Not bashing yamaha, just an observation!!

super1c

super1c

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Somthing hit me funny the other day while sitting on the couch watching x-games with my 14 year old daughter. First was how things have changed in skiing/snowboarding and snowmobiling. Watching the snowboarding i remembered growing up 26 years ago at the age of 14, at a local ski bump with 4 tow ropes. We were doing all those same things on skis. We were all into skateboarding so naturally when snowboarding started to emerge about 3-4 years later we all tried that till most of the ski hills banned snowboards. Well my daughter now goes to that same hill every day. But when i pick her up you cant find a pair of skis to save your soul. Now to my point. These 2 brothers caleb and colton moore who my daughter had to explain to me who they are and how cool they are, did the first 2 person backflip. I must say it was cool as hell. These 2 kids had the crowd going insane. This made me think of the day before when my daughter, wife and i went on ride for the day. Their was a group of kids at one of the local eateries. They were dressed to the "T" in thier rockstar/monstor/neo-colored backpack wearin, motorcross gear. Needless to say my daughter was very struck by these young men and thought they were pretty cool by the number of times she fixed her hair during lunch. LOL. Well they werent ridding yamaha's i can tell you that. The future of anything is in our youth. It doesnt matter how many times i tell her that yamaha is cool and we all ride yamaha's when every kid out there is ridding that rockstar/monstor/neo-colored backpack wearin, motorcross sled. I'm not sure how yamaha can continue to ignore todays youth and survive. They were not anywhere at the x games that i saw and i saw every other name displayed, on jackets and hats and banners. I know yamaha went 4 stroke ahead of the pack but is it wise to put all the eggs in one basket? Their are some nice clean well made 2 strokes out there. This is not about who is better or more reliable or blah, blah, blah!!! I love yamaha, im just concerned about thier direction and forthough. Back when i got into snowmobiling in the late 80's early 90's yamaha was the sled to own. Everyone either had one or wanted one. I remember when the 93 exciter sx came out, man what that cool as hell. We all wanted that jet black with the pink and purple graphics. Hey it was cool at the time. I want yamaha to stick around and for our youth to want a yamaha too. All i know is my daughter and i didnt watch caleb and colton moore do that backflip on a yamah in the x games and im sure the way things are going that my grandchildren and i wont be watching yamaha in the x games either. :dunno: I think yamaha needs to pay attention to our youth and not forget where they came from. Just my 2cents. Chris
 

I agree that in time their presence in the youth crowd will catch up with them. Exposure is the name of the game in advertising and as the next generation comes to the age of buying their own sleds they will already have theyre heart set on the bad azz sleds they watch on TV.
 
I hear what you're saying about appealing to the kids. In the early 80s, when I started paying attention to sleds (at 6-9 years old), Yamahas were always the nicest looking sleds. It helped that my Dad's family all rode Yamahas. Then in the late 80s early 90s, when I still felt Yamaha was the best, everyone else seemed to think that Polaris was the cool brand, and shortly after it was Arctic Cat. Ski Doo started getting popular around here in the late 90's with the MXZ and then more so with the first Rev.

I think today's Phazer does appeal to the kids but maybe not as much as the 2 strokes they see on tv and on DVDs. What I'm finding though is that a few of my cousins and younger friends who are into the new Ski Doo sleds are realizing they are not built to last. One has a brand new summit and he's blown two front shocks on it so far… riding on a lake. Another has had issues with a motor mount breaking and electrical. Another is so concerned that is etec won't last that he has it for sale and is considering trading it in for a used nytro. Is lightweight more valuable than reliability? Not to me it isn't.

With that being said, Yamaha has always kind of done what it wanted, and its strategy seems to be working. Even if it built a cool 2 stroke to appeal to the kids, it would most likely be more expensive than the other brands, and at a young age, price is a big factor.

This may or may not be an accurate comparison, but do Porsche or Ferrari suffer because they don't build entry level cars? I don't think so. They just focus on a different market segment.
 
I totally agree, At one point in the X games I said to myself, Where is Yamaha, Kindof embarrassed when you are with a bunch of people and they know we ride Yamaha, but no body races or even advertises Yamaha at these types of events. I think Yamaha needs a sled to "dream" about. Today's kids, including my own want show and go, not heavy grandpa sleds. Al
 
I agree completely. I know they have some snowcross sleds racing. But should be everywhere especially the X Games. Has nothing to do with the 2-4 stroke thing. I have seen a video of a Nytro doing a backflip and the guys preferred the torque of the 4 stroke to force the sled to turn in mid air.

But at the end of the day they'll ride whoever pays them.
 
Stephfg said:
snip Then in the late 80s early 90s, when I still felt Yamaha was the best, everyone else seemed to think that Polaris was the cool brand, and shortly after it was Arctic Cat. Ski Doo started getting popular around here in the late 90's with the MXZ and then more so with the first Rev.
snip

We used to make fun of Yamahaulers and pogo sticks at that time. My older riding buds got bad tastes from 1980-81 Yamahas and switched to Doos. I chose Polaris for my first new sled and was happy until the monoblock crank/c-clip failures. Went in the opposite direction and got the correct powertrain (SRX) and upgraded the susp. and have been happy.

Although the triple tuning fork emblem on the hood was installed crooked ;>)

I could care less about the latest bling but understand the marketing value.
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During the low snow years of the 1980's Yamaha concentrated on getting new blood into the sport. ie (YamaFest's) They built entry level & trail sleds like Bravo, Phazer (big seller), Exciter (marketed as a torquey quick corner to corner trail sled), Inviters (some what of a Flop), Snoscoot/SnowSports (Yamaha could not give them away). Yamaha was hailed by some as helping to save the sport of snowmobiling during these difficult years and Criticized badly by many magazines as incapable of producing high speed sleds. Therefore the Vmax4 was born....
 
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Yeah, I noticed the lack of yamahas at X games. Back in the 80's and 90's , the sleds to own were not yamaha's at all in this state. Even having Bender and Reichard performance in the state still didn't do enough to see many out on the trails. The proaction series sleds changed that a bit, but you still never saw as many yamahas as polaris, and doos depending on what generation you are talking about. At most, you would only see as many yamahas as cats, then things changed. Yamaha started being more common, and accepted too. The 4 stroke thing I think only helped as I see way more yamaha 4 strokes than cats of any kind on the trials. Yamaha really does need to make a snocross sled though, even if it's a modded nytro. Image is everything.

The vmax 4 was a purpose built machine, and the motor was designed by the father of one of my classmates in school. That sled single handedly put yamaha on the map as far as fast sleds because the exciter just did not have the power to back up their claim as that being a viable competition to all the other brands of big bore muscle sled.
 
horkn said:
The vmax 4 was a purpose built machine, and the motor was designed by the father of one of my classmates in school. That sled single handedly put yamaha on the map as far as fast sleds because the exciter just did not have the power to back up their claim as that being a viable competition to all the other brands of big bore muscle sled.
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Exciter was first (I have magazines from the fall of 1986) marketed as a torquey quick corner to corner trail sled. Lacking top speed that it was Never designed for the Exciter was unforuntely thrown into that role.
 
Vmax540 said:
Exciter was first (I have magazines from the fall of 1986) marketed as a torquey quick corner to corner trail sled. Lacking top speed that it was Never designed for the Exciter was unforuntely thrown into that role.
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eh, still not cutting it compared to other sleds available at the time from the other brands.
 
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