Arctic Cat 2019: Mathieu Lavoie’s Best Pick
2018 has been interesting for mountain snowmobile owners with the arrival of the Ascender platform and the new 800cc C-TEC2 engine. Despite this, some off-trail enthusiasts remained on their appetite. The cat brand had a surprise for 2019, a surprise that was judged to be “game changer.” After several years of design, Arctic Cat unveiled the Alpha One, a Mountain Cat equipped with a centre-beam rear suspension.
How revolutionary is this? Simply stand on one side of the snowmobile, grab the mountain strap, then pull the snowmobile towards you to realize that with a ridiculous effort, the machine is on a skate. Imagine when you’re in sidehill!
We had the chance to try the snowmobile in the mountains on an afternoon, and we immediately saw the difference with Arctic Cat’s old rear suspension system. Several times, out of habit, we pulled the snowmobile too far towards us, and we found ourselves on the ground! Indeed, it takes a while to get used to the ease of off-trail driving with the Alpha One! However, once we get the idea, the effort to do our maneuvers is significantly reduced!
For all those reasons, the Alpha One is my best pick for 2019 at Arctic Cat. With the ease of sidehill and tight turns in deep snow, off-trail riders will experience less fatigue at the end of the day. Also, it will be easy for someone who is just starting off-trail to learn the basic maneuvers!
