| ISM Magazine
Ad reads as follows:
If you like bombing down trails on a mountain bike
or tearing it up on a motorcycle, you must try a KOSKI snowbike.
These bikes are the only snowbikes
we've seen that are aggressive
enough to dedicate a two page article on. There's no clutch, no
gears, no worries. Plus, the crashes are a lot more fun and
forgiving than many we've all experienced.
There are only a few resorts here in the region that
allow people to enjoy the snow while holding a pair of handle bars.
We did some research and found Sierra-At-Tahoe to gladly support the
use of bikes on their entire mountain. Plus, the Koski guys were
usuals there, so we went with the familiar terrain.
The following is written as a guide to get you up,
your first time, on a snowbike.
The bikes are basically one-size-fits-all, don't
worry size, the rentals pros will make sure you are all set up. You
are pretty much on your own now that you are headed up to the lift.
But don't worry, the best moment is the first few minutes while
waiting in line. While others piss, moan and step on each-others
equipment, you will calmly be sitting on an enormous cushy seat. Now
if that doesn't convince you to try em' out, just wait 'till the
people in the line realize your comfort...sometimes making people
jealous just feels good.
Now, getting on the lift. We recommend one person on
a two seater, two on a three and four seater. Ok, breath, approach
the lift...you're gonna have to hold on to the bike good. There are two
effective ways to hold the bike....we found.
You can either hold it across your lap, or, (with the Koski bikes)
you can put the seat on top of the side rail and it carries some of
the weight. Sitting on the chair means you're committed, so don't
drop the bike. It doesn't weight much, just get a good grip and hold
on.
Sit back and enjoy the calm before the storm.
Getting off the lift has a bit of an unnatural feel to it, but once
you perfect the -"take two steps and jump on" technique,
you'll be on your way to your next challenge....slowing down.
Power-sliding is one of the key elements to
mastering these bikes. There are no brakes. You can try to stop with
your feet, but this will only work at very slow speeds. It's like
getting on the pipe on packed dirt if you ride dirt bikes.
Basically, the front ski steers, so you aim it the direction you
want to turn, lift your uphill foot off the peg, slide your rear ski
horizontally to the hill direction and balance the slide. It'll take
some practice to master the slide, but keep your speed slow to
medium and you'll catch on quick.
If you get to the bottom of the hill and still don't
have the turns down, give it another try.C'mon for the love of not
being at your 9 to 5, give it another shot. Believe us, once you get
it down, you'll be hucking tables and rippin' up the boarder-x in no
time.
For those like us, by this point your head hurts
from laughing so hard, and you just want to find the kickers to give
this thing a suspension test. Sierra-At-Tahoe offers a wide
selection of terrain in their parks to ease into the jumping. We
found the box rail to offer a little fun, but nothing compared to
throwing down some tricks while hitting the kickers.
Finding some fast groomers offered serious
powerslides and some definitely sketchy moments trying to slow these
things down. You wouldn't believe how stable they are, almost too
stable - you end up going super fast and then thinking about how on
earth to slow down. The more you ride it, the more confident you get
on the slides. By the end of the day we could powerslide as we haul
right up to the lift.
Riding with the Koski guys, we were pushed to our
limits and strived to prove ourselves by hitting the
kickers and
trying to keep up with the riding masters.
We from the mag did our best to set standards for
the first day on the bike. The fun we had was non-stop, many thanks to Big Hits
Distribution....especially Matt and Jeff. If you're gonna ride one,
we absolutely recommend the Koski over the typical K2 rentals. Put
it this way, we have ridden the K2's before, and wouldn't ever do an
article in this magazine on them.....they're not aggressive enough.
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