Another sale

So while I was on the 2 breakdown ride the other day it occured to me that since I've gotten the Grand Touring I haven't ridden the Tigre hardly at all and a big part of it is because while the thing is fun and fast and all it isn't terribly comfortable and if I'm not going to ride it I really ought to get rid of it. I've got 5 sleds right now and thats just too many.
Then I talked to Ed who mentioned he wants to sell his gorgeous '79 Pantera and that sealed the deal right there, the Tigre has got to go.
So for sale, 1 1981 Arctic Cat El Tigre 500cc Suzuki freeair engine with 150# of compression on each side, starts really easy, runs strong and fast.


A little bit cosmetically challenged, the hood is from an older Tigre, it has both types of hold down so you can choose which you like better. The heated grips work great, I put a new switch on last winter. New fuel lines last winter but they've hardened and should really be replaced although I've zip tied them on for safety. Carbs were cleaned last winter and the carb boots were replaced. New coil last winter, new headlight bucket and glass and new head and tail light bulb last winter.
The only thing I know doesn't work is the brake light but that'll be just a dirty switch which I think is in the handlebars, its definately not on the brake itself, I spent time looking for it the other day.
$600 and I'll deliver free to the NHSMA show this Sunday in Concord, NH.

-Curt

So lets say

Lets say you sank your Ski-Doo in a brook (see my post from yesterday)


and you bring your Cub Cadet tractor to pull it out and find yourself in this situation:


Probably means you're having a tough day huh?


Not so bad for us, we'd brought ramps and plenty of muscle, we were soon back on track.


I put a strap on the worst stuck ski while Bryan put ramps underneath.


I got the sled fired up while Bryan chipped some ice away. I was pleased that the Doo started easy.


I put Bryan on the Cub Cadet and got on the Doo, Angie took pictures. The plan was that if the Cub couldn't pull enough she'd hop on with Bryan to give added weight and therefore traction.


It turns out we didn't have to worry, after some mad scrabbling and sliding the sled came out with very little drama...


In fact the big drama was at the end as we couldn't get the Cub Cadet to climb the hill back up to the road. As the front tires started up the hill the rears wanted to dig for China. We strapped the wankle Panther to the front and I held it wide open and managed to drag the Cub up and out. I always knew that 303 rotary had some torque and towing power and I was very pleased with its effort on this.

Anyway big thanks to Bryan for his help and his most excellent camera, the pictures shown here are small percentages of the quality available in the originals. There are loads more pics too, at some point I'll make a video...

-Curt

CRAAAAPPPPPP!

Angie and I took the Ski-Doo out for a ride tonight. We wanted to explore over by lake Monomonac. On the way in we had to ride around one water hole. On the way back for some reason I decided we could cross the waterhole rather than go around.
WRONG!
The ice around the edge is severly undercut so the skis caught and we came to a DEAD stop immediately. Angie bailed out and filled her boots with water...
Crap.
I had Angie try backing up while I pulled (yay reverse) but the skis got caught under the ice going backwards. So we went in the woods and collected sticks to make a ramp out of the water. Now for some reason the sled won't go forward, I don't know if its stuck in reverse again or if its just stuck...

So, can't go forward, can't go back... Of course I forgot my camera. We called Angie's parents and walked out. Fortunately we were right by the grocery store so we waited for them there.

My plan tomorrow is to take my Cub Cadet tractor and the Wankle Panther, the sleigh and ramp boards. I'll wedge the ramp boards under the skis, hook the tow strap on the skis and pull... I think I'll buy a come-along. I'm not sure the Cub Cadet can pull the Ski-Doo out by itself but if we wedged it into place with some firewood behind the wheels a come-along will pull pretty hard....

1 ride, 2 breakdowns, still made it home!

Took the El Tigre out for a ride last night, I hadn't had it out of the yard yet this season... After a mile or so I noticed it was pulling even when I came of throttle. Af first I thought it was just the clutch sticking and didn't worry much about it. Then the carbs started to pop at low throttle. I got the sled turned around quick and headed back.
Pretty soon I realized that it wasn't the clutch sticking it was one of the carb slides so I stopped and shut it down. Immediately the bulb in my flashlight burned out... Fortunately it was bright enough outside I could see that one of the carb tops had come off. If the slide had come all the way out of the carb I'd have been in a world of hurt!
So I screwed the top back on and took off again, the sled running much better now. Pretty soon it just slows down and quits. This time I worked by cell phone light and found the gas line to the carb I'd worked on before had come off. I put the line on as best as I could but the clear plastic had gotten hard. I replaced all the gas lines on this sled last year. I'm not pleased with the clear plastic, the blue tinted stuff stays soft and doesn't have these problems. I won't use the clear again. I also noticed that the carb boot was kind of loose, of course I didn't have a screwdriver with me to tighten it...

So now the belly pan has gas in it. When I was a kid some friends had an El Tigre like this one which caught on fire presumably from a similar situation... So I left the hood up for 5 or 6 minutes and threw some snow down in the bellypan in the hope that it would dilute any remaining gas and fired it back up. The sled ran rough for a few secconds and then we were off but I took it easy, I didn't want that gas line coming loose or the carb falling off...

Got home with no further issues. Tightened the carb boot and put zip ties on those two gas lines until I get a chance to replace them. I'll put zip ties on ALL the gas lines before I do any more riding and on the new lines too.

I'm also going to start carrying a few more tools. A flashlight with a spare bulb, a screwdriver and a few zip ties for a starter!

Snowmobiler hurt

From the Keene, NH Sentinel:
"On Sunday, Susan Roser of Gardner, Mass., was hurt in a snowmobile accident in Marlborough when she lost control of her vehicle and went over an embankment — hitting a tree and a granite bridge along the way, according to Marlborough Police Det. Steven E. LaMears. LaMears didn’t know the full extent of Roser’s injuries but said her arm was badly hurt.”

Angie and I were there, we'd ridden past the spot maybe 30 minutes earlier. We hit the end of the trail turned around and came back to find:


We were asked to stay back as they pulled the woman up out of the ditch. Its not really a bridge as the article says its a stone culvert under the railbed. She was riding north toward Keene, facing the same way as the sleds in the picture and drifted off the trail (to her left, the right in the picture) . She left the trail and fell into the ditch, fortunately she didn't hit the stone of the culvert but still the force must have been tremendous, it buckled the trailing arm on that side of the sled, broke the tie rod and flipped the sled on top of her.
After she was removed I got to take a picture of the sled:

Amazingly the sled fired right up and ran fine. Some firemen and a police officer muscled it around in a circle and used their Polaris Ranger to winch it up out of the ditch.

A fireman then tied a stick between the two skis to keep the one with the broken tie rod from flopping around and managed to ride it out of the woods.

For our part Angie and I had a nice 40 mile round trip from Fitzwilliam to Keene.

-Curt

The new sled is fun, but....

Tried to go up to NH the other night with the new Ski-Doo. That thing goes like a bandit! Its tall though, I'd stopped a couple weeks ago at a tree down across the trail. This time I said to hell with it I'm going through. It was just the windshield pushing against the trunk anyway. The windshield dismounted itself, the little plastic posts that hold it on came off, so there was no real damage. I got stuck again not much farther along at another tree down, then damn near got stuck trying another trail. I'm going to try to figure out who owns or has responsibility for the trail so I can see about getting the two trees removed. I'd also like to see about getting permission to clean up the trail a little too, there are some major whoops that could be smoothed out and some bad ruts put in by idiots driving 4x4s down the trail. I'd like to get that turned into a real snowmobile trail and at least groom it a little...

Anyway the bigger problem I had was the sled wanting to overheat. Last time I rode I thought the temp was higher than I liked but it was pretty stable, this time it was leaning waaaayy up toward the hot zone making me nervous. Part of the problem was that the snow was crusty so I wasn't getting the snow up on the coolers the way I'd like to. The other issue I *think* is that there was some schumutz (theres a technical term for you) on the radiator cap preventing it from sealing correctly. I think it wasn't building up as much pressure as it ought to. I really should drain the coolant and replace too, it doesn't hold that much and who knows how good the stuff in there now is...

Anyway Sunday we got some new snow and I rode it around the yard without the schmutz in the cap and it seemed to stay cooler. I even got Angie driving it. She's really scared of the size and at first she'd only ride behind me and only with her head down and eyes closed. I took her over a couple of snow piles that I guess scared the snot out of her. After a couple loops though she got confident and was going faster than I ever would...

Registration

Now that I've got the new sled (c'mon, compared to what I normally ride a '94 is brand spanking new) I'm thinking its time to get legal, get a trail pass.
The NH trail system is just north of my house, I get there and I'm good to Canada...

However, Eddie has registered in MA. The MA pass is actually 2 parts, you need a MA registration and a SAM (Snowmobile Association of MA) pass. To get a SAM pass you need to join a Snowmobile Club. MA registration is $40 for 2 years, the local club here is Coldbrook and membership with 1 SAM pass is $65. So $85 a year gets you on the trails...
NH wants $93 for a non-resident, non-club member. The closest club to me is the Monadnock Sno-Moles, they wants $25 for a memebership at which point NH only wants $63, so $88 a year. Personally I like the NH method more, it seems more upfront and I do appreciate that supporting the club is a good thing to do.
It also seems to make more sense for me to register NH since its a short ride on the sled to use the NH trails. To use the MA trails I have to trailer someplace...

The other thing is that when Angie and I go north to do the NHSMA show we may go up earlier the day before and ride the nice central NH trails... I think thats probably the best reason right there to register.

One last thing, to register in MA I'd have to go to Worcester and find the OHV (off highway vehicle) registry (or go to Boston). To register NH I drive to "Bottoms Up Grocery" in Fitzwilliam about 5 miles from where I sit right now...