A beat up but perfect running sled and ratty old gear used to be a badge of honor for the real deal sled head. Now it is a bit different. I think i liked it better the way it was before the mid life crisis took a hold of our sport.
And i apologize, i dont really work full-time, im basically stay at home dad whos kid started school, so i have nothing better to do right now than this until we get some real snow. I do septic sytem installs when i can, but i have no equipment payments so i am picky about what work i take. I usually stick to jobs i can do solo with the machines i have. And my wife has a sweet job and she is awsome so she lets me play my life away. Im basically a 31 year old child. Im not making this argument for me im making it for the hard working kids who see the videos and wish they could sled but think it to expensive. I saying this cause as the one of the fortunate people out there who can afford to do this i think we have a responsibility to keep things realistic.
I was at my local undisclosed bmx trails spot the other day and i asked the kids there if anyone rode sleds. They laughed and said no it crazy expensive, but the one dude said he watched the videos all the time and dreamed of owning a sled. And a few guys agreed.
Then i asked if any one rode moto cross and half the kids raised tgere hands. 20 years ago both those questions would have gotten more hands! When did sledding become a dream and not a reality for hard working young kids. And these are hard working kids that work full time and hand build and maintain these beautiful dirt jumps with there free time. They are not looking for a hand out. If they where they would be at there local town maintained dirt patch uncreative rounded off dirt jumps with the rest of the lazy kids on there $2500 dollar "dirt jumping" mountain bikes that only hit the jumps in-between text messages. But those kids will be out snowmobiling cause they are wealthy and they will want easy to ride sleds to ride and brand new gear and sleds every season. And they will be disrespectful in the back county cause they have never appreciated anything in there life. And then our riding areas will continue to shrink as our sleds get longer and easier to ride and become more and more like 3 seater jet skis. Inturn atracting more of the wrong kind of people to our sport. Until we are a bunch of fat rich guys riding around in a tiny lake or meadow cause its the only place where alwowed with 20 ft long turbo and supercharged terd riders
And the cycle continues
So ya if you love riding powder ride it, but dont be such a bratt about it that the entire industry has to change to suit your needs. Lets make a expensive deep powder specific sled for guys who can afford a different sled for a change in the weather. And then lets make a sled for under 10k that will still be in one peice when the payments are over for younger guys who are bit rougher on equipment and can also ride for more than a mile on harder snow without overheating so they dont need multiple sleds for weather and season changes. In my opinion riding a 174 track in the spring is about as fun as watching a fat guy fart. While ridding a 146 track in the deep can still be pretty dang fun.
And the really funny thing is if you gave one of those hard working kids i spoke of at the bmx trails above a sled he would destroy all of us within 5 hours of being on the thing.
I think what im trying to say with this rambling is this.
If snow bikes are good for tree riding, why are we changing the entire snowmobile industry to suit tree riding. Sleds are better in open space and are a blast to ride drainages and wind lips on. They are good machines for meadow playing and jibbing type stuff and jumping/dropping too. So why not keep sleds sleds and make snowbikes for boondocking. They are less prone to damage in the trees. My common sense has always told me snowmobiles + trees equals bad news. Why keep bending and breaking sleds on trees when snow bikes are awsome. You can ride tighter trees and get places sleds only dream of going. They can basically go anywhere and do it with zero damage to the machine. Maybe some new hand guards from time to time. But they are basically the perfect rig for the trees and deep snow. They also easier to get unstuck in deep snow which is rad. Especially as you get older and getting sleds unstuck becomes a bothersome and even body damaging task.
Things like narrower panels to stop panneling out are cool useful things. But a 850cc 35in wide 174x3 that my daughter could destroy with her toy hammer cause it only weighs 380lbs are not realistic things that the average guy needs. They have sure done a good job of convincing us we all ride the deepest British Columbia days every day all year long. You know they edit snowmobile videos right?
I plan on getting a snow bike the second i can afford one. Then i can do snowmobile things on my snowmobile and snow bike things on my snow bike. I really just think it crazy to make snowmobiles that are so one track minded.
ITS CALLED SNOWMOBILE MOUNTAIN FREERIDE
WE NEED TOUGHER AND CHEAPER SLEDS
