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Evening...
A few of you might remember a few months ago I asked if anybody had a old snowboard that I could chop up and make a snow bike.
Well I had a slight change of plan, and found a old military store that old army ski's (Bargain at £3.50 a pair).
Making it was pretty easy. Its basically abit of 4x4 wood, chopped into blocks with a 10mm rear axle though the middle, then bolted either side to keep it in the middle, and then 1 both each side of the dropouts to keep it secure.
The front has a 20mm through axle so a 21mm hole was drilled in the wood, shoved the axle through, with a inner tube wrapped around each side to keep it secure (And so it didn't flip when it left the ground).
Ski's where then just screwed from underneath, making sure they where countersunk. And we where away!!
It worked perfectly. Though on the big hill in Allestree park (Derby) the snow was abit deep, so it didn't get much speed up.
Took it down some 'downhill' runs through the woods, and was great fun.
Definitely recommend it, took me about 3 hours to do. Nothing to hard at all.
Picture below is rubbish..
But I will quite happily take photo's of the fitting if anybody is interested.
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Cheers
Josh...
Top work that man
Looks fun!
Could you fit some pegs to it to stand on or is that waaay to scary??
Rachel
Josh, that looks awesome. Any chance of the photos? BikerBoy5699 AT hotmail co uk
Want to do the same to an old bmx frame.
Looks as though it has got pegs, in the bottom bracket shell. I want one! 8)
Sell them mate - I'll have one too
Allthegear..
You cant see them in the picture. (And I should have mentioned it).
I got a old style sqaure taper bottom bracket where the axle comes out, screwed in the cups into the frame, then bolted on some BMX stunt pegs though the 14mm hole with a 14mm rear axle, So there are foot rests.
Juiced..
Indeed I will do some pictures, when its daylight. I will pop them on here, but also email them over to you.
Cheers
Josh..
Lovely Job. And living up to your name! What frame? and did you have the short skis on your feet?! Remember seeing these in the Rockies a very long time ago!
Amazing. But you will die this winter.
Article in ST mag? Get Matt to come and ride it. Suggest it.
thanks. I would really appreciate that.
Lionheart..
Its a Scott Ransom frame.. With Pace Monster RC150 forks. Bit over the top but o well 🙂
How does it ride? Does it carve by gripping a ski edge, or is it constantly drifting?
That's a neat way of mounting footrests.
Can see it now, confused without wheels etc, still great!
wicked idea, I've got an old frame and forks and a snowboard I could do this with
just need some snow... it tends not to stick around in central London
Juiced..
Rides wicked actually.
It doesn't really dig in, it sort of drifts. But on straight slops you can kick the rear end out pretty easily.
On the more technical stuff, it was more a case of sticking a foot out, just for extra stability..
Only single speed?!
No way would Matt ride something with bars that narrow.
cool. thanks. Apologies I wasn't implying it didn't ride well, Just wondered how the ski's translated to a bike frame.
Nice!
Brakeless too - you are down with the bmx kids....
Good work tho!
It looks brill, sending my Stumpy fsr in the post to you as we speak. 😈
Thats fantastic.
Great effort to avoid a 'what snow tyres?' debate 😉
doesn't it bottom out onto the BB housing..?
How does it go on the climbs? 🙂
Great idea. Let's see more pics.
living up to your name there handyman, good work!
my mate built a similar machine last year:
[img] 
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it could actually be ridden back up the hill, but the head angle was a bit steep...
Katie had a go on one in the Alps
[img] http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=ynyxea&outx=600&quality=70 [/img]
Awesome.
Excellent ! I'm going to try that - would it work with quick release and a hard tail frame do you think ?
I bought a riser bar for a mate on ebay that was made my a company called Koski, a company I had never heard of. When I looked them up online they made rather funky snow bikes
http://www.koskisnowsports.net/
Handyman - where did you get the ski's from?
Flashback - about 10 seconds in...
i have a ht frame, bars, stem, a variety of spare forks, snow and a sodding big hill by my house.
skis i need but there is an army surplus store near rayments i could visit tomorrow...
tee hee
Yeah it does, but it really isn't noticeable when riding it.yunki - Member
doesn't it bottom out onto the BB housing..?
Cheers, yeah I tried it with quick release first, it went together fine, but they are abit thin and ripped through the wood. I moved onto the axles because they are abit more substantial and held in place better.Ti_Tim - Member
Excellent ! I'm going to try that - would it work with quick release and a hard tail frame do you think ?
There from a Ex Army store up in Ripley. Here's the website [url= http://www.anchorsupplies.com/ ]CLICK[/url] they have (or did have) loads.MrSparkle - Member
Handyman - where did you get the ski's from?
Thanks for all the comments though, just been for a couple of hours on it. Working a treat, snow needs to be packed down abit more though..
JonR are you not getting confused with Eric Koski, one of the "fathers" of mtbing?
just remembered i have some bendy MDF at home for improptu ski`s
do you recon that would work untill i can source the real deal?
Van Halen -
It might do, only thing is the edges cant be sharp, cause they will just dig in.
My machine 🙂 wont go backwards because where I cut the ski's in half is just a flat edge. If you can find away to keep the edges smoothly bent. I dont see why not..
Ok...
Some pictures and a small description, for the few people that emailed me.
Rear Clamp Mechanism -
10mm Rear axle through abit of wood, the bolted to keep in the middle, and bolted either side of the dropout to be as strong as possible -
[img] 
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Rear Ski Mount -
Because the BB is quite low, i had to space the rear ski down abit. Just blocks of wood screwed in.
[img] 
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Front Ski Mounting -
Because it 20mm through axle, it was just a 21 mm hole drilled through a piece of wood. The black on either side is a inner tube, then electrical tape to keep it secure either side, and to try and stop it spinning when it leaves the ground.
[img] 
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Mounting the ski's -
Pretty easy, just 6 (However many you can be bothered with) holes countersunk.
[img] 
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Thats about it!
Cheers
Josh...
You sir, are a genius. A mad, insane genius. And I love it! 😀
And...
Here is a better picture of the machine 🙂
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Very nice work.
Nice one Josh. That looks just the biz. Awesome.
Might be worth taking it to Thornbridge on Sunday!!
Not biking tonight so Ad and myself are off to the park for a spot of nightime boarding in all this fresh powder.
Do you think it would be a good idea for run two ski's at the front and two at the back, right next to eachother thus spreading the load on softer snow?
Seriously seriously cool! Well done!
Any videos in action?
Oh my god. I'm going to make one this week. Brilliant.
I've summoned the frame, have the wood.
How did you hold it together? Is it just screws, nails and araldite?
OP, that is flipping brilliant.
Got me googling for conversion kits and the like. They sell them, but for about $270, without skis. These are basically v shaped triangular bits of metal with axles at the pinnacle. You screw them to an old chopped ski or snowblades. They weight them slightly towards the back so if you get air (yeah right), they automatically tip up a bit at the front to stop them digging in when you land.
Bit more googling got me to this: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?242516-Ski-Snow-Bikes-is-Done!!!PICS!
They've used same concept essentially, but using skateboard trucks to fix the blades to the bike, which seems a good idea.
I have an old pair of snowblades, I reckon if I take off the bindings and screw blocks to them, then fix them to the bike dropouts I'll be up and running. Well I would, were the snow not to have melted. I wondered about the trucks moving as you angulate, therefore getting it more difficult to dig in an edge when turning?
Think I might give it a go
We need to see a video of this in action.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2742459/xcorps_action_sports_tv_46_snowbike_2_seg3/ - these guys are using the expensive conversion kits
They don't seem to turn well. Have you see snowscoots - they turn really nice, like big monoski?
been researching making one of these since the OP's original post a while back - you can also use skateboard trucks to connect the ski's to the frame or use a snowboard too.youtube 'snowbike' for some videos.
Evening...
Thanks for the comments again, i will try and get some form of video done, but if it keeps on raining, the snows not gonna last much longer.
SpokesCycles -
Its just screws, but plenty of them.
Juiced,
Indeed you are right. The skateboard trucks do work. They are to wide for normal dropouts though. Take abit of playing with.
Heres a picture of the Scot's little brother. Using the trucks idea, it works great. But its difficult to get the bolts tight enough on the rear axle -
[img] 
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Cheers
Josh..
Brill! I remember my Dad making one for us when we were kids. Must have been in the early 70's and the donor bike was a Raleigh Chooper.
Wish I still had it!
ive got trucks,axles,frames.would love to walk up Cairngorm with it.
anyone else fancy making one with the thought of going for a group walk up the gorm some day? that would be a right laugh. Ive got old boards but i need to know if a snowboard would make a better base than a narrow ski. has anyone found out which works best yet?
that's more like it handyman. Awesome too. I am thinking of running two skis's at the front and back, next to eachother.recon it would ride nicely? The other option is to run the skis apart by a few inches, like a quad!
now I know why some bmx's skibikes run chains from the seat stays to the rear trucks.
just got my ski's. 😀