The biggest news from the Ski-Doo camp this year has to be the all-new front IFS geometry coined RAS RX.
While the name-change amounts to just one more letter in an already full bowl of alphabet soup, this latest front end revamp is hands down, running away, the most significant massaging of the Ski-Doo G5 platform.
We’ve held nothing back here at World Headquarters when it comes to our feelings on the RAS and RAS X IFS and its response to turning inputs and bump control. Year after year we’ve anointed Polaris’ IFS as both the handling leader and the most controlled IFS in bumps because it’s a fact that nothing goes through gnarly terrain or holds a stronger line through the twisties. Nuff said.
Conversely, Ski-Doo has owned the rear suspension compliance award since 2011 when rMotion was introduced. To this day it remains fully in command of that well-deserved reputation. However, the RAS IFS dating back to the late 00’s has never kept pace with rMotion. RAS continually delivered a “segmented” response in tight, fast turns. The sled never felt settled and most certainly did not provide rider confidence to feed more throttle after planting the outside ski.
In contrast Polaris’ IFS would beg riders for more throttle in turns while providing intuitive, initial turn-in and a firmly planted feel out of the turn’s exit.
For MY25 Ski-Doo’s raised roll center RAS RX IFS responds virtually identically to the Polaris setup. Go ahead, carry more speed toward the apex, drag the brake slightly on corner entry, let the tail gently swing out and serve as your signal to squeeze in more power from the center of the turn to corner exit.
You’ll scratch your helmet when you first experience this response but I’m telling you one thing that’s boiler plate – you’ll never be satisfied with your current G4’s or G5’s handling after sampling RAS RX.
Our only question is why didn’t Ski-Doo do this geometric tweak sooner?
