Crossover Sleds
One of today’s leading stories on snowmobiles addresses crossover sleds. Ed Klim from the International Snowmobile Association (ISMA) http://www.snowmobile.org/
indicates lots of drivers are moving to the snowmobile that can “do it all.” Leading the pace are places like Alberta, where riders are geographically close to both mountains and plains.
Read the Gazette story with Ed Klim.
The big question is will this trend carry over to other geographical areas? Aren’t crossover sleds just another name for snowmobiles that make a compromise? They don’t have the long tracks developed especially for soft powder mountain riding, nor do they have design that provides the ultimate in trail performance. How many riders will give up top performance on their favorite terrain, in order to have average performance under most types of riding conditions.
The sledders I know–male and female–want it all every time they hit the snow. If they don’t own a mountain sled and they’re heading off to the mountains, then they rent a mountain sled when they get there. Likewise, when they hit the backroads they want the same handling Blair Morgan has out there on the snocross track. If there’s one thing I’ve seen proven time and time again, it’s that snowmobilers expect top performance out of the snow machines they buy.
SnowRider has profiled some of the 2008 crossover sleds:
Arctic Cat Crossfire 5 snowmobile
by Linda Aksomitis,
Managing Editor for SnowRider Online Magazine
and www.guide2travel.ca
