CampKevin Apex GT

192 Stud Boy "Power Point" 1.375". I give these carbide tipped spikes mucho credit for doing well in pick-up drags. More than a few guys have said something like this, " you beat me because you have more studs". Well... get more studs and see me next time. By loading up the track with studs, I have greatly reduced the odds of breaking or bending studs due to spinnage. I used a Stud Boy pattern that puts the studs all over the track, not just the inside. If you mount studs all over the track there is a better chance that each individual stud will find a fresh piece of ice to bite into. I'm not a bit concerned about "killing" my track by running them on the way outside. I've had four tracks studded this way and I've seen no failures because of this.

2. I lower the front end as much as possible. I jack up the sled and loosen the springs as much as I could without the spring loosing contact with the adjuster nut. This only lowers the front by 3/4+- inches. Every bit helps.

3. I adjust my weight transfer so that in typical conditions the skis get 3-4 inches off the snow for a short while and then settle down into "speed mode". I've seen a ton of guys get smoked with their skiis pointed up to the heavens. The whole idea of setting this up isn't to impress your buddies or get tons of views on YouTube, it is to get maximum traction while moving forward, not straight up. Update... Ive shortended my limiter strap with by one hole to the thirs from loosest. I did this to get more bite out of the front end while in the turns. I think it took just a bit of accelleration away from my holeshots.

4. Before a drag, with my left thumb, I electronically soften the rear to full soft. This helps with weight transfer so all those studs dig into the ice. A soft rear also seems to lower the sled a bit. As seen in the below pics, the multi-function thumb switch and the gauge pod with the rear suspension set at full soft.

All of the above mods made for a very fast sled. None of the mods were irreversible or expensive. I was very happy with my 2006 Apex GT until the first day of our 10 day Canada trip. After a stellar morning and a good lunch, I hit a huge square edged rock with my right ski. A 50 mph impact threw me from the sled. I thought I hit a landmine because I saw nothing other than snow then sky then snow. The sled looked fine but a good look at the front end showed everything was a little crooked. I closer look showed one of the a-arm bolts had broken out of the bulkhead. 3 days later I was home and having my insurance adjuster look at my Apex. Erie insurance totalled the sled and within a week I was on my brand new 2007 Apex GT.

be back soon

To reduce friction in the skid, I installed Yamaha's marginal snow wheel kit. This kit consists of two wheels that you bolt to the rails of your skid. The wheels are mounted just aft of the bend on the rails. When hauling ass, the track hits the skid and generates a ton of friction. The friction is limited through these bearinged wheels by keeping the track from rubbing the hyfax. Even when I'm running new hyfax at sustained high speed, I rarely smell melting plastic. The wheel kit aslo extends hyfax life, I've read about Yamahas eating hyfax in 300 miles, I've got 1500 miles on my '07 and are only 1/2 worn. These wheels cost me $85 at Mountain Extreme and took 1 hour to install, (don't forget the RED Locktite). The smallest wheel in the above picture is the Marginal Snow wheel.

Looking to get maximum speed out of your sled? You need to reduce the frontal area (FA). Lowering your sled is one way to reduce your FA. Another way is to tuck as low as you can but you probably already know that. At speed, most of your sled's horsepower is used to break through the air. A sled with a smaller FA will require less horsepower per given speed than a sled with a larger FA. Therfore, with all other things being equal, the smaller the sled's FA, the faster the top speed.

To lower my '06, I removed and measured the stock front shocks. I then went to my local motorcycle salvage yard and bought a shorter pair of shocks off an unknown quad. These shocks offered about 1" of travel but lowered the sleds front by 3+ inches. The rear of the sled was lowered using a fat buddy and a strong ratchet strap. Have your buddy sit on the seat while you bind up the suspension with the strap. Using this technique, I was able to lower the rear by 3+ inches to match the front. Due to my encounter with a rock in Canada, I was never able to run the lowered version of this sled on a lake. I'd like to add this, I would NEVER run any sled set up this way on the trails. The lack of suspension travel would make the sled a real bitch to ride.

A quick vid of me on my '06 in Canada. I hit 113mph on the speedo which is about 103 in the real world. The lake we were running on had about 6 inches of speed robbing snow on top of the fast ice. The lake had two-two mile stretches with a very gradual 45 degree turn in the middle. This was one of the smaller lakes but you could pin the throttle for almost five miles!

Turn up the volume!

This is a wheel I took off of my '07 in the fall of 2007. Only 1500 miles on this wheel and it would barely turn. If you had a skid full of these wheels, you'd see a serious loss of speed. In the closeup picture, you can see that the factory grease has turned into some kind of funky spooge. I gave this bearing a good cleaning and greasing. Nothing other than someone on a faster sled can stop me now.

Carbide tipped studs, $1.50 a piece installed but worth their weight in gold. I have a buddy with a turbo RX1 with 240 of these bad boys. I've got 192 in mine. I heard from the studless guys I see out on the trail that they don't run studs because it weakens the track. Sliding into a tree at 100mph will also weaken the track. I rode my '07 for 500 miles without studs. In perfect non ice, snowy conditions, the studs weren't missed. But..... after the trails saw a few thaw-freeze cycles, my non-studded sled was dangerous. I'd be on the pipe at 80-90 mph and I'd spin wildly at every icy patch. Spinning at 90 mph is spooky and not being able to slow down on ice is just plain stupid. After my non-studded icy condition ride, I new I had to stud up so 192 holes were drilled into my track using one of Woddy's patterns. Now ice is my friend and there is very little spinage out of the hole and only a hard stab of the breaks will lock up the track.

I installed a 23 tooth top gear to give me more bottom end and top speed. How could a gain of bottom and top be true you ask? The apex has a 24 tooth top gear stock. The motor doesn't have the power to wind out this gear which on paper is good for 130 mph. You need major horsepower to see 130, the stock 150hp won't get you there. The 23 toother lets me see a higher top end because it gets the motor into the meat of the powerband. I'd compare it to any latemodel GM Corvette or Camaro 6 speed. Top speed is always in 5th instead of 6th. In my '96 Trans Am WS6 I be zipping along at 140mph+ in 5th. A shift to 6th would cause me to slow down to ~120 since the 300+ horses didn't have the power to pull the higher gear. With the 24 tooth gear in, the Apex is the same way, less gear is needed to see maxium speed. The 23 gear will lower the overall ratio so a stronger pull will be had off the line. There has been a lot of internet debate on this subject. I'm a believer, get the lower gear.

Suspension setup is mostly trial and error. After lots of clicking and dicking around, my sled is fastest when....

1. I run the track as loose as possible. I did this by loosening the track until it ratchets and then tightening it up a hair. Yamaha specs are WAY too tight. The picture below shows how loose I run the track. I had some ratcheting on the snowy grass recently but there is MUCHO traction on grass. I should be all right on snow or ice.

5. I adjust the front shocks clickers, well only the rebound (the bottom knob) to full soft. This lets the front of the sled come up quicker by letting the skiis stay down a bit longer while the nose rises. I usually run the compression (the top knob) a few clicks tighter than stock.

6. I lube EVERYTHING in the skid. This includes all zerk fittings and wheels. You'd be amazed how bad wheel bearings can get after one season. To lube wheel bearings you need to remove the wheel, remove the rubber seal from the side of the bearing (a tiny flathead screwdriver works best). Odds are the bearing will look like garbage with dirt, rust and what used to be grease. Unless perfect, I'll hit them with carb cleaner or any other solvent and then with compressed air. Once clean I lube them with a quality grease. If bearings ar very ugly or frozen, note the number on the side of the bearings and give that number to your local bearing store. Bearings come in standard sizes, your bearing guy will have them.

7. I check for proper track alignment. I jack up the rear of my sled, start sled and get the track spinning pretty fast. I let it coast to a stop and make sure the track is centered in the skid. I check the distance between the steel clips of the track and the hyfax. If both sides are equal, I'm gold.