The SkiBike Shop

Having returned from a monumental trip to Flaine, I had to endure a week of miscellaneous work related tasks before I was free to continue the SkiBike Tour 2011-12. For this next leg it was necessary to cram "Uncle Fester" the tired old Ford Fiesta with all my skibike paraphernalia and head South the 700 miles to Geneva.
By happy accident, I broke the journey down into a couple of chunks as covering a distance almost equivalent to John O Groats to Lands End in a single day is more than I can bear.
My first proper break was at Amneville near Metz, home to SnowHall the second largest indoor ski slope in the world. Driving along the motorway I caught sight of a gigantic grey slash in the landscape that trained skibiker and skier eyes wouldn't fail to miss. The French seem to have a knack for keeping secrets and I wonder if they don't want to share this amazing resource or perhaps they don't appreciate its worth. Either way, signage off the motorway is minimal and you are more likely to end up in the neighbouring retail park, as I did, as find SnowHall. The area around it is somewhat like some of the pretty outskirts of Coventry (Binley Woods, perhaps). The building looks remarkably like all the other snowdomes that I have seen, it particularly resembles Hemel Hempstead's SnowCentre only much, much, longer.
I was able to confirm from the reception staff, that SnowScoots are allowed on Thursday evenings only and do not mix with other slope users. One has to have lessons and pass a riding test provided by a local man. They did not know what a skibike was and my attempts to describe other manufacturers and methods of riding met with glazed expressions. However, this venue is certainly worth further investigation, particularly for the French SkiBike club where it would make for the perfect summer training camp. If time allows I will call in again and test it on SnowBlades.

SnowHall Amneville - just like Hemel only bigger

Heading onward, the weather turned progressively more wintry as I skirted the Vosges and Jura Mountains. I found myself driving for around 100 miles on an inch or two of wet snow. I was very thankful for the Cooper brand winter tyres on the front wheels, they inspire great confidence and I never felt the need to fit snow chains. My only caveat is that they should really be on a four corners of the car, as the rear end could be quite skittish and attempt to overtake the front. Luckily I cut my teeth on rear wheel drive cars, such as the Opel Manta and opposite lock is second nature.
To avoid high ground in the steadily worsening conditions, I ignored my sat nav's preferred route over the top of the Jura Mountains and decided to head for Lausanne via PontArlier following the low route. Maybe the frustrated genius TomTom programmer added in a sadistic passive/aggressive feature to the algorithm. Either way within sight of the lights of Lausanne it exacted its revenge by steering me back on to a remarkable route through the high valleys of the Jura mountains. In the dead of night, with jangled nerves, I rolled through places that I knew from Internet research only, such as; Le Bois d'Amant. I had previously thought of the Jura mountains as the rough country cousins of the chic Alps. The breathtaking beauty of some of these hitherto unseen locations makes me think that they will be worthy of future visits.

Wayne Richards has already forgotten more about ski technique and bike technology than I will ever be able to learn in this lifetime, he now continues his essay on the nuances of skibike design from a DIY self-build perspective.

OK here’s where it all gets a bit tricky and probably there are far more experienced people out there who have tried and done many of the things I am about to discuss, please write into Mark and put your theories over as there is almost no information out there discussing these points. I’ll have a go but can only relate it to my MX, more latterly MTB cycling knowledge and from the other side of the sport, an in depth knowledge of skiing. Lets treat this as knowledge that will need refining as we go along and our experience builds up.

Head angle, well a thorny subject and something I think is not particularly understood in the ski bike world. It has an implicit effect on how the bike handles, probably more than suspension settings. Head angle in mountain biking terms is there to give a caster self steering effect i.e. let the handle bars go and the front wheel should self centre, the slacker head angle you have the greater the effect, the less manoeuvrable, the more dead the front steering will feel. Now as we steer very little on a ski bike that may at first sight seem to be a good thing and I think that is where most of the manufacturers have gone, a relatively lazy or in MTB terms, slack head angle.

Good handling is all about slack head angles

I would also suspect they have done so to resolve a fundamental perceived handling problem of ski bikes, that of the front ski ( and to a lesser degree the rear ) feeling really skittish along flat trails. Anybody who has been ski biking will have particularly noticed this on fresh packed down snow, green trails or very flat runs, where the front handlebars constantly want to make tiny turns in either direction at random ( MXers call it head shake ) without the riders input, it can be quite disturbing unless pre-warned about it. What causes it, well it’s relatively simple and nothing to do with the bike.

Remember back in the early eighties ( prior to snowboards ) a monoski was the “derigour” for anybody who was a little bit offbeat and wanted to look cool, the big problem with them was they were almost impossible to ski on flat trails because the ski constantly fretted about until, with both legs locked side by side, the rider was ejected onto their arse. They didn’t last long and with the advent of boards soon disappeared. So what is the cause ? Skis have curved edges designed to carve radii in the snow, which ever edge is digging into the snow, the ski will want to radius around on, simple, that’s what they are designed to do. Now flat runs are not flat and have lots and lots of little mini hills where other skiers have left lines and indentations and little ridges. Each time an edge feels a higher part of the piste, it will want to take over and turn toward that edge. Flat monoski on a flat piste with the ski not knowing which edge it wants to radius on, means that tell tale handlebar waggle is going to happen. Equally the rear ski can feel all waggly and horrible for those very same reasons.

You can build the skibike with a slack head angle

How do we resolve it, well you can build the bike with a slack head angle or if you are converting a MTB then you are really committed to what you have already built into the frame ( downhill frames will have the slackest but will also weigh the most ). Mechanically we can lower the rear of the bike a bit or use longer travel forks than what the frame was designed for, use different length ski adaptors with a longer one at the front perhaps, but you will never actually fully stop it until the front angle is so slack that the front steering will feel very sluggish and with very little feed back. There are other downsides, a slack angle, the longer the bike will become, longer forks or higher ski adapters and COG suddenly becomes very high, mechanically the forks are not working optimally ( stiction ) with higher loadings on the headstock, its all a trade off of one form or another.

There is an alternative - just plain simple better rider technique

There is an alternative that lets you keep that sharp turning, lots of feedback from the front ski, lively feel, that we have come to expect from a good MTB setup. Just plain simple better rider technique. Never ride straight and flat, always make graceful long radius turns along any flat areas. By doing this you dictate which ski edge the ski is on and you will totally eliminate the shimmy and head shake you can get. The benefits of a tighter head angle are more pronounced for the Peggers amongst us, where we tend to ride standing up, we are inherently more unstable and by being unstable we are more manoeuvrable. Come those little tight flat access tracks between pistes, we can turn on a dime, sitting down is bit more taxing, but slacken that head angle, and that turning on a dime just becomes a whole lot harder.

So what is the optimum angles, sorry at the moment ski biking in the modern form we are talking about, is so new that we are really just experimenting, sooner or later an optimum angle will be worked out. For those starting with a MTB frames, back into the equation.

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

OK the next thing to think about is the skis themselves, that will be discussed in Part 4.

Tonight in London it is a still night, and about -10 degrees Celsius, which is colder than a nun's candle by local standards. It is what the Inuit tribes are supposed to call a 3 dog night; which is one that requires you to have 3 dogs laying on the bed to keep you warm. Even with my super new central heating boiler running at 100% it is so cold in the bedroom that I have remade the bed as a "duvet sandwich", in other words, sleeping with a duvet both underneath and on top of you.

In a spare moment I decided to see if a little science experiment I first saw on a BBC report about the coldest inhabited town in Russia, would be reproducable.. This method will only work if it is really cold and dry, it makes for a neat party trick.
Here's what you do:
Fill a mug one third full with boiling water, take it outside and throw the water up in the air..... Instant snow! Disclaimer - handling boiling fluids is a risky activity, Mark Kinnon and The SkiBiker SkiBike Blog cannot accept responsibility for your health and wellbeing, observe the correct safety precautions to avoid harm.
And yes it worked at treat, although I am writing this in my duvet sandwich bed, which still wasn't warm enough, I had to open up a sleeping bag and throw that on top too.

• Full long travel suspension
• Rear clearance for a chairlift to pass over the rear ski
• Relatively low weight
• Ground clearance along the side of the rear triangle ( some suspension bikes have lower triangle arms that are part of the mechanism of suspension and have parts lower than the rear wheel centre )
• Last but not essential, a cheap or older frame no longer being used.

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.

Riddlesdown by Skibike

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.

Riddlesdown, Surrey - perfect for urban skibiking

We had it all planned out so well; clean up the apartment, a leisurely breakfast, load up the car, followed by the long drive home. Unfortunately the best laid plans of mice and skibikers...
I thought something must be awry when I realised that Carl had been gone quite a while to collect the car from the car park at the top of the hill. I switched on my phone to grab a few last minute pictures of Flaine and the text message came in "Battery totally dead! Even with battery pack on! Loads of people up here with dead batteries".
This didn't bode well, I made my way up the hill to the car park to see if I could offer any moral support. The scene was catastrophic, it had been  under -20 degrees overnight; batteries had died and diesel fuel had solidified in fuel lines. The car park was littered with cars with open bonnets lined up like open mouths at the dentists. After Carl engaged in top level diplomacy with some people from the Czech Republic he got a jump from a humongous Mercedes 4x4 and we were back in business.
We were over 2 hours behind schedule and would probably miss our ferry. Having a good driver is definitely the way to go, we motored on solidly for 8 hours and arrived within a minute of the E T A stated from the outset in Flaine. On the plus side P&O ferries came good on the next available crossing, we were straight on the ferry and on our way back before we knew it.

SkiBiker Carl - Cream Crackered

Leaving Dover with every mile the snow came down heavier and heavier, we got as far as Kenley and about half a mile from my home had to refit snow chains to get up the hill for the last stretch. One of the better snow chains broke and Carl had to fit one of the cheaper ones he originally bought for the trip, I suppose you can't have enough spares. Tired but eager to be off home Carl later posted "M40 knackered had to go through London, how many people have driven around Marble Arch with Tyre chains on."

Carl and I finished our week revisiting a few runs that had seemed so daunting just 6 days ago. We no longer crash out on difficult turns and are becoming ever more boisterously confident, maybe it is time to take a break before we really hurt ourselves.
At approximately 4pm today my objectives for the week were achieved and exceeded.
I could ride a variety of different grades of pistes in varying conditions with confidence equal or greater than my former skibobber hybrid technique. I could maintain a constant speed through carving and reduce speed through skidding.
When I skidded too much I found myself counter steering to avoid spilling out. My feet remained firmly planted on the pegs constantly.
I could feel the movement of the rear ski through the frame and make angle adjustments through varying foot pressure.
Off piste, I raised up into an enduro stance and was able to absorb bumps and make whip like rear ski steering changes. My carves were so deep that the sides of my boots were scraping snow, there were no more superman ejections just a few spills where I failed to see a change of gradient lurking in the late afternoon shadows.

Carl preferred a different style that better suited his American influenced style of skibike, softer conditions and off piste excursions. He managed to translate this technique onto some nasty hard packed gradients that had skiers in a tumble and snowboarders on their rumps.
He rode standing up almost constantly and had perfected an annoying trick hockey stop that sprayed you in snow from head to foot. He was making the sort of video material that had taken him in this direction in the first place.

My equipment is failing me, my Fox rear air shock died this morning and I rode for most of the day as a "hard tail". The carabiner on my rear ski anti-dive link became too bent too hold on. The left lens on my prescription sunglasses popped out. My vintage Marin saddle is split and torn everywhere. Oddly the one item that has remained sturdy is a pair of Tesco's finest winter activity gloves purchased for £6 a few days before departure.

We discussed some thoughts for those who may decide to see whether skibiking is their route to nirvana too.

Skibiking is a vigorous and active sport and freestyle / pegging is not for softies!
Wear knee and wrist braces by default, consider a back brace too if you have a weak back.
Always wear a helmet.
Anticipate that you will probably fall off a lot at first. Be relaxed and let it happen, pick softer snow or off piste to practice on, blue runs are ideal.
Skibikes accelerate quickly down the fall line very quickly, watch your speed at all times and take it easy till you have the ability to control your speed.
Snowboarding clothes are the most practical, warm and comfortable option and suit the skibiker attitude, leave your catsuit at home or for your next FISB World Cup skibob race.
Check the tightness of fixtures on the skibike on a daily basis, metals contract in cold temperatures and parts work loose.
Carry a multi-tool such as a "Leatherman" about your person for on-piste tweaks.
In the absence of an accredited teaching programme for freestyle / pegger skibiking find a mentor to guide you as a novice, regarding the safe use of lift systems and skibiking technique.
Be polite and follow the skiers code, you will be an ambassador for this niche sport whether or not you want to.

I planned to meet with Serge from Firem and test out his new 2012 model the Firem VS512 and today was the day. This involved a painfully early 06:30 start in order to drive down the hill to Cluses on snow chains. Before a quick burst up the Autoroute Blanche to Bonneville, followed by the 30 minute ascent to La Clussaz.
We met at the car park De Balme of the Aravis ski resort of La Clussaz, late but hopefully acceptable by Galic standards.
My last visit to this resort had been a bit of a non-event due to skibikes not being allowed on chairlifts, leaving a meagre selection of gondolas that appeared to serve all the worst runs. I soon realised that this was probably an unfair assessment, Serge's local knowledge got us round the whole place without mishap.

Serge likes to describe the VS512 as his "carving" model, there will be a full report later, but my first impressions are that it is; small, light, agile and indeed is very good at carving.
If you have the intestinal fortitude to get the correct amount of lean, this machine will make 360 degree carved turns.... I managed a 180 degree turn from about 20 mph on a gentle nursery slope.
It feels like like an ultra-modern lightweight evolution of a classic racing skibob, I even have a gut feeling that with a few tweaks it could be entered in a FISB World Cup race.
The low sitting position suits on piste riding best, but can be taken into the rough when needed. You might need a couple of runs to adapt, but once "dialled in" it inspires trust and confidence.

We met an Australian couple on a day trip from Annecy, they were curious about the skibikes. At the top of the nursery slopes the man took off his skis and poles and had a go for the last 500 metres, though wobbly at first, he was already in the swing of it by the end of the run.

After a "picnique" lunch break, thanks go to Serge for a lovely bottle of wine and delicious fresh French bread and pate all a world away from a typical English picnic of boiled egg sandwiches and stewed tea from a flask.
With the serious business of testing over Carl and Serge made videos and played games of tag with each other, whilst I bimbled along taking in the scenery and savouring every moment.

It would be great if La Clussaz opened up chairlift access to skibikes, this seems to be affecting all variants of skibikes including traditional skibob types. I know that the French skibike club are trying to resolve the issue for the 2012-12 season, I hope they are successful.

Today the sun appeared for the first time of this trip, treating us to some epic early morning views of the Alps.
Once again we were off early in the direction Les Carroz in search of more fresh powder. Sadly though all that lovely powder had been compacted down overnight.
I enjoyed lots of wide controlled skidded tail slides trying to see just how far I could push the envelope and beginning to feel levels of confidence on the pegs that I had previously only felt with footskis.
Meanwhile Carl was heading off piste at every opportunity to find all available stashes of untrammelled snow.

Flaine - Here comes the sun

We headed back towards Flaine and at the Tete de Saix, Carl looked at the massive expansive of hill below us and said "I can do that", "ok" I replied "let's do it".
What followed was, by my standards, a massive off piste descent performed on the pegs. I found out later that our progress had been closely followed by the mountain bike loving lift operator of the Le Lac chairlift with a telescope.
Hoping not to be an example of that old riddle "What happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object?" I opted for monster long traverses, mainly to avoid having to turning anywhere vaguely near the fall line. The gradient was a lot more intimidating than it appears from the cosseted comfort of the Corbalanche chairlift. It was easier to wait till my trajectory intersected the sortilege piste and turn there. Another time I got off the skibike and turn it through 180 degrees, cheating!
I fell a couple of times and figured out quickly that you have to tramp down the snow to build a mini staircase above your skibike.

Where's the Powder Mark?

In the late afternoon, I headed up to Les Grande Platieres and played on the mephisto runs by skibike, having previously only attempted these runs on SnowBlades. They gave me the ideal opportunity to work on my skibike carving technique.
I think I might be finally starting to understand how to carve a skibike. You need to tilt the skibike, this feels like pushing the handlebars down in the direction you want to turn.
Your legs and hips incline with the skibike but the top half of your body remains vertical. This is analogous to articulation used in dynamic skiing turns.
Much as I love getting the tail of the skibike to whip out at every opportunity, the carving sensation is a whole new level.
The sensation of grip is unique and very reassuring, being locked into an invisible track in the snow like a Scalextric car, that even bumps don't seem to unsettle. The downside is that you create so little drag that speeds steadily climb till you have to skid to remove speed....or crash out.
 



We are now 4 days into this trip and I have exceeded my personal goals, to be able to freestyle skibike "on the pegs" in control and with a level of confidence that I only previously knew with footskis. Meanwhile Carl is already standing on the pegs, on and off piste and producing the sort of POV video material that inspired him to follow his chosen skibike path.

Last night it started to snow, it continued all through the night and all day long too. We left the flat as early as possible, excited as little kids, today we would ride fresh powder. Conditions at the top of the Grand Vans chairlift were a bit brutal, the falling snow in your eyes can be so painful, but as soon as I wore glasses or used a visor they steamed up immediately. I have been told to get myself the right tools for the job, a MTB downhill helmet and goggles.
As visibility wasn't that good, I really wanted to get over to the neighbouring resort of Les Carroz which has plentiful tree lined runs. Carl wasn't too impressed to start with as you have to follow a level piste that follows the top of a high ridge, which required a fair bit of walking.
His grumbles turned to squeals of glee one we found the steeper gradients of the Combe run down to Les Carroz. I have rarely had the opportunity to ride in so much deep fresh snowfall, even on the piste it was a good foot deep, off piste you could ride up to the top of the forks deep in it.
The riding was sublime, it was so different from the normal hard pack conditions, you weren't fighting to keep down your speed or keep and edge, if you made a mistake there were no painful landings. We kept going without a break all day till the very last lift; just to drink in every last drop. These are the conditions that freestyle / pegger skibikes were built for... looking forward to tomorrow.

Les Carroz - SkiBiker Carl Approves