Yamaha Snocross Testing Video


wow, things sure have changed... I'm suprised at the quality of the track.... or lack of... No wonder it took Yami so long to get a good suspension. I could make that at the farm track with the little amount of snow we get here in the south... They need to get that test sled on the trails after a busy weekend near Eagle River round Derby time. :)
 
if only they had made a 800 triple triple viper with ohlins on a mono in 126in with a flat top seat and c+a pro skis.
 
Yeah, it looks kind of vintage. How come they couldnt find anything bigger than a parking lot to test in? G.B.
 
WoodyCam said:
They need to get that test sled on the trails after a busy weekend near Eagle River round Derby time. :)
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Funny you should say that because thats the area where I ride my sled.
One thing to keep in mind is that things have changed a lot since '01 and that Im sure this wasnt the extent to how Yamaha tested their sleds.
I think video was more of them developing the Monoshock RA and tweaking on it getting it to work right.
It was still pretty cool because it gave you a behind the scenes view. Id definetly like to see more videos like this because it shows us all the work that goes into developing new sleds.
To me, it makes it all the more impressive that every year Yamaha comes out with at least one sled that is either signifigantly redesign or all-new.
 
BETHEVIPER said:
if only they had made a 800 triple triple viper with ohlins on a mono in 126in with a flat top seat and c+a pro skis.
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I agree. Im kinda torn. On the one hand I love the new 4-strokes, but on the other hand I really wish Yamaha would have still kept at least 1 2-stroke around. The have the existing technology to make clean 2-strokes and IMO they kinda jumped the gun in terms of going all 4-stroke.
 
Octane & BTV - I couldn't agree with either of you more - the viper is a great sled, I wish they would have made a 140hp version of it or even 150 hp version with triple pipes.
 
BETHEVIPER said:
if only they had made a 800 triple triple viper with ohlins on a mono in 126in with a flat top seat and c+a pro skis.
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:p something we should be looking out from you for next year??? :rockon:
come on btv we know you got it in you still.

but about the video, i was very impressed with the way the sled seems to take off when he came out of the corner at 1:46. almost seems like he couldnt control it(which i dont doubt because ive seen better riders in grade school)
 
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redsnake3 said:
but about the video, i was very impressed with the way the sled seems to take off when he came out of the corner at 1:46. almost seems like he couldnt control it(which i dont doubt because ive seen better riders in grade school)
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Its kinda hard to steer the sled when the skis are off the ground. That was pretty much Vincent's riding style though. He pretty much is the definition of, "riding over your head". That was one thing I always liked about Vincent, he either won or he crashed. He never settled for anything other than 1st place.
 
memories....ahhhh, cool video of vincent thats the way it was bang thru the bumps now the tracks are setup for motocross type of speed with huge jumps and wide sweeps...a few races i went to back in the day the tracks were on parking lots...plow the snow from the banks and race....lol
 
new srx next year!!!

imagine yammie coming out with a new 2 stroke an srx1000 dont tell me this would not be the fastest sled ever made :2strokes:
 
Srxspec said:
The interesting part is the Monoshock was actually tested and ran in the snoX as early as 1999 (SX model Pro Open sleds).
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Very true.
Heres the story of the Monoshock RA:
http://www.snowtechmagazine.com/articles/2004/monoshock.php
The story of the new Mono Shock RA rear suspension could have been straight out of Hollywood. There is a cast of engineers who believed in the project, there are uncontrollable forces of nature, adrenaline-charged racing action, and ultimate success in the face of near elimination.
Back in the mid-1990s, Yamaha’s snowmobile development team was putting the finishing touches on its entry into the long travel suspension segment, the ProAction. By 1995, Mr. Masao Furusawa, the Snowmobile General Engineering Manager, was looking at his ProAction design and examining ways to make its stroke longer and make it lighter overall. He devised and patented a new design to achieve those goals by using only one shock absorber and a single linkage between front and rear arms.
Mr. Furusawa took his concepts to suspension designers. They worked with Furusawa’s design parameters and ultimately fabricated the first prototype pieces for pre-testing. As the long-stroke, single-shock design showed real potential it was given the green light for further refinement and development.
In 1998 the concept was solidified and needed a way to test its capabilities. The answer came in the form of the emerging popularity of snocross racing in North America.
The Testing Ground: Snocross
Yamaha re-entered Snocross racing at the factory level in 1997. This season was highlighted by Chris Vincent’s Pro 600 class title. Racing engineering development fell under the guidance of Mr. Thomas Imamura. Imamura is a young snowmobile enthusiast that has been involved with snowmobile engineering for many years. The first goal was to take the Mono Shock suspension concept and develop it to meet the rigors of Snocross racing. He refined and re-engineered the mono shock system into a highly tuned racing suspension. That season Nathan Titus piloted the Mono Shock mod sled to a 2nd place overall point’s championship.
Behind the glitz and flash of snocross racing, Imamura had taken ownership of the suspension development program. “We wanted to test the mono shock suspension in all forms of use,” Imamura said. “We tested it in snocross and then we tested it on the trail.”
Trail testing showed some problems. “The Mono Shock system had become a finicky suspension as it became more and more race specific. Ride quality and handling would change on different snow conditions.” remembered Jim Kedinger, Yamaha Testing Engineer. “We stopped development since the suspension didn't have the weight transfer and confidence needed on the trail.” Without an official green light for his project, Yamaha was forced to make a crucial decision.
Flying Under the Radar
Yamaha assigned Imamura to a completely different project, but unofficially, he was secretly developing a consumer version of the original mono shock design. He stayed after business hours and worked on weekends to develop the suspension. “My first goal was to increase the Mono Shock’s trail capability by making the suspension easy for the customer to set up and adjust.” Imamura recalled. “But the greatest challenge was to lessen the natural internal stresses placed on a mono shock link system and greatly reduce the weight.”
Imamura secretly ran hundreds of computer simulations before finding the perfect geometry that matched the trail application. Now he was confident to bring his project back to life.


Testing Becomes Reality
Based on Imamura’s new design, the first prototype pieces were fabricated and cleared for pre-testing in January of 2002.
The Mono Shock RA design was put through more rigorous testing than any design Yamaha had worked on previously. With the knowledge gained through snocross, and the private testing Imamura had done, the test team was able to quickly fine tune the suspension for the 2005 RX-1.
“We had test sleds running for 3 years,” explained Jim Kedinger. “This allowed us to put thousands and thousands of additional miles on the Mono Shock, than perhaps we would have from a normal development cycle.” In the end, the Imamura’s design achieved all of the original design goals from 1995.
The suspension is lightweight, thanks to using fewer parts and a mono shock design. In fact, the Mono Shock RA is 14 pounds lighter than the previous suspension. “Plus, it is extremely easy to adjust for individual riders and varied terrain. That makes it hundreds of times better for a trail sled application than the Race suspension ever was,” added Imamura.
The Final Chapter
In the face of official cancellation, Mr. Imamura refused to let the project languish on the shelf. He took his own time and resources to not only keep it alive but to bring it to market. If not for Imamura’s love of snowmobiling and his personal belief in the mono shock concept, we would not be getting ready to ride it this winter. And that is the True Development Story for Yamaha’s new Mono Shock RA rear suspension system.
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Its a pretty interesting story.
 
man those vipers are kick ***, i wish my dad's viper sat at that height, and took moguls like that, c'mon i've never seen any sled ride a wheelie through a set like that, not that its the best way to take them but shit it's got raw power written all over it, i wonder if yamaha has any sx sno-xer's layin around, can anybody get some good shots of it, photo shoot shots and actions shots, thanks
Nick
 
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