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 4×4 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.

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:

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

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…

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M3skID44Gg[/video]

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

yunki – Member
doesn’t it bottom out onto the BB housing..?

Yeah it does, but it really isn’t noticeable when riding it.

Ti_Tim – Member
Excellent ! I’m going to try that – would it work with quick release and a hard tail frame do you think ?

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.

MrSparkle – Member
Handyman – where did you get the ski’s from?

There from a Ex Army store up in Ripley. Here’s the website CLICK they have (or did have) loads.

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 –

Rear Ski Mount –
Because the BB is quite low, i had to space the rear ski down abit. Just blocks of wood screwed in.

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.

Mounting the ski’s –
Pretty easy, just 6 (However many you can be bothered with) holes countersunk.

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 🙂

Very nice work.