Ski loops, ski hoops, ski handles.
Whatever you want to call them, these are some of the things I ponder when the TV isn't working, and apparently, a lot of other people have spent an inordinate amount of time fretting about what usually amounts to a looped piece of half-inch steel tubing.
If you can identify the 8 brands and/or models represented by the ski loops pictured above, you are either a true "sled head" or you are on the same satellite plan as yours truly.
Ski loops, by design, are about function, but function with a taste of style is what commands consumers' attention. Ski loops serve two basic needs on the snowmobile, to reinforce and to serve as a grip/rigging point for moving the machine around. Also, as the rugged racers of the 1960s and '70s can attest to, loops played a minor safety role by somewhat (emphasis on somewhat) reducing the threat of a ski turning into a mild steel suppository during a "get-off" on the track, of which there were many.
The first shot above shows the loops on a 1964 Arctic Cat Model 100, one of the first ski loops to hit the market on a production sled, that is if you don't count the "guy wire" style on the early wooden-skied Ski-Doos. Before these models came along, machines were, essentially "loopless."
My theory on the lack of loops, prior to the early '60s, revolves around the ability, more accurately the inability, of the average human being to actually lift the front end of a Model 500E Arctic Cat or an eight passenger "Bomber" out of a snow bank. It just wasn't going to happen. Most skis in the "good old days" looked like a thin piece of corrugated steel and required absolutely no reinforcement to survive the less than blinding velocities produced by a 15-horse Polaris Sno-Traveler.
From the beginning there has been a proprietary nature in ski loop design, but there have been some copies and similarities.
For instance, Minnesota's own Arctic Cat, Polaris and Viking brands all used the same basic shape in the early 1970s. While Canada's Allouette and Ski-Doo had similar loops in the 1960s.
Perhaps the government mandated loop designs? The representatives in St. Paul and Ottawa could have wrangled and debated for hours over the shape and angle of the loop and imposed harsh penalties on those who deviated from the state or provincial loop template.
Then there were companies who couldn't make up their minds on ski loops. Ski-Doo changed its design at least a half dozen times between 1961 and 1981. Most of the early changes came without a major body style modification. The lamest of these designs was the flat chunk of steel with the oval, rubber-lined hole as pictured in the second row above, which was then promptly copied by Skiroule. The Valcourt craftsmen even dropped ski loops completely on the 1971 Elan, bringing back the pioneer days' danger of impaling.
Arctic Cat, on the other hand, left well enough alone. The TRF crew settled on a basic design in 1966 and left it that way until 1975. After '75 the Kitties changed to Suzuki powerplants and they squared off the loop to give it a more modern look and, incidentally, it's one of my personal favorites. So, did the Suzuki execs step in and say "we don't like your ski loops, no new loops, no new motors"?
Then there is the classic ski loop rip-off artist (excuse me, borrower) of all time, Yamaha. Just look at Yamaha's supposedly modern, state-of-the-art plastic skis. The loop on the 1999 Vmax SX series is about the same as a 1972 Boatel Grand Prix 440 (leading off the second row in the picture on page 9).
And what about the RS Vector? Yamaha can thank the folks in Crosby, Minn. for that one (second row, second picture). Can you say Scorpion RS Whip Vector? Kind of has a ring to it. Chuck Connors is rolling in his grave!
People also need to stop confusing those of us with bad eyesight by swapping other brands of skis onto their old junker. The loops must match the brand! I don't care if you live 10 miles north of Flin Flon, Manitoba and you got the skis free from your uncle, a set of yellow 1971 Ski-Doo TNT skis just don't belong on a 1979 Polaris Centurion. It's like wearing Sorel pack boots with a prom dress. I also don't care what kind of IFS sled you own, stop buying old hot pink plastic skis (circa 1990) on eBay and putting them on your sled "because they were cheap." There ought to be a law.
But, I digress...
If shoes make the woman, do ski loops make the sled?
A special thanks to David's Vintage Snowmobile Page, www.vintagesnowmobiles.50megs.com, for supplying the accompanying photos from his massive collection. Thanks David!
Tom Clement lives in Grand Forks, N.D.