I suspect that there are a number of questions on the table. The first was whether or not Supertrax appropriately characterized the 78 Invader as one of the top ten all time misses. And of course, my answer is no. If they are saying that it could have been better, then that is true too. But to say that a sled that changed the industry was a miss is woefully off target.
This past year we met a fellow out by the lake passing by on his viper. He stopped. To this day Invaders make people stop. I don't care who it is, they all stop. This tells me that there has to be something about these sleds that speaks to everyone whether they own one or ride one - but just about everybody knew someone who had one and wishes that they did too. Oh, and when we ride the pink one, you see people do a double take, rub their eyes, and consider whether or not they should give up drinking.
Another question on the table is whether or not Kawasaki, or anyone for that matter, could revolutionize the industry again. I have to believe that Kawasaki's entry into the field was very calculated. Buying SnoJet was the first step. Of the people I knew who had SnoJets, they were as devoted to those sleds as we are to Kawasaki. And then someone said to the engineers, probably in Japanese so the translation here might be a little off, but something like: "take this sled and make it better - not just a little better, but something that will make heads turn for the next 40 or 50 years!" And they did. But at that time, there was plenty of room for improvement. And now with upgrades to engines, electronics, suspensions, geometry, what would you say, the industry has advanced by 4 or 5 generations of sleds? And now with the world paradigm shift to electrics, who knows?
But, to come out of the box now with an industry changing design is a big push. Almost as if we were to make a list of everything that needed to improve and package all of that into a single sled. So, if I was going to start that list I would say that modern sleds are just too dog gone heavy. Give me a sled that weighs no more than 300 pounds. But now, since I only own Kawasaki sleds, I don't know anything about modern sleds I have to leave the rest of the list to others.
I will however close this monolog with a last thought. Before this winter my wife and I had a serious sled discussion. My wife is a very wise woman and I rely on her to provide insight in places of potential confusion. We have a fairly large collection of running Kawasakis. Yes, Mad Kaw was quite rampant for the past 15 years or so. And we have an even larger collection of parts sleds. So we discussed whether or not we should continue to run the 40 year old sleds or trade them all in for a pair of new sleds. Insightfully she advised to run what we had until they got to be more of a burden then a recreation. If our trips to the north country are all spoiled by breakdowns that didn't allow us to enjoy the day, then it would be time for new sleds. Seemed like good advice to me. Now we just need some snow.
Topic: Did anyone happen to see the recent edition of Supertrax Magazine? (Read 3613 times)