Back in 2003 I picked up my boots, bindings, and Burton board for $80. At the time I think the board was already pretty old and since then it has been eating rocks going down the Y mountain in Provo, Emigration canyon in SLC, and been dragged behind my brother's jeep at little Sahara and Armagosa sand dunes. I even tried wake boarding with it once in an Oakley irrigation ditch pulled behind a four wheeler. The board isn't exactly in its prime anymore but I had one more idea for it. They call them snowscoots. Usually when I say snowscoot people go "ya I've seen that", then they proceed to describe something else. Anyway, there are a lot of variations in the states and it seems like the actual snowscoot is a lot bigger in Japan and Europe and I am only aware of one place in America that even sells it. But that doesn't matter because obviously I am not buying one and this was a zero dollar project.
basically I cut the board at about two thirds down the length of it and made a special mounting bracket so I could attach it to a bicycle fork for steering.
Most of the rest of the frame had to be custom built the back portion (remaining board not yet attached in this picture.
The funny thing is that I built this in the middle of the summer. It was a little frustrating because it was 100 degrees in the garage and I knew I would have to wait quite a while before I would get to use it. I finally got my chance this winter to take it up to Mt. Charleston. The thing is a lot of fun and pretty easy to get the hang of. It did really well in powder and on smaller hills. Attempts at taking it down steeper slopes without powder were pretty scary. The edge profile was not well balanced, the end result being that when you tried to corner it, the front end was getting a lot more edge than the back. Next thing you know, your nose would be pointing uphill and the flat back end would dig in and launch you off. It is worth mentioning that falling on this is a lot better than snowboarding because your feet are free to jump off and help catch yourself. Maybe someday I will find another board to cannibalize so I can put a flared back end on it. Anyway, it still made for a good ride as long as you were on the right slopes, and I am excited to give it a try on the sand dunes sometime.
And of course HERE is the video of the snowscoot in action.
Cool. One of the BYU capstone teams worked on a human powered (instead of gravity powered) version of a snow bike that a local Utah company was developing- http://gearjunkie.com/outdoor-retailer-trade-show-winter-market-2006-gear-highlight . I don't know if it ever went to market.
ReplyDeleteJesse