From the Editors

Grass Drags This Weekend, And More Sled-Related Fun Is Coming!

  Have you noticed the earlier sunsets in the past few weeks? I have, and a couple of nights this week the nighttime air blowing in the bedroom window actually felt a little bit cold.

            Oh sure, the forecast for the Minneapolis area is calling for highs to return to close to 90 degrees starting tomorrow with increased humidity, but the kids are going back to school in 9 days (much to many parents’ delight!), I watched a great football game last night and the panfish have gotten harder to catch – it must mean that our long summer is finally drawing to a close.

            Further proof is offered by this weekend’s snowmobiling events. Here in Minnesota, it’s known as “Princeton Weekend,” as the Outlaw Grass Drags kick off today in a just north of the Twin Cities. Grass drag racing, aftermarket product vendors, ATV demo rides, a monstrous swap meet – what’s not to like?!

            Meanwhile, the “snowmobiling boys of summer” here in the Upper Midwest close out their International Watercross Association season this weekend in Wausau, Wisconsin.

            In two weeks, we’ve got Haydays, then the events will start falling like dominoes – the Michigan Cup at Onstead, the big New Hampshire Snowmobile Association Grass Drags and Watercross in Fremont. Mix in the fall snowmobile shows like our Big East Snowmobile Show in Syracuse, New York, Leisure Features’ Snowmobile USA shows in Novi, Michigan, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Rocky Mountain Snowmobile Expo in Denver…. Next thing you know we’ll be prepping sleds and heading to early season snocross races!

            So don’t despair, my fellow snowmobilers. Winter will in fact be here soon. But between now and then, there is plenty to do to get your snowmobiling fix!

Am I An Expert Or Idiot? Both!

 Everybody is an expert at something, yet no matter how big of an expert they are, there is always somebody else who can make them look like a relative novice.

            I was reminded of that fact this past weekend, when my family went on our annual long-weekend vacation with another family in our neighborhood.

            When I hang out with that family, I appear to be a rugged outdoorsman. The father in that family, my friend Jeff, doesn’t have much interest in fishing, for instance. So, when we went fishing with the kids from the two families, I baited hooks, untangled messes, helped make decisions on tackle, tried to direct our boat to where the fish may be and generally took control of our fishing adventure. Those kids probably think I’ve got a coon-skinned cap somewhere in my truck.

            One week earlier, however, my son and I went fishing with my wife’s brother, Dale. Compared to Dale, I’m a complete novice – his approach to fishing includes giving careful thought to weather conditions, presentation, colors and various other factors. Using a depth finder and some fishing moxie, he likes to try to get to know more about the lake bottom than anybody on the lake.

            So, am I qualified to be a fishing guide, like the neighborhood family may think, or a complete hack who merely guesses and occasionally gets lucky, like brother-in-law Dale thinks? It depending on your perspective.

            So it goes in the world of powersports. When it comes to snowmobiles built in the last 17 years, for instance, I’m a bit of an expert. Name an important trail sled build since model year 1994, and I have ridden it and formed opinions on it. I’ve also ridden snowmobiles in 17 states and five Canadian provinces, and have been to pretty much ever type of snowmobile racing imaginable and have written stories about those experiences. I’m certainly not bragging, but in some circles, that makes me a snowmobiling expert.  

            Take me through the pits at a race track or into the dyno room at a top performance shop and get me into a conversation with a master tuner, however, and I probably come across as more of a novice. No, I can’t tell you the best clutching setup to try on a 250 horsepower modified drag racing sled, not would I be much help in finding the right traction setup for an iced oval — that’s not my area of expertise.

            One key, of course, is to surround yourself with people with varying levels of expertise on a variety of things. Here at the magazine, that means guys like Andy Swanson, our managing editor and chief aftermarket product tester; Phil Mickelson, our famed Tech Professor, and key contributors like Jeff Oberg, Tim Erickson, Lynn Keillor, David Wells and many others. Another key is never being afraid to ask people who do have more expertise in a specific area for their help. It’s amazing what people will share with you if you just frame the question correctly.

          Only by pulling that all together a great team, and not being afraid to seek help from other “experts,” can we put out a magazine like Snow Goer. Because nobody’s an expert at everything, even in a relatively narrow market like snowmobiling.

The Old Snowmobile Photo Search From Hell

Once a month, longtime contributor David Wells tries to kill me.

            Not on purpose (I don’t think?!). Wells is a very nice, well-intentioned guy who would never intentionally cause me bodily hard (probably).

            The problem? Wells writes our Timeline articles for each issue of Snow Goer, and does a hell of a job with the assignment. He decides on all of the sleds we feature, does a ton of research, calls upon his own vast knowledge and background in the sport and even sometimes interviews folks who either owned the machines or sold them at their dealership.

            It’s one of many reasons Dave is such an important part of our extended family here at Snow Goer.

            Every summer, he submits his stories basically ready for print. Then, when an issue of Snow Goer is on deadline, I pull up one of his stories on my computer, make a few tiny edits to them and get them ready for our art department.

            This is where the danger comes in.

            You see, our offices are a treasure trove of snowmobiling history. Actually, “unorganized heap of stuff” may be a better description. We’ve got back issues of Snow Goer going back to 1966, back issues of Snowmobile Magazine, SnowTrack, Snow Week, Invitation To Snowmobiling and other titles. We’ve got drawers and filled with testing information. Boxes of slides and negatives. Stacks of old sales brochures. It’s awesome – until you are looking for one exact thing, then it’s a freaking disaster.

            So, once a month between July and December, you can find me cursing in our back room. I’ll be standing on top of swiveling office chairs or hanging from the corner of our racks in our storage area, looking for that one photo that will properly illustrates Dave’s great story.

            Today’s mission: Find an images of a 1974 Mercury 440 Max. I’ve found a black-and-white photo of the sled in action in a fall 1973 copy of Snow Goer. I’ve found spec sheets and notes about the machine. I’ve found old ads for the sled that feature just the corner of the machine. And I’ve found plenty of images of the 1973 Max (noted by the headlight covers) and the 1975 Max (with the three-color graphics on the side). But do you think I can find a 1974? Hell no.

            Beyond that, once I start going through old boxes in the back room, I get distracted by stuff I don’t have time to look at while on deadline. This morning, I spent a half-hour trying to interpret dyno sheets created by a then-new Massey Ferguson Cyclone – for no apparent reason other than I’m easily sucked into such things.  

            For 12 years, since we moved into our current building, I’ve made an annual pledge to myself that I’m going to find some a week some spring and organize our back room. Has it gotten done? Of course not.

            So, if you’ve got a picture of the “Black Max,” as it was called, let me know. If not, come look for me in the backroom – I’ll be the one covered with dust and spiderwebs, paging through a 30-year-old magazine and cursing poor David Wells’ name!