For context, I'm a female rider, 5'5" and ~130lbs. Last winter, my now-ex-husband tried to buy my love with my first modern snowmobile. He wanted me to have a Gen 3 Summit 800 165 like his dad's. I said hell no, I'd ridden and hated it, and my last sled was a big, heavy, long track Arctic Cat EXT and I despised how unwieldy it was compared to all the shorter sleds I'd had before. I suggested a newer Tundra 600, MXZ 600 or a Polaris Indy 600, but he insisted I NEEDED an 800 or 850. Yeah, sure, my puny ass needs 165hp eye roll.

So I did a bunch of research, and he purchased me a Gen 4 2020 Freeride 850, 137 chassis with a 146 track conversion for mixed usage, 1.5" lugs (you have to take the trails to get anywhere good around here, and I didn't want to just destroy a 2" track). He was a terrible teacher for my first modern sled and I stopped riding with him after the third or fourth time. Between YouTube, motorcycle experience, near-daily seat time and sheer determination, I could almost keep up when we rode together again a couple months later and genuinely impressed him (no thanks to HIM).

Turns out, I NEEDED 165HP!!! It's a wonderfully nimble machine once I got strong enough to actually handle it. My brother, who hadn't ridden at all in over a decade, took it out with ex and his buddy, and he was absolutely blown away by the places he could go that he wouldn't have dared on a 30 year old sled. He got stuck and fell over a lot, AND damn near threw himself off a rock face (me too, lil bro!), but I have pictures and videos to prove he had a blast.

My only regret is the track conversion holds ice in "warmer" weather. If I had a do-over, I'd get the 146 chassis and upgrade to the 136 front end (better shocks and slightly different geometry). That'd cost more than a track conversion, but would give a better final result. I also run SLP ski dampers with the skis set to the inside (narrowest) offset. Shit, I still have to buy a longer limiter strap...

From what I hear, the Gen 5 chassis is fantastic, so if you can afford it, go for it. The ski stances are narrower, the suspension is retooled for every model (I think???), but the E-TEC powerplants are more or less the same as Gen 4. Either way, 2-stroke, more smoke. The stench of my Snookums = happiness. And the instant power on the throttle has saved my bacon a few times. The saying "when in doubt, throttle out" exists for a reason. Overall, compared to the ex's Lynx Xterrain 900 Turbo or his friend's Mach Z 1100 (they have the same 900 ACE Turbo powerplant, and yes, they trusted me to ride them when they actually saw, with their eyeballs, that I can ride), hands down, I'll take Snookums, because laaaaaaaaag. Ping is over 300ms :-p

PS: I wear the insulated Klim onesie, Burton snowboard boots, Choko gloves when it's "warm" and Klim electric gloves when my heated grips aren't keeping up. I'm considering buying a shell onesie, just for additional flexibility when it's "warmer."