Ambassadors

[brian h]

I know ambassadors ( or sponsored riders) jobs are to push the new technology and be like a salesperson for the manufactures of products. But when you look at the average person it's not like they purchase a new sled every year. So you see, hear and read about issues on sleds for example the doo 850 3" track. Would you see changes quicker on issues people have if the ambassadors rode a sled for more than 1 season? Let them see the real issues the consumer have. Then would they still say it's riders riding style. All manufactures have issues that numerous people come across and it seems to be ambassadors never have. imo if there sled could be rode more than one season before you never hear of it again maybe issues the consumer has could be rectified sooner. What mileage do ambassadors or sponsored riders put on a sled in a season, what mileage does the weekend warrior put on a sled, so what mileage do major problems occur? Numerous opinions on the doo track and what causes the failure that you read about but what if for example norona had the sled for 2 seasons would he have issue and would brp look at changing it some.? Would it still be classified as a wear item?
This wasn't to put down brp track it was just a example, all manufactures have issues that the consumer comes across and maybe they should consider the consumers issues if you run sleds for more than one year. Yes I ride with different models and see issues people have, just feel there is room for improvement with little changes that the average person has in 2 and 3 year old sleds. Would you switch brands knowing the other manufactures are getting for example 3x more mileage on a engine,or 3x more mileage on suspension or clutching without issues. When I see ambassadors sled only used for 1 year it would be nice to know what issues came about the next year or even what kmh they have on them

 

[Mike270412]

Somebody is sitting at home with cabin fever. Way too much time to think.

 

[rknight111]

Yes Mike Brian has hand surgery so he’s out for the year, needs to fix his throttle thumb.

This is a good topic, I typically ride quite hard and go through stuff. I’ve already went through both rear bags, my cover, and had a bit of warranty work done on my turbo. I have 2150 km on my 2021 skidoo turbo. I messaged Norona to get me on the tester list for accessories, cause if it has a defect I will surly find it.

 

[snopro]

I think guys think that ambassadors have a free ride all winter. A lot of these guys get a new sled from the manufacturer are required to keep it up then return it or sell it at end of season. I was told by a pretty reliable source that Rob Alford had to buy all his new belts he blew in 2017 when the G4 came out so definatley not a free ride for a guy you would think would have one.

 

[brian h]

Not thinking they have a free ride just think that if they ran sleds longer possible manufactures would possible make changes on a few things regular riders come across after these sleds get a few more km's on them. There input would be heard more

 

[ferniesnow]

IMHO, the Ambassadors would be high mileage riders; easily 3000-6000+km/winter or more. What is the average dude putting on a new sled? Less than 1000 km? I think they work the sled quite well. I don't know how much the OEM would listen to the Ambassadors or even check to see if there were any problems. I would think it would be a great idea that they touch base with the Ambassadors and ask for some input. Kuster and Norona would have input for sure but maybe not a lot of the others.

 

[Caper11]

IMHO, the Ambassadors would be high mileage riders; easily 3000-6000+km/winter or more. What is the average dude putting on a new sled? Less than 1000 km? I think they work the sled quite well. I don't know how much the OEM would listen to the Ambassadors or even check to see if there were any problems. I would think it would be a great idea that they touch base with the Ambassadors and ask for some input. Kuster and Norona would have input for sure but maybe not a lot of the others.

I think the main ambassadors are heard to a point, like kuster, norona, alford, etc.
its hard to change a engineers mind tho when a design in set.

Why Craig mcmorris is an sled ambassador and Tatum Monod, gets me. Noronas buddy Theo would be a excellent replacement for one of those two, hes active on social media promoting the product. The other two not so much.

 

[ABMax24]

Would you switch brands knowing the other manufactures are getting for example 3x more mileage on a engine,or 3x more mileage on suspension or clutching without issues.

That's the route Yamaha tried to take, build sleds heavier yet more robust. The mountain segment didn't really value that approach to sled design, yeah there are/were a bunch of Yamahas converted into high hp mod sleds, but heavy, tank, pig, are often adjectives used to describe these machines. I'm sure many would agree that there simply aren't many stock Yamaha's in existence, they were favored by the horsepower fiends in search of the ludacris outputs those tough-as-nails 4-strokes could provide on boost, but in stock form these sleds were beat in almost every area by their lighter, more nimble 2-stroke competitors. Therefore those that want a high performing machine out of the box choose 2-strokes, albeit with a sacrifice to reliability. Manufacturers see this as well, performance sells, as is proven by the current hp wars now being waged with the help of forced induction on lighter 2-stroke platforms, reliability comes second to performance.

Trail machines are a different story, and the heavier, yet more reliable Yamaha machines have done well, and there are reports of Yamaha sleds with over 20,000km on the odometer where nothing more than oil changes having been performed on the engine.

IMO most ambassadors are truly indicating and advocating for what the market wants, just have a read through the threads on this forum to prove that. Polaris sold out of Boost models within days of release, our dealer was sold out before noon the first day, no proof of reliability, just a promise of more performance, and customers were lining up to give their money away.

 

[skegpro]

@BRPcare thoughts?

 

[MarkCos]

@BRPcare thoughts?

 

[snopro]

I think the main ambassadors are heard to a point, like kuster, norona, alford, etc.
its hard to change a engineers mind tho when a design in set.

Why Craig mcmorris is an sled ambassador and Tatum Monod, gets me. Noronas buddy Theo would be a excellent replacement for one of those two, hes active on social media promoting the product. The other two not so much.

Big names they want to use for crossover sales. More and more people coming from the skiing community to sledding. Look at Norona. Probably does as many skiing vids as sledding ones. How does he get to where he wants to ski? Not on a chairlift.

 

[Caper11]

Big names they want to use for crossover sales. More and more people coming from the skiing community to sledding. Look at Norona. Probably does as many skiing vids as sledding ones. How does he get to where he wants to ski? Not on a chairlift.

Norona is a huge outdoors fella, but he also is one of the main ambassadors thats shows his presence in every sport he’s involved in. Im sure there is more to this ambassadors thing that I don’t understand And I get the crossover, but have you looked at mcmorris and Tatums Instagram? I dont see them promoting the product.

 

[norona]

I will post up here, ambassador, sponsorship what ever you want to call it is an ever changing job, I have been doing it as my only job since 1990-91. Contracts are confidential and so I can't get into that but the part on Rob is not true. I am super proud of our team and to be apart of it, one thing you will see over every other team is diversity, everyone brings a huge part to the team, we all value each other and so does the sponsor(ski-doo) in this case, otherwise they would not work with the people they do. This year we kept our 2020.5 sleds to do exactly that. most of us have well over 4000km on them and mine personally has run spot on, pretty much the same for the whole team. We also check in all the time with our contacts who I will not get into, as well as engineers, I personally am close with all of them so i can call them anytime on the cell to chat and we often have meetings in regards to how things are going, what would we like to see etc and believe me the ideas go from simple to crazy. They work night and day to make the sleds better every year. We can't share everything as there are lots of guys who just take everything to negative town, we say we are going to change this and they think it must be bad otherwise they would not fix it...using tracks as an example, I told my experience, it is factual, but guys say I am making up stuff etc. we know the number of complaints, warranties etc as every item that is complained about or called for warranty gets tracked. All we can do is give our honest testimonies, and that is what I do. There was recently an issue with a product, guys saying these are crap etc and that it is everyone that is experiencing it, so far we have seen 67 warranties on this particular product and there has been over 10,000 units of this product out the door, so it is hard for guys to get the real story unless they know all the facts. We are spoiled, at least I feel I am , and consider myself to be very very lucky and so I work as hard as I can, not looking for a medal, ha ha or anything but hope guys know that they can ask me anything and I will give my best input and help where I can, I do not know everything and if I do not, I will try and find out. Sorry to see your hand, hope you heal up quick! cheers dave

 

[skegpro]

I will post up here, ambassador, sponsorship what ever you want to call it is an ever changing job, I have been doing it as my only job since 1990-91. Contracts are confidential and so I can't get into that but the part on Rob is not true. I am super proud of our team and to be apart of it, one thing you will see over every other team is diversity, everyone brings a huge part to the team, we all value each other and so does the sponsor(ski-doo) in this case, otherwise they would not work with the people they do. This year we kept our 2020.5 sleds to do exactly that. most of us have well over 4000km on them and mine personally has run spot on, pretty much the same for the whole team. We also check in all the time with our contacts who I will not get into, as well as engineers, I personally am close with all of them so i can call them anytime on the cell to chat and we often have meetings in regards to how things are going, what would we like to see etc and believe me the ideas go from simple to crazy. They work night and day to make the sleds better every year. We can't share everything as there are lots of guys who just take everything to negative town, we say we are going to change this and they think it must be bad otherwise they would not fix it...using tracks as an example, I told my experience, it is factual, but guys say I am making up stuff etc. we know the number of complaints, warranties etc as every item that is complained about or called for warranty gets tracked. All we can do is give our honest testimonies, and that is what I do. There was recently an issue with a product, guys saying these are crap etc and that it is everyone that is experiencing it, so far we have seen 67 warranties on this particular product and there has been over 10,000 units of this product out the door, so it is hard for guys to get the real story unless they know all the facts. We are spoiled, at least I feel I am , and consider myself to be very very lucky and so I work as hard as I can, not looking for a medal, ha ha or anything but hope guys know that they can ask me anything and I will give my best input and help where I can, I do not know everything and if I do not, I will try and find out. Sorry to see your hand, hope you heal up quick! cheers dave

Seriously Dave what is going on with these tracks. You guys have been beating the drum for a few years now to slow down on the trail and I think most people have but we are still seeing issues and paddles laying on the trail everyday.
I imagine the engineers must have some good data and ideas but now?

Are you guys gonna run the 2020.5's another year. Super curious at how many km they seem to start developing realizability concerns. Quite a few guys around Revelstoke/sicamous have put 4500+km's on this year and say they still feel strong, which is a positive trend. Would be super cool to see one of the ambassador really run up the km on one of these.

 

[MarkCos]

It’s simple...the track design is unbalanced and will come apart at repetitive rpm, like a bent rim on a car going 140kmh down the road, it delaminates like a semi truck recap with a bad bearing.
so the only way outa the problem is to slow down to fix the situation of bad track lug balance design.