Have had a GP 433, GP 440, SRV 540, EX 570, and still have the SRX 700. Also remember the GP 292 we had in the 70's. Still love Yamaha snowmobiles. So sad they leave the game after all these years. 😮💨
I’m hoping to be able to ride it some more both on and off trail. I’ve got lots of experience riding both Phazers and Exciters but not on the SRV. It’d be neat to see how it compares.
The Indy Killer Article was based on the 50 build in 1983 with the wide front end and front swaybar kit that was developed by Tim Bender and Yamaha. In the article photos you can see the struts are widened out to the bumper and the covers could not be used.
Nice old yamaha man! The enticer 2 is still going strong. Another year of hauling slabs off the chainsaw mill and grooming miles of trail for my dog team. Yamahas last forever when there's koyo bearings all over the place.
Those old sleds are cool! I think the best ride of that era was any Polaris with trailing arm suspension. Even their (Polaris) rear skid was pretty good for that era. I had an 86 Indy Trail and that thing was pretty plush compared to some of my friends Yammies of the same era.
I agree with you 100%. I was an Indy guy then and am an Indy guy now. I was never a fan of the TSS front end but wow! It really did well in deep snow. I remember my Dad’s Exciter could literally run rings around our Indy’s in deep snow. The struts didn’t push a cone of wet powder out in front. I always felt the Polaris IFS was a better ride than their skids at that time. Back in the 80’s one of the racers I knew told me a common mod Iron Dog racers would do is install SRV rear skids in an Indy to get a better ride. I’ve never ridden a conversion like that but it seems plausible. Once Polaris came out with the Dial-Adjust rear skid in ‘90, then there was no comparison. I had a ‘90 500 Indy and it’s rear suspension was much better than the previous year Indy’s.
Nice! I remember they were really popular for XC races in Alaska due to their reliability. I need to check to see if my brother got his out again this year?
You can't beat Yamaha quality. I never bought one back in the 80's but my buddy always had them. Phazers and Exciters . He would rock the trails back in the day. I couldn't keep up on my Indy trail. Too bad they never came out with hydraulic brakes until the 90's. Those mechanical brakes sucked .Once the shocks give out the rear suspension doesn't work at all .
They hardly worked on this SRV! The lever had plenty of feel and resistance but squeezing hard didn’t slow things down very much. It was really fun to ride and I want to ride it some more. But there were a lot of things I didn’t like and much prefer the Indy’s from that same timeframe. My Dad had an Exciter and it could ride rings around our Indy’s in deep snow. But I liked the ride and handling of the I day better. The Exciter and Phazers were especially hard to work on. This SRV wasn’t as bad. I still like the cool look and how the Yamahas seemed so much more advanced back then.
I remember back in the 80’s and 90’s guys would say “Sure, the Yamaha’s are harder to work on but you do have to do it doesn’t matter”. 😀 I never found that to be true! But, the Phazers did seem to run way more consistently than the Indy’s did. We seemed to always be messing with the needles on our Indy’s.
My brother has an absolute mint 85 srv.. it’s a great sled. Today we rode his 2000 phazer 500 for the first time, also a great sled but the srv is definitely faster
Wow! That’d ‘85 would be such a great sled. I remember the trailing arm Phazers when they came out. I forgot all about those until now. I remember going to a show and looking at the new ‘97 model.
That "weird" tekei single carb is much better than a mikuni roundslide. Can set left side piston slightly rich. Choke circuit so fkn strong, will start at 50 below zero, no primer needed.
I’m not very familiar with the Tekei type carb. With a single carb I don’t follow how one cylinder could be set richer than the other? I recall doing staggered jetting on the Rotax rotary valve motors but they had two carbs.
@@thatalaskaguy single tekei usually has twin throttle plates for the twin cylinder engines. Right above the left side throttle plate is a mixture screw, for left side throttle plate. Very good carbs! Be careful on that new carb on your vk 540. They're jetted on the lean side even at sea level, but too lean here in interior. Run that vk slightly rich, keep those pistons and rings hapy!
@@michaelmanzo1716 interesting! Thanks for the VK info. During warm spring days my VK diesels when I shut it off. I don’t ride in super cold temperatures as I’m along the coast and it seldom drops below 0°F. It would be interesting to see how it performs with a richer main jet. The newer 4-stroke motorcycles I’ve bought the past 10+ years have all been jetted really lean and are cold blooded on initial start up. Due to emissions I could see where they’d lean the VK out as much as they could.
@@thatalaskaguy geeze, that's nice riding temps! Ran down there to valdez back in 2017 to buy a 1999 polaris trail with 800 miles. Fan cooled 488. Was jetted WAY richer than the liquid cooled 488 in my polaris widetrak lx. I didn't mind if it ran a little rich in the warmer weather, it didn't overheat hauling firewood and 100 gallons of heating oil. Saw some weird corrosion in the dual mikuni carbs. Geeze a machine setting unused in Valdez, wow did those carbs need a serious rebuild!
@@michaelmanzo1716 I’ve had to lean out all the Trail Indy’s I’ve owned over the years here in Valdez. They come from the factory jetted too rich and will bog out bad during warm spring days or going up in altitude. For the interior I can see the jetting working really well 👍
Forgot to add, east coast Indian are pretty loyal to yamaha. Waskaganish Cree band tried to get a dealership from skidoo back in the 80s. Because of racism, they were denied. Yamaha gladly offered a dealership opportunity. Even came out to Hudson Bay to co-design freighter canoes with them. This joint venture was called. cree-yamaha incorporated. Fk ski-doo.....
I rode Ski-doo from ‘95 - ‘04 then got a leftover Yamaha 4-stroke Vector. I didn’t like how Ski-doo went to junk style greased crank bearings. Their rotary valve Rotax motors were excellent then they went downhill. It’s sad to see how the Yamaha sled division has just kept declining over the years. Now with the ‘24 models you can’t even buy a Japanese built Yamaha. All they are anymore are blue, rebadged Arctic Cats. Yamaha definitely had a loyal following for a long time. It’s not good for the sport to be down to only 3 OEM’s.
That’s a good idea 👍. It’s my brother’s machine and we didn’t go through it with a fine tooth comb. The fan is definitely working but that belt could certainly be original from 40 years ago!
@@thatalaskaguy I never said it was fair. I knew nothing about the yamaha srv's. In fact I know yammie's are great sleds because I had an enticer 340 for awhile before I bought the indy
I’ve owned many SRV’s over the year’s 83 was a probably my favorite one to ride! Great video!
Right on! 👍 Thanks for checking out my video. If we’d ever get a break from snow I’d like to check his SRV out again.
Have had a GP 433, GP 440, SRV 540, EX 570, and still have the SRX 700. Also remember the GP 292 we had in the 70's. Still love Yamaha snowmobiles. So sad they leave the game after all these years. 😮💨
I’m disappointed to see them leave as well. I never cared for the blue Arctic cats but I kept hoping they’d restart made in Japan development.
Been on one back in the day beautiful sled
I always liked them but never got the opportunity to spend much time riding one.
Had an 86 SRV. Just a great reliable sled that had some decent speed for the time. Great on the trails.
I’m hoping to be able to ride it some more both on and off trail. I’ve got lots of experience riding both Phazers and Exciters but not on the SRV. It’d be neat to see how it compares.
SS 440 looked cool too!!
They did!
SRVs are dope. I have an SRV motor in my XLV, with a 2020 VK carb. The carb is really sweet.
I’m hoping to do some more videos on this SRV. I want to ride it on a bumpy trail and in other conditions. I liked how it felt. 😀
Yamaha!
The Indy Killer Article was based on the 50 build in 1983 with the wide front end and front swaybar kit that was developed by Tim Bender and Yamaha. In the article photos you can see the struts are widened out to the bumper and the covers could not be used.
I recently listened to a Carbide Podcast with Tim Bender talking about the modifications he was doing. Very interesting!
Nice old yamaha man! The enticer 2 is still going strong. Another year of hauling slabs off the chainsaw mill and grooming miles of trail for my dog team. Yamahas last forever when there's koyo bearings all over the place.
Thanks! It’s my brother’s machine. He looked into buying an Enticer 2 last winter. But by the time he called someone had already bought it.
Those old sleds are cool! I think the best ride of that era was any Polaris with trailing arm suspension. Even their (Polaris) rear skid was pretty good for that era. I had an 86 Indy Trail and that thing was pretty plush compared to some of my friends Yammies of the same era.
I agree with you 100%. I was an Indy guy then and am an Indy guy now. I was never a fan of the TSS front end but wow! It really did well in deep snow. I remember my Dad’s Exciter could literally run rings around our Indy’s in deep snow. The struts didn’t push a cone of wet powder out in front.
I always felt the Polaris IFS was a better ride than their skids at that time. Back in the 80’s one of the racers I knew told me a common mod Iron Dog racers would do is install SRV rear skids in an Indy to get a better ride. I’ve never ridden a conversion like that but it seems plausible.
Once Polaris came out with the Dial-Adjust rear skid in ‘90, then there was no comparison. I had a ‘90 500 Indy and it’s rear suspension was much better than the previous year Indy’s.
Great machine
Definitely! It’s been a great sled. 👍
In Norway the Srv did well for many years in snowcross
They were very popular for cross country racing here in Alaska.
I spent 4500 + miles on my “86
Never got towed back. Wish I could say that about some other brands I’ve had.
Nice! I remember they were really popular for XC races in Alaska due to their reliability. I need to check to see if my brother got his out again this year?
You can't beat Yamaha quality. I never bought one back in the 80's but my buddy always had them. Phazers and Exciters . He would rock the trails back in the day. I couldn't keep up on my Indy trail. Too bad they never came out with hydraulic brakes until the 90's. Those mechanical brakes sucked .Once the shocks give out the rear suspension doesn't work at all .
They hardly worked on this SRV! The lever had plenty of feel and resistance but squeezing hard didn’t slow things down very much.
It was really fun to ride and I want to ride it some more. But there were a lot of things I didn’t like and much prefer the Indy’s from that same timeframe.
My Dad had an Exciter and it could ride rings around our Indy’s in deep snow. But I liked the ride and handling of the I day better. The Exciter and Phazers were especially hard to work on. This SRV wasn’t as bad. I still like the cool look and how the Yamahas seemed so much more advanced back then.
@@thatalaskaguy Your right about the Indy's being easy to work on .
I remember back in the 80’s and 90’s guys would say “Sure, the Yamaha’s are harder to work on but you do have to do it doesn’t matter”. 😀
I never found that to be true! But, the Phazers did seem to run way more consistently than the Indy’s did. We seemed to always be messing with the needles on our Indy’s.
My brother has an absolute mint 85 srv.. it’s a great sled. Today we rode his 2000 phazer 500 for the first time, also a great sled but the srv is definitely faster
Wow! That’d ‘85 would be such a great sled. I remember the trailing arm Phazers when they came out. I forgot all about those until now. I remember going to a show and looking at the new ‘97 model.
That's a snack storage compartment.
Ive never seen or heard of a "auto lube" system failure on any Yamaha, some folks just dont know!😊
Hard to say why some previous owner disconnected it?
That "weird" tekei single carb is much better than a mikuni roundslide. Can set left side piston slightly rich.
Choke circuit so fkn strong, will start at 50 below zero, no primer needed.
I’m not very familiar with the Tekei type carb. With a single carb I don’t follow how one cylinder could be set richer than the other? I recall doing staggered jetting on the Rotax rotary valve motors but they had two carbs.
@@thatalaskaguy single tekei usually has twin throttle plates for the twin cylinder engines. Right above the left side throttle plate is a mixture screw, for left side throttle plate. Very good carbs! Be careful on that new carb on your vk 540. They're jetted on the lean side even at sea level, but too lean here in interior.
Run that vk slightly rich, keep those pistons and rings hapy!
@@michaelmanzo1716 interesting! Thanks for the VK info. During warm spring days my VK diesels when I shut it off. I don’t ride in super cold temperatures as I’m along the coast and it seldom drops below 0°F. It would be interesting to see how it performs with a richer main jet. The newer 4-stroke motorcycles I’ve bought the past 10+ years have all been jetted really lean and are cold blooded on initial start up. Due to emissions I could see where they’d lean the VK out as much as they could.
@@thatalaskaguy geeze, that's nice riding temps! Ran down there to valdez back in 2017 to buy a 1999 polaris trail with 800 miles. Fan cooled 488. Was jetted WAY richer than the liquid cooled 488 in my polaris widetrak lx. I didn't mind if it ran a little rich in the warmer weather, it didn't overheat hauling firewood and 100 gallons of heating oil. Saw some weird corrosion in the dual mikuni carbs. Geeze a machine setting unused in Valdez, wow did those carbs need a serious rebuild!
@@michaelmanzo1716 I’ve had to lean out all the Trail Indy’s I’ve owned over the years here in Valdez. They come from the factory jetted too rich and will bog out bad during warm spring days or going up in altitude. For the interior I can see the jetting working really well 👍
Forgot to add, east coast Indian are pretty loyal to yamaha. Waskaganish Cree band tried to get a dealership from skidoo back in the 80s. Because of racism, they were denied. Yamaha gladly offered a dealership opportunity. Even came out to Hudson Bay to co-design freighter canoes with them. This joint venture was called. cree-yamaha incorporated.
Fk ski-doo.....
I rode Ski-doo from ‘95 - ‘04 then got a leftover Yamaha 4-stroke Vector. I didn’t like how Ski-doo went to junk style greased crank bearings. Their rotary valve Rotax motors were excellent then they went downhill.
It’s sad to see how the Yamaha sled division has just kept declining over the years. Now with the ‘24 models you can’t even buy a Japanese built Yamaha. All they are anymore are blue, rebadged Arctic Cats. Yamaha definitely had a loyal following for a long time. It’s not good for the sport to be down to only 3 OEM’s.
Did you check if the belt running the fan is cracked and end of life.
That’s a good idea 👍. It’s my brother’s machine and we didn’t go through it with a fine tooth comb. The fan is definitely working but that belt could certainly be original from 40 years ago!
Indy killer? No not really. Lol Smoked a sr5 with my Indy 400 back in the day.
How do you consider comparing a higher horsepower, liquid cooled 400 with a mildly tuned, fan cooled engine as fair?
@@thatalaskaguy I never said it was fair. I knew nothing about the yamaha srv's. In fact I know yammie's are great sleds because I had an enticer 340 for awhile before I bought the indy
@danielpomeroy gotcha!
Out of all the SRVs 82 83 best looking sleds 83 was the first year of rear suspension
I’d like to find one of these for myself. I agree, they are good looking sleds. 😄