I’m saying moderately entertaining because I believe the issue of responsible use is the most important challenge organized snowmobiling has faced in its storied history. I’m not joking. The reality we are a well organized, safety conscious and committed-to-good-behavior group of sanctioning bodies, makes it seem pretty crazy we’ve gotten ourselves so far down this troublesome road.

Yes, we are in a serious pickle. It is the undisputed truth that the OEMs (AC, Pol, SD, Yamaha and Lynx) have had to build what their customers want or they will not be viable businesses. However, it does seem strange a serious response to off-trail “Free Riding” (the bane of every hard-working snowmobile club volunteer) has taken so long.

It’s not like the first off-trail excursion generating a trail closure happened two or three years ago. The original Ski-Doo Summit (at that time targeted at vertical riding) and the Polaris SKS came to market in the early 90’s. Trail riders bought them because they offered expanded use beyond the realm of groomed trails. Not much was said about this in the snowmobile media. Now it’s the start of the 2024 season and it might be time for a serious and sobering response from the industry.

When things got really out of control, in the late two-thousands and early twenty teens – the backlash to “Free Riding” pivoted 180 degrees. All of a sudden, riders thought of trails as nothing more than a route to get to a never-before-seen world of untouched powder in the flatlands.

We all know what happened next. Landowners lost their minds and vented on the volunteers who run our snowmobile trail systems across North America. The landowners had every right to be ticked. Acting on nothing but landowners good graces, clubs and their members (that’s you and I) have established a mostly interconnected groomed trail system across most of North America. Suddenly we saw trails being closed wholesale. Make no mistake about this – trails are closing and the number one reason is off-trail free riding.

Let’s make this clear: We need our landowners way more than they need us. Having the rules set out for 30 to 40 years about staying on the trail, torn up and shredded by snowmobilers who actually believe they can go “anywhere there’s snow” is the best description of the problem. It’s actually way too simple.

The images promoted by everyone in this business from the OEMs to the clothing manufacturers to the, dare I say it, the media and many more stakeholders perpetuate the falsehood you can go anywhere with an X-Over snowmobile. Let me counter this with a bizarre thought. Reality is this: If we don’t fix this problem we’re going to be able to go nowhere with any kind of snowmobile – as far as groomed trails on private land are concerned.

Friends, here’s the truth: Private landowners from the east coast of North America through the central snow belt states and provinces to the midwest and further west are supremely agitated and – read this twice – are closing trails on their property every day.

They’re doing this because a number of snowmobilers think wearing a backpack, having three tattoos and carrying a foldable snow shovel makes them a freerider. It might, in their minds. However, when we all end up sitting around the smoking hole that was dug by irresponsible use, these freeriding pilots will be in the same situation as all trail riders – no place to ride.

So where will we ride if we don’t stop riding off-trail on private property? Oh, we’ll still ride! You can be sure of this. The trespassing won’t stop until every entry point on landowner’s properties are gated. Many snowmobilers will ride lakes. Many will go through the ice or drive into rivers. Then there’s roads. You know those conveyances built for wheeled vehicles that grind our carbides off in a few miles? Yep, there’s our destiny if we don’t wake up and do something.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

1. Stay on the marked and groomed trail at all times.
2. Refuse to ride with anyone who doesn’t agree to do the same. Seriously.
3. Never ride without a Trail Permit on sanctioned trails.
4. If you want to freeride, research places in your jurisdiction where you can do it legally. These locales do exist.

That’s a good start. Let’s get serious about this and preserve our trails in an effort to keep our landowners happy.

If you haven’t ever attended Hay Days, let me suggest you put it on your bucket list and make plans to go this year. I get asked loads of questions about Hay Days, year round, from people planning to attend for the first time. The number one question I’m regularly and consistently asked is: How big is it?

After spending too much time on emails and the phone explaining the height, width and length of the 180-acre facility, here is my all-purpose answer, “If I told you how big Hay Days is you wouldn’t believe me anyway – and you’ll figure I’m lying.” How’s that for an answer?

Yes, Hay Days is big. In fact, it is the hands-down biggest consumer event in the snowmobile industry. Here’s more. I suspect Hay Days is the largest attended consumer show event, either indoor or outdoor, in the whole powersports industry. The only thing we’ve seen that’s bigger are deep south boat shows.

Making this year’s edition of the event even more attractive to witness is the arrival of Ski-Doo’s MX-Z X-RS 850 Turbo R. Even though the Grass Drag part of the event is still alive and kicking, Hay Days has become so much more than Grass Drags.

As a result of this seminal part of the weekend not being the ultimate attraction it once was, this year may be different. Not to say there isn’t enthusiasm for Hay Days Grass Drags; there is! However, there are so many other powersport activities including snowmobile, ATV and motorcycle freestyle events and the events that have really grown in popularity the past five years – SxS stadium racing and ATV mud racing – to watch at the enormous Hay Days facility.

Back to Ski-Doo’s Turbo. I predict if the new Ski-Doo X-RS Turbo and the Polaris 850 Indy BOOST are allowed in the stock 850 class there won’t be enough fence trackside for people to line for a front row viewing location.

There hasn’t been as much excitement for a new consumer available, production snowmobile than there is for these new, 2-stroke trail turbos, in over a decade. We’ll update you when we can decipher the eligible entries listed by the Sno Barons.

Next snowmobile Grass Drag class to watch this year will be Stock 600. For many years this class was the benchmark at Hay Days. The past few years the lack of anything substantially new in the 600 class (I didn’t say 650!) has calmed crowds’ anticipation of the annual 600 stock shootout. With Arctic Cat unveiling the new Catalyst 600 this time last year its all new 600 class sled will be getting heroic attention.

Okay, so Grass Drags are admittedly not the center of everything at Hay Days. However, this year they may again rise to be one of Hay Days most popular events.

Hay Days 2023 is September 9 and 10 in North Branch, MN. Visit haydays.com for more information.

Blizzard, IMO, has meant “value” in the past. In other words, low level standard equipment. However, the Blizz we have on the ground is more like the former Adrenaline package and borders on the MXZ-X of days gone by.

My observations are a result of three beautiful KYB compression adjustable, piggyback reservoir dampers up front and on the rear arm. These “EA 3” shocks closely mirror the way Fox QS-3’s work. There are just three compression settings – soft, medium and hard. That’s it, and I’m going to categorically say it is more than enough adjustability for over 90-percent of riders.

The days of 16 or 21 klicks on the compression side of the damping profile were overkill. Think about this: Three settings allow for the equivalent of click #7, #14 and #21. That’s a perfect spread of adjustment 95-percent of riders will be able to perceive on the first trial of a clicker change-up. If you can’t tell by now, I heartily recommend these shocks (as do we recommend Fox QS-3’s).

The fact the 2023 Blizz 850 is a Gen-5 speaks to Ski-Doo’s intention to keep this model iteration exactly where it is. It is predominantly an in-season ride for dealers to stock. Unfortunately (or fortunately), depending on how you look at it, supply chain problems have kept in-stock models from showing up at dealers this fall. In any case, there were lots of Blizzards Spring Checked.

As a side note, the Blizzard (which is only available as a 129) can also be had with Rotax’s silky smooth 600 E-TEC twin producing 125 ponies, however, there’s one caveat: The 600 is still wearing G-4 clothes. Maybe next year?

This is a fast snowmobile. It’s been a year or two since I’ve spent much time on a 129. It seems most of our trail-destined sleds all come with 137s now. This 850 Blizzard’s E-TEC 850 is rated at 165-hp and is ready and willing to take you to the C-Note in record time.

The bonus here is the feeling of flickability. The shorter track is perceptible over our Renegade 137 in circuitous terrain. I am pleased it is noticeable as many buyers are going for 137’s for their mogul bridging capabilities. What is not as widely spoken is the inherent enhanced corner carving of the 129 Blizz.

What about mogul bridging? For sure a 137 does skip across the top of bumps very effectively. However, let’s not forget that this 129 comes with those KYB klickers and a full-on industry leading rMotion skid.

One issue Ski-Doo has not run the flag up the pole with is the new G-5’s re-engineered engine mounting system. Why they’re not talking about it I do not understand. However, this new way to shoehorn the 850 into the G-5 is highly effective, all but eliminating the annoying idle RPM shakes the G-4 850 displayed since its intro in 2017.

Frankly, the G-5 platform produces an increased measure of tangible refinement as a result of the new mounting system.

Check out 2023 Ski Doo MXZ Blizzard Detailed Overview and you can hear my impressions and actually see how effective the new motor mounts are.

The Blizzard is back in full force and looks to be a significant player in the 129-inch 850 segment.

There was a significant amount of risk for Polaris to break with years old (try 30 years!) industry standards that made the 600 class the meat of the marketplace.

Pretty clearly, the time had come for some upward movement in displacement to more evenly match the displacement spread between the new and now benchmark 850 class. Obviously, no OEM building a new big bore 2-stroke will invest in anything less than an 850.

Herein lies the truth to this bold prediction on my part: Most engine projects are at least three years in development (more likely five years), so for an OEM to ensure they don’t end up spending a jinormous chunk of development jing and end up one size too small is of paramount importance when readying a new powerplant.

The OEMs must be 100-percent confident they are going to get to the goal line with a new engine that reflects market trends at that very moment in history. In other words: Don’t show up at the 650 class with a new 600.

Polaris took a gamble that was pretty doggone close to the bet Ski-Doo made in 2017 – specifically that the industry was moving in the direction of 850 cc’s.

Ski-Doo must have had strong confidence its appearance at that displacement level would not only be accepted but emulated by its competitors. Here’s the reality – a couple years after the 2017 intro of the Rotax 850, nobody talks about 800s.

Here’s more that’s interesting: Ski-Doo enjoyed instant success with the intro of the 850 E-TEC. The market went wild for the new standard for all out 2-stroke performance like a Popsicle stand in the Gobi Desert.

Similarly, Polaris has experienced overwhelming acceptance of the new Patriot 650. The engine produces both horsepower and torque closely resembling an 800. Fuel efficiency of the new 650 is considerably better than the Liberty 600.

The overall feel of the new 650 compared to a 600 is convincingly superior. In our non-scientific testing we verified the 650 Patriot has the juice to deal with any of the current 600’s in the market including Polaris’ own 600.

So, the question begging to be answered is this: In light of the aforementioned realities, will Ski-Doo respond to the 650 Patriot by increasing its current 600 E-TEC engine to 650ccs?

For sure, the 600 Rotax engine closely mirrors the 850 E-TEC which would seem to make a 50cc tune-up relatively simple.

Always remember this: Ski-Doo never lets anyone mow its grass.

We get a lot of mail griping about the cost of snowmobiles so I thought I would take a run at explaining what’s still going on in the sno-mo retail marketplace.

Here’s the real issue: The COVID reality the past two and half years created never-seen-before pressure on both the new sled and used sled marketplace. When the COVID lockdown came into effect, people went nuts buying up powersports vehicles. The reality of being trapped at home for an indeterminate time made people seek out other forms of recreation to replace cancelled warm weather vaycays.

While the powersports industry literally reeled at the volume of early orders that first year of COVID, the real estate industry completely blew itself off the Richter scale with rapidly accelerating, then skyrocketing prices – particularly on properties located in what might affectionately be referred to as “Cottage Country” which, coincidentally is most often “Snowmobile Country”.

Where I live in Central Ontario, prices on recreational lakefront properties pretty much doubled in less than one year. Cottages would go up for sale and literally dozens of offers above the asking price would roll in so fast buyers were in a spin. This real estate reality was and to some degree still is (in some locales), unprecedented. It has been a 100-percent seller’s market for almost three years just about everywhere.

Back to snowmobiles. While this unprecedented demand for sleds was ramping up so were used resale values. I can say this with conviction: Never have I seen people pay such inflated prices for a used sled.

We get a fair number of asks around here about what we think a certain sled (used) should sell for. We are not the “Auto Trader” of the sno-mo-biz but do have a pretty good view of what the market looks like and what it will bring for used iron. The numbers we have seen are incredible.

Stuff that’s five years old has been selling for often just a few hundred bucks less than a comparable brand new sled. Why? Because there are so few unsold new sleds available. Supply in the snowmobile-biz has been outstripped by demand for three years and, in fact, still seems artificially strong (not enough supply) again this fall sales season.

So yes, the price of sleds is going up – but there are some hopeful signs. First, if you’re in the game – that is you own late model sleds – you are no doubt finding you can pretty much get what you paid for your rides. I have a good friend who took his 2020 sled to his dealer to use as a trade on a new 2023.

The dealer offered him $9500 as a trade. Under normal market conditions this would have been a generous offer. He took the sled home and posted it on a local buy-and-sell site for $12,500 and sold it in hours. Actually, he claims he could have sold it more than once.

As you can see dealers are challenged to get sufficient trade-ins because owners can sell their trades for more themselves. This means dealers are putting bigger money into trades than makes sense – or maybe it does make sense? In any case, I’m confident you can see how this incredible upscaling of prices is being fuelled.

If you want to get into the sport and are looking at used (or new) sleds, things do look kinda pricey. If you’re already in and negotiating a deal to move up to a new or newer ride, the cost to do so isn’t as prohibitive as you might think when considering the upscale value of your trade.

Make sure you shop wisely. This is a volatile marketplace.

You see, in this business, the only way to increase profitability is to grab a bigger piece of the pie. And that pie is limited because of the relatively narrow proportions of the sno-mo-market – although there has been growth during the pandemic.

So… if you were in charge, what would you do?

Try this: Build the fastest, best riding best handling sled in the biz! Okay, both Yamaha and Arctic Cat have been on this page for several years now with the Thundercat and the SideWinder and the sales results speak for themselves – but not in an earth-shaking fashion as far as brand switching goes.

Okay then, let’s look at the possibility of building low-cost models that will get entry level customers interested in your brand – and then keep them in your fold so in the future they will buy your products instead of the competition’s.

The current high-value Venom/Blast sleds, although solid entries, haven’t set the world on fire and converted masses of buyers over to their respective brands. At the same time both Ski-Doo and Polaris continue to hold or even grow their market share numbers.

Well, what if an OEM just cut MSRPs way low – and still offer their premium models with all the bells and whistles at a price that is ridiculously rock bottom low? Some OEMs tried this a couple of years ago with some early-order sleds – and although there was good activity for a while in showrooms, there was no significant, lasting gain on the rest of the market.

We think the most successful approach is to come to the market with cutting-edge brand-new technology – something the competition doesn’t offer and is the kind of tech that is completely fresh in the marketplace.

Once again, we have to look at Arctic Cat. By allowing us to get a sneak peek at the new 2024 Catalyst, all eyes were pointed straight at the Thief River Falls, Minnesota sled-maker.

This ploy has likely done much to perk the imaginations of buying customers who may be predisposed to Ski-Doo, Polaris or Yamaha. I mean, how cool would it be to show a new Catalyst off to your buds for the first time next winter? Way cool, we think.

BTW: This kind of marketing in the sno-mo-biz isn’t anything really new. Well, maybe revealing a sled this early is new, but it’s not new to bring out new tech when the stuff you already have is good. It’s the reason Ski-Doo has a Gen5 now and Polaris replaced the AXYS with the new MATRYX.

New is better, and in this biz, you better be bringing new stuff out every couple years or you’ll be quagmired at the bottom of the market. Yup, no matter how good the current model is in your brochure, you better have something radically new – whether engine, electronics, handling, ride, turbocharging… whatever.

Today’s snowmobile OEMs simply cannot sit still: you’ll stagnate to the point of no return if you do – worse yet, the competition will continue to leave you in their snow dust!!