Latest Winter Sport – Snowbiking

It has been waiting in the background, slowly growing in popularity and support, and now it is ready to be unveiled on the world properly.The sport of snowbiking takes place on a normal piste and involves traveling down the mountainside on a modified push-bike. Chucking yourself down a ski run on a bike is nothing new, but the hundreds of people who tried it previously didn’t do too well on account of the fact bicycles rely heavily on good ground friction. For many years ski and snowboard fans have been working on advancing designs in the hope of developing something that worked. Sadly, many of the earlier models were bulky and difficult to steer, and it has only been in the last few seasons that a snowbike has been developed that really works.

A Canadian firm currently offers the best bike on the market and they have announced the first snowbike world championship will take place next year. Rather than being built for tricks or jumps, snowbikes are normally purpose-built for control and carving ability. This will be reflected in the world championship events that will be based around slalom and speed competitions. The large majority of snowbikes that have succeeded in the market share many characteristics with snowmobiles. They maintain a lower centre of gravity and are steered using a bladed mounted to the front which can dig into the snow to change direction. 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 normal mountain bikes. The learning curve is pretty steep, but when you got the hours of practice under your belt, its not something that you’ll ever forgot how to do.Now that adult snowbikes have proved a success, women’s and children’s snowbikes are starting to be manufactured. There are also multiple extras now, such as stabilisers, headlights and even horns.

There will be a temptation for many proficient snowboarders and skiers to tackle the hardest runs straight away, but manufacturers urge people to start of small and build up, no matter how good you think you will be. 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.

Certain American ski resorts in fact have prohibited snowbikers on their slopes until more is known about the safety of the things. The majority of locations however are understanding to snowbikers, but still suggest that everyone is careful until we know just how safe they are. Despite the mild controversy surrounding the sport, it doesn’t seem to be putting people off giving it a go, and there are now a predicted 40,000 snowbikers in the USA alone.

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