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Unless you got a tuned 998. Brings new meaning to feedin' her the corn.

I agree that is a huge factor. That said, I've ridden Axys/Matryx sleds with the jackshaft mounted Hayes and I still didn't think they were as good

Had to revive this thread after the latest Shoptalk Podcast episode. They are prepping an F7 for the pine lake ice race. Of course they raved about the speed, but also- the wilwood brake! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCDbhhB-AVk F7 Talk begins around 13:00, brake talk around 14:00.

That thought had crossed my mind lol. Currently my 858 runs awesome.

I cycled mine by hand and felt no resistance fwiw

..... annnd that 1000 made less stock HP than this 858

https://www.facebook.com/precisionefi/videos/559367303512042/ A 10 hp gain from just a tune (from 168 to 178) is damn impressive. Need a pipe to do that on the Doo and Poo.

I mean, 3lbs on something that spins @8000 rpm is huge. Not to mention this is yet another example of him being blatantly and hilariously wrong while projecting 100% confidence.

That's just the tv schedule, not race dates. The actual schedule makes more sense with 2 races per month except December and April, each with 1.

I've got a brand new 2025 ZR sitting in my garage and will still happily tell Textron to get bent. I applaud the dedicated and passionate people involved that got them to finally greenlight the Catalyst and deliver. It's honestly a miracle that I possess what appears to be a phenomenal all-new Arctic Cat machine right now. I don't believe they ever intended to invest in this brand in any real capacity. The difference is when you ruin Jacobsen mowers no one gives a shit, unlike an iconic brand a la Arctic Cat. @p51mstg has said it very well... if Cat succeeds it will be in spite of Textron, not because of them.

No doubt, they have absolutely cratered the dirt side.

https://snowgoer.com/news/putting-the-arctic-cat-layoffs-production-stop-in-context/32826/ Interesting tidbit about KTM in there too.

My actual first sled with along with the latest sled. My daughter won't be able to drive or ride on either one in earnest until next year, but she does enjoy climbing all over them and even pushing the start button on the newest one

My XF 9000 was purchased for 14K OTD as a leftover back in 2018. Most sled for the dollar I'll ever have I'm thinking.

They better honor it because the dealer I'm having them redirect to was given first dibs on selling me one (It's my closest dealer) and the sales guy never got back to me. I even have the messaging for proof. That's the main reason I went with Nelsons, the sales guy actually got back to me quickly with a fair price.

Cat has reached out to me. Sounds like they are redirecting pre-ordered sleds from that dealer to a new dealer of customer's choosing. Deposit moves with the sled. Thank the lawd!

Does Mike Kloety still have a job or did Textron fire him too?

That was a good listen. When he refers to himself in the third person I gotta chuckle. Lots of history there to be sure. I don't think criticizing his story of Zulawski is valid. He speaks very highly of him: "Here's probably one of the smartest snowmobile engineers you'll find". Skime no longer works for Cat and this story of reluctantly firing a guy because he refused to change with the times and work with the young guns actually flies in the face of those who claim Cat didn't evolve due to the people in charge (like Roger) being set in their ways. Roger admits the "what wins on Sunday sells on Monday" motto isn't the gospel, but he insists racing is important, and I 100% agree with that.

I agree I may be the minority, but I absolutely do care where things are made and routinely pay more money for American made products. I would never buy a CF moto, personally.

Not at all. I think a better word than "maintained" like the article used would be "managed." As you pointed out, since the bearing at the TCL is also self-aligning there's movement in multiple places. Speaking to what I believe was the theory behind the design, they are simply "managing" the alignment issues of a twisting motor in a unique way. The only thing that's changed in the catalyst TCL system is the belt setup, so assuming the beltcase settings can offer parallelism between the primary and secondary it should operate just as effectively and reliably as it has the last decade in the procross (on the clutch side at least). The final belt drive is another story. I'm going to be an optimist on this and trust that my new 858 will be perfect right out of the box . But I'm also not naive enough to believe it's impossible that this design is flawed given all the initial driveline problems with the Procross.

The article says C to C and parallelism is maintained, which as long as the motor mounts could "give" enough, particularly side to side, in theory could be possible. As far as the eccentric bearing, there's multiple positions depending on the gear ratio used, so I think what Fortune is saying is that one of these 2 settings will therefore not be optimal, perhaps both if the initial alignment of the engine is off. Here's a good clip showing the shaft movement/eccentric bearing operation (starts at about 2 min). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNpAIYGKuFs

I dunno, I'm not willing to totally discredit the system...my Procross sleds have been amazing on belts and no broken chains in 20k miles . Obviously I don't have a a 2012 or 2013 . Also floating secondaries have been around a long time.

Dug around and found this fwiw. You'd think the Catalyst setup would be no problem at 2 degrees unless the motor mounts are allowing too much movement? Exceeding that 5 degrees and bending the beltcase? https://www.arcticinsider.com/more-tech-pix-and-descriptions-of-the-2012-arctic-cats/ The big news here is a new development called the Torque Control Link (TCL) that serves as a fixed C-to-C distance, coupled with a bearing design on the chaincase side that allows 5 degrees of movement. With the system, the engine and jackshaft (and thus both clutches) are connected to maintain a fixed distance and always parallel regardless of torque, improving performance and increasing belt life.

Certainly not saying it's an ideal setup, but technically the engine centerline is not fixed (rubber motor mounts), and it is also tied to the jackshaft with the TCL. The procross chaincase has had "pivoting" jackshaft bearings in it for since it released which was only possible due to the TCL From 2012 Procross release: "The big news here is a new development called the Torque Control Link (TCL) that serves as a fixed C-to-C distance, coupled with a bearing design on the chaincase side that allows 5 degrees of movement. With the system, the engine and jackshaft (and thus both clutches) are connected to maintain a fixed distance and always parallel regardless of torque, improving performance and increasing belt life."

In theory shouldn't the TCL be keeping everything aligned and the eccentric offset gets translated into the motor mounts?