Help me understand Ridesteady and watersports

[marcham]

Thanks for all the replies. A couple of you described exactly what I would want - push the throttles full forward, and the RS gives the desired acceleration, which can be adjusted to suit a given rider. However, @PeterB says it doesn't control acceleration, only max (i.e. set) speed. I agree that's also a good thing - I've also experienced accidentally letting the speed drift up while pulling a skier - but the biggest issue I and my family have is the "quick but smooth" acceleration with the rather non-smooth throttles. If I give too much throttle, I yank the rope out of their hands or pull them over; too little throttle and they fall before getting up.

So, I just spoke to Justin at RS, asking him if it would help me with smooth initial acceleration. In a word, he said "no." The RS system does essentially nothing until you're within one mph or so of your set speed (that's a direct quote, or as close as I can remember). He went into some technical details about why they did not take the approach that the Yamaha E-series did to achieve this benefit, which basically boiled down, like everything, to "pros and cons of each approach."

So, the RS system definitely has benefits, and jetboaters seem to love it, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with initial acceleration. While disappointing, I still may go for it. And, sounds like I need more practice with the throttle levers.

Thanks again for the input.

Correct. If you are working with beginners, acceleration needs to be metered by the driver anyway. I would really only see and advantage for that feature for any experienced surfer to ride behind a boat with an inexperienced driver.

 

[Matt Phillips]

If you do any towing for any length of time, these GPS Cruise controls are one of those "how'd I ever get buy without these" additions. I added one to my 09 and the 242xE came standard with it. I like it because I can dial in the speed I want and then don't have to worry about it and can watch for debris in the lake, boats, the person being pulled, etc.

My biggest complaint on the 242xE Connext system is the boat does not travel at the same speed that the system is set for. For example, if I want 11.3MPH, the system MUST always be set faster by 10-15%. I've asked my dealer about this and Yamaha says that's normal. In the example below, the target speed is set for 12.6, yet the GPS on the boat says 10, and my Garmin says 10.4. This says to me this is indicative of the software, not the boat GPS.

 

[grywlfbg]

You can still use the up/down arrows to adjust speed while it is set. It moves .1 at a time, so it takes a fair bit of pressing to move a full mph though. Turning a knob is probably much faster and easier, but it can be done.

Cruise Up/Down buttons can be pressed repeatedly to raise lower speed while under way.

Thank you both. This is awesome news. Just to be clear, and I pushing arrows on the Connext screen or are you talking about the arrows below the big knob (that I use when in No Wake mode)?

 

[BigAbe75]

Thank you both. This is awesome news. Just to be clear, and I pushing arrows on the Connext screen or are you talking about the arrows below the big knob (that I use when in No Wake mode)?

The No Wake / Cruise buttons. If you're still on the rider profile page while pressing the button, you will see the set speed number increment as you press the buttons, as well.

 

[PeterB]

Important to note however on the Yamaha speed control - only the E series use a gps based speed setting. The others use an rpm based speed setting which works pretty good to hold speed at planing speeds but can vary considerably at common water sports speeds. It also requires the driver to watch the speed and set while operating the boat as opposed to the Ridesteady where the speed is gps controlled and set before coming up to speed / this allows the driver to focus on looking at the boat traffic etc without worrying about setting speed