revct1

Hi Groomer, We've been looking at your pics for awhile. Fantastic!!! You do more for promoting this sport than any other groomer. Reports, pics, laughs, it is great. Maybe we’ll get out to see you this year. We’ve been to Gaspesie a couple of times but it has been a few years since the last trip. Maybe this will be the year. Thanks again. Jack & Sandi :D

Hi Xeena, What year is the Vector and what size motor is it? Hubby’s sled is a Rev “X”. If you’re light, I can see it being a little stiff for you and the “X” may have a shorty windshield which means COLD! Stay with what you like. Thanks for your response Xeena. Jack :D

Hi SnowCrazed, Don't take offense to the last line. Just being silly. Jack :D

Hi SnowCrazed, Very good. I’ve thought about the same belt but haven’t gone as far as plugs and other parts. MPG's are important too. You never know when you need something and it may be on the other sled. Do you and your wife wear the same shoes? Thanks, Jack :D

Hi 600IQHO, I don’t use a heated shield on the BV2. I didn’t use a heated shield on my modular before that. It has probably been at least ten years since I’ve used a heated shield. I know a lot of riders prefer heated shields and I may be in the minority. With that said, I very, very rarely have a fogging issue (knock on wood) :D . I’ll have a problem if it is freezing rain but even heated shields do then. The only time I have had any fog with the BV2 is in front of my right eye. My right eye tends to water easily and when it does I will get a small spot in front of it. I feel it is my old defective body and not any design problem with the shield :wacko: . My hat size is 7 3/8 which is big but not gigantic. The face piece on the modular was tight for me but they only come in one size. The BV2 face piece is adjustable so I feel more comfortable in it when compared to the modular. My wife's modular was about five years old when the gasket around the shield started to deteriorate and leak air around the shield. That is one of the reasons she replaced hers. All of this is just my 2¢ worth. Please don’t take me for gospel but only as one opinion of many. Try on different helmets. You may even be able to rent one from one of the dealers that rent sleds. I know they rent suits, boots and helmets but I don’t know if they have BV2's or only the open face helmets. My dealer only rents open face helmets. (Health reasons, germs in the mouthpiece. ) What brand is the helmet that you bought last year? You mention cold air under the helmet and on to your face. I had that issue for many years because my suit didn’t fit high enough on my neck. I tried a gator around my neck and fur around the top of the suit and still would get a draft. I bought a suit that fits high on the neck and a Ski Doo wind resistant balaclava and the combination solved the cold neck / draft under the helmet problem. My wife just reminded me that we have medium high windshields on the sleds. This may be just enough to deflect the air away from the chin area and help eliminate the draft problem. PS. One of the magazines recently were testing sleds and noticed that the same sled with a taller windshield gains 1-2 mph because of the better aerodynamics, windshield vs. a body sticking up over the handlebars. Who would have ever guessed that? Everybody has a helmet and an opinion. That is why there is more than one helmet manufacturer. One size does not fit all! Do your research and may the best helmet win! Jack :D

Hi NitroFish, You couldn't have said it any better "A happy wife makes a happy husband". The nice hotel, good food and other extras aren't a lot more money when you look at the big picture. I think it is worth the extra few dollars for a nice place to stay as opposed to an "OK" place. After the sleds are purchased, the truck and trailer to tow them, all the clothing and everything else what is $20 more for a nice room. Thanks for your input. Maybe we'll see you on the trails. Jack :D

SnowBunny, one other thing I wanted to mention about clothing is we have been wearing Ski Doo's dentek tops and bottoms. They are light weight and pretty much wind proof. I feel you can drop two heavier layers of clothing for one dentek. The disadvantage is they are a little pricey but good things are usually expensive. Jack

Hi SnowBunny, Welcome to Quebec Rider. Thanks for the response. 2010 Ski Doo 600 E Tec is a great choice. I think it is really important that the wife / girlfriend is on a sled that is comparable to his. Sandi has a 2010 Ski Doo GSX. She loves it. I’ve got a 2009 Renegade. Same as you and your boyfriend, the female has the new sled. I think that is called role reversal, but that's good. We started the post just to see what other couples were riding and not to pick out a sled for my wife. We have seen couples where the wife is on a hand me down or an older sled and can’t run the same as the husband. Unfortunately, the wife gets blamed for her ability and it is really the sled that is holding her back. Thanks again and happy trails to you. Jack :D

There was a post over on Doo Talk that had a lot of opinions about helmets. You may want to check over there for some additional info. Sandi and I have been using Ski Doo's helmets for many years. We both had the original Modular and we were happy with them. I went to the BV2 a couple of years ago. I like the drop down face so you can talk when you're stopped without having to take the helmet off. I don't use a heated shield and haven't had any fogging problems. Some people say I don’t breath. Sandi tried the BV2 but couldn't get her glasses on and off with the helmet on. No glasses for Sandi is a big problem. She went with the newer Modular instead and is very happy. She has a heated shield but doesn't plug it in very often. In the past she would always have the shield plugged in. I think it is combination of the newer helmet and the taller windshield on her sled that keeps her shield clear. The disadvantages with the BV2 that I have found are: 1. They drip down the front of your suit. 2. Some people have had problems with the heated shield fogging between the layers of plastic. I'm told Ski Doo replaces the shields if they are less than one year old. 3. The exhaust valve sometimes freezes when it is cold, -20 C and colder. If you huff and puff a little it usually thaws the valve out right away. It is just a surprise the first time it happens. The advantages with the BV2 (my 2¢): 1. I find them to be light. 2. They are warm if you don’t have any air leaks. 3. They don’t fog up. 4. Plenty of side vision. 5. A second yellow or smoked shield is built in that is easy to use. One other note is we use Ski Doo’s balaclava (did I spell that right?) I think it is made out of Dentek material and it does not let any air thru to your neck. You have to have no air leaks in the neck area no matter what helmet you have. And it goes without saying that if you wear a balaclava, try the helmet on with the balaclava on. Happy shopping. Jack

Hi FarmerOld, I rememer reading your posts about your big excursion out thru Quebec and Ontario. Quite a feat. So many riders would love to do that and since Joni joins in, it must make it great. Thanks for your comments. Jack

Hi Viper, Your thinking along the same lines as we do. It really adds to the sport when you can share it with your wife and both have a good time and to do that she has to be comfortable. Snowmobiling is a great family sport. A couple of years ago, my wife decided to lead for awhile. I like to stop once an hour for that ever so needed pee break and stretch a little (the wife doesn't like to pee on the trail, understandably). So, when she lead, 2½ hours and 60 miles later she stops. Yea she thought it was funny because she didn't even realize how long she was leading. Hi SnowIsLike Crack, Good point in having her try different sleds before buying. Sometimes that is easier said than done but you can get a lot of feedback from her that way. Maybe a buddy's sled or a very generous dealer. Reading the last line of your reply makes me think you may have thought the question was for my wife but my post isn't for us directly, we are just curious as to what other couples are riding. The topic had come up in a thread on Doo Talk by another rider and we got to talking wondering what other couples rode. Who else out there is enjoying this great sport with their other half? Jack & Sandi

Hi Jackstraw, If you want to head another hour east, you could try Hotel Bernieres, St Nicolas. It is just below Quebec City on autoroute 20. Their website is http://www.hotelbernieres.qc.ca/. They have a good restaurant and a bar. There is a gas station just down the street that you can snowmobile to. Years ago they did have a theft problem. I lost a 2 place trailer from there but they have since put up an enclosed gated area for truck and trailers. It is not huge, maybe 10 trucks can fit in there. They speak english and get a lot of snowmobile and ATV traffic. There is a short trail that leads out to trails 5 & 75. Much of trail 35 is railroad bed. Trail 55 is also very nice but more scenic. From Hotel Bernieres you can do nice day trips or overnights. It is a one day ride to Riviere du Loup, 210 miles by sled. Thetford Mines / St Georges is an easy ride. We are going up Martin Luther King weekend for 4 days. Happy trails to you! Jack

Sandi and I were talking about a thread we read on Doo Talk from a sledder asking "What kind of sled to by the wife?" There were many responses and some of them were putting the wife on a smaller older sled than the husband. Our question to those of you that ride with your spouse and you both have sleds, what sled does she have and what sled does he have? Do you ride similar to each other or is one always waiting for the other? If the wife is on a smaller sled, does she feel like she is always playing catch up? Thanks in advance for responding. Jack

Thanks Greg. I wasn't sure which Esso station was closed. It is good to hear L'Etape and Mont Apica are open. I' m glad to hear that club UDM made a pass to L'Etape too. :D Thanks Jack

Hi Bob, We came back in the truck from Chicoutimi Sunday, Jan 3, 2010. There was plenty of snow going thru the park thru L’Etape. When we got to the big Petrocan station at the bottom of the park, it was just above freezing, +2°C, with a slight drizzle. After Quebec City we got on Autoroute 20 and the temperature dropped like a rock. It went from +3°C in Quebec City to -8°C in Drummondville. St Raymond may have stayed below freezing. Remember our observations were from the truck and not on the trail. On another thread here I read about Mt Apica not open yet for gas and maybe the Esso station in L’Etape is closed. I don’t know for sure but check your gas stops before heading out on trail 23. Has anybody rode 23 yet? If you did, how was gas availability? Jack

Hi Viper, The 1200's were brand new. Initial mileage was 12-14 mpg. After the break-in, the mileage went up to 15-16 mpg. My 09 800R Gade was very close in mileage to the 1200's. The 1200's run on regular gas where the 800R prefers super. As far as acceleration, we put the 800R Gade against one of the 1200's and they were very, very close. It was informal but there isn't a lot of difference in speed between them. The machines are dead stock other than studs down the middle of the track. Oh by the way, the "guys" consisted one male and two females. Jack

Info on buying Canadian dollars. I usually buy Canadian dollars on the way home from Canada for the next trip up. I exchange U.S. dollars at the Canadian duty free store on Auotroute 55 / Rt 91, Derby Line, Vermont. Today I asked and the clerk said they stopped exchanging U.S. for Canadian last year (2009). :sad: They only exchange Canadian for U.S. Apparently this service is for Canadians going to the U.S. or for U.S. citizens that are not returning to Canada and want to get rid of their left over Canadian dollars. I don’t know if this is true for all of the Duty Free Stores or just this one. I think the Duty Free Stores are independently owned and not Gov’t run. If they are independent, then there may be different policies on exchanging dollars. Has anyone else run across this? Any input would be appreciated. Jack

We are home in CT. The end of 6 days of riding. Saturday, Jan 2 was our last day on the trail for this trip. We averaged ±150 miles per day. As said in previous posts, overall the trails were typical of early season riding. Note: We were checked 3 times by security for trail permits. This is very unusual this early in the season. Make sure you have all of your paperwork with you and in order. We were just waved on once security saw the trial passes on the machines. There were 3 new 1200 4-tec machines in our group. I have an 09 800R Gade. Yea I’m the smelly one. :sad: General consensus from the riders of the 1200's is that they were very happy. I’m not saying this to start a brand discussion but just to give out some real world info. On this last trip we met Longriderss and Iceman. Hope you had a safe drive back home. We hope to see other QuebecRider.com sledders on the trail next trip. Jack & Sandi

About the different brands - All of the sleds will take you where you want to go for the most part. With a little care and attention they are all relatively reliable one brand to the next otherwise they wouldn't still be in business. I am loyal to the dealer that I use and I feel that he is loyal to me. If I have a problem, he does his best to fix it in a timely manner. He knows the season is short and time is very important. Service counts! From my humble point of view, the dealer and service are more important than the sticker on the sled. About the subject - I started snowmobiling in the late 60's and I have never gotten away from it. I was single and had extra spending money and this was the newest thing to do. It may have started off as more of a fad, riding around in the back yard and the fields next door, but the sport has grown and I have stayed hooked. Most of my friends that rode way back then have stopped for various reasons. My wife, girlfriend back in the 70's, started because I did and it was a way she could spend time with me. Then she got hooked on it too. Fortunately, our work schedule now allows time off during the winter. My wife and I both have a business and the winter months are quiet. I have met many riders that own their own business. I'm not sure what that says about the sport, just an observation. Snowmobiling is our vacation time. Like Viper2, we love something with a motor. With that said, we ride mostly in Quebec and not only enjoy the riding, the vistas, the food, the weather and the challenges but especially the people that we meet whether they are other snowmobilers or the people that work in the hotel or restaurant or relais that take care of us. If I was out there by myself, it would still be fun but sharing the experiences with others, the socializing, makes it that much better. That probably holds true for any other hobby. Jack & Sandi

I posted last night but it didn't take or maybe I clicked wrong. Here goes again. Jan 1, 2010 Friday. We rode from Chicutimi to La Chapelle and back. 367 across the dams was rough but when we got to the north side, SURPRISE, trail 93 was groomed. I don't know who was out grooming New Year's Eve but THANK YOU - THANK YOU. 93 from St Ambroise thru St Honore to the 383 junction was perfect! This was probably the best trail so far this week. After the 383 junction, 93 was poor and even that is a stretch. All the way to La Chapelle was rough, some spots worse than others but nothing good. 93 had really taken a beating. The next surpise was at La Chapelle. Yvonne, Andrea and Sonia were there working. Please excuse me if I spelt their names wrong. I didn't ask if they were back permanently or if it was a temp thing. It was great to see them. :D Sonia said the the Valinuet groomer was scheduled to groom 93 but didn't. She didn't know why. She said that they take care of 93 past La Chapelle at that is in good shape. After a good lunch, we headed back down 93 to the Bras Louis connector. The connector was rough but not as bad as 93. Bras Louis was not perfect but it was OK compared to what we had been riding. At the bottom of the mountain we got back on the groomed part of 93 and it felt great again. Jan 2, 2010 Saturday. I had talked to a couple that rode south on 83 and 383 on Friday and they said that it was rough so we decided to do Scoobyraid again. We rode 93 and 367 to Scoobyraid. Both of these were quite good. 367 near Scoobyraid had been groomed recently. We had an early lunch at Scoobyraid and then continued west on 367, 328 and then 93 to St Amboise and 367 to the dams. This part of the trip is very similar to what we did Dec 30th Wednesday. The trails weren't as good as they were Wed but still better than 93 on Mount Valin. When we crossed back over the dams we were early so we decided to loop around Jonquiere. We took 383 past Spence Ski Doo and then dropped down to 83 heading east back to Chicoutimi. 383 was rough but 83 was good especially in the open fields. Overall yesterday and today had a variety of trail conditions from exceptional to what am I doing here! Jack

A quick update. We are staying in Chicoutimi, Sagueneenne. Dec 30th, 2009 Wed, we rode to Scoobyraid via 93, 367, 328, local out of Begin to 367 to Scoobyraid. Some of the trails have been groomed recently but it is early season riding. After a good lunch at Scoobyraid, we headed west on 367 (backtracking the last 5 miles before lunch) towards St Monique. Just north of L'Acension, 367 was staked closed. There were tracks thru the stakes but we headed south in the direction the detour sign pointed. We picked up 328 and ran it until we hit 93 in Alma. All of this was recently groomed and made it very good riding. We took 93 east back to St Ambroise. Again it was recently groomed and was very good. We then headed south back to the hotel. Over all it was a good day of riding. Dec 31st, 2009 Thu, we rode north across the dams and picked up 93 east heading toward La Chapelle for lunch. 93 from St Ambroise to the 328 intersection after St Honore was fantastic. Some of the best flat riding so far. The trail to the summit of Mount Valin where the radio tower is, is no longer open to snowmobiles. 93 is still open and unchanged. Only the local trail over the mountain that was signed Tour La Hutte is closed. In place of this scenic outlook, there are at least 4 new outlooks. We tried the first new outlook which is just before Valinouet where the Bras Louis trail joins 93. This is a 2 mile climb to the top of a peak. The trail has been cut and a groomer attempted to groom it. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the groomer didn't make it to the top until we got to where he stopped. Our four sleds and 2 other small groups are parked on the side of the peak trying to turn around and head back down. Difficult to say the least but everyone made it with no casualties. The view is breath taking. Hopefully the trail will improve with snow. The rest of the day was fine. 93 is still in decent shape. Not table top smooth but still good. With this being New Year's Eve, there probably won't be much grooming until Jan 2, 2010. There is snow coming over the next few days so it is looking great for the new year. Happy New Year to all. Jack

We rode 93, a short piece of 367, 328 and some local trails today, Tues Dec 29th. We went east past St Honore and all the way to the intersection with 328 at the base of Mt Valin. The groomer turned around at the intersection of 328 and 93. We didn't ride past this point but another couple did. The trail was not groomed from this intersection up to the next groomer's garage, about 10 miles up 93. After that it was groomed. We turned around and headed west on 93 to 367 north and then headed west on 328 above St Ambroise thru Begin. This was just groomed and had very little traffic. There is a 5 mile stretch just before Relais des Lacs in Labreque that is not open yet. We had to take the quad trail for the 5 miles. The quad trail joins back with the snowmobile trail at Relais des Lacs. After the relais still heading west, 328 was groomed again. We then took the local trail down to 93. This was also groomed. We went as far as the intersection of 23 and 93 at Alma. It was groomed to there and still looked very good past there but we turned around to head back. We went down to St Charles de Bourget. This was groomed right to the Saguenay River. The river is frozen. We crossed the river but the trail was not groomed on the south shore towards 383 and had very little traffic so we turned around and took the local trail heading east back to 367 in Shipshaw. We crossed the dams and went back to the Sagueneenne. The trails are starting to shape up. They could still use a little more snow but for December it is looking good. Jack

Hi Crazysnow, My mistake. I thought you were referring to the ferry to Matane. :wacko: Longriderss is paying more attention than I am. The ferry you are referring to is no charge and does run continuously. Jack

We rode up to Scooby Raid yesterday from the Sagueneenne. The trails were OK. We went across both dams and then up 367. A little rough but not too bad for December. The base is thin in some of the turns and hills but that is to be expected this time of year. The groomers didn't go out because of the warm weather. The snow was too soft for them. William at Scooby Raid said they were going to start grooming last night and would be grooming for the next 24 hours. They should be able to do mnost of the trails in their area. We are heading up 93 today to Mount Valin. Jack

Hi Crazysnow, Check the schedule, make reservations and arrive one hour early. We haven't had any problems in the past but I always make reservations. Enjoy the ride. Jack :)