jdsky

51 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

I’m a Sony guy. I wouldn’t buy a Samsung toothbrush

I hear Sony makes awesome toothbrushes.

This one:  https://www.samsclub.com/p/samsung-55in-crystal-ultra-hd-4k-smart-tv/P03000253?xid=plp_product_12 is the exact same TV as the 8000 series at Best Buy: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-55-class-8000-series-led-4k-uhd-smart-tizen-tv/6452996.p?skuId=6452996#anchor=productVariations.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "realistic" but that sometimes is when motion smoothing is turned on which most people call the "soap opera effect".  Meaning it is very bright, artificially enhanced and smoothed and is terrible looking.  I would check your old TV to make sure motion smoothing is not turned on.

Otherwise it's really all about preference.  For $1K the Q80 does have better black levels but if you are watching in a lit room or during daytime that really does not matter much anyway.

If you would rather save the $500 for sled parts just get that 55" Samsung at Sam's club or Best Buy.

The dealers I work with don't have that kind of inventory.  The largest of the two has 5 new Doo's in stock (2 summits and 3 backcountrys - no trail sleds) and 5 Poos in stock (2 of those are Boosts).  They have 3 Doos showing incoming and 5 Poos incoming with 3 of the Poos being the 4 stroke model.

Last season he had to turn away a ton of spring orders on Doos because of limited allocations.  Yes, the interest rates and economy will likely slow things down but I'm guessing he will still take orders for everything he can get from them.

I have all Samsung's in the new house we just moved into and have been happy with them.  You didn't mention the most important factor - budget.  If you have $1K to spend get the Q80B.  If you have $500 to spend just get the 8000 series.  

My parents have the 50" 8000 and when I am visiting and watch it the picture is really very good for the money and apps on it work with no issues but they only need Netflix, Prime Video, Youtube TV and Youtube. 

I thought those coffee beans that monkeys eat and shit out was supposed to be the finest in the world......

Poo was testing a 4 stroke turbo back in 2015 so it's due for release.

Cat is smart to limit the 600 to only what they can produce so hopefully they get them shipped before the season starts.  My dealer is still being severely limited on Doo orders.  Last season he had 345 spring orders.  Do only allowed him to place orders for half of that amount.  Because of that there were waiting lists already again for this season. These crazy prices are probably not going down anytime soon.

Cannot see Yamaha staying in the game much longer with only an ancient chassis offering.  Sidewinder sales have been abysmal at best with my dealer not selling a single one for the past couple of seasons.  Only completely clueless cat riders would buy anything in a procross for 24' and most will just keep riding their decades plus old machines yet another year or possibly even more to wait and see if a new engine and chassis combo finally materializes in 25' or 26'. 

What's funny is none that I ride with want to be early adopters even though they have been waiting forever.  They are just saying whats another few years when we have already been waiting this long.  They are going to wait for any new engine to be guinea pig tested by others first.

10 hours ago, Sled_Hed said:

Thought it looked like one of "Rampages" sleds.

It is.  I bought it from Brian a couple years ago.  The amount of time he has in his projects is incredible.  I appreciate the fact that he is the anti-restorer and comes up with some genius stuff.

Couple more fun things about the rat.  The hood is fabricated from old Ford truck fenders.  The door mat snow flap is a vintage item he borrowed from someone's front porch and yes it runs.

1 hour ago, DriftBusta said:

Nice JD snowblower....but forgive I have to ask.....what is that pile of fuck in the background?   

Sorry, I wasn't supposed to leak that and forgot the cover was off.  It's the new catalyst with big bore engine option.

Actually it's a rat sled built out of a 1970 Johnson wide track chassis.  Kohler one lunger with a Scorpion drive.  When I bought it a couple years back I had grand visions of riding it in the local vintage runs but just do not have the time.  Sold it a couple of weeks ago.  It's now in the Yoop with the Yeti. 

The skull talks when you braap the throttle.  More innovation in this rat then anything cat has put out over the last 10 years. 

1 hour ago, Crnr2Crnr said:

BRP 2S's don't come standard with a recoil.  

Why? 

Even my fucking snowblowers have E-start and one of those is a 1982 John Deere.  Watch the video posted in this thread to see how even the fucking Lester's like SHOT.

22 minutes ago, HSR said:

So what kind of industry changing advancements will we see in the new Cat engine? Their last attempt with an 800 didn't work out so well 

Will it at least be DI ?

Hopefully it's a yamaha.

My search for a yamaha 850 two stroke came up empty.  

Collaboration with Petronas.

9 minutes ago, stinkipinki said:

Yamaha knows more about precision engine building then Polaris and Ski-Doo will ever dream of, 

What does a blind cat innovation defender do when asked about performance?  Talk about yamaha. 

OR WAIT FOR IT

F7................................................................................. 

stinki just talking out of his ass about shit he parrots off the internet from other brand blind loyal cat riders.  We have had several in the group and at one time 25 years ago we were all blind cat loyalists. 

That changed for a majority of us when something better came along.  A couple just buried their heads in the sand and kept pretending that cat was still innovating and building the best shit for the money.  They too would parrot shit that none of the rest of us were ever even experiencing and that's even though they were first hand witness to it over those two decades of riding.

When you see posts like "the mountain guys are just raving about this new catayst" one has to wonder what the fuck are they even comparing it too?  An 850 turbo mountain sled from doo or poo?

7 minutes ago, Steve753 said:

From watching that video my assessment of the turbo stands and F7 was wrong.

The sled at launch in 2020 has always had a turbo on it.  It was simply calibrated to keep the HP constant regardless of elevation.  A turbo does not have to be increasing performance at all times to be classified as a fucking turbo. 

This was a design decision made for reliability and to keep fucktards from grenading the engine at sea level and then crying to anyone that would listen about how unreliable the 850 engine is. 

It was the first 2 stroke factory turbo with a warranty from any manufacturer.  The Boost was the first factory turbo 2 stroke flatland sled with a warranty.

Cat/textron is not even offering a high performance 2 stroke option in it's all new for 2024 sled.  Maybe 2025?  There's always a maybe for next season for their fans. 

17 minutes ago, oldslowsledder said:

Interesting shootout, take what you want from it.

 

SNOWTRAX 2023 - Episode 5 - Supertrax Online

What was missing from that comparison?  Oh yeah, a catalyst 600. 

Would've blown both of those sleds away with it's superior performance, handling, ergonomics, technology, fit and finish.

About the single best video to show just how fucking far behind cat/textron is in the game.  Fast forward another decade and they will either be still trying to catch up or completely gone from the sport.

6 minutes ago, oldslowsledder said:

This is the only sled presently that AC leads in tech and sales, and the only one I'd buy right now.

 

 

 

I'd buy one too if they weren't so goddam expensive.

1 hour ago, stinkipinki said:

SkiDoo's reliability is average at best. Had it not been for Cat's fuckup the first few years with their CTEC 800, you could possibly claim Doo is the worst. The ETEC's had trouble for years and the PowerTeks are junkyard sleds.

800's have been notoriously unreliable but that has not stopped anyone from buying them over the past two decades.  Yes, cat's 800 was a fuckup of massive proportions and a poor attempt the only difference is it happened within the last few years.  Both Doo and Poo have figured it out years ago and their 800/850's have been reliable. 

My 05' 600 SDI was bullet proof.  All of my 600 ETEC's were bullet proof.  All of my 4 strokes have been bullet proof.  Hell my 600 zukes were all bullet proof except for a stator or two but those were zukes not ctecs. 

1 hour ago, stinkipinki said:

The first REV's were junk. They were tippy, nosed dived in corners and didn't fit large riders well. The 800's were also an issue for many years, complete junk sleds. It wasn't until the 600SDI engine and chassis tweaks they handled and drove worth a fuck. The Firecats handled just as good if not better, were much faster and much more reliable, out of the 03, which was fast as fuck, but like the first year REV, also had its share of issues.

They were so tippy and unreliable they transformed the sport and sold in the hundreds of thousands over the past 20 years.  All while cat has shrunk into nearly nonexistence and definitely into insignificance to the sport. 

1 hour ago, stinkipinki said:

The Firecats are great trail sleds. My 06 F7 EFI handled nearly as well as an 04 REV 800 H.O. my cousin had, but not quite as good as the Crossfire's.

The F7 is so good people are still buying them today and Doo and Poo have been relegated to 12% market share combined.

1 hour ago, stinkipinki said:

You can keep repeating this over and over, it has no truth to it. Your comment about suspensions is comical too, as Cat came out and had wish-bone suspensions on sleds years before Ski-Doo did in the late 90's. A 2010/2011 Twin Spar 800 HO 160HP Zuke will still handle nearly as good as anything Ski-Doo makes for trail riding. I liked my buddies 2011 Renegade but it lost to my Nytro XTX consistently in drag races and didnt handle trails as well as my Twin Spar.

Your high on Doo, I get it. I like BRP too, I own a Defender, but their is nothing special, or above average on thier sleds besides the r-motion skid.

Someone seems to be repeating over and over.  

26 minutes ago, stinkipinki said:

Cat never copied Doo, the Pyramid design wasn't something they took or copied from anyone, it happened to be similar...in the same way both machines have two skis and a track...Doo going to patent that next?

You're fucking high if you think the original rider forward Rev was not copied by cat and is still not the basis for the catalyst.  If the Rev was never brought to market there would be no such thing existing today.  Cat fucking bashed the Rev for years until they understood that most riders can figure out for themselves what is better.  The rest are just fucking brand blind.  

You are right that now all three brands are similar with tracks, ski's and triangular shaped chassis'......  Fuck it's amazing how blind some people still are. 

22 minutes ago, Anler said:

Skidoo tech is the etec which is still the industry benchmark. And skidoo invented the centralized mass chassis. Everyone else has been trying to put their spin on it since. In fact cat lost a law suit against brp because they got too close.  And everyone who isn't a hack can see this is their next "version" of a modern skidoo. 

 

Cat waited for the patent to expire so they could do a better job at copying and assembling the triangles.  Poo just bit the bullet years ago and paid up which was a good strategy that has led to market share gains.  It's why all this talk of the catalyst being somehow an all new idea or ground breaking and the competition is now old and dated is just nonsense. 

The real world handling differences will be minor at best and rMotion is still the best rear suspension in the game.  I hope cat can now catch up in the engine department.  Just based on how long the last 800 took to develop, bring to market and refine who knows how long that is going to take.  Obviously long enough that the new chassis is only available with the 600. 

Trail through town looks sweet.  We were going to ride this weekend but not anymore.  What's left of the trails after melting and rain will now be solid ice.

That's the problem.  For the majority of enthusiasts in the sport this sled is still a waiting game.  Wait to see if all of the hype about engine placement or rolling resistance equates to anything meaningful.  If the balance and handling is actually better or just playing catch up.  If cat can actually design and build an engine that will compete with what has already been out in the market for a long time already. 

Going to be at least a year before we know anything real world about the chassis and only god knows when that big bore engine will be available and more importantly - PROVEN.

33 minutes ago, stinkipinki said:

Unless its a superior handling and driving machine. Its already creating huge buzz and rumor is lots of folks are pre-ordering, and I can see why. Polaris is old news now and other then the boost, havent made a new or exciting sled since 15 (Matryx not a new chassis, niether is the G5), and the G4 is 7 years old.

100% agree it's creating a huge buzz - with cat diehards that have been forced to ride ancient sleds for a decade or more because they won't consider anything else.  We have one of them left in the group and you bet he's excited that he can finally upgrade his 2007.

This chassis is a catch up, it's not a gamechanger and to top it off it only appeals to a small segment within a small segment of riders that want a 600 cat.

As for how it compares to Poo this is what I am waiting for.  That diehard Poo rider that has a few thousand clicks under his belt on a 650 hop on a catalyst and provide an impression.  Let's hear one of those guys blowing about how much of a gamechanger this sled is..... 

As fucking late to the game as they are they need to be the price leader.  The last attempt was just bullshit.  They stripped the warranties and then gave the impression the prices were good.  This was spring of 19' when I ordered.  Found a cat dealer (both of mine had dropped the brand years ago) and priced out the thunderchicken.  It was $13.5K with no warranty and after test riding the yamacat decided to spend another $750 to order the Doo.  

Textron needs to blow these 600's out the door cheap and with warranties if they want to gain any traction.  If these are the same price as the competition's 600's nobody other than dumstad diehards will give a shit about them.