BigManStandUp
The only one around
- Location
- Palm Bay, Florida
Hello, names Tom.
Let me start off with a little bit about myself. I work for BRP in the R&D department as a test pilot for Seadoo and Can-Am. Fun job, pay sucks. Well all my friends just recently got into riding stand-ups, much more enjoyable than motocross during the Florida summer. So being on a tight budget, I did what anyone would do, I picked up an old un-titled 550 on CL. Couple hundred bucks, ran great. Then we ran into a lil snag, I currently weigh about 315lbs, and an '85 js550 has no balls, or buoyancy. So I filled er full of water a few thousand times tryin to get er to pull my big a** out of the water. Finally got to where I could lay across the pole and hood and get it to plane out so I could attempt to stand up, that's where I ran into snag number 2. Being 300+ pounds, I can only compare riding a 550 to riding a long igloo cooler, not fun. Luckily I own an old Polaris couch, so I wasn't stranded on the beach while everyone else was ridin. Yes I was that guy, I hated it. But I mostly just plowed around and made wakes for every one to play on. Well all my buddies have sxr's, and c'mon, I can't just not try to ride em. Sure enough, they pull my big a** right out of the water. Straight to my feet and away I went, they like to hop a bit since with a stock pole I can't get enough weight far enough over the bars unless the pole is all the way down. But I got it figured out enough to manage. Have a blast every time I can convince buds to let me ride their stuff, we all know how that is. Once again, had to be that guy. Until, we were doing some cleaning up around the facility at work. There was some old skis up in the rack that were going to get sold to us as is, some were good, some not so good. Well a 2006 3D Di was one of the skis goin to us, figured what the hell, I'll see how much they want. 300 BUCKS!! I bought it. They gave me a title too. The ski was used before I started to preform an oil test for some new 2-stroke oil, so it just stayed at the facility and ran on the lake, no salt. It sat for years, prolly 5 years. Everyone said it was going to be hell to get it to run, so I brought it home and gave it a shot. There was a maybe a quart of old gas in the tank and the oil tank was about half full, said what the hell and just dumped in a gallon or two of fresh gas and hooked up a new battery. Pushed the button and BAM, fired right up. Sputtered and popped for the first 5 seconds then smoothed right out, so I put it on the hose and ran it for a lil while, not a single problem. SCORE!!
So for now, I'm the big guy on the big ski. And I know i know, it's not a stand-up, but to be fair, I only ride it standing up and it's just my size. I'll get me an sxr soon enough, maybe tax time, just can't afford to right now. But in the mean time, I'm gonna have fun with this thing while I have it. It's not so bad, we all have fun with it. I have a way more fun racing around our bouy course on this than the old Polaris, it's got the 951 in it and will out run the sxr's just fine, and will hold it own coming out of the corners. But it's the Di motor, so there ain't nothing I can do for mods to it unless I convert it to a carbie motor, not worth it. So for now, it's a fat bar setup, some turf, grate/plate, and some sponsons. Hopefully I can get this pig to carve a turn with out slidin out on me. I think I'm the only one to ever do any mods to a 3D cuz I can't find anything to do to it.
Let me start off with a little bit about myself. I work for BRP in the R&D department as a test pilot for Seadoo and Can-Am. Fun job, pay sucks. Well all my friends just recently got into riding stand-ups, much more enjoyable than motocross during the Florida summer. So being on a tight budget, I did what anyone would do, I picked up an old un-titled 550 on CL. Couple hundred bucks, ran great. Then we ran into a lil snag, I currently weigh about 315lbs, and an '85 js550 has no balls, or buoyancy. So I filled er full of water a few thousand times tryin to get er to pull my big a** out of the water. Finally got to where I could lay across the pole and hood and get it to plane out so I could attempt to stand up, that's where I ran into snag number 2. Being 300+ pounds, I can only compare riding a 550 to riding a long igloo cooler, not fun. Luckily I own an old Polaris couch, so I wasn't stranded on the beach while everyone else was ridin. Yes I was that guy, I hated it. But I mostly just plowed around and made wakes for every one to play on. Well all my buddies have sxr's, and c'mon, I can't just not try to ride em. Sure enough, they pull my big a** right out of the water. Straight to my feet and away I went, they like to hop a bit since with a stock pole I can't get enough weight far enough over the bars unless the pole is all the way down. But I got it figured out enough to manage. Have a blast every time I can convince buds to let me ride their stuff, we all know how that is. Once again, had to be that guy. Until, we were doing some cleaning up around the facility at work. There was some old skis up in the rack that were going to get sold to us as is, some were good, some not so good. Well a 2006 3D Di was one of the skis goin to us, figured what the hell, I'll see how much they want. 300 BUCKS!! I bought it. They gave me a title too. The ski was used before I started to preform an oil test for some new 2-stroke oil, so it just stayed at the facility and ran on the lake, no salt. It sat for years, prolly 5 years. Everyone said it was going to be hell to get it to run, so I brought it home and gave it a shot. There was a maybe a quart of old gas in the tank and the oil tank was about half full, said what the hell and just dumped in a gallon or two of fresh gas and hooked up a new battery. Pushed the button and BAM, fired right up. Sputtered and popped for the first 5 seconds then smoothed right out, so I put it on the hose and ran it for a lil while, not a single problem. SCORE!!
So for now, I'm the big guy on the big ski. And I know i know, it's not a stand-up, but to be fair, I only ride it standing up and it's just my size. I'll get me an sxr soon enough, maybe tax time, just can't afford to right now. But in the mean time, I'm gonna have fun with this thing while I have it. It's not so bad, we all have fun with it. I have a way more fun racing around our bouy course on this than the old Polaris, it's got the 951 in it and will out run the sxr's just fine, and will hold it own coming out of the corners. But it's the Di motor, so there ain't nothing I can do for mods to it unless I convert it to a carbie motor, not worth it. So for now, it's a fat bar setup, some turf, grate/plate, and some sponsons. Hopefully I can get this pig to carve a turn with out slidin out on me. I think I'm the only one to ever do any mods to a 3D cuz I can't find anything to do to it.
