What the heck is a snowbike anyway?

 

Is it a bike made of snow? Can snow have enough structure to be a bicycle? Can you weld snow?

 

The little shop in Cambridge rents Surley fat tire snowbikes.  They have 4 or 5 of them in there, and for $40 you can take it out for the day.  A bargain of fun. 

What to do in the winter for excercise and for fun can get a little monotonous.  Do you ski, do you go to the gym... but that is about it.  A week or so ago, we were out snowshoeing on a soft snow day and all I could think about was that I wanted to ride my mountain bike.  I wanted to shred the trails at Camrock where we were walking around with the dog on snowshoes. 

So, yesterday we rented up the snowbikes and did just that.  In spite of just how goofy it looks, I had a blast.  Riding the trails that I knew I could not ride until March or April. 

 

Holy 1991! No suspension, just you and a bike and a trail. This one even had top shifters, which actually makes it 1988!

 

Most of you out there are probably saying "What is a top shifter?"  That's fine, leave that knowledge to the old people in the room. 

Riding a snowbike is an excercise in going slow.  A way different experience than the normal mountain bike experience these days.  Modern mountain bikes are marvels of technology.  Carbon fiber, very complicated suspension, sophisticated drivetrains, hydraulic brakes, 100+ mm of suspension travel, geometry to suite the kind of terrain you are riding.  They are all about going fast.  How to make the vehicle climb, descend, handle technical terrain, land a double jump, launch a drop off etc...  Technical marvels.

Snowbikes are the polar oposite of that.  Not much technology beyond about 1991.  They are for going slow.  They are big, they are slow feeling they are clunky.  But, somehow that whole thing just works.  You get on the thing, and all of that lets go slow and look around in the woods in the winter is just fine.

I think I will go and rent one again today.

 

Yes, the dog has a sweater. It was cold.

 

 

A good time was had by all!

 

 

A bike, a trail, a dog! Stop making fun of my dog.

 

 

This is a black trail entrance in the summer. In the winter, on that bike it is unrideable.

 

This video shows that in the right conditions, you can actually go fast on one - downhill.

 

Check Camrock Cafe out.  Click the logo. 

Cheers,

Joe