By Deartháir
This is billed as an alternative for those who want to be able to ride their dirt-bikes all year round. I, for one, see some potential problems.
First off, and most importantly to me, it retains the wheel on the front. That’s all well and good, provided you remain on hard surfaces.
Now, I grew up in a small ski resort. In the summer, they keep the chair-lifts running for mountain bikers wanting to try not to kill themselves on the slopes as they careen headfirst down nearly-vertical rock faces. We would merrily sit at the bottom, drinking a beer, shouting derogatory comments about their Spandex at completely inappropriate moments, hoping to distract their attention for long enough to result in a horrific crash.
The problem with this whole adventure in schadenfreude was that it was only really available as entertainment for a few months of the year. Or, it was, until some genius thought it might be fun to bring his mountain bike up the chair-lift in the winter time, and convinced all his friends to do the same. Suddenly, a whole new source of entertainment arose!
For those idiotic intrepid fellows neglected to consider the very same detail as the designers of this bike. When you put a front tire like that onto a snowy surface, it doesn’t skip merrily across it like a ski does; it sinks in.
It’s a pretty simple concept to grasp. The reason skis and snowboards work the way they do is that they take that small point that supports all your weight, and spread it over a much larger area. With a wheel like this one, you’re taking all your weight, and the weight of the bike, and focusing it on an even smaller area.
Nevertheless, while it seems like it might be a recipe for disaster, and a scenario that is more likely to end up with the rider heading ass-over-teakettle over the front handlebars, I am kind of glad to see it. At the very least, it has the potential to provide a whole new category of entertainment for my friends and I to watch while sitting at the bottom of a ski-hill in lawn-chairs, laughing our heads off.
Kamil Kaluski
Having gotten caught in the snow on my bike about two thousand miles from home, I can safely say that this would be significantly LESS dangerous than the stock setup. Riding in the snow is less a question of miles per hour than lowsides per mile.
True dat. I was thinking more of "more dangerous than the actual snowmobile that it is trying to emulate".
it looks faster, for sure. Looks like it would mate up to a DR350, no problem. As in, street legal!
Why does this feel deja vu?…..
I posted it on Facebook a while back. That might be why?
I think it was subject of a V.I.S.I.T. post late last year. I do believe it's been posted here before, but that doesn't take away from Dearthair's humorous story.
No, no man. Seriously, with the front half of this broken water ski bungeed to the front tire you can TOTALLY make it across the lake! Just make sure you keep the throttle WIDE OPEN. Here, I'll hold your beer…
Somehow I just know this is going to be involved in a scenario that involves the phrase, "HEY Y'ALL, WATCH THIS!".
Likely easier to move around with wheel than ski:) http://www.2moto.com/
Indeed. I was just gonna say that I've seen the same kind of rig with a bolt-on front ski. As a former dirt biker, I thought it was awesome!
The front tire digging in effect is negated if you're constantly riding monster wheelies. That's how you hoon this contraption.
Or you could get one of these and call it a day.
[youtube z4ii4UykhoA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4ii4UykhoA youtube]
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Colorado Blvd in Pasadena, CA is most known for the annual Rose Parade on January 1st, with intricate floats and marching bands bringing in the new year. The famous street hosted a different kind of celebration this past weekend, though, with the Ferrari Club of American putting on a Ferrari Concorso on three blocks of the downtown portion of the city.
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