First Ride Report!

Location: Beartooth Mountains, just outside of Red Lodge, MT
When: 11/23/2007
Total Miles: ~50 (have to check the odometer still!)
MPG: ~10 (will figure once I check odometer)

Rode about 10 miles on trail to get to the decent deep powder of 4 to 6 feet. Total trails 20 miles.

Deep powder, boondocking, hill climbing around 30 miles.

Trail/Road Notes:

Sled handles pretty well, but a little tippy. Its nothing bad, its what I expected with this sled and my additional handlebar riser I added. It did seem to "dart" a bit, but I might have been getting down to the road thru the packed snow, it was a bit low in some spots.

Takes the bumps and little jumps really well. I haven't messed with the suspension at all yet.

On flat smooth spots this sled just hauls, quick and easy up to 80 mph.

Hill Climbing:
This sled climbs really well. You can really control the sled while climbing. Shifting it side to side controlling the direction you climb up the hill.

We ended up riding with another guy from Cody, WY with what we thought was a M8. So the three of us, (97 Summit 670 (piped and canned) with a 136x2, M8 with 162x2.25, and my Nytro 153x2.25) and I easily beat the older Summit, and for a bit stay with the M8. I was a bit disappointed in that aspect at first. We came down the hill and talked with the guy a bit. Well I immediately became much happier with my Nytro when we found out what his sled really was. A fully loaded M10.

So he really had a M10, with pipe, can, fuel controller, airbox mods, custom clutching, and nitrous! That run I mentioned he used Nitrous on. Him and I did it again this time without Nitrous. I had a huge holeshot and pulled probably a length on him and it was until the top 20% of this somewhat small climb that he pulled ahead.

I'll have a real comparison with a 05 Rev 800 next ride.

Boondocking:
Still getting used to the balance, the next trip should be much more successful for me. I could easily lean control her without moving side to side of the sled. Could easily move in between the trees but did get into trouble a few times. Mostly because of my inexperience on this sled. And by trouble I mean getting stuck. I fell off a few times in deep powder and while slightly uphill, a no no, and almost a guaranteed "stuck."

Deep Powder:
Did extremely well, wasn't enough in some spots to do any real technical stuff. (doughnuts, etc...) Will reevaulate next trip.

Overall:

Great day and first ride of the season. I'm extremely happy with my choice and can't wait to get out and ride again.

I've attached a picture of our trip in Google Earth, our estimated path is in blue.

Start of the season

Well the snow is falling. Here in Billings (~3600 feet) we just had about 2" - 3" inches fall this afternoon and evening. In the mountains, much, much more.

In case people are familiar, I'll give into a little secret I have. Its called Snotel. Its a website with Snowdepth and weather information. Its a government ran website with Snow information all over the Western USA of Alaska.

Here is there link:

http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/

Fisher Creek Snotel site which is located right out of Cooke City, MT in the very nice Beartooth mountains shows almost 4 feet of snow! And that's just at that site.

What does this mean? Means, sledding season has begun. Stay tuned for a report of the first ride of the season. We've got our first ride planned for "Black Friday." Women will be getting up earlier for doorbusters and we'll be the "Snowbusters."

So can't wait, might have to take the sled around the block in the morning. I don't need those Carbides that sharp anyway, I ride in the deep stuff!