RZRs, Wildcats and Mavericks are indeed sport SXS's but I'd say they more closely resemble sport 4x4s like the renegade and scrambler than they do real race/sport quads like raptors and yfz's.

This will be the first SxS that sacrifices ease of use for pure performance and that's exactly what this segment was without. Even if this particular model doesn't sell all that well, it will still bring the attention and prestige back to yamaha. They now have a SxS that will bring potential buyers into the yamaha section of the dealership to check it out, even if they don't buy it. It may not be for everybody but I'm sure they will sell quite a few of them in the southwest. If you want a recreational 4x4, they still make them. This is a gift for those of us who love performance but also want to be in full control. I'm not going to mark it as a early failure just because a majority of the public won't be able to ride it. As long as yamaha can get the demographic that they will market it towards to buy it then it will probably be around for awhile. The true enthusiasts on the west coast will have a hell of a machine to rip around.

 

I have no problem with shifting. The problem is that the public has shown that they don't want to shift with sales. Is Yamaha trying to target some other audience than the public? At least give it a dual mode like Honda.

 

Until September 1st, all we are doing is blind bench racing. Noone knows what they are bringing to the table. I have a feeling the side by side community is about to be turned upside down. Good or bad I don't know. I am excited to see this thing.

 

I agree. Its why automatic 4wd trucks out number standards on the floor with a foot clutch , who wants to shift if you don't have to.
They will throw some 100 plus hp motor in it from a sled or motorcycle with a CVT tranny and off it goes.

 

Something like 3 weeks to a month ago my dealer told me it was coming with paddle shifters. I agree with many that a automobile style foot clutch would not be ideal for off-roading. We know it is sequential shift, so that would be just like the Honda's. I would think it would have an auto mode because Honda offers one and they could do it as well. Problem is they don't work very well for performance, but for putting around the computer logic of when to shift is passable.

I think going away from the CVT is a good move. Yamaha seems to have been pretty competitive with their pricing of the Viking and Wolverine so this new one might not be too expensive? I don't think the market needs another $20,000 SXS. The other OEM's have that covered and Yamaha always looks for niches in which to sell their products as they often don't always align with what the competition is selling.

 

I can imagine that the computer could be programmed to shift properly. Sports cars have dual-clutch auto transmissions and they outperform manual transmissions because no human can shift as fast as a computer can. The Pioneer 1000 has 2 auto modes. A normal mode that upshifts more quickly to keep rpms down and save fuel and a sport mode that holds the lower gear a bit longer and doesn't upshift right away to increase performance. Actually on the Pioneer 1000 you can use the paddle shifters at any time you want to if choose, no matter what mode it is in. The only time I would think this form of automatic transmission would be a disadvantage over a cvt would be in the dunes or climbing other very long, steep hills. A cvt would keep the machine accelerating smoothly until you finally just run out of power. A transmission with a set number of gears would would either run out of speed in a lower gear or not have enough power to make it once it shifted into the next higher gear on a steep enough climb. The momentary pause of shifting into the next gear would cause the machine to lose momentum and fail to make the climb. This would only be a problem on extreme climbs that not every machine will be able to conquer anyway so I guess its rare that this would happen.

 

Check this out at 3:45 regarding a DCT tranny in automatic mode.

 

With 100hp a CVT will not run out of power, have you ever seen mountain sleds climb. I doubt they would climb as good if the guy had to worry about what gear he is in.

Skip to 34 sec into video. They may run out of traction but never power.

 

I ride snowmobiles in the mountains and CVT's are the only way to go because deep snow has so much resistance and its consistency changes so much that the CVT keeps the motor in its sweet spot much better than a geared tranny would. That said, they are also used in a cold, clean environment. Do you know what part fails the most on modern sleds? The belt. A Polaris RMK belt is $200! While belts have improved over the years, they are still the most failure prone part. On top of that, the average wet weight of a high performance sled is under 600lbs (not counting the tank like Yamaha's) the 4 stroke sleds are heavier.

How many geared tranny failures do guys see with dirt bikes or ATV's? Very very few. I bet Yamaha tested their new SXS with a CVT tranny and the failure rate with a big motor, 1000lb+ weight and hot, dirty environments was not acceptable to their standards of reliability.

 

My comment was meant to say that a cvt is better than a transmission that shifts with a specified number of gears. There might be more power loss with a cvt but it has basically an unlimited amount of gears. Whatever speed you're going, its always in the perfect gear for that speed. Climbing a long, steep hill with a 5 or 6 speed transmission, eventually you're going to have to shift and you'll lose all your momentum and not make it. Even one of these dual-clutch autos still has to shift. That fraction of a second that it takes to shift to a higher gear to gain speed is still enough to stop you. Just pin it with a cvt and you never have to lift even for a fraction of a second. Full throttle all the way up.