It looks like several people are finally getting out and able to demo the new Lynx sleds. I wanted to start a thread for people to post their ride opinions and others to ask questions or get info if they are not able to ride one. Below is my ride impressions for 90 miles of fun on northern WI today.
I want to start by saying thank you to Mike at Tomahawk Sports Center in Tomahawk WI for letting us take this sled today. My dad and I put 90 miles on, some of the best trails I have seen all season. Here is a unbiased review of the sled and comparing it to the 2021 MXZ XRS 850 that my dad owns. That XRS also has a 1.5" track and we were able to switch back and forth all day. I will try to keep it short but I am so darn excited! I will also add that I have had snocross sleds, fully prepped cross country sleds and XRS model sleds since the 2007 REV XRS came out. I feel like I have a lot of fantastic sleds to compare to and dont get me wrong the XRS is an amazing sled!
Before even riding this morning I wanted to take the time to set up the sled as if it were my own so I could get a honest ride impression. I have taken demo sleds in the past and have found that other demo riders start "adjusting" things without and idea of what they are doing. My first 30 minutes with the sled started off with setting the proper sag and adjusting the shocks. I found that the front was about 1.5" off (low) which could cause a lot of body roll and inside ski lift. I brought the sag to about 1.5" of squat and went from there. The rear fell about 5" from the locked position to me sitting on it and I weigh 210 lbs I knew this was to much so I adjusted the rear to squat about 3.5". On every XRS that I have had (several since 2007) this was done mostly by the torsion spring, the Lynx does not have that so, I had to adjust the shock. It was not hard to do but took more time than the torsion spring. Now that the sag was set I went through the high and low speed compression and also the rebound on the shocks. As I figured the last person to ride the sled had it all F'ed up! The front left shock had low speed compression on full soft and high speed compression on full stiff. The front right was not even close to what the front left was. These KYB shocks are impressive and I had to think back to my years of snocross and cross country racing to remember a time working on high end shocks like these. I set high and low speed in the middle. My personal preference is always setting rebound just a tad softer than the high and low speed. This is where the Lynx is such an improvement if you understand what you are doing. The XRS sleds keep getting watered down year over year and the big red knob is simple but does not give you what you could really have. Being that we are talking about shocks and sled set up I was a bit bummed to find that the Lynx does not come with any tool that would adjust the high speed, even the tool in the tool kit does not have the right size on it. Low speed on the front shocks is a little twist knob, but the rear you need a flat head screw driver which is also not provided with the sled. Good thing I was at the cabin and had the tools to make the adjustments. I also had to throw these in the front glove box for trail side adjustments. Wouldn't you think a $17,000 sled would come with a flathead and a small wrench to adjust the high speed compression?
Finally we are ready to ride. It took me approx 10 miles of mostly groomed flat trail with a few studder bumps to dial in the shocks from my starting point. I left high speed alone, but softened low speed and rebound a few clicks. After I did this it was DIALED IN!!!! The big question we are all reading on line is about cornering and is this a trail sled or a rough trail sled only. Here in WI we have smooth trails 85% of the time, and this was a huge concern on mine. Once the sled was dialed in it corned perfectly flat all day, no different than the 21 XRS with RAS X. Lynx marketing is telling us consumers this a rough/big bump trail sled, and it is and we will get to that, but they should be also bragging about the smooth trail compliance and how amazing this sled rides and handles. If you dont understand the adjustability of the suspension on these shocks you will not like this sled. If you are a slide, point and shoot and grab a hand full of throttle you wont like this sled. If you are a smooth rider who dips their shoulder and nods their head to the side with keeping your butt in the same position all day you wont like this sled. You absolutely do not need to hang off the side of the sled to get this to turn, just shift your weight a little bit and move your "edit for bad language" on the seat and you will be pleasantly surprised. Flat corners with very little push. Did the sled push? Yes it did. Did it push more than the XRS? Yes it did. The XRS had 7.5" Studboy Shaper bars on it and the Lynx had 4" rounded off cheapo factory carbides that are less than ideal on any sled. When I say the sled pushed, it did, I am being honest but I am saying very very very little push. In my opinion the XRS you ride, the RAVE RE you drive. The XRS you sit in, the RAVE RE you sit on. If you are willing to be some what active on the seat, and you have a smooth thumb you can run the fun flipper to the bars between each corner with no issues at all. The skis pick up and can settle with confidence to rail a corner, the key is being smooth and understanding the weight transfer of the machine. The RAVE RE is a wonderful groomed trail sled and I was presently surprised. My 61 year old father rode the Lynx smoother, quicker and more efficiently than I have ever seen him ride one of his XRS sleds before. His smile was just as big as mine. You dont have to be a young punk kid to enjoy this sled!
Rough swamp: We purposely made our loop to seek out a swamp that is roughly 500 yards long between a few lakes, and this swamp never gets groomed once all winter. I am not trying to boast myself up as I am by no means the best rider out there, but I feel that I can hang in the rough stuff thanks to my years of sno-x and XC racing. We went to the swamp and went through it at a normal pace of 30-35mph and I found myself giggling after the first run through. Bumps today varied from 8" to knee high. I made roughly 10 laps through the swamp which is a long sweeping corner and a straight full of woops. Here is where the RAVE RE really shines! I can say that I was going 48 mph confidently with zero rear end swap and hammering through the woops, I could have easily gone faster but the swamp was ending with a sharp corner onto the ice of the next lake. At 48 mph it was smooth, very stable and the suspension was wanting more and more. Cool right! But now what would the MXZ XRS do? Yes the MXZ is a 129" track and not a 137, but it was no comparison. Between 40-42 mph the rear end was swapping so far back and forth I was forced to let off. 6-8 mph does not sound like a lot but in a 500 yard run full of whoops its a big difference. Note that the suspensions on both sleds were not adjusted from groomed trail mode to rough mode when we got to the swamp. We just blasted through the way they were set up. After a few runs of swapping back and forth at 42 mph on the XRS I returned to my new girl friend for one last hammer through the crap...Man is she sweet!!!!
Lastly Play Time: You find the rolling hill in the field, woods etc the RAVE RE will carry the skis how ever far you would like. So fun and so controllable thanks to a great suspension. We also ran the ditches for a ways jumping little driveways, side hilling the steep parts that were full of snow from the road being plowed all winter, wheelies up the ditches in the deep snow and what a fantastic sled. I stood the RAVE on its back bumper and wheelied up the hill, turned it on its track pointed it back downhill and set the skis down while smiling the whole time. Hopped on the XRS with RAS X, (the rear skid is set on the more transfer mode) and it kinda wheelied in the deep snow up the hill a little bit, but not a whole lot. Still fun, for sure but not RAVE fun.
This got longer than anticipated but hopefully gave some people some idea's before they go drop a large chunk of change on a 2022. To recap the RAVE is a great trail sled if you understand how to adjust the suspension. If you dont get it, dont buy it, stick the to XRS. If you are a sit on the seat and dip your shoulder and tilt your head to turn....buy the XRS. If you are a hammer, slide, point and shoot driver in the woods get the XRS, or get the RAVE and find yourself several new front bumpers as you will be in the trees. If you are smooth with the fun flipper, understand the expensive shocks you are about to buy get the RAVE you wont be disappointed!
I want to start by saying thank you to Mike at Tomahawk Sports Center in Tomahawk WI for letting us take this sled today. My dad and I put 90 miles on, some of the best trails I have seen all season. Here is a unbiased review of the sled and comparing it to the 2021 MXZ XRS 850 that my dad owns. That XRS also has a 1.5" track and we were able to switch back and forth all day. I will try to keep it short but I am so darn excited! I will also add that I have had snocross sleds, fully prepped cross country sleds and XRS model sleds since the 2007 REV XRS came out. I feel like I have a lot of fantastic sleds to compare to and dont get me wrong the XRS is an amazing sled!
Before even riding this morning I wanted to take the time to set up the sled as if it were my own so I could get a honest ride impression. I have taken demo sleds in the past and have found that other demo riders start "adjusting" things without and idea of what they are doing. My first 30 minutes with the sled started off with setting the proper sag and adjusting the shocks. I found that the front was about 1.5" off (low) which could cause a lot of body roll and inside ski lift. I brought the sag to about 1.5" of squat and went from there. The rear fell about 5" from the locked position to me sitting on it and I weigh 210 lbs I knew this was to much so I adjusted the rear to squat about 3.5". On every XRS that I have had (several since 2007) this was done mostly by the torsion spring, the Lynx does not have that so, I had to adjust the shock. It was not hard to do but took more time than the torsion spring. Now that the sag was set I went through the high and low speed compression and also the rebound on the shocks. As I figured the last person to ride the sled had it all F'ed up! The front left shock had low speed compression on full soft and high speed compression on full stiff. The front right was not even close to what the front left was. These KYB shocks are impressive and I had to think back to my years of snocross and cross country racing to remember a time working on high end shocks like these. I set high and low speed in the middle. My personal preference is always setting rebound just a tad softer than the high and low speed. This is where the Lynx is such an improvement if you understand what you are doing. The XRS sleds keep getting watered down year over year and the big red knob is simple but does not give you what you could really have. Being that we are talking about shocks and sled set up I was a bit bummed to find that the Lynx does not come with any tool that would adjust the high speed, even the tool in the tool kit does not have the right size on it. Low speed on the front shocks is a little twist knob, but the rear you need a flat head screw driver which is also not provided with the sled. Good thing I was at the cabin and had the tools to make the adjustments. I also had to throw these in the front glove box for trail side adjustments. Wouldn't you think a $17,000 sled would come with a flathead and a small wrench to adjust the high speed compression?
Finally we are ready to ride. It took me approx 10 miles of mostly groomed flat trail with a few studder bumps to dial in the shocks from my starting point. I left high speed alone, but softened low speed and rebound a few clicks. After I did this it was DIALED IN!!!! The big question we are all reading on line is about cornering and is this a trail sled or a rough trail sled only. Here in WI we have smooth trails 85% of the time, and this was a huge concern on mine. Once the sled was dialed in it corned perfectly flat all day, no different than the 21 XRS with RAS X. Lynx marketing is telling us consumers this a rough/big bump trail sled, and it is and we will get to that, but they should be also bragging about the smooth trail compliance and how amazing this sled rides and handles. If you dont understand the adjustability of the suspension on these shocks you will not like this sled. If you are a slide, point and shoot and grab a hand full of throttle you wont like this sled. If you are a smooth rider who dips their shoulder and nods their head to the side with keeping your butt in the same position all day you wont like this sled. You absolutely do not need to hang off the side of the sled to get this to turn, just shift your weight a little bit and move your "edit for bad language" on the seat and you will be pleasantly surprised. Flat corners with very little push. Did the sled push? Yes it did. Did it push more than the XRS? Yes it did. The XRS had 7.5" Studboy Shaper bars on it and the Lynx had 4" rounded off cheapo factory carbides that are less than ideal on any sled. When I say the sled pushed, it did, I am being honest but I am saying very very very little push. In my opinion the XRS you ride, the RAVE RE you drive. The XRS you sit in, the RAVE RE you sit on. If you are willing to be some what active on the seat, and you have a smooth thumb you can run the fun flipper to the bars between each corner with no issues at all. The skis pick up and can settle with confidence to rail a corner, the key is being smooth and understanding the weight transfer of the machine. The RAVE RE is a wonderful groomed trail sled and I was presently surprised. My 61 year old father rode the Lynx smoother, quicker and more efficiently than I have ever seen him ride one of his XRS sleds before. His smile was just as big as mine. You dont have to be a young punk kid to enjoy this sled!
Rough swamp: We purposely made our loop to seek out a swamp that is roughly 500 yards long between a few lakes, and this swamp never gets groomed once all winter. I am not trying to boast myself up as I am by no means the best rider out there, but I feel that I can hang in the rough stuff thanks to my years of sno-x and XC racing. We went to the swamp and went through it at a normal pace of 30-35mph and I found myself giggling after the first run through. Bumps today varied from 8" to knee high. I made roughly 10 laps through the swamp which is a long sweeping corner and a straight full of woops. Here is where the RAVE RE really shines! I can say that I was going 48 mph confidently with zero rear end swap and hammering through the woops, I could have easily gone faster but the swamp was ending with a sharp corner onto the ice of the next lake. At 48 mph it was smooth, very stable and the suspension was wanting more and more. Cool right! But now what would the MXZ XRS do? Yes the MXZ is a 129" track and not a 137, but it was no comparison. Between 40-42 mph the rear end was swapping so far back and forth I was forced to let off. 6-8 mph does not sound like a lot but in a 500 yard run full of whoops its a big difference. Note that the suspensions on both sleds were not adjusted from groomed trail mode to rough mode when we got to the swamp. We just blasted through the way they were set up. After a few runs of swapping back and forth at 42 mph on the XRS I returned to my new girl friend for one last hammer through the crap...Man is she sweet!!!!
Lastly Play Time: You find the rolling hill in the field, woods etc the RAVE RE will carry the skis how ever far you would like. So fun and so controllable thanks to a great suspension. We also ran the ditches for a ways jumping little driveways, side hilling the steep parts that were full of snow from the road being plowed all winter, wheelies up the ditches in the deep snow and what a fantastic sled. I stood the RAVE on its back bumper and wheelied up the hill, turned it on its track pointed it back downhill and set the skis down while smiling the whole time. Hopped on the XRS with RAS X, (the rear skid is set on the more transfer mode) and it kinda wheelied in the deep snow up the hill a little bit, but not a whole lot. Still fun, for sure but not RAVE fun.
This got longer than anticipated but hopefully gave some people some idea's before they go drop a large chunk of change on a 2022. To recap the RAVE is a great trail sled if you understand how to adjust the suspension. If you dont get it, dont buy it, stick the to XRS. If you are a sit on the seat and dip your shoulder and tilt your head to turn....buy the XRS. If you are a hammer, slide, point and shoot driver in the woods get the XRS, or get the RAVE and find yourself several new front bumpers as you will be in the trees. If you are smooth with the fun flipper, understand the expensive shocks you are about to buy get the RAVE you wont be disappointed!
