It’s a genuine fact that most new snowmobilers come into the sport on the seat of someone else’s sled. Maybe they had a weekend excursion with a snowmobiling friend or got to sample what it was like to ride groomed trails or to cruise through frozen powder in the heart of winter on a borrowed or rented snowmobile. That’s why it’s such a good thing to introduce new friends to the sport.

According to stats, many new riders buy used as their first sled. There’s an equal number, however, who shop for an ideal brand new starter sled.

The challenge the industry faces is offering entry-level models that will scoop up their attention before they buy from another competitor. Usually, when a new-sled purchase is made, the customer tends to stay with that brand and that dealer for a long time.

Over the years, many supposed entry-level sleds offered have been underpowered and under-equipped, stunningly boring models that haven’t brought much of a result in the sales department, anyway. Probably the biggest error is assuming that new riders only want to buy new if the sled is cheap.

Frankly, our experience has been that when a new rider gets the bug, they’re willing to spend fairly decent dollars to get into the sport. What they really want is enough power to keep up with their new riding buds and a sled with enough equipment they’ll not be bored or disappointed by it for a few years.

This doesn’t mean a first year owner is going to buy the fastest hypersled or the most radical climber or something that requires years of experience to master.

The balance seems to be sufficient power blended with reliability and a long enough list of equipment to keep the rider comfortable.

Ski-Doo’s in-season 2024 MXZ Adrenaline offers maximum performance, great ride from the best rear suspension in the biz and a very good list of amenities starting at around $13 grand US ($13,399 US/$16,549 CA) with optional 129 and 137-inch track lengths and available with either the ROTAX 600R or 850 E-TEC engines.

We can pretty much guarantee, if you recommend this sled to any newbie to the sport, they will not be disappointed.

Yes, you’re right, we’ve pushed this imagery for years and have been dead-guilty of poo-pooing snowmobiles that have less than the maximum amount of power under their hoods. The fact is, we’ve been driven by your demands as much as by ours.

Snowmobilers love power and it’s one of the reasons sales are so strong amongst sleds that meet that somewhat narrow, power-hungry criteria. Power is something every snowmobiler craves and it’s the reason why you see grandmothers ordering brand new turbocharged touring sleds.

Okay, no guilt trip here. We love power, you love power – even grandma tourers love power. So, what’s wrong with that? Nuttin’, is what!

Just to blow-out your perspective though, have you tried out any of the new generation of lesser engine performance sleds out there? I’m talking sleds like the EVO, BLAST, MX-Z NEO and Yamaha’s SXVenom. Wait! Keep reading! We have a point here.

Yes, all of these sleds max out at about 65-horsepower, even less – and that isn’t enough power to cause concussive cranial acceleration or induce nosebleeds. No claim has ever been made that this is the intention of these models; rather their whole reason to exist is about “fun”.

No, we’re not talking about the kind of fun you have hitting triple digits out on a lake or blasting past your buddy’s kitted turbo SRX. As a matter of fact, the aforementioned sleds absolutely will not deliver the same level of fun when ridden with big-inchers and hypersleds.

We’re talking about a different type of fun that includes riders of all different ages and varying experience levels on power matched equipment experiencing snowmobiling together. We’re talking about fun that includes challenging your skills to ride in deep snow without climbing a near vertical precipice, to outhandle your buddies on a local snowmobile trail at legal speeds and to do all this while sipping tiny amounts of fuel.

The fact is, when you’re on the trails, riding any of these snowmobiles is every bit as much fun as riding a hyper-powered sled on the same terrain. Any trail speed you give up – and, surprisingly, it isn’t really that much on tight trails – is gained back in the gobbed-smacked realization you’re actually going a lot faster than you expected.

Each of these sleds is offered with excellent chassis engineering, decent suspension tech and enough comfort features to make a long day’s ride achievable. The very fact an experienced rider can toss any one of them around with abandon, makes them even more appealing.

They’re light and nimble, with agile handling that just dares you to have maximum fun. A seasoned rider can ride with a less experienced spouse or one of the kids and have an incredibly enjoyable day of giggles, whether riding on-trail or off.

Yes, back at work on Monday your macho image around the water cooler might take a hit, but you can find comfort in the fact you have experienced all that snowmobiling has to offer – and what you experienced was unembarrassed, unbridled, no-excuses “fun”!

The nature of the question has to pretty much eliminate top performance sleds like the SideWinders, Thundercats, Mach Zs and any of the 800-850 2-strokes. These sleds sit at the top of the price charts and pretty much rule out anyone on a tight budget from buying one – especially a new one.

So where do you go if all your buddies are driving sleds like these and you’re finding it impossible to keep up? Where do you go if you still want the latest platform, better-than-average suspension and best-possible handling?

There are a couple of places to look and it all depends how much you’re willing to compromise to get solid performance at a bargain price. First place you’ll need to check out is the 600-650cc selection out there. Yes, some of the midrange 4-strokes like the Viper and 130-hp Ski-Doo turbo are decent deals, too, however, there is a price limit here and most of these cost more than their 2-stroke counterparts in the same chassis.

The performance level of Ski-Doo’s 600R, Polaris’ 650 and 600 and Cat’s 600 DSI 2-stroke twins fall into the 125-135-hp range and definitely produce enough power to keep your friends with bigger displacement sleds in full view.

Let’s look at these sleds – not in their premium form with all kinds of bells and whistles added to the top line models in the brochure – but rather at the minimalist versions with decent, functional shocks and less electronic stuff.

First, Arctic Cat: The Cat offers its Dual Stage Injected 600 twin. There is no baseline 600 at all and this pretty much eliminates the ZR 6000 from this comparison. Not to say buyers wouldn’t be happy with these choices: it’s just you’ll have to ante up an extra couple grand over the competition’s pricing on more value-tagged models available in their line-ups.

Next, let’s look at what Ski-Doo has to offer the more impoverished rider who still has an addiction to speed. Ski-Doo covers a lot of bases with the 600R E-TEC engine and the company’s top-line sleds like the XR-S and X-series models offer a ton of electronic and shock upgrades. These sleds are good value – if you can find the extra coin to buy them.

However, if you’ve taken a good look at the Adrenaline (137) and Blizzard (129) versions of the MX-Z and Renegade you’ll be surprised how much you get for a lot less than the aforementioned premium model Ski-Doos. Both the front and rear suspensions have been upgraded to match the more expensive ‘Doos with the latest X-series engineering. The only difference is in the dampers but they still use extremely well-calibrated, although less adjustable KYBs – and have a ton of built-in features that make them super-appealing.

The good news is the price has been kept as low as possible and that means a lot more jing left in your pocket. In some markets that can add up to about two grand in savings – for a really good, competitive sled!

Polaris now offers its 650 in a bargain-priced sled, the Indy SP. Its power and torque – especially when evaluated from the seat-of-the-pants, puts its drivability rating mighty close to some 800 class sleds from the past. Pricing puts it below Ski-Doo’s Renegade Adrenaline and MX-Z Blizzard 600R.

Our final rating of the Polaris SP and the Ski-Doo Adrenaline and MX-Z Blizzard clearly makes the value choice hard to decide on. You’ll pay a few hundred more for the Ski-Doo variations but you’ll get all the latest stuff. On the other hand, with the SP you’ll get a very competitive sled that can still compete against the big guys. Your wallet; your choice.

Although it won’t be seen in showrooms this year, a real flesh-and-blood prototype was exhibited boldly at Hay Days in September. If you log onto Cat’s website, you’ll see a complete array of photos of the new sled and, wow, is it ever a beauty!

So, Cat has let the CATALYST out of the bag early (something that almost never happens in this biz) and created a ton of hype for a sled that is going to take a long time to actually park in your garage. Apparently, the plan is to release the sled with the current CTEC2 600 DSI 2-stroke twin under the hood – and who knows what other engine iterations will follow in the future.

This big news is certainly accomplishing what Arctic Cat intended – it’s putting the spotlight squarely on Arctic Cat and creating curiosity and expectations from not only Cat hardcores but other snowmobilers riding other brands.

We’re wondering what prospective Yamaha buyers are thinking about all this. For instance, does the current CATALYST platform accommodate any of Yamaha’s bread-and-butter 4-strokes? Is there room in this chassis to jam a 4-stroke triple, turbocharger and all the turbo-associated plumbing? Was the CATALYST designed to fit the steadfast 1049cc Viper engine or the 998cc SideWinder engine without a turbo? If not, will most future Yamaha’s be 2-strokes?

Although that last one seems unlikely, we can certainly envision all future Yamaha mountain sleds using the much lighter, belt-drive Catalyst chassis equipped with whatever 2-stroke engines that become available. Maybe a couple of completely rethought freestyle and crossover Yamahas will be coming down the pipe, too. Makes sense.

Here’s a thought: What if the CATALYST chassis was originally designed to accommodate a second, wider front bulkhead and bodywork that would fit 4-stroke triple variations more comfortably.

We’re absolutely certain Arctic Cat doesn’t want to give up on the Thundercat and all of its fans! Yeah, it would be expensive, but in this marketplace you’ve gotta do what you gotta do!

All this guessing gets our pulses pounding but we need to temper our enthusiasm with the fact Yamaha likely won’t be making this kind of product transition until at least MY2025.

In snowmobile years that seems like an eon but the wind is rising and the leaves are rustling, so who knows where this will all go?!!

Some of our readers and viewers flat-out tell us they will never buy an electric sled – no matter who builds it; others tell us they can’t wait for sparkies to take over so they won’t smell like 2-stroke oil after they’ve been riding. Hmm.

We’ve already pointed out several times how some huge hurdles have to be jumped over before electric sleds can get a grip on a large portion of the market. The two most talked about are range-to-ride and charging time.

We’ve also discussed the lack of charging facilities and the cost to install a network of same. We’re not going to enlarge on these ginormous challenges we’ve already noted but there are a couple of other issues that could affect the growth of electrics.

First, there’s an awareness we all may be legislated into riding electric sleds as a result of environmental groups having enormous political sway with governments. After all, snowmobilers are what you could call “low hanging fruit” because of the size of our industry compared to, say, the aircraft or auto industry. We’re an easy political target because we’re less significant – even when paired together with the marine or off-road vehicle market.

To put it into perspective, the amount of pollution we, and these other venues create in a year is probably the equivalent of about a week’s use by the other two. However, it doesn’t seem to matter much to those wanting to make political hay.

We’re not saying this is going to happen – but in the late 1990s we didn’t really believe snowmobile OEMs would have to conform to the EPA’s Clean Snowmobile mandate either.

Second, there’s a tendency to believe the snowmobile biz will have to mirror the auto industry’s strong mandates which have the whole auto industry legislated to electric by 2030.

Certainly, this proposal comes from short-sighted politicians with a very limited understanding of what’s really required in the electricity generation sector to get to this goal.

It’s great to think of a squeaky-clean environment with no fossil fuel activity, but what about the environmental effects of ten times more atomic or coal-fired power generating plants serving a totally electric transport system?

Even if the use of atomic energy and coal is banned, there isn’t enough real estate on the continent to put up windmills and solar farms and hydro plants to supply that enormous demand.

Here’s one: As pressure continues on the automobile industry and less gasoline powered vehicles are built, it will inevitably drive the cost of gasoline higher, not lower. An extreme increase in gas prices may propel people into electric snowmobiles. A cost of thirty dollars a gallon would undoubtedly have an effect, don’t ya think?

Frankly, we look at the future of snowmobiling like a merging of events over a long term. The coordinates would be:

1. Acceptability of electric power in terms of charging and range
2. Increasing price of petroleum
3. Performance of electric vehicles, both on and off-road
4. Acceptance and convenience of automobile electric power
5. Growth of power generating capability
6. Government intervention

If these factors keep moving together, we’ll all be riding electric snowmobiles, ATVs, side-x-sides and floating around in electric boats a generation from now.

We recently watched a video of a Tesla Plaid beating the famous 1000-plus horsepower, heavily modified Hoonigan Mustang in a drag race. Pretty stunning. The Tesla owner’s total mods to his car were to tint the windows and have some bodywork performed on a dent in it. That was it!

Likewise, with the tweaking of a microchip, a Taiga can boost itself by 100 horsepower. All speculation aside, it’s hard to ignore that kind of potential.

However, snowmobiling has been affected and no one is sure whether or when things will return to normal. Frankly, I’ve never seen anything even close to the changes we’re experiencing in several aspects of the sport. In no particular order, I’ll try to describe the alterations we’ve all been seeing.

SUPPLY

Snowmobiling, as with all forms of motorized recreation, has a severe supply problem. Simply stated, it’s hard to get new sleds. Don’t expect to find them at your local dealer, either. 2022 sleds were sold out by last May and if you didn’t pre-order before the end of March – unless the dealer has performed some kind of logistical magic – you have little chance of getting a new sled in-season.

This is an unprecedented situation and it simply means, unless your dealer is a relative or blood brother, you’re going to pay top dollar for the new sled you’ve ordered. Discounts are scarce, but the good news is that your old sled is probably worth more than you’d have expected.

If you look closely at the supply situation we’re experiencing, it looks like there’s been a huge increase in participation and the sport has grown at a breakneck rate the last two years.

Certainly, you could argue there have been manufacturing challenges getting enough components to deliver completed sleds on the ground to owners, but this situation has been dealt with for a full season now and the OEMs are finally catching up.

Here’s the bad news: Since new-sled orders happen far in advance of delivery in the snowmobile business, it looks like the supply issue could still exist next year, too.

DEMAND

There were strong indications the demand for snowmobiles was increasing a couple of years before the pandemic hit and kept all the holiday travellers away from sunny winter places outside the country.

Two years ago, no one would have guessed the demand would be this big, however. The limitations placed on vacationers by COVID-19 simply amped the demand right into the stratosphere. Thousands of new and formerly dormant snowmobilers came out of the woodwork and were willing to pay inflated prices to get themselves and their families on the snow. The money was there because they weren’t spending it on sunny vacations.

RENEGADES

This isn’t a reference to any snowmobile model. Rather, it refers to an attitude beginning to arise from many of the fresh faces we haven’t seen on the trails for a long time (or ever).

Back in the 1960s and early 1970s the renegade attitude was prevalent and it nearly destroyed the industry before it got out of the starting blocks.

These riders showed little respect for private property or for other people riding whatever fledgling trail systems existed back then. It was a constant problem with riders trespassing onto private property and riding in forbidden areas.

It took about 20 years of hard work by clubs, police and volunteers to get the image of responsibility back on the front page so that snowmobilers weren’t regarded as terrorists.

Don’t get too puffed up about our progress – we’ve still got a long way to go. If you’re one of the good people who respects private property, you need to preach it to your friends who are new to the sport. We’re at critical mass with this and trails are closing because of it.

DRINKING

Thought we’d fixed this a long time ago, but it’s back. A few new riders have started carrying beverages with them to “freshen themselves up” on the trails.

You don’t need a sermon on how unacceptable this is and harmful to the sport. The most effective thing you can do to settle this is to simply refuse to ride with or include people who are tippling on the trails.

If they’re aware of the dangers and damage to snowmobiling drinking and riding creates and still doing it, you probably don’t want to be associated with them anyway.

The excuse people want to use is: “Because all the restaurants and pitstops were closed last year because of COVID, there was nowhere to go to get a drink”. The bigger point is, don’t drink at all if you’re riding!

So, will snowmobiling go back to normal after COVID 19 ends? Frankly, no one expected to be dealing with these issues. Knowing the history of snowmobiling, though, if we all, as both participants and as an industry work together looking for remedies, we’re going to be golden – maybe even better than before!

First, the errors. We had stated in the article that the Apex engine was a 16-valve engine when in fact, it was a 20-valve engine. We had flat-out forgotten each cylinder was crammed with five valves, not four.

Originally, the nomenclature, “Genesis” was designated exclusively to that 5-valve technology. We’re pretty sure the 5-valve Genesis design was restricted to the Apex I-4 and the 500cc Phazer twin, as far as snowmobiles are concerned (correct me if I’m wrong).

Today, Yamaha uses that terminology a bit more liberally and refers to the SideWinder’s 4-valves per cylinder engine as a “Genesis” also. Sorry about that – we should have remembered better – but we still give Yamaha its due for building such a complicated but reliable engine.

Next error. We overestimated the Apex’s 998 EFI engine’s peak RPM. We were a bit tall at saying it revved to 12,000 rpm. Our reader pointed out the most he’s ever seen that particular engine rev was around 10,500 with a cutoff at 11,200. Still, really high rpm for a 4-stroke snowmobile mill. However, he’s correct and we’re wrong.

Our point was that the high rpm of the engine needed to be dumbed down via a geared shaft to keep the revs low enough to ensure primary clutch survival.

This extra complexity and the extra valve train needed to operate five valves per cylinder does, in fact, increase the cost of manufacturing the Gen-4-piston engine and adds to the weight and complexity of it compared to the SideWinder’s 998 triple.

So, thanks to Dominic Gelinas and Mike Avery for keeping us going in a straight line. We’re glad they – and all of our readers – hold our hands to the flame and make us research our stories so all the facts are as accurate as possible.

So far, Yamaha’s crossover lineup has been focused on the SideWinder X-TX. This super powerful, turbocharged 3-cylinder long-tracker (146-inch) has been targeted at what has become one of the largest new-sled segments in the business.

No negatives on the performance of the X-TX – it’s a powerful, sophisticated piece of equipment that can handle both deep snow and trails with a lot of finesse – especially if the rider is strong, experienced and fearless. All areas of deep snow prowess are evidenced in the X-TX – deep snow mobility, flotation, tons of track-spinning power and decent climb-out. So why do they need a 2-stroke?

Sales numbers can confirm the deep snow market craves the lightness and maneuverability of a 2-stroke and Yamaha knows this – demonstrated by the return of the Mountain Max. Perhaps, when you factor in that a percentage of crossover sleds live their lives on groomed trails and lakes, the 4-stroke X-TX makes perfect sense. However, there’s a growing herd of riders who buy a 146-incher to specifically go off-trail on the flatlands, foothills and in powdery meadows.

Now, we don’t want to avoid the elephant in the room here. Arctic Cat builds some really good crossover sleds – the RIOT and the RIOT X. The plain vanilla RIOT is the closest to a true dual-purpose crossover you’ll ever get – great on trails, great in the deep stuff. You can even get it with from-the-handlebars adjustable suspension damping.

The RIOT X equipped with the single beam Alpha One rear skid is a powder junkie and pushes the limits of the definition of “crossover”. This semi-mountain sled, however, does fulfill the dreams of a certain more off-trail-serious type of rider and Cat sells more than a few to those kinds of riders.

We believe it would make tremendous sense to keep the turbocharged 4-stroke Sidewinder X-TX in the line-up but give the Yamaha customer the option of a dual purpose 2-stroke, too.

Our guess is that Yamaha has had this discussion at least once over the last two or three years and it makes sense Yamaha would want a piece of that market – and we all know where the company would go to get sleds like that. Frankly, we’d stand and applaud a move like that.

Of course, the 998cc turbocharged SideWinder has replaced the 998cc 4-cylinder Apex now as Yamaha’s flagship performance sled. Doesn’t matter though.

More than a few Yamaha aficionados would still slap down deposits for an SR with that Genesis 4 under the hood.

Although we’re not sure that particular twin cam 16-valver would even fit inside the bodywork of an SR, there are a lot of other reasons why Yamaha won’t likely revive that engine. Here are a few of our insights (for what they’re worth):

Weight:

There are a lot of parts whizzing around in this 4-cylinder – actually, almost 25-percent more than in the 998cc triple. They all add weight. Even with a turbocharger, the triple comes very close to the old Apex Genesis in weight. Turbocharge the four? Not likely.

Complexity:

The Apex’s engine was an icon of complexity able to deliver peak power in the 12,000 RPM range and still live forever. Someone had to machine all those wristwatch-like components and ensure they were properly sourced, heat-treated and toleranced so the engine would perform and stay together.

No simple feat – and a credit to Yamaha’s engine-building prowess. The SideWinder’s 998cc triple is flat-out simpler to build and, when boosted, easily surpasses the Genesis 4’s power output – with reliability.

Also, the old Genesis 4 had a geared driveshaft connected to the primary clutch to gear down the engine’s extremely high engine RPM so the clutch rotated at about 8,500 and didn’t evaporate clutch parts. The 998 triple doesn’t need this technology.

Cost to Build:

See item #2.

Width:

Because of its I-4 configuration, the Genesis 4 would be very difficult to package into any of the current SR platforms Yamaha is using. Exhaust routing of four header pipes would also require some complex engineering tweaks. Still possible, but why do it?

Handling:

The gyroscopic effect of a 4-cylinder engine spinning out even mid-range RPM is stronger than a triple or twin (The gyro effect makes the sled want to continue in a straight line instead of turning precisely in corners while resisting turn-in at the skis). Add in the weight factor and, even with good skis like Yamaha’s Strykes, you’ve got an engineering challenge to make it handle like a SideWinder.

Conclusions:

It makes more sense to offer a dumbed-down SideWinder turbo package making, say, 145 to 160 ponies. Yamaha wouldn’t necessarily need an intercooler on an engine in this range and its pricing, although potentially lower than the current SideWinder, would attract customers who wanted a sled in the Apex’s power range. Think marketing. A sled like this may also fit Yamaha’s future plans for a new SR-II chassis – if one is coming someday.

So, we just don’t think a revival of the Genesis 4 is likely. Yeah, we’re sad about it, too. We can still hear that jewel-like quad-cylinder at full cry down old Kevlar Lake. Even at idle its 4-pipe sound could make you drool.

Yamaha has walked away from a lot of great, trend setting engineering before and broken our hearts (DI 2-strokes, EXUP Exhaust to name a couple). Oh well, at least we got EPS back again this year!

Although we haven’t given up on the idea completely, because Polaris is soooo close to having the potential to go with a 4-stroke sled, given the new MATRYX platform and the presence of some pretty awesome 4-stroke twins already on its off-road RZR menu; we’ve been wondering if Polaris may be considering going in another direction completely. Huh?

Just like in the car and truck biz, It looks like the big focus in our winter motorized culture is aimed at the advent of all-electric snowmobiles. Both Polaris and Ski-Doo have been dropping hints their engineering departments have been doing research on the potential of the EV snowmobile market and are no doubt watching Taiga’s progress with a keen eye.

Don’t get too excited yet. If you’re like me, you’re probably from Missouri on the whole sparky snowmobile thing and have some doubts whether it will be accepted by hardcore, performance-minded, braaap-obsessed riders…. ever. This, despite the fact Taiga has come up with a pretty credible line of electric sleds that can be very fast besides handling and riding competitively.

Our guess here is the OEMs will be indulging in some toe-dipping in the EV pond the next couple of years. Toe-dipping in the sense they will introduce one or two electric variations in markets where they will do no harm to gas-powered sales and may even fit the category better than conventional powered sleds.

We’re thinking for instance, an electric Titan or even a smaller version of an all-utility Indy-based sled. These types of sleds using electric power, could generate incredible torque for hauling and doing grunt work and just like a carpenter’s electric tool repertoire, could be recharged daily and put to use the next morning with max battery capacity.

Sure, we can talk about recent Polaris projects like the purchase of all-electric ZERO Motorcycles or the intro of the new Polaris Ranger EV using lithium-ion technology. However, these observations merely verify the ability of Polaris to move into this new electric world.

Frankly, you can apply the same logic to Polaris building a 4-stroke. Lots of cross-over technology from other divisions but so far, no dice.

This electric-utility guess makes sense when you consider the toe-dipping experiment would give the manufacturer a real-world opportunity to perfect and refine the electric snowmobile genre as it applies to its specific customer base without going chest-deep into the whole electric market by investing in a deep line-up of multiple sleds.

It will also answer the bigger question of whether or not there really is a big enough market for these snowmobiles and whether or not existing OEMs should continue investing in the AC-DC market.