850 reviews, pics and vids

[niner]

Seen chrisco posted some video yesterday from Valemount. I’m sure he will chime in soon. My bad wasn’t him. Was Jeff’s video just tagged Chris. Chris did get out though.

 

[FastFarmer]

Seen chrisco posted some video yesterday from Valemount. I’m sure he will chime in soon.

Still not happy I didn’t make it.....totally could have got some style points off that black and gold unit.

 

[Teth-Air]

So we went to Revy this weekend to break in 3 850 Polaris and 1 800 Polaris and 1 850 Ski-doo.

The new 850 AXYS is nice. Not as much torque as the Ski-doo and even softer on the bottom than the 800HO Polaris.The new motor is stronger as the RPM's climb. Clutching is good but I think some acceleration can be gained with a bit more aggressive set-up.

The thing that I was taken with was how much I liked the 174 over my 2016 163. The front end felt similar to my offset spindle set-up that I ran on my 16 so that is not where I was impressed. It was the way Polaris designed the rear suspension that made this beast work so well. It handled like a much shorter sled with the perfect center shock and rear shock pressures. This thing was super easy when sidehilling or navigating tree littered steep uphill climbs. I rarely got out of control and if I did, I simply slowed down or stopped and recomposed myself and then took off again without getting stuck. Other 174+ sleds that I had rode either rode me or was boring and slow. Not this one.

Things to be aware of....

The new 850's are programmed really fat and slobbering with oil during break in. Either you have to ride hard to keep it hot or carry spare plugs if you ride easy because you will foul them.

Also the 19 Skidoo seems much better for clutching and it seems to run cleaner during break in than what the 2017 G4 experienced.

 

[TDR]

Mine was one of the 850’s above. 163 2.6 track. Definitely super rich first 2 hours. As a result the bottom end was boggy. Fouled 1 plug but that was my fault for idling it around instead of driving it like I stole it. After 2 hours the extra oiling stopped and it was much better. Still not as crisp as I would like but let’s see once we get the final 12 hours of break in done. It has plenty of grunt. It puts the Pro Ride 800 to shame and it’s at least as good as an Axys with aftermarket exhaust. Narrow front end was good but coming off a Pro Ride I need to learn to ride that properly. It takes almost no effort to put it on either edge so I constantly found myself over correcting and flopping it and me onto the side. In short the sled is fantastic so far but the rider has a long ways to go. Good thing for patient sons and friends. I must have looked like a kid on a bike with training wheels!!

 

[Teth-Air]

Mine was one of the 850’s above. 163 2.6 track. Definitely super rich first 2 hours. As a result the bottom end was boggy. Fouled 1 plug but that was my fault for idling it around instead of driving it like I stole it. After 2 hours the extra oiling stopped and it was much better. Still not as crisp as I would like but let’s see once we get the final 12 hours of break in done. It has plenty of grunt. It puts the Pro Ride 800 to shame and it’s at least as good as an Axys with aftermarket exhaust. Narrow front end was good but coming off a Pro Ride I need to learn to ride that properly. It takes almost no effort to put it on either edge so I constantly found myself over correcting and flopping it and me onto the side. In short the sled is fantastic so far but the rider has a long ways to go. Good thing for patient sons and friends. I must have looked like a kid on a bike with training wheels!!

Tim, we forgot to mention that putting the sleds in the 91 octane mode helped a lot to clean up they way they ran. Don't forget to put the brake on in order to get to that menu.

 

[Sledtillded]

Great feed back. Will be interesting of course to see the difference out of break in. And how well the 850 spins that 3 inch 174 compared to the 800 HO.

 

[Bnorth]

850 is a ripper, rode with a couple this weekend. 163 3" and 174 3"

 

[getzcold]

Tim, we forgot to mention that putting the sleds in the 91 octane mode helped a lot to clean up they way they ran. Don't forget to put the brake on in order to get to that menu.

Was told by the dealer to leave in ethanol mode until break in was over. Did it run better in ethanol or non ethanol mode?

 

[mountainsledmania]

Mine was one of the 850’s above. 163 2.6 track. Definitely super rich first 2 hours. As a result the bottom end was boggy. Fouled 1 plug but that was my fault for idling it around instead of driving it like I stole it. After 2 hours the extra oiling stopped and it was much better. Still not as crisp as I would like but let’s see once we get the final 12 hours of break in done. It has plenty of grunt. It puts the Pro Ride 800 to shame and it’s at least as good as an Axys with aftermarket exhaust. Narrow front end was good but coming off a Pro Ride I need to learn to ride that properly. It takes almost no effort to put it on either edge so I constantly found myself over correcting and flopping it and me onto the side. In short the sled is fantastic so far but the rider has a long ways to go. Good thing for patient sons and friends. I must have looked like a kid on a bike with training wheels!!

I was under the impression the patriot motor was making the 800 motor its bi*ch ?

 

[Caper11]

So we went to Revy this weekend to break in 3 850 Polaris and 1 800 Polaris and 1 850 Ski-doo.

The new 850 AXYS is nice. Not as much torque as the Ski-doo and even softer on the bottom than the 800HO Polaris.The new motor is stronger as the RPM's climb. Clutching is good but I think some acceleration can be gained with a bit more aggressive set-up.

The thing that I was taken with was how much I liked the 174 over my 2016 163. The front end felt similar to my offset spindle set-up that I ran on my 16 so that is not where I was impressed. It was the way Polaris designed the rear suspension that made this beast work so well. It handled like a much shorter sled with the perfect center shock and rear shock pressures. This thing was super easy when sidehilling or navigating tree littered steep uphill climbs. I rarely got out of control and if I did, I simply slowed down or stopped and recomposed myself and then took off again without getting stuck. Other 174+ sleds that I had rode either rode me or was boring and slow. Not this one.

Things to be aware of....

The new 850's are programmed really fat and slobbering with oil during break in. Either you have to ride hard to keep it hot or carry spare plugs if you ride easy because you will foul them.

Also the 19 Skidoo seems much better for clutching and it seems to run cleaner during break in than what the 2017 G4 experienced.

What was the onhill performance like, big difference in weight better the 850 doo and the 850 axys. Im actually surprised to hear your comment on the doo was not negative, thanks for that.

 

[Teth-Air]

Great feed back. Will be interesting of course to see the difference out of break in. And how well the 850 spins that 3 inch 174 compared to the 800 HO.

It seems to spin the 174 as easy as my clutched 800 spun the 163 x 2.6

 

[Teth-Air]

Was told by the dealer to leave in ethanol mode until break in was over. Did it run better in ethanol or non ethanol mode?

You can't leave it in the ethanol mode or you might be walking or wrenching.

 

[Teth-Air]

What was the onhill performance like, big difference in weight better the 850 doo and the 850 axys. Im actually surprised to hear your comment on the doo was not negative, thanks for that.

We rode trees so uphill drags against the Doo was unclear but both made impossible climbs through the trees look easy. Just heard about first 19 Doo losing a belt though. I hope it was a one off thing.

 

[getzcold]

You can't leave it in the ethanol mode or you might be walking or wrenching.

Thanks I was wondering why he would have said that never did this with any other machine in the past.

 

[TDR]

You can't leave it in the ethanol mode or you might be walking or wrenching.

Yeah break in mode is really rich, especially the first 2 hours. Ethanol mode makes it worse. Ride it like you stole it and you will have no problems.

 

[mountainsledmania]

We rode trees so uphill drags against the Doo was unclear but both made impossible climbs through the trees look easy. Just heard about first 19 Doo losing a belt though. I hope it was a one off thing.

Yah if its true.. im not surprised.

 

[Caper11]

Yeah break in mode is really rich, especially the first 2 hours. Ethanol mode makes it worse. Ride it like you stole it and you will have no problems.

The axys still have methanol mode? Stick the 94 in from petrocanada that contains methanol. The others in the winter do not.


With all the guys riding it pretty quiet on the 850 reviews in here. Over on snowest there seems to be disappointment with the 850, possibly a break in thing???

 

[AreWeThereYet]

The axys still have methanol mode? Stick the 94 in from petrocanada that contains methanol. The others in the winter do not.


With all the guys riding it pretty quiet on the 850 reviews in here. Over on snowest there seems to be disappointment with the 850, possibly a break in thing???

Ya those trail riders from the east are real debbie downers.

 

[j.c.higgins]

I think it's all what a person was expecting!! For me it was buying a new snowmobile after riding the Pro after 6 yrs. and let's face it Polaris really hyped up the Patriot. Peliminary dyno numbers show it close with the Rotax and with a few bolt on power adders it will be a solid 170+ motor. A lot of the Snowest guys I read about were riding stage tuned 800s Axys which put that motor in the mid 160+ hp range already so they aren't seeing a big increase. Personally I'm going to love it, I have a vision on how I want it to perform and I will get it there.

 

[Big A]

I know it’s early but I was hoping for more guys that bought these things to be excited about them and telling us how much better they are than the 800 axys and how they’ll spank the doo 850’s. Was hoping to have an excuse to jump back on a Polaris next year. Unfortunately the hype seems to be all about that damn alpha cat at this point. Gonna take a few years to trust the monorail. Cmon patriot guys, let’s hear some sweet reviews on these new steeds.