Due to the market’s obsession with weight, the manufacturers pull their corporate hair follicles out trying to reduce every ounce of mass possible – especially when it comes time to publish the weight results at the beginning of each season.
We’ve long been fans of Ski-Doo’s excellent Pilot 5.7 skis and appreciate the fact they can offer varying handling characteristics for different riders.
The weight thing comes into play when the dual-runner Pilots come out of the crate with only one carbide runner in place.
The reason: Unofficially, we think it’s to keep the overall advertised weight of the sled low.
Now, for those who love a hard carving sled with the ability to cut inside on other riders or to make hard pivots low in a turn at speed (kinda like a racer), the single carbide is excellent.
What you get though, is more twitchiness and more steering effort on frozen, hard packed snow and ice. Obviously, compromises many riders are willing to put up with.
We think the best trick, however, is to install the extra carbide runner the Pilot already provides space for.
Do this and the sled becomes much easier steering, loses the darting on the hard stuff and still offers the kind of maximum handling the XP-XS is capable of.
Yes, the turn-in is slightly softer but the sled cuts predictably and has plenty of bite to induce fantastic throttle steer to get the back end out in corners.
Yup, we’d use the extra ‘bide in a heartbeat!
