Shore1066

My son and I have been riding Ski doo sleds for years. Our last sleds we bought and installed the Linq medium bag and a fuel caddy. For our clothes we use saddle bags by Gears. One of the fuel caddies because of the miles we travel we use for oil and like you said gas mileage of the new sleds a couple gallons is a lot. The saddle bags are held on with two clips and the Linq bag one and the  fuel caddy one.  Keep the oil inside at night and it pours easy. Of course there is two of us using the oil. I've seen quarts of oil break in glove boxes. It's terrible. For windshields they come with the small size. We went through that smaller windshield 3 years ago in Gaspe. 20 below every day. It was bad. We bought the medium size the next year and was very happy with them. I have already bought the 17" windshields for our new 850's. Everyone I have spoken to says the 850 is more than the 800 and I loved my 800. Never had one problem. Only opened the side panel to put oil in. I expect to get 150 miles a tank and have more gas in the tank. At least our 800's were good for that. Hope this helps.

This is my opinion and only mine. I have always had studs in my track and we have discovered a few things that I feel is very important.  I have a very special person that takes care of our sleds.  What we have found is over the course of the summer and previous winter the studs loosen up and we have to  tighten to the proper inch pounds. If a studs gets lose of course it is going to wear on the hole made for installing the studs. Some studs we have tightened a full turn to get back into proper specification. Only stud I have ever had pull out was on a 1995 sled with a thicker track. Only my opinion.  

Miles I hope you enjoyed your two adventures in Quebec.  You spoke of driving 2 hundred miles  to WV. I drive 400 to get to Gaspe so I can ride on the best trails many say in the world. I was told many years ago by a fellow snowmobiler that if I ever got to Gaspe to say a prayer for him because it is the closest to heaven I will ever get. What I am saying is the trails have been this great way before paddle tracks came along and it's not up to me to change.  I also pay and support the clubs of Gaspe for the privilege to ride their trails. It isn't only in Gaspe the paddle trackers are wrecking the trails.  Any where there is logging roads there is off trail riding. And I think that is great but don't tear up the groomed trail to get there. Reality is if this keeps up there won't be any trails because of the damage that is being done.  What happens when Quebec Hydro says no more trails along the power lines because someone got hurt and sued because they hit a boulder.  Hopefully that will never happen but it could. I hope you don't take my response personally but many of us see a problem coming and in my opinion it needs to be addressed soon better than later. 

Miles I hope you enjoyed your two adventures in Quebec.  You spoke of driving 2 hundred miles  to WV. I drive 400 to get to Gaspe so I can ride on the best trails many say in the world. I was told many years ago by a fellow snowmobiler that if I ever got to Gaspe to say a prayer for him because it is the closest to heaven I will ever get. What I am saying is the trails have been this great way before paddle tracks came along and it's not up to me to change.  I also pay and support the clubs of Gaspe for the privilege to ride their trails. It isn't only in Gaspe the paddle trackers are wrecking the trails.  Any where there is logging roads there is off trail riding. And I think that is great but don't tear up the groomed trail to get there. Reality is if this keeps up there won't be any trails because of the damage that is being done.  What happens when Quebec Hydro says no more trails along the power lines because someone got hurt and sued because they hit a boulder.  Hopefully that will never happen but it could. I hope you don't take my response personally but many of us see a problem coming and in my opinion it needs to be addressed soon better than later. 

Miles I hope you enjoyed your two adventures in Quebec.  You spoke of driving 2 hundred miles  to WV. I drive 400 to get to Gaspe so I can ride on the best trails many say in the world. I was told many years ago by a fellow snowmobiler that if I ever got to Gaspe to say a prayer for him because it is the closest to heaven I will ever get. What I am saying is the trails have been this great way before paddle tracks came along and it's not up to me to change.  I also pay and support the clubs of Gaspe for the privilege to ride their trails. It isn't only in Gaspe the paddle trackers are wrecking the trails.  Any where there is logging roads there is off trail riding. And I think that is great but don't tear up the groomed trail to get there. Reality is if this keeps up there won't be any trails because of the damage that is being done.  What happens when Quebec Hydro says no more trails along the power lines because someone got hurt and sued because they hit a boulder.  Hopefully that will never happen but it could. I hope you don't take my response personally but many of us see a problem coming and in my opinion it needs to be addressed soon better than later. 

Fredsled I have to respond.  I wasn't speaking to any one group.  I was just talking about the trail misuse I have noticed in the last few years. I happen to be the one who is always last in line and happens to see any danger our group does to the trail and I let everyone know how I feel.  As for education for the  group what I meant I believe if you invite a friend to go with you that person should be informed before you leave home on proper riding. To me the trails our the most important thing and leaving them as good as possible for the next person. I know and I'm sure you know people that you would never invite to quebec because of their back yard riding style. 
As for slower riders I won't go there because everyone has his or her safe riding speed they go and I respect that. 

I agree with what you said. I seem to notice the piles of snow in the trails where people take off. What bothers me is that the groomer operators work so hard and to have people disrespect the trails by having to tear them up at every stop. We drive many hours to ride trails that are normally in perfect shape and now there is times when it reminds me of Hill I won't mention.  Maybe the problem is we as quebec snowmobiler's have told to many people of the  Paradise we have found. Maybe we should choose the riders we bring to Quebec be better educated on how to ride. 

I agree with what you said. I seem to notice the piles of snow in the trails where people take off. What bothers me is that the groomer operators work so hard and to have people disrespect the trails by having to tear them up at every stop. We drive many hours to ride trails that are normally in perfect shape and now there is times when it reminds me of Hill I won't mention.  Maybe the problem is we as quebec snowmobiler's have told to many people of the  Paradise we have found. Maybe we should choose the riders we bring to Quebec be better educated on how to ride. 

I have a family person who works for a Yamaha dealer and according to him last fall Yamaha told them last fall early this was going to happen.  I think they even gave them a chance to cancel their orders. At least I seen no new snowmobile boxes there this year. They still have outboard motors and atv"s in their yard . Kinda scary with Artic Cat  being bought out by a company that almost ended Polaris years ago and Yamaha going. Only two sled builders look out for the price to go out of site.  This is my opinion. 

I have a family person who works for a Yamaha dealer and according to him last fall Yamaha told them last fall early this was going to happen.  I think they even gave them a chance to cancel their orders. At least I seen no new snowmobile boxes there this year. They still have outboard motors and atv"s in their yard . Kinda scary with Artic Cat  being bought out by a company that almost ended Polaris years ago and Yamaha going. Only two sled builders look out for the price to go out of site.  This is my opinion. 

My son and I just got back from doing the loop and couple weeks ago. We stayed in Rimouski next to last night of our ride. Going around clock wise our mileage was from Rimouski to Grande Vallee was 240 miles.  Nice little hotel  motel on the water. From Grande Vallee to Perce was 214 miles.  Lots of sites to see.  We did make a short trip in to Gaspe just to say we were there. The rock in Perce is amazing. We did find about 15 miles of rough trail between Gaspe and Perce.  No big deal. Perce to New Richmond was 142 miles. Lots of deer. New Richmond to Amqui 210 miles. We took rt5 to L ALaverne to a orange trail and went north to 5 and then South to 587. If you look at a map you will understand. On 587 catch the first orange trail that goes through Mann Settlement back to 587. The 587 trail is special in my opinion.  Mountains and valleys but still pretty fast. Then it would be easy day back to Rimouski.  The whole peninsula is special.  We been there three times and each time was better than the other. There was only 2 of us and we did ride from 8 30 or 9 to 5 to 6 o'clock.  March will be a lot more daylight for you. All I can say is it is great. I always remember meeting another rider years ago and he told me that Gaspe is as close to being in heaven as it gets.  Hope all this helps.  Be safe.

I know this happens and really don't understand why people steal or acquire trail signs. It just seem that every year there is less signage and the posts are still there.
Anyway an idea that might work is if the clubs were to have some plastic inexpensive signs made up that look the same and size made and sell them in there club houses at a much larger price. I'm thinking  something that cost 2 dollar and sell for 10. The profit could then be used to buy the regular signs that are put out on the trails. They could also offer them when the trail passes are purchased. Personally I like signs. Just a thought.

I got a email from a club president from western Quebec and he said the government representative agreed to start a conversation last night. He thought that was good news,