rewind what motorcycling and dirt biking can teach snowmobilers

Comparisons are often made between snowmobiles and motorcycles. Motorcycles, ATVs and snowmobiles are grouped together under the heading Power Sports, which, I guess, indicates a kinship between these different means of transportation/recreation.

Snocross riders use motocross and enduro bikes to stay fit in the off-season, and a good chunk of regular snowmobile enthusiasts use two wheels to satisfy their motor heads when the snow turns into Mother Nature's Kool Aid.

One experience changed the way I ride snowmobiles and improved my overall riding; taking a motorcycle safety course. I'm sure at the end of this paragraph, a few motorcycle safety instructors will be cringing at the prospect of more people wanting to enroll, but the reality is, these courses are a valuable experience for anyone, whether they own a motorcycle or not.

The differences in appearance, design and setup between a snowmobile and motorcycle are blatantly obvious. However, the mechanics involved in riding a snowmobile aggressively, but safely are remarkably similar. This is the Cliff's Notes version of what can be applied from a motorcycle safety course directly to making the riding experience safer, more enjoyable and, surprisingly, more invigorating.

What will not be discussed here are the obvious virtues involving alcohol and/or drug consumption, changing weather conditions, proper use of hand signals, etc. I guess I assume that if you've made it four paragraphs into this piece, you're intelligent enough to know better. That being said, what follows are 25 tips to improve your riding experience and make you a better rider.

1. Choose your equipment wisely. With four major manufacturers and dozens of models, why ride something you don't feel comfortable on? Don't buy a particular sled because of what the bumper sticker on your truck says! If you ride aggressively, consider a rider forward design, when speed is involved, it's better to lead with your head than your feet. On the other hand, if you like to cruise 20-40 mph all day and make Yao Ming look like a lawn gnome, why are you riding around on a snocross replica sled?
2. Clothing and accessories count. One difference here with motorcycles is we don't need to spend much time lecturing on the virtues of helmets and protective clothing, because it's nearly impossible to ride a sled without these things. However, make sure your clothes are comfortable, especially your jacket across the shoulders and pants through the knees. The inability to change positions quickly due to restrictive clothing equals potential trouble. Don't cheap-out on helmets. It's your fricken head and you only get one. Lose the boy-racer windshield. It looks great in the garage and gains you 2.6 mph on top-end, but what good is it if you end up wiping frozen tears out of your eyes and wearing duct tape on your nose all day?

The next 5 are known as SIPDE, the motorcycle safety code of survival:
3. Scan. Keep your eyes moving across the field of vision in front of you. Don't lock onto anything for too long. At first you'll have to think about it, after a few rides it will become as common as blinking.
4. Identify. Determine potential hazards before they become hazards.
5. Predict. Assume that someone will be having a trailside smoke or cup of coffee around the next corner. Assume that deer along the trail will jump out in front of you. Assume the automobile on the highway next to you is going to turn in front of you at the next crossing.
6. Decide. Increase the space between you and the potential hazard and make a plan to deal with it.
7. Execute. Put your plan into action. Save your life or someone else's.
8. Hold your head up. You can't change the next 25 feet, but you can see potential trouble coming if you stop staring at your bumper, your buddy's taillight, or all the fancy LEDs on your dash.
9. Steer with your eyes. Motorcycles are incredible; they will go where your eyes go. Snowmobiles are much the same. If you want to turn left, look left. Don't just glance, turn your head. Remember every time grandpa would go for the pickup ash tray and you just about ended up in the ditch? It's called target fixation, use it to your advantage.
10. Watch your entry speed. We've all seen or experienced coming into a corner too hot and panicking. Ending up in the rhubarb is no fun, especially when the rhubarb involves a 30-inch diameter maple tree. Slow down coming into corners and learn to power out of the apex instead of coming in wide open.
11. Will yourself through the corner. If No. 10 didn't work out so well, the first step is to not panic, because panic causes you to fixate your gaze on where you don't want to be and that's exactly where you're headed. Instead, turn your head in the direction you want to travel and look at where you want to go. Road racers often say "when all hope is lost, lean the bike some more," in this case, shift your butt to the inside of the corner and will yourself through the corner.
12. Remember the lost art of body English. I learned body English on my 1973 Ski-Doo Elan 250T. Bottom line was, if I didn't use body English I had better be planning on going in a straight line all day, because the sled sure was. IFS, sway bars, double runner carbides and high, wide handlebars have changed the way we ride, for better and worse. Don't let technology fool you, snowmobiles are like little kids, they like being told what to do. Use your legs to move yourself around, not your arms.
13. Cover your brake. On a motorcycle, one second of reaction time equals over 80 feet of stopping distance at 60 mph. Use one or two fingers and cover your brake lever at all times. If it's too cold to cover it, it's too cold to ride.
14. Don't give up your lane/line so easily. On "two lane" trails, are you the type that practically runs yourself in the trees trying to be courteous to oncoming traffic? Why? I'm not advocating playing chicken, but those other folks have the same ability to move over that you do, but they never will if you keep surrendering two thirds of the trail to them.
15. Don't override your headlight. Explaining this is like the Supreme Court defining pornography, you'll know it when you see it. Everyone has his or her own comfort zone here.
16. Feed your snowmobile. How much time do you spend staring at your gas gauge or wondering when your oil light will come on? How could you possibly be prepared for a hazard with all of this running through your head?
17. Good carbides? I think an informal poll would reveal that a good set of sharp carbides have saved more riders butts than anything else.
18. Studs cost more than brains. I get chastised regularly for being potentially out of control by the Stud Gang because I don't choose to stud my sled. Then I ride with some of these folks and realize they don't need studs, they need a safety course. Studs are not a Band-Aid for bad riding techniques. Don't get me wrong, on a Sunday afternoon in the U.P. in the middle of January, studs are an immense benefit, especially in corners, but don't get sucked into the rhetoric that you cannot ride safely and aggressively without studs. You can and you will if you practice these tips and ride within your sled's limits.
19. When dealing with autos, beware of elbows. Unless resting on the window sill, there is no good reason to see anyone's elbows in an automobile. Seeing elbows means cell phones, lipstick, cigarettes or cheeseburgers are in use and all of them spell distraction and potential trouble.
20. Give your eyes time. It is common in trail systems to dive in and out of the trees and or clearings all day. This means your eyes are constantly refocusing, especially on sunny days. Slow down a little and give your eyes some extra time.
21. Don't borrow your buddy's comfort zone. Good riders pick a point to meet and then allow everyone to get there on their own terms. If you're having trouble keeping up due to fatigue or inexperience, then don't try to keep up. If your pals don't understand, find new pals.
22. Clear your mind at the pickup. Statistics for anything with a motor show that most serious accidents happen almost immediately, within the first 15 minutes of a ride. Make it a good day before you ever pull the rope or turn the key.
23. Beware of the pulled-over rider. I'm not talking about the one obviously taking a break, but the one you can't figure out. Assume a U-Turn or a blind merge is coming.
24. Learn to swerve. Borrow a couple of traffic cones and set them up in different scenarios on various frozen surfaces. Again, use your eyes and don't watch the cones, watch the escape route.
25. Stop when it doesn't matter. This is especially true for owners of new sleds. Take 20 minutes on a Sunday afternoon and determine what your sleds stopping power is. Grab a tape measure and a can of spray paint and make a little braking grid with measurements in the snow. Learn how to do a controlled stop… No excessive fishtailing, pitching or loss of control.

There you have it. I used to get mad at people who pulled out in front of me, deer who took me by surprise and trail hazards that should have been repaired weeks ago. I still get mad, but now I get mad at myself. That's when I realized I had graduated to the next level of riding, and I didn't experience that until I took a motorcycle safety course and started implementing these skills.

Skills and techniques like these tune you into your riding experience so much that aside from freak accidents, there is no excuse for allowing yourself to be taken by surprise by others' carelessness. This is something that has to be experienced, because when I try to explain it to others they look at me like I'm Nervous Nellie and wonder how I could possibly be having any fun with all this stuff to remember.

The big secret? I rode around paranoid for years before I learned all this, and paranoid generally leads to no fun. Life, and sledding, should be fun.