AmSnow.com is now SnoWest.com
Some of you might remember in grade school playing a little game where the teacher whispers something in a student's ear and then instructs them to pass it on to the next pupil. After 25 or so individuals have heard one version and attempted to relay it to the person sitting next to them, the story becomes a bit fuzzy.
What starts out harmlessly enough as "Jimmy cracked corn," might end up by the 25th person as "Jimmy was a corn farmer who laid waste to a crack dealer with an automatic weapon!"
It seems snowmobiling also has suffered from a bit of interpretational distortion as I'll call it.
As long as I've been riding, I am always amused at the looks and comments I get when I admit I enjoy snowmobiles. It's not really so much an "Oh, you're one of those" type of confrontations, just more of an all around cliché and myth-filled exchange. I end up trying to reeducate poor souls filled with delusions of inaccuracies.
I also am amazed at how many of these individuals harboring such delusions are either motorcyclists or bicyclists - kindred sprits, one would think - who have either never ridden or have had one not-so-great experience on a snowmobile.
Since I put more than 12,000 miles on a motorcycle last year and enjoy many outdoor activities, I think it's fair that I try to dispel some of the misunderstandings.
Dispelling three mythsFirst, if I had a dime for every time I heard someone sadly chuckle and say, in reference to a snowmobile, "Yep, you work on them 2 hours to ride them 2 minutes," I would probably own my own snowmobile company. Some of the same people making this statement probably thought a 1967 Triumph Bonneville motorcycle was a reliable means of transportation.
Look, let's face it, our heritage has not always been graced with the most ironclad reliability record, but that was 30+ years ago. What industry could boast of such expected steadfastness in its infancy? Computers? Yeah right. Automobiles? Certainly not.
Snowmobiling is just a young sport and a lot has changed since the days of 300+cc single-cylinder engines that shook your fillings, not to mention motor mounts out. I put about 3,500 miles on my sled a couple winters ago and including winterization and oil changes (it's a 4-stroke), I'm pretty sure I didn't collectively put 2 hours worth of labor into that machine the whole winter. Anyone that works on their sleds 2 hours for a 2 minute ride is usually a tuner and does so by choice.
Next, one of my favorites is when I tell of my snowmobile exploits people not in the snowmobiling covenant grimace, cross their arms and say "brrrrrr" as they shimmy and pivot about the waist. After I compliment them on their charade skills, again I try to teach and not preach.
Luxuries like hand warmers came to prominence in the early 1980s and to the snowmobiler are the best use ever of copper wire, resistors and rubber, the equivalent of sliced bread. Gore-Tex and leather keep most riders warmer than they care to be and the wind protection on modern machines is better than on most motorcycles.
Besides, most riders I know are smart enough to stay inside and play, well, charades on a very extreme day, except, of course, cross-country racers. I witnessed true "dedication" at last year's famed Red Lake I-500 cross-country race (our
AmSnow team raced there!) in conditions that would make a polar bear cold. Was there some frost bite? Yes, but mostly on people who either a.) didn't dress right in the first place, b.) crashed and broke their much needed windshield, hood and hand warmers and refused to quit or c.) did both.
I don't think anyone was thrilled to walk around for 3 days looking like the Michelin Man with five layers of clothing on, but most survived unscathed and had stories to tell as a result.
Last and certainly not least is the oldest one in the book: "but is it safe?"
Are pedestrian crosswalks safe? Is waterskiing with a dock nearby safe? Is a wedding dance on a Friday night at the local VFW safe? Relatively speaking, maybe not.
The point is snowmobiling is no less safe than any other sport. I see bicyclists riding treacherously down a busy 2-lane road, essentially invisible to half the other vehicles around. I have stormed down a wooded roadway on my motorcycle, a mere 20 ft. from the production of deer sausage. In my life I cannot remember having too many episodes of feeling outside my element or unusually unsafe on a snowmobile, but those wedding dances, on the other hand…
Pink Ribbon Rider's website