maxwell
Active VIP Member
well i just got back from sicamous riding the 13. spent a full day on one in 2 feet of fresh heavy wet snow. ill start this out how my weekend started looking at the 2013 all evening before the ride on Friday. id like to talk a bit about carl kusters place. first of all this is a wicked setup and we were all very excited to get an opportunity like this. i don't think any of the other manufacturers are letting people take a new prototypes and let loose on them for a whole day. very cool. carl is a stand up guy and was extremely helpful and answered any questions we had. so good on you brp and the all the local dealers for putting this together.
The Garage -
we spent a few hours looking at the sled the night before. even tore it down a bit to see what it was all about. the first thing we tried to do was remove the top console. took about 2 minutes once we found the right tool. one thing i hope they change here on the production models is putting the wiring connections further down the harness so you don't have to pull them off the back of the gauges. its a bit of a hassle to get your hands in there. adds about another minute to the job. not the end of the world but would definitely make it easier. i also came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be hard at all to add some sort of a quick release on the 4 mounting points for the top console. again these are hand built prototypes so we will see once the production models come out. being that the sled was on concrete i messed around with the sled a bit trying to tip it over etc etc and my thoughts were confirmed as soon as i pulled on the handlebar standing off the sled. it has about 2 inches of effortless movement in the bars thanks to the t-motion. this is what i felt is going to make this sled a winner in the tight downhill situations when you just need that little bit of extra leverage to get it on edge while the bars are pointed downhill on a side hill. we messed around with flexing the track etc and it is definitely a noticeable difference. not so much so that it will be an issue as the paddles are still rigid. the bar position felt a bit awkward for me at first as they seemed much higher than the ones on my xps. the reverse button was also a concern as its now much larger. i didn't have an issue with the 2012 setup except that some felt it was cheap. but it was virtually impossible to hit while riding.
the trail -
we loaded up Friday morning and headed for eagles pass. we all picked our sleds and headed out. i watched carl kuster ride his retrofitted 2012 like a dirt bike on the trail. it blew my mind what this tmotion was capable of on hard pack with a little practice. he had the sled on a 45 degree angle with the trail for about a 2km straight stretch then continued to go around a hairpin corner with the sled still on edge at a decent speed. to top it off he put one hand on his head then waved at me behind him as he rolled into the opposite corner. mind blown at this point. at this point i am still getting used to the new chassis and bar position. by about km 2 i was fully comfortable on the trail and felt right at home. i tried to find a weakness in the tmotion on the trail but i just couldn't. it has absolutely no effect on trail handling. perhaps even better than my 12. i am already impressed. i look down at my gauges and they are facing right at me. i can tell its going to be a good day as all these features are already making an enhanced riding experience and i haven't even hit the alpine yet. to be honest even if the trail handling was effected i wouldn't have cared. after all this chassis was designed for the high alpine the fact that they managed not to sacrifice the trail ride up is an added bonus IMO. we dropped off a few of the new linq gas can systems at the fuel drop. again another impressive add on available now from brp. very slick setup.
the hill -
as we headed up into the hills i managed to get the sled off the trail for a second and dipped the skis into the snow. WOW i could tell already this was going to be a fun sled. it was so responsive and smooth in the powder carves. we worked our way down to the lake and pretty much messed around on the slopes in this area for the rest of the day. right away i took the sled on a few pokes to get used to it. the first thing i noticed coming down a steep grade in the deep stuff is how it handled like a dirtbike almost. it follows your mind with almost no body input. doing side to side carves was as smooth as butter and took next to no effort. its hard to explain but it is almost redefines carving on this chassis. its not that the 2012 was hard whatsoever but this just felt extremely natural. at this point in time i am 100% confident on this sled. it took about a total of an hour for anyone that is worried about the differences being hard to get used to. i hadn't even adjusted the handlebars all the settings just felt perfect. also flipped up the snowflap. cool feature not sure if its necessary but i did it anyways lol. i took the sled into the tight trees and right away i could tell this sled was going to open up a world of opportunities for me. the level of comfort and confidence it gives you on a steep downhill/sidehill grade is unbeatable. i did some sidehilling through the trees just to see what the difference was. as soon as i started my first sidehill my goggles came off. i took one hand off the bars continued to sidehill and fixed my goggles. never thought anything of it until after. holy chit i dont think i could do that on the 10 or 12. one thing i tried to do was utilize the extra 8 inches forward position. couldnt do it. couldnt find a use for it. then again im sure my foot ended up there plenty throughout the day and i just never noticed it. by this time i am absolutely exhausted after riding this sled for an hour straight. and not because it takes much energy to ride it but because usually i can only ride for 10 minutes in the heavy wetstuff before the boards are caked and need half an hour worth of work. yep these new boards WORK. they evacuate the snow and i expected them to fail in this really heavy wet snow we were dealing with. its not the type of snow i am used to so i fully expected them to clog up. wow was i wrong. you can ride this thing ALL day without so much as kicking your feet on the boards and the stiff extrusions give you the extra confidence when hoping side to side. not to mention that the weight shift actually gets transferred better and more efficiently as there is little to no flex. the movement you do put into the boards feeds directly into the chassis. nothing wasted. i let one of the other boys take the 13 for a rip and i burned around on a 12 for bit. it became very apparent that i wanted the 13 back in a bad way. the 12 is an amazing sled but for whatever reason the 13 just wanted me to come back for more. it is just a more enjoyable experience. a few times i looked down at the guages and wow is it ever nice having them pointed up at you. i believe brp is the only manufacturer doing this and man is it nice. i took a break and had a good chat with carl. we talked about the flat steering of the other brands and talked about the negative effects of it. carl is a pro dirtbike rider aswell and he appreciates the way these sleds are heading more towards how a dirtbike handles in the sand. the single most noticeable thing about this sled is how effortless it is in all situations. BUT at the same time it is extremely predictable. there are no surprises with this chassis like when riding a pro rmk or a new cat. you think where you want to put this sled and it goes there with little effort and you wont end up on your face like you would on the pro chassis. you can take this sled across frozen trenches on a sidehill and it tractors right through them with little rider input. yes i could do this before on a 2012 but it did take a bit more skill and effort. for the rest of the day i spent taking this sled off small drops, carving around and enjoying the sled in general. it is never ending fun i can tell you this much. i want one and i want it now. i have never had as much fun on a sled as i did that day. im not going to talk about the storage features because i never used them and most likely never will. i cary a decent sized backpack that houses all my junk. later that evening i noticed i was not sore whatsoever. there were a few new muscles complaining but to be expected when moving to a chassis with different geometry and ergonomics. brp has managed to build the most effortless, predictable and fun sled on the hill. look out poo camp this sled is coming in hot for 2013 season and it WILL be the sled to beat mark my words. home run in my books and i did have my serious doubts when it was first released. these modifications are not bandaids or crutches. they flat out WORK.
The Garage -
we spent a few hours looking at the sled the night before. even tore it down a bit to see what it was all about. the first thing we tried to do was remove the top console. took about 2 minutes once we found the right tool. one thing i hope they change here on the production models is putting the wiring connections further down the harness so you don't have to pull them off the back of the gauges. its a bit of a hassle to get your hands in there. adds about another minute to the job. not the end of the world but would definitely make it easier. i also came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be hard at all to add some sort of a quick release on the 4 mounting points for the top console. again these are hand built prototypes so we will see once the production models come out. being that the sled was on concrete i messed around with the sled a bit trying to tip it over etc etc and my thoughts were confirmed as soon as i pulled on the handlebar standing off the sled. it has about 2 inches of effortless movement in the bars thanks to the t-motion. this is what i felt is going to make this sled a winner in the tight downhill situations when you just need that little bit of extra leverage to get it on edge while the bars are pointed downhill on a side hill. we messed around with flexing the track etc and it is definitely a noticeable difference. not so much so that it will be an issue as the paddles are still rigid. the bar position felt a bit awkward for me at first as they seemed much higher than the ones on my xps. the reverse button was also a concern as its now much larger. i didn't have an issue with the 2012 setup except that some felt it was cheap. but it was virtually impossible to hit while riding.
the trail -
we loaded up Friday morning and headed for eagles pass. we all picked our sleds and headed out. i watched carl kuster ride his retrofitted 2012 like a dirt bike on the trail. it blew my mind what this tmotion was capable of on hard pack with a little practice. he had the sled on a 45 degree angle with the trail for about a 2km straight stretch then continued to go around a hairpin corner with the sled still on edge at a decent speed. to top it off he put one hand on his head then waved at me behind him as he rolled into the opposite corner. mind blown at this point. at this point i am still getting used to the new chassis and bar position. by about km 2 i was fully comfortable on the trail and felt right at home. i tried to find a weakness in the tmotion on the trail but i just couldn't. it has absolutely no effect on trail handling. perhaps even better than my 12. i am already impressed. i look down at my gauges and they are facing right at me. i can tell its going to be a good day as all these features are already making an enhanced riding experience and i haven't even hit the alpine yet. to be honest even if the trail handling was effected i wouldn't have cared. after all this chassis was designed for the high alpine the fact that they managed not to sacrifice the trail ride up is an added bonus IMO. we dropped off a few of the new linq gas can systems at the fuel drop. again another impressive add on available now from brp. very slick setup.
the hill -
as we headed up into the hills i managed to get the sled off the trail for a second and dipped the skis into the snow. WOW i could tell already this was going to be a fun sled. it was so responsive and smooth in the powder carves. we worked our way down to the lake and pretty much messed around on the slopes in this area for the rest of the day. right away i took the sled on a few pokes to get used to it. the first thing i noticed coming down a steep grade in the deep stuff is how it handled like a dirtbike almost. it follows your mind with almost no body input. doing side to side carves was as smooth as butter and took next to no effort. its hard to explain but it is almost redefines carving on this chassis. its not that the 2012 was hard whatsoever but this just felt extremely natural. at this point in time i am 100% confident on this sled. it took about a total of an hour for anyone that is worried about the differences being hard to get used to. i hadn't even adjusted the handlebars all the settings just felt perfect. also flipped up the snowflap. cool feature not sure if its necessary but i did it anyways lol. i took the sled into the tight trees and right away i could tell this sled was going to open up a world of opportunities for me. the level of comfort and confidence it gives you on a steep downhill/sidehill grade is unbeatable. i did some sidehilling through the trees just to see what the difference was. as soon as i started my first sidehill my goggles came off. i took one hand off the bars continued to sidehill and fixed my goggles. never thought anything of it until after. holy chit i dont think i could do that on the 10 or 12. one thing i tried to do was utilize the extra 8 inches forward position. couldnt do it. couldnt find a use for it. then again im sure my foot ended up there plenty throughout the day and i just never noticed it. by this time i am absolutely exhausted after riding this sled for an hour straight. and not because it takes much energy to ride it but because usually i can only ride for 10 minutes in the heavy wetstuff before the boards are caked and need half an hour worth of work. yep these new boards WORK. they evacuate the snow and i expected them to fail in this really heavy wet snow we were dealing with. its not the type of snow i am used to so i fully expected them to clog up. wow was i wrong. you can ride this thing ALL day without so much as kicking your feet on the boards and the stiff extrusions give you the extra confidence when hoping side to side. not to mention that the weight shift actually gets transferred better and more efficiently as there is little to no flex. the movement you do put into the boards feeds directly into the chassis. nothing wasted. i let one of the other boys take the 13 for a rip and i burned around on a 12 for bit. it became very apparent that i wanted the 13 back in a bad way. the 12 is an amazing sled but for whatever reason the 13 just wanted me to come back for more. it is just a more enjoyable experience. a few times i looked down at the guages and wow is it ever nice having them pointed up at you. i believe brp is the only manufacturer doing this and man is it nice. i took a break and had a good chat with carl. we talked about the flat steering of the other brands and talked about the negative effects of it. carl is a pro dirtbike rider aswell and he appreciates the way these sleds are heading more towards how a dirtbike handles in the sand. the single most noticeable thing about this sled is how effortless it is in all situations. BUT at the same time it is extremely predictable. there are no surprises with this chassis like when riding a pro rmk or a new cat. you think where you want to put this sled and it goes there with little effort and you wont end up on your face like you would on the pro chassis. you can take this sled across frozen trenches on a sidehill and it tractors right through them with little rider input. yes i could do this before on a 2012 but it did take a bit more skill and effort. for the rest of the day i spent taking this sled off small drops, carving around and enjoying the sled in general. it is never ending fun i can tell you this much. i want one and i want it now. i have never had as much fun on a sled as i did that day. im not going to talk about the storage features because i never used them and most likely never will. i cary a decent sized backpack that houses all my junk. later that evening i noticed i was not sore whatsoever. there were a few new muscles complaining but to be expected when moving to a chassis with different geometry and ergonomics. brp has managed to build the most effortless, predictable and fun sled on the hill. look out poo camp this sled is coming in hot for 2013 season and it WILL be the sled to beat mark my words. home run in my books and i did have my serious doubts when it was first released. these modifications are not bandaids or crutches. they flat out WORK.
