Winter sports fans are in for a treat this year as a little known activity has been gathering momentum and will make its mark properly this season.The sport of snowbiking involves traveling down a traditional ski run on a modified bicycle. The idea was conceived over 50 years ago, but people found that using a conventional bike was ineffective and rather dangerous. For many years ski and snowboard fans have been working on advancing designs in the hope of developing something that worked. After years of trial and error, and a few accidents, a snowbike design was finally conceived that was both functional and practical.
A world championship event has already been announced for 2010 by a company based in Canada, who are the biggest producers of snowbikes in the world. Snowbikes are not really freestyle or jumping pieces or equipment, but instead built for speed and manoeuvrability. This will be reflected in the world championship events that will be based around slalom and speed competitions. Most of the snowbikes on the market have adopted a shape and design like a snowmobile. Steering comes in the form of a front-mounted large blade which is attached to handlebars, and the bike is lower to the ground than conventional bikes. This gives the rider much better steering control, but only one blade is needed as snowbikes are a lot lighter and do not travel as fast as snowmobiles.
Snowbike manufactures admit that snowbiking is not the easiest of extreme sports to master, but that it is well worth putting in the hours to master. Apparently learning how to snowbike shares similarities with learning to ride traditional mountain bikes. Although a very different movement and balance is needed, once you learn the skills, it will be something you never forgot. You can get the snowbikes in a variety of sizes, including smaller bikes for children. They also come with some additionally safety features including padded framing and stabilisers.
Given the nature of many daredevil snowboarders and skiers, it is likely that some will attempted the most difficult mountain runs on the snowbikes without much practice, something not advised by snowbike manufactures or ski resort owners. Snowbikes are much harder to stop than snowboards or skis, and if you haven’t mastered the technique you will not only be risking your own safety, but you may be endangering the safety of other winter sports enthusiasts also.
In fact there have been a number of ski resorts in America who have banned snowbiking from their slopes until they have done their own safety tests. A large majority of slopes have opened their doors to snowbikes though, stating that if used responsibly, they are no more dangerous than any other winter sport. Whether ski resorts like snowbikes or not, it seems that the popularity of the sport will continue to increase and we could even see some big extreme sports brands enter the market very soon.