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September 02, 2010

Sand Mobile’ A Speedy Fix For Desert Border Security

A company that has adapted snowmobiles to travel over sand has just passed a summer trial with the UAE Armed Forces and is marketing its vehicle as a potential game-changer in regional border protection.

September 01, 2010

Clarification On Polaris Engines

We need to clarify something we wrote in the September issue of SnoWest [“Peering Into A Snowmobile’s Heart,” September, 2010, page 18].

August 31, 2010

Time For 6th Annual Stanley Fall Vintage Show And Expo

Vintage Snowmobiles of Idaho is ramping up the program for this year's Stanley Fall Vintage Show, Swap Meet and Snowmobile Expo with new enthusiasts from Canada, Montana, Washington and, of course, Idaho making the trip for a great time in Stanley.

August 30, 2010

Scheuring Speed Sports Signs Multi-Year Agreement With BRP/Ski-Doo Racing

Aurora, MN - Scheuring Speed Sports recently announced a multi-year racing partnership with BRP/Ski-Doo Racing.

August 27, 2010

Plan Likely To Limit Motorized Access On Back Of Aspen Mountain

Aspen, Colo. — It appears backcountry skiers will be resorting to skins instead of snowmobiles to make powder laps on the back of Aspen Mountain again this winter.

August 26, 2010

Arctic Cat Builds 1 Millionth Snowmobile Today

The Arctic Cat plant in Thief River Falls, MN, is set to hit a major milestone today. The company will build it's one millionth snowmobile, which should roll off the line at about 11 a.m. local time.

August 26, 2010

1,000,000TH Arctic Cat Snowmobile Built

Thief River Falls, Minn. - Barreling down on its 50th Anniversary (1962-2012), Arctic Cat has reached a special milestone since the company was brought back to life in 1983 as one of the leading snowmobile manufacturers. A 2011 Crossfire 800 LTD marks the 1,000,000th snowmobile built since August of

August 24, 2010

Access Update

I want to take this opportunity to fill you in on an issue that I see as potentially one of the most critical travel management issues impacting snowmobilers (particularly in the West) that has ever hit the radar screen.

August 19, 2010

Mark Your Calendars For These Sled Events

International Snowmobile Safety Week will be Jan. 16-22, 2011. Many local clubs and snowmobile associations take this time to teach snowmobilers about safe riding and many dealerships help by putting on seminars teaching customers how to maintain their sleds and keep them running in top condition.

August 18, 2010

215,000 Acres Proposed For Wilderness In Colville National Forest

The Washington State version of the Montana Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership between the Montana Wilderness Association and three timber companies has raised its ugly head in this state with the “Conservation Northwest—Timber Company Partnership” proposed for the Colville National Forest (refer to article

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May 21, 2010 | Views 2127

Polaris To Realign Manufacturing Operations

MINNEAPOLIS – In an effort to improve its long-term competitive positioning, increase operational efficiencies and position the company for future growth, Polaris Industries (NYSE: PII) yesterday announced plans to realign its operations and refocus on its core strategic manufacturing processes. The

May 31, 2010 | Views 2035

Klim Line Increased By 32 Percent

Rigby, Idaho - As snowmobilers, our gear requirements are very specific to the type of riding we do, but also differ from one rider to the next. A garment that works well for one rider may not work well for another. That’s why the clothing we wear needs to be built more precisely and accurately to fit

July 15, 2010 | Views 1914

Now This Is Scary

If you thought that environmental groups and their allies in Congress would be happy with just locking up vast tracts of land in Wilderness to eliminate motorized recreation, boy were you wrong.

June 18, 2010 | Views 1131

Spring Riding … Now

When we wrote in the March issue of SnoWest about how the spring riding season was just getting started, we weren't kidding.

May 27, 2010 | Views 1016

Arctic Cat Gains Market Share

We noted, in the pages of SnoWest Magazine this past spring that from all we could gather, we were pretty sure that the Arctic Cat M8 was No. 1 in terms of units sold for the 2009-2010 winter season.

June 23, 2010 | Views 939

The Teaser For Boondockers 7 Is Here

There is nothing like a snowmobile DVD teaser to cool things down during the heat of the summer.

July 11, 2010 | Views 921

The Obama Administration's Great Outdoors Initiative

As I mentioned in the May newsletter, President Obama convened the White House Conference on the Great Outdoors on April 16 as a means to start a national dialogue about conservation issues. In addition to the initial conference led by the President, the Administration has begun to host a number of

June 10, 2010 | Views 794

Arctic Cat Announces Plan To Begin Manufacturing Snowmobile Engines In Minnesota

Minneapolis – Arctic Cat today announced that it has entered into an agreement to transition its snowmobile engine manufacturing from Suzuki Motor Corporation. Arctic Cat will begin manufacturing some of its own snowmobile engines in St. Cloud, MN, after the 2014 model year.

May 14, 2010 | Views 772

Polaris Racing Program Makes Championship Race Sled Even Better for 2010-2011 Race Season

Medina, MN – What do you do with the world’s best race sled? If you’re the Polaris engineering team, you work to make it even better for next winter.

June 09, 2010 | Views 734

Avtovaz To Produce Snowmobiles

Avtovaz, through its subsidiary, Avtovaz Perscpective, will produce snowmobiles twice as cheap and much slower than other national brands, reports Vedomosti.

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Don’t Quit Now, The Season Just Started

You can’t count on anything these days. The only thing less reliable than the economy anymore is winter. There have been pockets of good snow out West early on this season, but there have also been pockets of crappy snow … or pockets of no snow. But it’s not necessarily because we’re having worse winters

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The Buzz About The Phazer MTX

Many times, when there is talk about which sleds are ideal for those who want to break into mountain riding, the discussion usually focuses on the 600 class or sometimes even the mountain fan class, which is down to one machine for 2010.

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M1000 still biggest stock sled on earth

The 2010 Arctic Cat M1000 comes to the market as a warmed-over 2009—not that that is a bad thing by any stretch, as the ‘09 M1000 was bestowed with some major improvements over the previous year’s model.

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10 Simple Ways To Improve Clutch Performance

It seems like there is always one guy in every group whose sled runs just a little bit better than everybody else’s. What does he do different than you? After all, you’re running the same sled with the same parts, you have the same track and you even weigh the same. The difference probably lies in the

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Good Ideas/Bad Ideas

A couple of years ago I was off doing the “magazine guy’s job” of riding on assignment with a group of snowmobilers. It was your typical ride where I was trying to get enough photos and information to write a story while several members of the group were busy showing off their skills in hopes of being

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Economic State Of The Mountain 600 Class

It wasn’t too many years ago that fan-cooled sleds and then the liquid-cooled 500cc machines were the economy class of mountain snowmobiles. They were a relative bargain compared to other mountain sleds and they were fairly inexpensive to maintain. Those machines weren’t intimidating and they seemed

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Whose Job Is It?

I was sitting in a lecture hall at a local university the other day and noticed a bank of burned out lights in the ceiling.

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Mountain 4-Strokes

Twenty-ten was shaping up to be a significant model year for four-stroke mountain sleds. It still is, but what did (or didn’t) happen was enough to make us at SnoWest separate the four-stroke mountain sleds out from the two-strokes, bunch them together and compare them head-to-head. But here we are

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Too Good To Last?

When Idaho’s legislators finally brokered a deal with Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter on how to fund needed work on our state’s deteriorating highways, they did so with some deft sleight of hand, moving the money from one place to another in a classic shell game.