the 2025 Patriot 9R Indy XCR 136 raises the bar in the high-performance trail category providing more of everything this segment is about. If you’re an 850-class aficionado looking for what’s next, this sled will exceed your expectations by a wide margin.

To say Polaris has stacked the top end of the market with tasty engine options is an understatement. What I see here is a complete and thorough reaction to the reality of the sno-mo-biz in MY25. Our sport has gone upscale – and not in a small way.

Hold the hate mail! We know there’s a formidable number of our viewers and readers who would swear there’s a market for downscale, cheap sleds. That might be true, but here’s why we think that number might not be as high as you think.

The NEO is entering its third season in the market and while the sled is selling, it isn’t altering the course of human history. Same goes for the Indy EVO. Both these sleds have high value chassis, suspension, standard features and the list goes on. Problem is they are not selling like ice cream on a hot day and there’s a reason for this.

The very core of the powersports business runs off ever-increasing power, handling, ride and trickery. The good news is that new millennium buyers are the reason for this constant upsurge.

Make no mistake about it – OEMs build what buyers want. If they don’t, a huge mountain of boxes would pile up behind the factory and at your local dealership containing snowmobiles the market does not want.

Back to the 9R and the Patriot Boost. I can tell you for sure the big sales and big profitability all hang out at this upscale, high performance, tech-featured market. Polaris builds these rockets because the overwhelming majority of snowmobilers want one. Maybe not today but for sure sometime in the future.

The question that must be asked today is whether one of these snow bullets is better than the other. Our team has made this determination and has filed its report for an upcoming episode of SnowTrax. Luke and AJ made up their minds last spring in West Yellowstone.

Keep in mind the 9R is at a distinct disadvantage at Wyoming’s 6000-feet-minimum elevation. In comparison the Boost doesn’t know where it is – it just knows how much compressed air it should ram down the Patriot’s throat to keep the motor swallowing the absolute maximum amount of boosted air and fuel to produce the most horsepower.

I’m going to take some latitude and proclaim that the Boost is a more appealing mill in almost any application the engine comes in, and I am going to make this proclamation on the following rationale.

While the 9R’s lightweight crank feels torquier right off engagement and pulls strong, the Boost feels a little softer right at engagement, then everything breaks loose, and that waste gate goes to work feeding gargantuan gulps of O2 into the Boost.

This violent surge of bare-chested, turbo-charged HP assaults your arms and neck until it levels out as you pass the 105 MPH (170 kmh) threshold and keeps on pulling right up to 115-120 MPH.

The 9R will keep squeezing Kevlar past the C-note, but its ability to achieve the Boost’s velocity diminishes. This reality was played out here at World HQ, which is at 900 feet above sea level.

For sure there’s a lot more to these two impressive powerplants than WOT pulls down Kevlar Lake. However, if you talk to the power-crazed legion who buy sleds at this power level you’ll soon realize unrelenting, unequalled top end jam is their number one purchase criteria.

The 9R is a twist in the road that must be annoying to the competition because nobody saw it coming and although I personally like the Boost, there’s a ton of goodness in the 9R’s lightweight, quick to spool, impressive torque.

For my money though, I’m all about turbocharged 2-strokes. The technology in the Boost is top drawer and impressive.