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Ken Block dies in a Snowmobile accident

Sucks that he's gone way too early, but it sounds like he was doing something he enjoyed.
 
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i thought this was some sick joke or a troll in this group but i was wrong :-(
not how i wanted to start off the new year...my thoughts & prayers to his surviving family...& i wish everyone here a bless 2023 for tomorrow's never promised
 
Gutted,

Started watching the Gymkhana video's with my eldest son & he now has been watching the Hoonigan stuff with his son.
Was also hoping this was a false alarm.

RIP Ken
Condolences to his family & friends.
 
Sad. Just a coule days ago I watched a 1 hour thing on his 2022 ARA season and all the crashes and difficulties. I'd never watched anything specifically about him. Never really knew who he was since I don't normally follow that type of racing. Wild.
 
Nooooo :(

Descanse en paz!


His vids were some of the most entertaining out there, period. And that twin turbo AWD Mustang of his is/was an absolute beast of a car.
His work 100% got many people interested in motorsports.

As @Bender said, Godspeed and enjoy the fabulous twisties awaiting you in heaven sir

 
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I saw that this morning and was WTF....He will be hooning from the other side.
 
Never get out of sight of your buddies.

Sounds like he mousetraped it and most likely suffocated under a 600lb machine. Shitty way to go.

Nothing fun is 100% safe. All we can do is mitigate risk, but at the end of the day shit happens.
 
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seems them snowmobiles are prone to fatal accidents ... of the last 5 people i know who have died this last winter all on snow mobiles ... wtf is going on
 
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seems them snowmobiles are prone to fatal accidents ... of the last 5 people i know who have died this last winter all on snow mobiles ... wtf is going on
Never rode a snowmobile(not much snow where I am) but raced mx all through my childhood/teens. Snowmobiles can have absolutely insane motors on them. Eg 2-cyl 800cc 2-strokes and what not. So you're talking about a offroad machine with 1000cc sportbike-level power.
 
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seems them snowmobiles are prone to fatal accidents ... of the last 5 people i know who have died this last winter all on snow mobiles ... wtf is going on
Backcountry riding sleds is basically a more dangerous version of ATVing. Same speeds, same dangers, and diminished awareness of obstacles around you or under the surface.

Fun as hell, dangerous as hell.
 
seems them snowmobiles are prone to fatal accidents ... of the last 5 people i know who have died this last winter all on snow mobiles ... wtf is going on

Big thing we notice is avalanches. We use beacons so we can find each other under the snow, and avy packs (big airbag) to hopefully stay on top.

Flowing snow basically turns to light water, so you can swim with the airbag and stay at the top most of the time. The other key is to get as far from your sled as possible when it's going bad.


I haven't been in one or started one, but there's days where you just don't get onto the steep stuff. Also helps to pay attention and notice which slopes slide often.

Down in Cooke City I see guys hi-marking slopes I'd never go on, and the whole crew sitting right at the bottom. Most times it's MN and WI guys that just don't think about it. Always go tell them they need to watch the chutes, avoid the runout zones, and there's no tracks there for a reason. Most ignore us and there's no way I'm beating my head against a wall arguing with idiots.



Then there's the guys that need to go 90mph down the trails. Nothing like getting run over by 800 lbs head on. We avoid the trails as much as possible, there's generally shortcuts everywhere once you learn to tree ride.
 
Never rode a snowmobile(not much snow where I am) but raced mx all through my childhood/teens. Snowmobiles can have absolutely insane motors on them. Eg 2-cyl 800cc 2-strokes and what not. So you're talking about a offroad machine with 1000cc sportbike-level power.
800 cc two stroke turbos these days. Theyre kinda weird to ride, but you’d get it pretty quick.




Around here there are snowmobile tours were people do trail rides in a lead follow fashion. Many of them have zero atv/moto experience. Whiskey throttle into trees regularly. They generally Kill themselves at a greater rate than the back country guys do.
 
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wow, dude survived so many crazy things, and then this. rip.
 
of the last 5 people i know who have died this last winter all on snow mobiles
I was a big sledneck for about 10 years. Survived one avalanche triggered by another rider, and narrowly missed another. The technology became so good that it wasn't really all that fun unless you were pushing it to the edge and that generally meant taking more risk. I hung em up shortly after my daughter was born. Having had a few close calls myself, and knowing 2 others who died, it just wasn't worth it to me.

Sad to hear about Ken Block. Gymkhana Videos are awesome and that was a guy America should be proud to have had on the team. A self made guy who lived life to the fullest.
 
800 cc two stroke turbos these days. Theyre kinda weird to ride, but you’d get it pretty quick.




Around here there are snowmobile tours were people do trail rides in a lead follow fashion. Many of them have zero atv/moto experience. Whiskey throttle into trees regularly. They generally Kill themselves at a greater rate than the back country guys do.
2 stroke turbo?

Very interesting..
Always thought forced induction would never work on a 2-stroke motor...
 
Isn’t someone gonna ask if he was vaccinated??? To soon?
A fucking snowmobile flipped on him you nitwit. Say dumb shit when it could even remotely be theorized; Not when you know what happened.

Dude was an icon for a generation, unbelievably talented, and a father: show some respect.
 
Get a box of Kleenex. Sheesh.
A fucking snowmobile flipped on him you nitwit. Say dumb shit when it could even remotely be theorized; Not when you know what happened.

Dude was an icon for a generation, unbelievably talented, and a father: show some respect.
How do you say hero worship
 
Brother huh? Do you brother snow machiners wave at each other? You know, like Jeep owners.
But if that was one of your "brothers" you'd simp for him all day.

Go fuck yourself
Use thicker toilet paper. You've been touching your inner self way too much.
 
Brother huh? Do you brother snow machiners wave at each other? You know, like Jeep owners.

Use thicker toilet paper. You've been touching your inner self way too much.
Ha. If that's all you've got today, I hope you feel better.

I also hope; that when its your time, all the folks just like you, stop and take a second to piss on whatever menial make believe legacy you thought you had.

All I said was show some respect for a guy that had a family; and the truly miserable fucks come out to show how much better they are.
 
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800 cc two stroke turbos these days. Theyre kinda weird to ride, but you’d get it pretty quick.




Around here there are snowmobile tours were people do trail rides in a lead follow fashion. Many of them have zero atv/moto experience. Whiskey throttle into trees regularly. They generally Kill themselves at a greater rate than the back country guys do.
Years ago a buddy of mine turbod a Yamaha apex. The 1000cc 4stroke r1 motor. The thing was wildly fast. This was 10-15 years ago. Can't imagine what they can come up with now.


RIP Mr Block
 
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2 stroke turbo?

Very interesting..
Always thought forced induction would never work on a 2-stroke motor...


Aftermarket has been doing it for 20 years. Factories for a few years now.

You can walk into your local Polaris or skidoo dealer and walk out with a turbo 850 2t in the 200hp range.

My buddy put a boondocker intercooled turbo kit on his sled. 225hp tune, turbo will maintain enough boost to pull that HP all the way to 12k feet.
Of course, he has about $8k into the turbo stuff on a sled he bought for $14k. The $20k factory sled does have a warranty.
 
Aftermarket has been doing it for 20 years. Factories for a few years now.

You can walk into your local Polaris or skidoo dealer and walk out with a turbo 850 2t in the 200hp range.

My buddy put a boondocker intercooled turbo kit on his sled. 225hp tune, turbo will maintain enough boost to pull that HP all the way to 12k feet.
Of course, he has about $8k into the turbo stuff on a sled he bought for $14k. The $20k factory sled does have a warranty.
Incredible.
Like I said, was never into the snowmobile world..

But damn! Now I wanna do a turbo Banshee or KTM 300!
 
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Ha. If that's all you've got today, I hope you feel better.

I also hope; that when its your time, all the folks just like you, stop and take a second to piss on whatever menial make believe legacy you thought you had.

All I said was show some respect for a guy that had a family; and the truly miserable fucks come out to show how much better they are.
Ahhh, there's some insight on you in this.
Caring about legacy is for narcissistic bitches. I could give a rats ass about legacy. Where as you do.

As for your last paragraph:
It was a fucking joke. Nothing more and nothing less but your insight/analysis of it shows how much of a Nancy/Karen you are.
 
@chevy_man @Supersubes have yall ever ridden a 2t turbo snowmobile? Is the powerband absolutely insane as one would think? Cant imagine a ~200+ hp 2t! Although at such a big displacement, it should tame down the hit a good bit. Torque must be out of this world..
Im sure technology has progressed leaps and bounds, but I know the old 4cyl 500cc 2t ~200hp MotoGP bikes were said to be a fckn handful and a half. A man's bike for sure.. better be pointed dead straight when that bitch comes up on the pipe!
 
@chevy_man @Supersubes have yall ever ridden a 2t turbo snowmobile? Is the powerband absolutely insane as one would think? Cant imagine a ~200+ hp 2t! Although at such a big displacement, it should tame down the hit a good bit. Torque must be out of this world..
Im sure technology has progressed leaps and bounds, but I know the old 4cyl 500cc 2t ~200hp MotoGP bikes were said to be a fckn handful and a half. A man's bike for sure.. better be pointed dead straight when that bitch comes up on the pipe!
I have not. As an owner of some modern two stroke mc bikes, the power bands have changed a lot. Powervalves with fuel and oil injection Power everywhere, but so linear they feel lazy. I would expect the OEM turbo snow machines to be this way. The turbo 4 stroke machines are probably more insane, with a slight weight penalty.
 
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have yall ever ridden a 2t turbo snowmobile?
Yes. And yes, the power is unreal. Easily enough to put your ski's in the air pretty much anywhere. When I rode them, the turbos were all aftermarket (mostly the Boondocker brand) and you had to be fairly savvy with tuning to make them run well, especially at altitude. You also had to be knowledgeable enough to tune your clutch to match the power the sled was producing (snowmobiles have centrifugal clutches) to make it all work. They really are amazing machines. I can't imagine what they are like now with factory turbos and a warranty.

@Forgetful Coyote...Have you seen Snowbikes? Sounds like that would be right up your alley. Most of the guys I know that I used to snowmobile with have moved on to snowbikes. Those are pretty cool too.
 
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of all the stuff i raced (still open wheel cars at times) a snowmobile is the most dangerous vehicle to drive hard...to me at lease

never have and never will race them, i always feel like they are trying to kill me

street or dirt bikes i always had a sense that im in sync with the bike, cars the same

snowmobiles.. big no for me
 
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@chevy_man @Supersubes have yall ever ridden a 2t turbo snowmobile? Is the powerband absolutely insane as one would think? Cant imagine a ~200+ hp 2t! Although at such a big displacement, it should tame down the hit a good bit. Torque must be out of this world..
Im sure technology has progressed leaps and bounds, but I know the old 4cyl 500cc 2t ~200hp MotoGP bikes were said to be a fckn handful and a half. A man's bike for sure.. better be pointed dead straight when that bitch comes up on the pipe!


Ridden a few now. The one with the boondocker kit was the most impressive.

All the sleds are running electric power valves. So they can control the "hit" and make it smooth and progressive.

There is some turbo lag, but if you drag the brake a bit and spool it up it will launch hard. They're really great for climbing stuff, as they never run out of power.

It does make the front end 20-30lbs heavier. Turbo, intercooler, oil tank and pump, etc.

Polaris factory one runs off the oil injection and has a bleed into the intake for increased engine oiling along with the electric variable injection pump.


All the sleds for awhile have had direct bearing oiling. My old 14 rmk has a mechanical pump still, but 4 oil lines to the main bearings. No longer do they need to mix gas and oil in the carb or throttle body.


Sleds ride way different than a bike. With the CVT you can tune the clutches to your feel. If I snap the throttle on my 800 it just snaps to 8400 rpm within 1-2 seconds and the clutches pull the track along. Peak hp is about 8100 on mine, so I clutched it to be "over the hump" so if it tries to bog it'll pull down onto the peak power and give the clutch a chance to downshift to compensate.

Of course, clutch weights and springs need to be changed at altitude with the NA motors, and you don't need to change them at all with the turbo if you have an altitude compensating setup. (Some of the cheaper kits don't do well varying boost levels).



I've kept mine NA because I like the responsiveness. For tree riding and technical stuff I'm not going that fast, just need to snap it to lift the skis and then set them where I want to go. Turbo makes everything happen faster, after the lag, so it wears you out quicker on the slower technical stuff.

If all I did was spring riding climbing chutes, I'd have a turbo. In Cooke last year I ran a highmark with my sled, and turned out when I was out of power and couldn't climb anymore. Hopped on my buddies m8000 turbo and passed my highmark by 300 yards, and only turned out when I was going to get into the rocks at the top of the peak where it was windswept. This was about 9500ft elevation, so I was probably down to 120-130hp, while his was still 225hp.
Both were 800's, both 162/163” tracks. Mines a lot lighter.



And yes, there's guys out there with ktm 450 and 300 turbos on their snowbikes. The packaging doesn't make sense for a regular dirtbike though, as they remote mount the turbo between the skid and the rear fender.
 
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Man yall are opening a whole new world up to me. This is some very interesting stuff!

This is a cool channel. Average guy and his buddies. He runs heavy equipment in Canada so lots of time off when the ground is too frozen to work.

Demonstrates the ability of the new mountain sleds. They're nothing like they were even 15 years ago.

 
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