1990 Trail Indy cold start 9.5°.

Starting up my 32 year old Trail Indy after it has sat outside for about a month.

[@daveking4246]

Just acquired this this exact sled...very excited to bring it back to life and add it to the collection. Came with original owners manual, original dealer assembly and pre delivery check list and service records..1 owner been sitting awhile ..let the fun begin..lol

[@thatalaskaguy]

Very nice! It sounds like quite the find, you can’t go wrong with a Trail Indy. The 488 Fuji will run forever, just a great sled. I rode mine this past weekend and decided it was time I put some money into it and ordered new, plane Jane steel shocks for it all the way around. I figured after 34 years the stock shocks might not be performing as well as they once did. 😄

[@MBTUE]

Proper warm up is so important with 2 stroke engines. My first new sled was an 86 Trail Indy. Great sled , never had a problem with it.

[@thatalaskaguy]

I was pretty surprised it held such a steady idle. It likes to foul plugs at start up in our usual warm, humid winter weather conditions. We are currently having the coldest, driest winter since 95-96. I’ve always loved my Trail Indy’s. Super reliable, super easy to work, reasonably light weight and decent power.

[@davidbrennan5]

My cousin had a 1990 Indy trail. I had a 1988 Indy 400 with a 488cc liquid cooled engine in it. We both put thousands of hard miles on those machines and they never left us stranded. He put studs on his and we had some epic races, he would take me off the line but I could catch him if I had enough room and pass him. Mine would show 93mph and his would show 88mph on the speedo in good conditions.

[@thatalaskaguy]

Those style Fuji twins were excellent motors. There are still many of them running around my town. Kinda funny, they’ve proven far more reliable than the modern engines Polaris is using.

[@davidbrennan5]

I agree with you, the other engine that stood out for reliability for me was the 600cc small-block twin Polaris had in the early 2000's. I think they all made good 440cc engines back in the day, The Suzuki, Fuji and Rotax fan cooled models all went the distance, 20k miles is possible.

[@shanegiggie]

One of if not the best motor's Polaris ever made, extremely reliable. My friend has a 97 Indy trail takes a beating and keeps going, never leaves you walking. Fairly quick on the trail too for a old sled. Nothing wrong with them at all

[@thatalaskaguy]

The only failure I had with a 488 was running it way too hard climbing up a trail in wet spring snow. It was really warm out and it got to hot. My fault. I think those Fuji fan cooled motors are really good. I think I might go dig my Indy 440 liquid out of the snow now. 😀

[@shanegiggie]

@@thatalaskaguy You must have been really pushing it. We ran his in the 40s in the rain and mud in a potato field there wasn't hardly any snow didn't hurt it a bit. They do get warm on a warm spring day for sure.

[@thatalaskaguy]

@@shanegiggie it was really late in the spring and I was going for my last ride of the season. It was probably close to 50°F, everything was melting, the snow was rotten and I was climbing up into the mountains on a local trail. Thinking back the poor engine was pinging and I was too stupid to pay attention. It seized going up a steep section. We couldn’t tow it out that same day and had to wait a week for most of the snow to melt to retrieve it because of all the melted out water holes on the trail. When we finally got to it some kind of forest creature had taken bites out of the seat and left claw marks in the seat cover. Not one of my better decisions to go snowmachining that day.

[@sebastianlundahl1282]

Nice one. I wanted a trail indy so bad when i was a kid 😅

[@thatalaskaguy]

Trail Indy’s have always been one of my favorite sleds! I’ve almost always had one since 1988.

[@sebastianlundahl1282]

@@thatalaskaguy mine to.. I was born I 92 tough.. hehe. But everybody rode indys when I grew up

[@shanegiggie]

@@sebastianlundahl1282 I was born in 92 as well, I had a 92 Indy lite and a 93 Indy lite GT fun little sleds. Couldn't kill them

[@thatalaskaguy]

@@shanegiggie My first Indy was an ‘84 Trail Indy 440 that had been wrecked and my Dad fixed the cowling. It rode and handled so amazingly well compared to the TX-C 340 springer I had. I really liked it and rode it after school all the time and then even more on the weekends. It’s the only machine I blew a chain on and it took out my chaincase. I then learned how to change out a chaincase for one I took off some other old sled. It was pretty cool how the chaincase were the same as the ones on the old 70’s springers.

[@johanolsson8516]

I own a Supertrak -90 with 3417miles on it... Still runs beautifully

[@thatalaskaguy]

Right on! I think the Fuji twins Polaris used to offer across their line up were and still are excellent engines. I also have a ‘20 EVO with the Fuji 550 fan motor and have been pretty impressed with it over the past 4 seasons. I noticed it doesn’t have as much of a bog during warm spring days as the 340 and 488 fan motors. I believe this is due to its reed valves.

[@20_below]

We're getting interior sugar snow on the Kenai today, even this morning at -22F, hope you get some soon

[@thatalaskaguy]

Good to hear you are getting snow! Hopefully that storm heads our way. I’m glad we don’t have your cold temps. It’s single digits again and that is cold for us.

[@MidnightPolaris800]

Those sleds are so awesome and stone ax reliable

[@thatalaskaguy]

Absolutely! I’ve always liked Trail Indy’s and the fan cooled Fuji engines. Most everyone around here looks down on them and ride 800cc and bigger mountain sleds that have terrible reliability. I always laugh when guys use those sleds for towing, setting up the race course, clearing trails etc. Those sleds always start getting hot when used at low speed and just don’t last very long. I don’t see very many running 10-20 year old 800cc and bigger mountain sleds still running around as they tend to have engine failures or some other issues that become too expensive to fix for the value of the sled.

[@Vladymir-140]

Indy 👍

[@trevornewton9687]

Nice ! You should do a cold start vid on your yz250x one of these days

[@thatalaskaguy]

My 250X warmed up great in the spring when I first got it but as summer went along I was fouling a plug almost every time! I rejetted leaner, set the needle leaner and it still didn’t help. I totally don’t get it? My used ‘06 YZ 250 never fouled a plug and I rode it 4-5 years before buying the 250X. Next summer I’ll have to buy more jets and keep leaning it out I guess.

[@MidnightPolaris800]

The way your throttle jockying that sled its no wonder you foul plugs. Hold the throttle steady!

[@thatalaskaguy]

It often fouls plugs otherwise. We have wet, humid winters and every carb’d machine I own has issues with the conditions unless it has a heated carb like the VK.