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Area51 Project - Bill's 2010 Nytro X-TX:
Machine Specs:
Bill has owned many machines over the years, and was riding a 1997 Yamaha V-Max 700 when we started riding together many years ago. Shortly there after he traded up to his first 4 stroke Yamaha an RX-1. After many seasons and many miles riding the RX-1 Bill traded his machine in early 2011 on a new 2010 Yamaha Nytro X-TX. This sled like French's, features a 130 horse power, 1050cc 3 cylinder 4 stroke engine coupled to a 144x15x1.25" Camoplast Rip Saw track. The rear skid has a tipped up rail feature which translates into short track handling characteristics on hard pack, and the extra flotation of a long track in deep snow.
Bill has already started the modifications to his new ride with the installation of a new riser block for increased comfort for stand up riding. This was quickly followed by swapping the stock front bumper for a machine gun style Yamaha Accessory Bumper, and a set of Awesome Nytro Skull Graphics.
In 2012 he swapped out the stock skis for a set of new Yamaha Tuner skis which feature a dual keel and a myriad of carbide options to tune the sled to your riding style. This greatly reduced darting which has plagued these sleds since they were first introduced. This year Bill also added a Tour Buddy auxiliary fuel tank to increase his range, and a set of ice scratchers, for cold icy trail days.
This year Bill made a few more improvements to his reliable Yamaha Nytro XTX. He gave the sled a full once over inspection and removed the rear skid for an inspection and track replacement. This year Bill replaced the stock 1.25" Ripsaw track with a new 1.75" Back Country for much better performance in deep snow conditions, especially handy for the annual week long west coast trips! This upgrade necessitated removing the stock aluminum heat exchanger protectors, new drivers, and while everything was apart he installed a new chain case top gear with once less tooth to retain performance with the taller profile track. Amazingly the sled required very little in the way of parts replacement even after inspecting all the bogy wheel bearings in the rear skid!
This year Bill didn't have time to do a lot of riding mostly due to weather and partly due to not having it ready in time for the Annual Cabin Trip. However a week long trip to the west coast in March prompted a few nights work in the Garage. Modification wise it was a quiet year with Bill performing an annual maintenance including oil change, suspension lubrication and so on, and removing the old torn up skull graphic kit in preparation for a new wrap.
During his oil change, bill decided to do a full service draining the dry sump oil tank AND pulling the engine drain plug. The quick oil change only drains the oil reservoir, but draining the engine base separately Bill found it held nearly one cup of oil!
Next up was the installation of a brand new Yamaha Accessory wrap, the old one was also a Yamaha factory accessory but didn't hold up well to Bill's close encounters of the tree branch kind. The new wrap is an updated design and includes extra pieces that the first kit did not.
The end result is a very nice looking product!
Bills 2010 Nytro continues to run strong, hook up great with the upgraded 1.75" track, and look awesome with last year's new graphics kit. Aside from normal maintenance of changing the oil, etc, Bill had one repair to make for this year's riding season, the replacement of the exhaust donut gaskets.
These gaskets are known to wear out after thousands of kilometres of riding and its important to check them as soon as you hear them rattling. You can see these are in hard shape particularly the left one.
New gaskets all in place, now the exhaust is properly sealed up and ready to ride.
Its quite a lot of disassembly as the tour buddy aux gas tank, exhaust heat shields, seat and main gas tank all had to be removed to access the donut gaskets.
Re-assembly was the reverse of disassembly, all in all a straight forward job.
Its been over four years since the last update and Bill's Nytro is still running strong. It has logged quite a few miles particularly in central and the west coast and is still in amazing shape even after a decade of reliable service!
This year Bill performed a few upgrades as well as some diligent suspension maintenance starting by pulling the rear skid and drive axel to replace all the bearings.
The drive axel bearing replacement is quite a bit of work as the brakes and chain case all have to be disassembled, however its a very important bearing as it's one of the few that will definitely leave you stranded if it breaks out in the woods.
Reassembled, now onto some upgrades!
Stock suspension set up.
After a bunch of research Bill decided to install a Star Suspensions XTX Linkage Kit to improve geometry and ride of the rear skid. You can read the details in the pic above.
While taking apart the suspension to install the Linkage Kit we found one pretty badly bend pivot rod which was replaced with a brand new OEM part.
The instructions and hardware included in the kit were quite impressive. They say the kit can be installed with the skid in the machine, but its definitely better to do this job on the bench.
Complete!
With the linkage kit installed Bill and I made a road trip to see shock guru Mark Murray in Bristol's Hope to have all four shocks refreshed for the Nytro. Mark is definitely the go to guy for shocks on the east coast. He has been rebuilding and repairing them for years. We were also treated to tour his new state of the art machine shop where he not only rebuilds and repairs shocks for all makes and models of snowmobile & ATV, but he is now manufacturing his own!
With the shocks reinstalled the last item on the upgrade list was a set of SKYDOG Attack skis. These skis are an awesome upgrade especially when paired with high quality carbides. The shape of the keel channels then compress's snow under the ski for outstanding handling.
Reassembled and ready to ride!
On February 13th Bill and AJ got out for their first rip of the season together leaving the Goulds and headed to the Witless Bay Line. Both machines ran great but during the trip Bill's sled developed a minor fuel leak, he traced it down to the tour buddy auxiliary fuel tank.
Thankfully that system uses fuel from the auxiliary tank first then the regular fuel tank so the problem went away as he rode, of course not a fix but he managed to complete the ride. The culprit turned out to be a cracked fuel line going to the tour buddy tank, so replacement fuel lines were ordered and installed.
On February 21st the boys got out for another ride and were joined by Ronnie on his red '97 Vmax (Bills old sled from many years ago).
Cheers, MIKE
Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith
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