Snowbiking Is More Popular Than Ever

Winter sports fans are in for a treat this year as a little known activity has been gathering momentum and will make its mark properly this season. Snowbiking is basically the sport of travelling down a snowy piste on a modified bike. People have been trying to ride their bikes down a snowy run for years, but road bikes were never cut out for very low friction surfaces. Over the years many snowboard and ski enthusiasts have been working on newer designs in the hope of discovering something that worked. unfortunately, early snowbike designs had some major floors, and only recently have snowbikes been produced that really work well in different snow conditions.

The best snowbike on the market is produced by a Canadian company, and they are so confident that the sport will be a huge hit, that they are arranging the first even world championship for 2010. 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. Most of the snowbikes on the market have adopted a shape and design like a snowmobile. 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 basic 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.

Given the nature of many daredevil snowboarders and skiers, it is likely that some will attempted the most difficult mountain runs on the snowbikes without much practice, something not advised by snowbike manufactures or ski resort owners. 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. Most resorts however are allowing snowbikers, but recommending that people take care when using them and when around other people using them. Whatever resorts think of the bikes, with a reported 30,000 snowbikers worldwide, this one seems like a trend that is going to stick (or slide as the case may be).