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. :)