SkiBike Tour 2011-12 - Urban SkiBiking
Posted: Sunday, 5 February 2012 by Mark Kinnon in Labels: 2011-12 Tour, D.I.Y., England, SkiBike
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Despite the long drive back and 2am bedtime I was up at first light tingling with excitement. First I had to swap out my damaged rear air shock, as the skibike had only been assembled just over a week previously this was a piece of cake.
The replacement was a Mr Thrifty eBay special "FDR tough shock" which I seem to think cost 99p during the off season. It is a bit of a weighty lump, especially compared to the Fox Air Racing shock it replaced, but hopefully will be a little more fail safe. The bushings were different and after an hour of scrabbling around in the workshop, I found some plastic bushes that with a quick bodge were a perfect fit. At least now I have the correct dimensions, I can set about reproducing it in aluminium.
I had a quick bounce on my driveway, adjusted the sag, tightened everything up and was ready for the off.
I walked and rode down my street to the local green where the kids were playing on sledges "Supercool ride" was the general opinion of the youths who were too young to have developed sarcasm. The dads thought I was joking when I told them it was Riddlesdown next.
On the far side of the A22 I began a pretty strenuous climb straight up the fall line, sweating buckets I made it to the summit a couple of hundred feet higher.
The riding was a bit too slow for action cam footage, I had to skibike very timidly due to large amounts of kids and dogs running about. But I revelled in ploughing through foot deep powdery snow on the "green run" at the top, then zigzagged down a twisty "blue run" and went down the dip of the "red run" at the end. With each run I packed down the snow further and it got faster and faster.
The most common comment of the day was "Wow that's cool". The skibiker survey of random youngsters also suggested that this would be a very popular choice of Christmas present next year if you could only get a skibike in Halfords.
Exhausted, I headed for home, mission accomplished, it's great fun to be on a skibike in virtually your own back garden riding on under a foot of loose snow over grass.
The replacement was a Mr Thrifty eBay special "FDR tough shock" which I seem to think cost 99p during the off season. It is a bit of a weighty lump, especially compared to the Fox Air Racing shock it replaced, but hopefully will be a little more fail safe. The bushings were different and after an hour of scrabbling around in the workshop, I found some plastic bushes that with a quick bodge were a perfect fit. At least now I have the correct dimensions, I can set about reproducing it in aluminium.
I had a quick bounce on my driveway, adjusted the sag, tightened everything up and was ready for the off.
I walked and rode down my street to the local green where the kids were playing on sledges "Supercool ride" was the general opinion of the youths who were too young to have developed sarcasm. The dads thought I was joking when I told them it was Riddlesdown next.
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| Riddlesdown by Skibike |
The riding was a bit too slow for action cam footage, I had to skibike very timidly due to large amounts of kids and dogs running about. But I revelled in ploughing through foot deep powdery snow on the "green run" at the top, then zigzagged down a twisty "blue run" and went down the dip of the "red run" at the end. With each run I packed down the snow further and it got faster and faster.
The most common comment of the day was "Wow that's cool". The skibiker survey of random youngsters also suggested that this would be a very popular choice of Christmas present next year if you could only get a skibike in Halfords.
Exhausted, I headed for home, mission accomplished, it's great fun to be on a skibike in virtually your own back garden riding on under a foot of loose snow over grass.
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| Riddlesdown, Surrey - perfect for urban skibiking |