you guys and your, 'direct steering is worth nothing', regurgitation is kinda funny.
i wonder how many of you have actually ridden a squirrellcageless x2. i have. theres nothing wrong with them if you know how to beef up a cable and can do a couple quicksteer mods.... just like you would on the earlier models.
puh-lease!
While I totally agree that you can make the direct turn REALLY good... two of my 4 X2s are direct and I really do hate them. the problem starts when you throw in a piped, high compression 750/701 motor
OR TRIM SYSTEM. The cables just start bending...fast. You cannot
easily FULLY reinforce the cable, because it need 4" of play for movement. Even with just 4" of the cable unprotected I have had 2 of them bend right there. The other way I had 2 more cables die was from trim. A trim system will KILL a brand new direct steer cable in just 2-3rides, no problem. And if you have recently tried to find a replacement cable on the USED market...you will know why I "steer" ppl away from 89's. WSM does not make a direct steering cable. Couple that with the fact that Kawi termineted the OEM part number for cable replacements...you are pretty screwed if you have one fail. I ordered 5 OEM direct steer cables from kawi, they could only ship the last (1) they had in there parts stock. An 89 is just not a good building block for a hull that you plan on putting time into (tubbies,shortening,ect), simply due to the lack of a replacement steering cables.
Now with that said, if you dont plan on putting alot of work into the hull and leaving it a 650 with mild mods....then s**t... $300 for a ski is cheap.
