End of Season / End of Blog?

So honestly, my season ended a month ago. Snow is still on the mountains, people are still finding fresh snow weekly, which is an incredible thought.

But after realizing I have nothing to talk about this past month as its now getting to summer time. That means yard work, camping, motorcycles, etc... No snowmobile talk.

I think a blog should be a minimum of 1 post a week, at least. As such I'm not sure if I'll continue this blog. I enjoy blogging, but I just may need a topic that I can talk about more frequently.

I have a number of hobbies, skills, interest, so there are lots of ideas. The trouble is narrowing it down to one. You can't have a jack of all types posts as you alienate too many people. I can't write about snowmobiles, then video games, then motorcycles, then latest computer hardware. It just doesn't feel right.

You need your returning visitors to know what they are coming back to, at least in general. For the past year its been Snowmobiling here. Its a tough call.

So people who are interested in anything I am, stick around and check out silentsno.com sometime. It will have something soon, just unsure of the topic.

Thanks for everyone who read this, commented, or maybe even enjoyed this blog.

Dustin signing off.

My sled update

I figured I would update all of you with the status of my sledding this year with some simple facts.

12 Trips
502 Miles

Issues:
Assume to be the dreaded bent sub frame (had after 3 ride, no recall of big hits to cause this)
Maverick track is really folded over, missing 1 lug, tore down pretty bad
Previous trip finally had the belly ban pop off from freezing snow that others have seen.
Typical oil spilling out when tipped over, but I've put a screen on the vent line to slow it, we'll see how that holds up.

Looking forward to the May trip, maybe another 150 miles I can get out of her those 2 days, we'll see.

Spring Time Riding

Spring time riding is typically over this time of year. Usually most of the snow has melted except in the highest of elevations. But the key point about enjoyable spring riding is usually the nice weather.

Its warm and sunny, with little snow showers and amazing time to take pictures. Might not have the best snow conditions, but even old snow can soften with some sun, but always a great time. Make that an exceptions this year.

All my riding this month of April has been like riding in mid January. Cold, overcast, and snowing. And more snowing. I think this years season could be one of the longest in a great while. In fact, not only this year did I make my first ever APRIL ride, but I will attempt and probably succeed with my first ever MAY ride.

So I'll be up in Cooke City, Montana, the weekend of May 2-4. Driving up from Billings Friday night to sled all day Saturday and Sunday. I'm looking forward to it.

Yellowstone Expo continued

Apologizes for not posting this up sooner. No excuses.

The expo continues to be a great place to shop for accessories and apparel. Both for yourself and your sled. Even though the expo in size is relatively small, there were still some fantastic items to be seen. I'd like to highlight a couple.

First and foremost, Tobe Technology. They are a clothing company based in Sweden. All the stuff, jacekts, pants, etc... at all made there too. High quality and fantastic looking. I highly recommend their stuff to anyone. I bought a jacket at the show and now have pants as well. Well above my previous Castle X stuff.

Tobe Technology is an exciting new and fresh line. They have the quality of Klim but a completely different look, which I dig. I'm a Yamaha rider, currently, but by no means am I brand specific, and thus I don't want to be color specific either with my clothing. Tobe allowed me to do this, without comprising style.

Check them out here: http://www.tobetechnology.com

I'd also like to give a shotout to Rexburg Motorsports in Idaho. They were at the show and their sales staff there was fantastic to work with and I'd recommend them to anyone.

Stayed tuned today as well, I feel a multi-day post coming on. Making up for lost time.

Yellowstone Expo Demos

Sorry it took over a week to write about the expo. There is a lot to talk about what's gone on these past two weeks. But we'll start with the Expo.

Bret and I travelled Friday night and stayed at my uncle's cabin near Big Sky. This made the morning drive that much better, only about an hour from their to West Yellowstone. When we first arrived we immediately headed to the demo rides to sign up, there can be substantial waits for these. We first signed up for Arctic Cat, then were going to do Polaris, but the time conflicted with the Arctic Cat ride, so we decided we'd come back later. We never got that chance. :( And then finished the sign ups with Yamaha, which was no wait and hopped on immediately. There was no Ski-Doo nor have I ever seen them there doing demos, bad move BRP.

Yamaha's ride and lineup was pretty much the same as last year. Mostly trail sleds there with a few Nytro MTXs and Apex MTXs, but it didn't matter because all we got was like 15 minute trail demo ride. It was even shorter than my ride last year. This only gets you comfortable with the basic ergos and power of the sled. Nothing on how well it handles the powder or boondocking through the trees. As consumers get smarter these rides will need to get more expanded, but I guess its better than Ski-Doo's offering there, which was MIA.

After that we grabbed a quick lunch and watched a snocross race there and then headed to Arctic Cat's trailer for that ride. Boy we never knew what we got ourselves into.

The previous demo riders showed up about 10 minutes after we got there, all smiles. We were then told the demo was 2 HOURS long! Not only did we not expect that, we weren't properly dressed. We had our helmets and jackets, but no pants or thermal gear. Lucky it was fairly warm and nice day.


Most of the lineup was their new M8 with 153" track, which is new this year, more about that in another post. With a pair of M1000s. Bret took an M8, and I was left with a M1000, which we decided we would trade off during the ride. Our tour guide then grouped us up and introduced himself as Bret Rasmussen. In case you subscribe to SnoWest magazine he's on the cover and inside pictures on the new Arctic Cat sleds. Thats him on the right.

I'll do my "mini-review" of the new M series when I go over the new 2009 sleds. But needless to say Arctic-Cat did it right. A true "Demo" ride. It gave me the perfect idea of how this sled would work. I recommend anyone that can go to the expo and do a ride with Arctic-Cat. Its well worth it.

I assume and heard Polaris does the same thing in West, but we never got the chance. I would have really liked to ride the new Assault RMK, it looks pretty sick!

Next time we'll go over the Expo show with coverage of the venders. Needless to say, we spend some money. :)