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42 minutes ago, AK440 said:

Bwahahaha! Now the lower 48 can’t even put on a simple ice race in late December. The lake races came about because there wasn’t reliable snow for a proper cross country, 

But yeah, climate change is a hoax. Where are all the dumbass climate change deniers now? Still arguing about the “stolen election“ in current events. 

A "fellow lover of snowmobiling", reveling in the plight of other snowmobiling enthusiasts amidst a bad winter. I can't think of a worse take.

20 minutes ago, Palu49 said:

I’ve heard of 101 gps on the ice on a catalyst so far. Stock gearing is the fastest setup available right now as far as I know. I just ordered slugs, schrader caps and the tools to do my own shocks this year as well as a bunch of clutching stuff to test for an ice setup if we ever get any weather to freeze things up around here.

I've wondered how much the racers like the BOSS secondary. While great for consumers due to lack of adjustment needed, how does it perform compared to the "legendary" Cat reverse cam roller for example.  Are racers doing torsional conversions on the BOSS to get more speed?

8 minutes ago, racinfarmer said:

When we had Catalyst #1 out testing for break in, we had a 4 smoker, another Catalyst, and a 24 Polaris and lined them all up.  

Catalyst #1 was the slowest off the line (fewest studs), Polaris and Catalyst #2 were pretty even until I'd say around 70-75, then the Polaris started to pull away.  The 4 smoker was a sled length or so behind Catalyst #2 and the Polaris until about 40-50mph, then it walked all over the other 3.

Mile or so long drag race all on ice set ups.

We were also told you may not need to or want to run the thicker sway bar for ice, but we fought that bitch in there.  Have to grind one side of it and fight it in from the clutch side.

You think you'll be able to coax more top end out of these Catalysts? I haven't looked...what kind of speeds are the R-XCs geared for out of the box?

2 hours ago, Crnr2Crnr said:

anyone else notice the SnoPro 500 seat cover Arlaud has on the Catalyst?    

 

I thought it was interesting that Herf said they can run a significantly softer valve package in the Catalyst vs Procross.

Also interesting the impromptu drag race in the second vid at 5:40... the Catalyst surges ahead by a few sled lengths before the 4 stroke starts steadily reeling him in. I think Arlaud's 4 stroke had the highest top speeds at Pine Lake last year?

I guess I don't understand how anyone expected this motor to be more powerful?  Once we found out it's basically the same as previous generations except with an 800 bottom end, 125 hp should be no surprise.

What likely contributes to the sled feeling stronger is a combination of lighter chassis and low inertia belt drive, along with perhaps a re-calibrated fuel mapping strategy.

Herfindahl and Arlaud out with some great content recently!

Now, if we can get this version of the Lions every game...

12 hours ago, Doug said:

Quick question and I haven't looked that close at a Catalyst.

On the drive belt side you have the eccentric bearing that is able to move the jackshaft up or down for different gear sets.  Is this not pivoting the jackshaft on the clutch bearing thus effecting the clutch alignment.  It's probably not a lot but still some amount of float on the 2ndary would be preferred. 

Again haven't looked that close at one but by moving one side of the jackshaft up or down would effect the other side.

Seems like what may allow Cat to do this is the Torque Control Link (TCL). In theory this eccentric bearing adjustment would have no effect on clutch C-C and alignment. Instead the movement would be translated to the engine mounting, where positional change is less pronounced due to it being further away from the belt case.

The other possibility (and perhaps in addition to the above) is that the eccentric hub movement is in an arc that complements the C-C distance of the clutches. So the secondary clutch moves up and down in an arc that maintains C-C and alignment. For this to be the case maybe there is rotational movement allowed at the motor mount?

I don't actually know, I'm just throwing out ideas.

1 minute ago, krom said:

IDK, maybe for doing a few now and then, but with 10 to 12 per sled, 8 hours a day 5 days a week..

I've gotten pretty fast with a long spring tool

Yeah fair enough... I'm removing them maybe two to three times a year

I've used a few different styles of spring tools but I find myself always going back to the string/twine/wire method.  Loop it through the spring hook where you want it the wrap it around your hand....Just has always seemed faster to me with more control.

4 hours ago, jonlafon1 said:

Velcro - very grippy.  The underside of the airbox/hood has a weird hole with frogskin over it.. Not sure why you would want to allow hot air to rise up into the airbox?  Guessing this in for if the outer frogskins vents for airbox get cover with snow?  I have no idea? Ill pull the clutches and break them down for a good cleaning and some aftermarket "stuff" for the primary..  The bolts have not fell off of the upper spindles yet!  

Yes that is exactly what it is for, to allow the engine to still get air even if the exterior intakes get blocked.

If the Procross was right from the start it wouldn't have seemed so dated.

If the Procross didn't erase all the momentum from the original M-series it wouldn't have seemed so dated.

If the Procross hadn't dragged on for a ridiculous 12 model years before a successor it wouldn't have seemed so dated.

Etc.

Lots of mistakes along the way.

That aside, IMO the Procross is a bona-fide stalwart. It has an incredible terrain racing pedigree and is tough as nails.  It just didn't check enough boxes to justify a 12 year life cycle and it pissed people off. Especially considering the first two years were a debacle in terms of quality.

Let's see what the Catalyst does... there's a lot riding on it.

Yeah those statements are more damning. Although, I wonder if it's primarily the dirt side that's lagging?  The Alterra 600 was introduced to relatively little fanfare and the XX has been out of the conversation for awhile now.

I'd like to think the Catalyst represents a bright spot in the outlook, but who knows.

The restructuring would trigger the re-evaluation of assets. There are several brands under the TSV umbrella, without seeing the financial statements at this point its impossible to say where exactly the impairment charges are occurring and what kind of impact it has on Arctic Cat specifically.

This new system probably fits with one of the design philosophies the engineering team employed for Catalyst... reducing fasteners, overall part count, weight, etc.

I would like to imagine Herf would've exposed this area of failure many times over if it was truly design related.

Krom's assembly error theory sounds more likely to me, at this point at least.

Looking at the pics, they moved the rear arm tunnel mount back a solid 4"+

On 10/29/2023 at 4:29 AM, Turbo Kitty said:

Add another 10 grand in exhaust, tunes , clutching. 

 

You weren't kiddin'

Very nice!

1 minute ago, Not greg b said:

So still heavy when stuck? 

Yessir!

25 minutes ago, Crnr2Crnr said:

what's the fuel capacity again?

I don't feel like looking atm

10.4 gallon IIRC. So figure 60lbs of fuel, 17lbs of oil and coolant. So looking at a dry weight of 430lbs.  Pretty damn good actually. Although the mountain sleds are always lighter than the trail units and I'm sure the Alpha one helps a lot there.

Saw a video on social media (I think Ibexx?) had 2 Catalyst Ms on the scales... 507lbs full of all fluids

These were 154s, no ES, 3" track

I'm down to 4 Cat dealers within 50 miles of me. Doesn't seem horrible, but then you realize we are a major metropolitan area and 2 of the 4 are dealer to driveway only, so there's almost no evidence they are Cat "dealers" at all on the inside (And one doesn't even have a sign on the outside).

4 hours ago, AK440 said:

None of that makes any sense. If you are in the business to sell sleds, why would you close down the dealers that sell your sleds. This conspiracy theory  is right up there with election fraud. 

Where you been??

https://www.autofinancenews.net/allposts/most-read-powersports-finance-stories-of-2019/

"Arctic Cat parent company Textron reported that it would cut back on snowmobile inventory to maximize profits. Specifically, the OEM would only produce snowmobiles that were pre-sold, Chief Executive Scott Donnelly said in the company’s second-quarter earnings call. The company had already pre-sold all 2020 models. Additionally, the OEM “dramatically reduced” partnerships with off-road dealers, Donnelly said."

8 hours ago, krom said:

They can, and did. Even here in NY with strong franchise laws. The reps were given a list of dealers to get rid of. 
Cutting a vast number of dealers was a decision made by textron.

1 hour ago, krom said:

They can, and did. Even here in NY with strong franchise laws. The reps were given a list of dealers to get rid of. 
Cutting a vast number of dealers was a decision made by textron.

I had heard rumblings that they were canning the ones that didn't sell many units and/or sold units at a discount, even if they were otherwise stellar dealers and strategically located.

19 minutes ago, Palu49 said:

Probably used to not even see 1. The wildcat XX is the only relevant off road machine cat has ever made and they even managed to fuck that up letting it be stagnant for 7 years.

Quite the opposite actually. For a time Cat and Polaris were like the only players in the sport SxS game.  Used to see plenty of Wildcat 1000s and Wildcat Sports out there.