Spark concernes

[sparked]

Hi guys thsnx for the great replies. Well Thursday afternoon was a awsum day in town so I made the call to go to the beach with the skis after work. But I'd take the demo spark with me. Best call ever.. Seeing the evening glass off from bout 6pm-830pm was the best day in Foxton iv seen fir ages.

Long story short a friend was out with his Spark aswell. And my first impressions in the river was ,light and nimble with a bit of balancing required. Not much. As opposed to the rx etc.

Got to the river mouth and entered the surf. Notices she is not too forgiving in chop tho I pressed on. Round the sand bar and into the mid break I encountered my first wave. Slight sea breeze onshore saw me jump head on and I THRN realised the front if effing light. . So I re thought my strategy and punched the next etc. After 3 hours of countless punishing at my hand on the spark I did some good airs,rolls,and a lot of flying solo leaving the ski behind.

I am a little saddened at the 3d raw shapes on it simply for the bailing as the older rounded skis you can't get hooked on and cut yourself. I slashed my knee on the bumper strip whilst in a stunt and falling off.

The ski seems bogged down once landing a non moving stunt and needing to accelerate away from the oncoming surf. I feel it could do with a quicker response off the mark to jump up on out the water to grt moving. But power wise I think it's perfect. I'm not cared bout top speed wich I fetched 82km on river month .

Do all in all I'm putting my order in 2 months time for a 2up 60 hors.but reluctant to do the hp upgrade due to so e issues iv heard locally bout it.

Sounds like a top day out.. The shape I think is just the way of the times, the hard edge design is happening on everything these days..

Was the demo a 90hp or 60hp? I've got the 90 and the difference in acceleration and response when in sport mode is substantially better than when in touring mode (60hp), so if your not interested in an aftermarket tune you may want to go the 90hp.

On the tune, what bad things have you heard? There's been nothing but praise of the vtech tunes..

 

[qcustoms]

Well as of last week I'm NOT buying 1. The company rang me a week later saying iv cracked the TOP hull. POS not happy so screw that crapy motorized tuppaware box. I'll buy an rx or something again. Who will export a good ski to me lol

 

[IDoSeaDoo]

Uh oh, here we go.... the spark problems are already coming in... They should just take the X4 hull and put the 109hp ACE in there and sell it to us for $5k Hell, I'd pay even 6 Best of both worlds

 

[qcustoms]

Gold lol. I'll load pics up

 

[IDoSeaDoo]

Any idea how u did that? Still, I think these are growing pains. I bet they'll fix the hull integrity. You got to give it to them, they actually listened to us and gave us what we wanted I rode my first huge-generation ski and realized just how much I love my XP x) They'll get it right (eventually)

 

[TheMachin0]

I think the 4stroke would make the x4 to heavy what the need is a carbon/Kevlar x4 hull 2stroke 900 making 120hp all new gauges and other new techy stuff hopefully weigh around 350lbs or lighter dry id pay around 12k and be the first in line

 

[IDoSeaDoo]

I wonder how much heavier the ACE is than the 787 (all pipes and stuff included). Any guesses? Curious for my Challenger 4tec conversion...

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

Well, if these hulls and top decks are cracking and splitting within the first few months, just think about what's liable to happen in a few years of constant exposure to UV.

 

[IDoSeaDoo]

I wonder why they can't embed a fiber matrix into the plastic... or any other reinforcement. I bet just a little layer would greatly add to its integrity with minimal weight gain.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

Gold lol. I'll load pics up

Dang man, Seadoo sure took on too many liberties making that thing into an ugly cardboard box, I bet they look even uglier when they're broken or not running. Only home made hot rods, pickup trucks and SR71 Blackbirds should be allowed to be that ugly, there's just no excuse otherwise. Such liberties are not simply for the taking.

 

[IDoSeaDoo]

Dang man, Seadoo sure took on too many liberties making that thing into an ugly cardboard box, I bet they look even uglier when they're broken or not running. Only pickup trucks and SR71 Blackbirds should be allowed to be that ugly, there's just no excuse, otherwise.

Sadly, I totally agree with you...

 

[qcustoms]

I fully agree. I'm really disgusted.

 

[IDoSeaDoo]

This is only GenI tho, I have high hopes. Remember how bad the first SP looked when they first came out? (IMO, still better than the spark) 6 years later, they made the X4. I have faith in Seadoo. They've been in a ditch the past 4 years, but they go through these phases. Like remember the pink/purple phase of the 90's? LOL how did they sell anything?! They're a good company, but we have to remember they're Austrian, and don't quite think like we here do

And if they DON'T fix it, hopefully Yama or Kawi will

 

[sparked]

Love how they get busted and no one admits how.. Not sure what your issue is with the styling.. They are different, modern clean lines/design. The rounded shape us becoming dated..

 

[qcustoms]

Who said anything about admitting or not admitting. I simply said theyr shit. Simple. It's a motorized lunchbox that can't even jump waves without breaking. Oh hang on I mentioned that previously so I DID admit it.

 

[LouDoo]

This is exactly why I had decided to wait a year before considering to buy a Spark. Sometimes new and innovative things, even from established manufacturers don't work out, the Chevy Vega comes to mind.

Lou

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

That's a shame.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-fraAN7in4

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

To me, they have the look of a navy destroyer sans depth charges, and the fact they keep showing up broken indicates they're not durable or new owners have adopted an affinity for taking sledge hammers to them. Oddly enough, I don't recall seeing too many of the earlier models fragmented around the foot wells. Sure, BRP can simply make the plastic there thicker, or perhaps rethink the type of materiel used, add modifiers to improve modulus of elasticity, etc.

 

[Mortal8]

I have had my spark since December, and had zero issues. As a fairly avid lurker of this and other Spark forums, I'm aware of three hull cracks on Sparks; this one, another one in NZ and one in Aus. In all three instances, info on how the damage was incurred has been scarce or non-existent.

Funny place for a crack to appear, and on both sides of the footwell lip as well...

The real question is: Is it stress or impact damage?

 

[sparked]

I have had my spark since December, and had zero issues. As a fairly avid lurker of this and other Spark forums, I'm aware of three hull cracks on Sparks; this one, another one in NZ and one in Aus. In all three instances, info on how the damage was incurred has been scarce or non-existent.

Funny place for a crack to appear, and on both sides of the footwell lip as well...

The real question is: Is it stress or impact damage?

My point exactly! Yet they appear to be breaking all the time apparently..

 

[sparked]

Who said anything about admitting or not admitting. I simply said theyr shit. Simple. It's a motorized lunchbox that can't even jump waves without breaking. Oh hang on I mentioned that previously so I DID admit it.

You gave it a fairly good honest review earlier in the thread and that you were sold on it... Now a week down the track you find out you broke it so it's a "motorized lunch box".. Are you sure you even broke it? Wouldn't you have noticed it at the time? Fairly obvious spot.

Your not the first to be jumping these things, plenty of guys here in Aus are riding them in the waves regularly and giving them a pounding with no breakages yet..

 

[Mortal8]

My point exactly! Yet they appear to be breaking all the time apparently..

I'll just point out too that I'm a complete noob. I have banged mine into jetties (at least once quite hard), I've banged it into the trailer. I try to take care of it, but it's all new to me and I've made all kinds of mistakes. I dropped the fire extinguisher on to the side of the footwell when I was cleaning under the seat, stuff like that.

Yet I've had no issues. The 'plastic' has taken everything I've thrown at it and looks good as new.

I really struggle to understand how the damage in those pics has occurred.

And if I borrowed a ski, and was accused of damaging it, and was unaware that I'd damaged it...

Well, I'd be kicking up a bit of a fuss about that.

I think the cases of damage that I've seen online -- well traditional fibreglass skis would have been damaged too in those cases.

 

[Minnetonka4me]

That completely BLOWS man!!! Arent you glad it wasnt yours though?? LOL

I was afraid of this. I cant even imagine one of these getting bumped into on a crispy -20f MN day in the winter. F'in thing would shatter like a pane of glass!

You think that was where you hit your knee?

Also are you a bigger guy?

 

[qcustoms]

Good write ups guys thanx. Yes my rh outer knee took an impact and yes I agree with you sparked as when we loaded it on trailer or rinsed it we would have seen it aswell if it was from my impact thrn it would have sank as that was 2hours into our 4 hour session. And DEFINATLY would have had water drain out when I removed the drain plug but was bone dry.

 

[qcustoms]

Iv also heard of 2 people lifting these and it twisting and cracking from the stress