2014-15 Skibike Blog Tour - Good News & Bad News

So there's good news and there's bad news...

I will start with the bad news....
To the best of my knowledge, this is proving to be the worst ski season since the Blog started in 2010. This Christmas many slopes had no snow at all at and it wasn't just the low altitude ski stations that were affected. Even in famous resorts like Morzine, the lifts remained shut and guests were sent by bus to neighbouring Avoriaz, at which few slopes were open and tickets were rationed to avoid over crowding, I can only guess how hellish that must have been.
Then on New Years Eve snow arrived in such quantity that many were stranded on change-over day for hours on end, with motorways and access roads grid locked. The huge dump promptly melted in the subsequent heat wave, leaving pistes bare or icy and off-piste non existent.
An awful lot of fresh snow is now needed in order to build a firm, cold base before the strengthening sunlight drives warmer temperatures in February. If this doesn't happen, the season will be a total write-off. At the time of writing it looks like mother nature is providing a much needed top up, but will it be enough? For these reasons I am delaying the start of my 2014-15 tour, which really annoys me, as I was particularly looking forward to rides with both novice riders and the usual suspects.

So now to the good news....
Wayne has written a couple of cracking new skibike design articles and I have finally got round to producing one myself on modifying the Alpine Skibikes conversion kit to give more stable and progressive handling. These topics remain one of the most popular according to the statistics and I will be publishing them to fill in the gaps caused by the lack of touring posts.

Alpine Skibikes conversion kit - modified for better control

A lot of new members have joined the group, including a few from the UK with planned holiday trips. There has been renewed interest in Scotland as a skibiking destination, perhaps due to the poor snow cover in regular European resorts. I will need to update the situation regarding skibike access, as I suspect things have moved on since my last visit back in 2010.

Two exciting indoor skibiking developments are in the pipeline.
I have been contacted by a UK centre that wants to make skibikes and snowscoots much more of a mainstream activity, needless to say, once all the health & safety and liability issues have been ironed out.
I have also discovered a local company that has been running weekend trips to Bottrop, Germany from London in the UK. Working with them would really open up the possibility of many more "Introduction to Skibiking" outings in 2015. This would be a fantastic opportunity for skibike virgins  to finally take the plunge and break their skibiking duck.

"Introduction to Skibiking" outings in 2015 - could be on the cards

Also for 2015, we have a shiny new European Skibike Association with a bias towards modern era freestyle skibike riding, this is a radical departure from the stuffy, traditional skibob clubs and associations. I expressed a little too much enthusiasm about this prospect and have been drafted in as a board member, mostly to look after the web site. Some cooperation between the European skibike manufacturers would really add to the momentum, so far only SledgeHammer Skibikes are involved, BullSkate, Firem VS and Avalanche Skibikes, please take note.

This Blog is all about the gathering together of like minded individuals to ride the slopes of both Europe and America. I am hoping there will be record breaking snowfall in the forthcoming weeks and I will have the opportunity to get in some quality riding in late February.
Till then, keep the faith.

DIY Skibike Build - Modifying Alpine Skibikes Conversion Kit

When the Alpine Skibikes adapter kit system was first introduced, there had never been a similar product available that could so easily transform your much loved mountain bike into a skibike.
The emerging freestyle skibike scene was heavily focussed on all mountain riding in Colorado powder and freestyle stunts in the snow park. Controlled carving on European, rock hard, groomed snow just wasn't on the agenda.

Alpine Skibikes conversion kit - unique when first introduced

The Alpine Skibikes design uses a clever concentric spring design that allows a great deal of tilt of the skis, whilst still returning them to a neutral position should you find yourself airborne. It is a neat  engineering solution, that reflects inventor Matt Hanson's aviation background.
In my experience of using these adapters, for many weeks of riding, spread over quite a few seasons, I began to appreciate that there was quite a fine balance point beyond which the front ski would tuck under and you would find yourself abruptly thrown over the handlebars. This is something that a motor cyclist would call a "high sider" or I might call the "superman" ejection.

Alpine Skibikes conversion kit - a clever concentric spring design

I was eager to find a solution to this aspect of the design, eventually I saw another Alpine Skibikes user had created a solution. It was based on adding a bicycle crank to the front bracket, attached to the end of the crank was a rubber strap which was looped around the brake arch on the front forks. This is very much a simplified version of the system used on the Lenzsport skibikes, which are noted for their stability and ease of control.

I wanted to make something similar, so my first task was to hunt through my garage scrap pile for a suitable crank piece. I found some nice box section aluminium tubing, originally part of a now defunct photographic stand. In retrospect, it is hugely over engineered, but I would rather this than have parts fail on you half way down the mountain.

Scrap pile surprise - box section aluminium tubing

Finding the right type of rubber strapping proved to required a fair bit of searching which eventually lead to Matlock brand cargo straps. These are designed to secure the curtain sides of heavy goods vehicles; any item designed to withstand that level of vibration, across a gamut of temperatures, whilst under constant tension should be up to the task.
With all the parts gathered, I spent a couple of hours mocking up the arrangement I had in mind, playing around with locations and working out the correct length of the crank. I intentionally made the bar slightly longer than needed, then drilled a selection of mounting holes to allow for plenty of adjustment for bungee length and tension.

The "dry run" - mocking up the arrangement I had in mind

The trickiest part of the process, for me, is accurately marking out and drilling the pilot holes, after that you just have to go slow and steady enlarging them to the appropriate size. You can do this by working your way up through drill sizes or use a step drill which saves considerable time swapping drill bits.

The tricky bit - marking out and drilling of the pilot holes

I never had the opportunity to test the system on snow before the start of the 2013-14 season, but I was delighted to find that the whole system worked perfectly from the start and needed little modification. The straps create a very nice progressive increase in resistance, having little effect on the flat, but saving you from going past the point of no return mid-carve and having the front ski suddenly tuck under.

The straps create a very nice progressive increase in resistance

Carving ability was taken to a whole new level by allowing you ride with a much more aggressive riding position, weight well forwards, putting downward pressure on the handlebars. It is also easier to put the skibike beyond regular tail slide drifting and into a totally sideways slide, much more like the classic skier's hockey stop. The increase in confidence created, meant I was much more likely to stand up on the foot pegs, riding in the classic "pegger" stance, rather than seated, as had been my previous dominant riding style.

Fellow Blog writer, Wayne Richards suggested that the effect was purely psychological, a case of "Emperor's New Skibike" perhaps? Towards the end of the season and after quite a lot of riding, the curved hooks on the end of the strap began to suffer from metal fatigue and straightened out enough for them to pop out on a number of occasions. As soon as this occurred, the result was to return the skibike to it's old handling characteristics, which usually resulted in a fall. As this happened on the first couple of occasions "blind" without me realising what was going on, it proved that the effect is tangible and not just perceived.

Modified Alpine Skibikes conversion - carving ability improved

For this season I have reversed the position of the rubber straps with the mounting hooks on the outside and secured them permanently with a nut, bolt and washer combination. One downside is that this makes the mounting of skis less convenient than it used to be.
In the past I would transport two skibike frames in the boot of my car and keep the Alpine Skibikes brackets mounted to the skis permanently. This made for a quick and convenient method to setting up two skibikes, which could be transported within the confines of my sub-compact car's boot. With the adapters permanently mounted to the frame, I am either going to have to up-scale my vehicle or mount a bike rack to the rear.

I am going to have to up-scale my vehicle

Even though I have sacrificed the ability to quickly mount and dismount the ski adapters, I still feel it is worth the addition effort, as this; easy, cheap and quick modification makes such a difference to the skibike's handling.
Another future modification that would be a real game changer, would be some form of quick release plate, such as those used on professional camera tripods, so that you could pop on and off skis with a quick flick of a lever.

Interestingly within days of making my modifications, a second generation of Alpine Skibikes conversion kits were launched with a similar, but greatly finessed iteration of the same layout.

Looking for parts to build a skibike? Or perhaps one ready to ride away? See our Parts For Sale page here.

January Sales - 30% price reduction on ex-demo NISM skibike skiboards

Here's some good news to kick off 2015 with a bang, our limited stock of NISM ex-demo skibike skiboards are now 30% off their original asking price.

The price for the NISM 100cm "All Mountain" skibike skiboards is now £164.50 delivered (were £235)

And the price for smaller NISM 90cm "Park" skibike skiboards is now £154 delivered (were £220)

Please remember these are not skinny "SnowBlade™" style skis, they are wide skibike specific ski boards. I have checked on eBay and elsewhere, nothing like these are currently available in the UK. Even if you can find similar items in the USA, don't be fooled by low prices shown in Dollars. Once you have paid the courier costs (£25+), import duty (2.7% of value), VAT (20% of value) and sundry other "incidental" costs, the real price could be nearly doubled.
Skibike spares are not exactly plentiful in the UK, stocks are limited to just the one pair of each size and it is highly unlikely that further items will be available, so don't tarry if this is what you need for your skibike project.

Wide skibike specific ski boards

DIY Skibike Build - Forks & Geometry

A primer for skibike front ends

OK lets divide the bike into parts, let’s look at the front first, certainly if we can get the front right then the rear will follow. I have copied a paragraph from Wikipedia to get the “flavour” of what does what at the front. Do look up the whole article and do a bit of “bedtime reading “ as the next little nugget I am going to divulge is extremely important to us.

Trail, or caster, is the horizontal distance from where the steering axis intersects the ground to where the front wheel touches the ground. The measurement is considered positive if the front wheel ground contact point is behind (towards the rear of the bike) the steering axis intersection with the ground. Most bikes have positive trail.
Trail is often cited as an important determinant of bicycle handling characteristics and is sometimes listed in bicycle manufacturers' geometry data, although Wilson and Papodopoulos argue that mechanical trail may be a more important and informative variable, although they both describe very nearly the same thing.
Trail is a function of steering axis angle, fork offset, and wheel size

Trail - a function of steering axis angle, fork offset and wheel size

So if we look then at a classic ski bike installation, in its simplest form, as drawn above. If you have done your homework, you will realise that the red line is the head angle or rake ( steering axis ) and the green line is the effective centre of the wheel, or in our case the centre of the ski.

So now let’s introduce Wiki’s paragraph on “Mechanical Trail“

Mechanical trail is the perpendicular distance between the steering axis and the point of contact between the front wheel and the ground. It may also be referred to as normal trail.

Although the scientific understanding of bicycle steering remains incomplete, mechanical trail is certainly one of the most important variables in determining the handling characteristics of a bicycle. A higher mechanical trail is known to make a bicycle easier to ride "no hands" and thus more subjectively stable, but skilled and alert riders may have more path control if the mechanical trail is lower.

So if we now take the distance of a typical mountain bike set-up we would have about 30–50 mm of positive mechanical trail (again Wiki has a diagram to show this on varying wheel sizes). That positive mechanical trail is so important to how the bike feels and rides. If we look at the set-up above, which is exactly how most skibike conversions are, you can see that we have little or no mechanical trail. What does that mean? Yep you guessed it, that jittery feeling we so often feel in the handlebars over long flat areas and the almost instant turn when we weight the handlebars.
If you are unsure what I’m saying is correct, then as an experiment, simply turn your forks back to front and turn the handlebars 180 degrees. The fork offset is now to the rear. It does transform your bike into a cruiser with very steady steering, but that feedback you need through the steering has become so dulled as to make the skibike feel a little, well ordinary.

OK another familiar example here. Think of your average supermarket trolley, to make sure all the wheels steer and allow you to push it around the supermarket in an orderly and easy fashion, the wheels are “castered” i.e. the centre of the wheel is always behind the turning point (attachment point) of the frame, to give caster or mechanical trail. Many have the rear wheels with almost no caster or trail to avoid them clashing with your feet. Very often if you push them fast enough and then slightly turn the trolley, you will see the rear wheels “shimmy” and almost become out of control. Is this not dissimilar to many of our skibikes ?

I have long wondered why most manufacturers seem to opt for the long travel (and unnecessarily heavy and expensive) front forks and quite a high front ski attachment, coupled with a very slack head angle. Having ridden just such a skibike, the front feels really dead and not lively, almost like the ski is locked into the snow. Now that’s not a bad thing but, as budding racers we all want that instant turn and slide feeling that one gets on the likes of high powered quad bikes or when we start to throw our cars through turns with a little too much throttle, good fun and what we really should be aspiring to. So look at the drawing below.

Common skibike design - long travel forks and high front ski attachment

Here we have a very slack 68 degree head angle with a 300mm high adaptor. It may get the mechanical trail in the right place but this would not be a very nice feeling front end with a number of problems, principally the ski has moved to the rear and almost certainly would clash with the rear ski unless you move the rear ski back as well. Also the slack head angle would make the bike feel quite ponderous and slow to turn. It would work though but let’s see if we can do better.

Old fashioned trailing link suspension

A long time ago bikes had what were called trailing link suspension.They were the real first suspension units and we could take a lesson from that old design. So then what about...

Lightweight forks, very low ski adaptor, reduced trail

Looking at this, we now have our lightweight 100mm or so suspension, very low ski adaptor to prevent twist and overly weighty adaptors, about 20mm of mechanical trail and that really nice feeling 70 degree head angle. Nice.

Alternatively if you want to keep your existing ski adaptors, some and not all front forks are identical side to side, it’s just the internals which are sided. So simply turn the lower part of the fork 180 degrees so the mounting offset is to the rear. I have tried to do that on the Marzocchi forks I have and it does work well, it’s not for the faint hearted, but if you look on YouTube or some mountain bike forums, most forks are documented as how to over haul them. Do make sure you still have enough room though to prevent the front and rear ski touching each other.

Job done or food for thought? Please leave your comments in the box below or join on the Blog Facebook Group to join the discussion.

Looking for parts to build a skibike? Or perhaps one ready to ride away? See our Parts For Sale page here.

DIY SkiBike Build - The Right Frame

Looking at my previous articles and thinking about the nuances of converting a mountain bike frame to a ski bike and the time it takes to convert an existing frame, it’s sort of obvious that one can move things on a bit in a “clean sheet” design. So let’s think about a design that will encompass a bit of the learning curve so far.

Weight

Weight, well lack of it is everything to the day’s enjoyment. Just the lifting of the skibike to and from the car, to managing it on ski lifts, to getting it back to the car after a few too many bevies in the après ski bar; the lighter it is the more you will enjoy your day. Some of the builds we are doing are 7 kg all up, including skis, but if you can get below 10 kg then you will be alright. To put that small 3 kg difference of weight in perspective, pick something that is a bit bulky, say 6, ½ kg bags of sugar, put them in a rucksack and walk, carrying them at mid arm’s length for 15 minutes and you will understand what I mean.

If you can get below 10 kg then you will be alright

Oddly, the heavier skibikes do feel more leisurely once actually on the ski slopes. My first skibike, which is about 11 kg, seems to have a lovely mellow feel about things, it just seems to do everything in not so much of a hurry and I think that is just inertia slowing down all the movements of the skibike. A bit of a conundrum that one, I can equate it to comparing heavy American muscle cars to Euro sports hatches; they both get there equally as fast on the road in different ways, but once you turn into the parking lot that smaller, lighter car has a lot of benefits !

Chairlift Fit

Getting a skibike to fit the chairlifts and the lift system is fundamental to getting up the mountain for a day’s skibiking. Getting clearance over the rear of the skibike to allow the chairlift to pass over it without tangling the chairlift, is there a curve where the bike can sit on the chair with the ski below, if you intend to put the skibike alongside you? Will the seat still fit under the safety bar if you sit with the skibike between your legs as some riders do? Is the top frame low enough to allow the lifts with Perspex canopies, to fully close? Can you take off a ski easily to fit the skibike into one of the small cabin style lifts? So many things to think about here, but with a bit of good design it can be done.

Can you take off a ski easily to fit into one of the small cabin style lifts?

I could name another ten requirements, but for the moment we shall just consider a basic shape that will fit most situations. Unfortunately the standard bike frame, whether as a “hard-tail” or with full suspension, is so compromised by its basic unfriendly ski lift shape, that we need to think laterally a little, but somehow still retain that “bike” feel and look which we so love.

Retain that “bike” feel and look which we so love

So let’s talk about Y shaped ski bikes. Why Y shapes you may ask ? Well that old Trek classic shape of the early 90’s has real benefits as a ski bike. Look at the following shape and you can see the clearances for the ski lift over the rear, that clearance carries forward of the foot pegs to allow the skibike to sit on the seat beside you, the scalloped top tube allows the safety bar to come down into its correct place. This curved Y shape frame fits the lift system well and has enough rider ergonomics to make it a very useful shape to play with as a starting point.

 

Skibike design - why Y shapes, you may well ask?

Looking for parts to build a skibike? Or perhaps one ready to ride away? See our Parts For Sale page here.

Get Your Boots On! - Footwear for skibiking

I had an interesting enquiry from Dee recently...

"Can I wear good hiking or snow boots with a skibike, instead of ski/snowboard boots? If so, what type would be best"

If you are going to ride a skibike using the freestyle/pegger method i.e. without using foot skis, then your boots need to fulfil the following requirements:

• Be well insulated and warm
• Be water and snow proof
• Have good grip in slippery situations
• Provide some ankle support
• Allow normal articulation for walking or getting off a chairlift

As Snowboard boots fulfil many of the above skibiking needs, are relatively inexpensive and readily available, they are the number one choice for most freestyle skibikers.

Snowboard boots - the choice of most skibikers

However some skibikers still prefer normal hiking boots, I tried them but ended up with wet feet, which apart from the discomfort, could cause health issues after prolonged exposure, such as frost bite or trench foot.

Alternatively; snowmobile, quad or dirt bike boots have been used by other freestyle skibikers with great success. Lastly, from personal experience, I can confirm that both downhill and ski touring "randonee" ski boots are totally unsuitable for this application and should be avoided at all costs, even spray painted Doctor Martens boots woud be better, get your boots on!

Blog Tour 2014-15 - Season Kick Off

Many years ago a young work colleague, with wisdom beyond his years, told me "There's no point working this hard if it's not for something". Throughout the summer and autumn, during all those long afternoons doing boring jobs, I've been day dreaming about this moment of freedom.
The purpose of this trip was to test out a nice selection of new (to me) items and to get my stiff and flabby body into some resemblance of order before the season proper starts in a months time.

My first port of call was to be Bottrop, near Essen, home to the Alpincenter, claimed to be Europe's longest indoor snow slope. You can read more about the slope and its facilities from my earlier visit. The trip from London to Essen was nearly all plain sailing till the last 30 miles, Germany is clearly aiming to be more British when it comes to totally blocking up the infrastructure with road works, don't do it Germany, it's not worth it.

Alpincenter - Europe's longest indoor snow slope

Arriving just after the 10am opening, I set about with a warm up on skiboards. My tools were a pair of Line skiboards, picked up a month or so ago for the princely sum of £10 from eBay, they even came with the proper carry bag. These were complimented with a pair of Raichle Flexon boots that I picked up in the early summer for £20 also off eBay. In absolutely mint condition and by jingo they fitted a treat too, the only downside is that they are very, pink. In the early 90s, such acid colours were all the rage, no doubt a lime green and purple ski suit plus a Chris Waddle power mullet wig would fully complete the look. Let's just say that for a man to wear pink boots you have to be very confident about your sexuality, one way or the other, nuff said.

Pink boots - you have to be confident about your sexuality

These two thrift store bargains made a great combo and I had a couple of happy hours warming up my rusty body with them, I anticipate they will be a good upgrade for this season, in resorts that don't allow skibiking or where filming duties are required.

Feeling toasty I pulled out my skibike, I had just made another modification to the front ski mount and was keen to see if it would stand up to real world use. I slipped straight into the grove from the first run and just kept getting more confident and fluid as the day progressed.

Before dusk arrived, I nipped out to the car park and swapped over to the 90cm NISM skibike skiboards, what sheer bliss, I didn't change back. They are on special offer here on the blog at the moment, but if no-one gets them soon, I can see me taking the plunge. In the clinical environment of an indoor centre you can really focus on technique, they are remarkable devices once you work out how to really get them on an edge.

It was an amazing day, I started just after 10am in the morning and stayed till closing time at 10pm, almost 12 hours on the snow. How tired and stiff would I be for day two though?

One noticeable change on this visit was a radical change to the canned music played, gone are the garish 80s selection, to be replaced by modern pop music, the sort were the singer sounds like a malfunctioning robot. I believe it is a genre called EDM by the cognoscenti. Yo motherfudgers, get turned up to death.

 

It was a bit much to expect my body to cope with the onslaught of so much activity without some recoil; never the less, the following morning I still managed to drag myself out of the sack and get properly scrubbed up for the short drive to the nearby town of Neuss, just outside of Düsseldorf. It's an area of open flatlands, making the distinctive silhouette of Allrounder mountain resort easy to spot from miles away.

The distinctive silhouette of Allrounder mountain resort - easy to spot for miles

Allrounder mountain resort is very glitzy compared to Bottrop, all stainless steel and glass, shiny, shiny. Following protocol I scouted out the slope on skis incognito, on paper it is quite a short slope, just 300m long, which is half the length of Bottrop. In reality, the usable length is the same and the presence of a full scale chairlift system is an outstanding feature, making for hassle free and speedy uplift.

A full scale chairlift system - an outstanding feature

The snow on the slope at Allrounder mountain resort was in excellent condition, if I understood the German correctly, the marketing blurb refers to it a powder snow, which might be going a bit far, but it was definitely deep, crisp and even. The temperature was distinctly chilly, yesterday I was riding in just a polo shirt and fleece, today I had to add another layer to stay warm and should really have dug out thicker gloves from the suitcase too.

I had previously contacted the management at Allrounder mountain resort to see how they regarded skibikes and received a favourable response; this was confirmed when I spotted a well worn Brenter skibob next to the engineering station and a baby one on the juniors play slope getting a good work out.

At lunchtime I slipped into skibiker mode and made my way to the chairlift, an operator shot out pretty quickly, I showed him my leash as I had been instructed, he grinned and disappeared back inside and that was that. I spent a very pleasant afternoon going over jumps, making wide carves, following the fall line and generally wiggling around to my heart's content.

At lunchtime I slipped into skibiker mode

Around 6pm I had to quit, I was tired and had to be heading off to my overnight accommodation in Belgium. It was very much a case of mission accomplished; I had tested out my kit successfully, given myself a valuable pre season warm up refresher course and even learnt a couple of new tricks along the way.

Best of all was to have found another potential year round skibike training camp at Allrounder mountain resort.

Skibikes at Allrounder mountain resort - mission accomplished