Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 5616 | Snowmobile VERMONT of them to gather some information. I will be following up with several of them in the coming months. There are some promising units out there, but I will honestly say I have not seen a company that simply jumps right out there with all of the features that I think we want at a good price. There are some possibilities and I hope that I can demo a couple of different units this winter in our efforts to find the perfect fit. Hand Signals How many of you utilize hand signals while out there riding along the trail system? The use of hand signals was discussed zealously at the IASA meetings throughout the week with the main push being the elimination of the use of the hands to indicate how many snowmobiles are following behind. Is this an unsafe message to be showing young riders? Should the left hand be taken off the braking side of the handlebars? This discussion morphed into the elimination of all hand signals from safety course materials. The argument was that the use of any hand signal requires removal of the rider’s hand from the brake and from one side of the snowmobile completely. This is arguably a safety concern, especially for young or inexperienced riders. I am making an assumption here and will guess that these hand signals were introduced 30 years ago or more when there were few trail signs, fewer riders and the speeds of the machines probably topped out at 40 mph. Fast forward to the present time and there are far more signs, more trails, more riders and top speeds out of the crate that easily exceed 100 mph. Do we really need to be taking our hands off the handlebars to tell someone there are more sleds behind? Shouldn’t you always ride right and assume there is another machine coming? As a society, we all need to start taking more responsibility for our actions and shy away from depending upon a sign, an app on our phone, or a couple of gloved fingers from a rider we don’t even know to inform us of how we should conduct ourselves while out on the trail. When I am riding, I rely on my own senses and judgment to keep me on the trail and around the next corner, over the next bridge and so on. I do not rely on the person in front of me or the person I meet to tell me how to operate my machine. (800) 639-6290 | (802) 878-5052 Tuesday-Friday 9 am to 6 pm | Saturday 9 am to 4 pm Sunday & Monday–Gone Riding L A N D A I R V T . C O M L A N D A I R V T . C O M Congress