Brake or no brake

[rxc8154]

I need your Opinion to get this story straight.
So i have two friends who i introduced to snowmobiling 2 years ago and both had no experience in sledding. One of them does ride ATV 's and the other had absolutely no experience prior to learning how to ride a sled and that includes atv or motorcycles. So the story goes one day while I was out of state, they guys decided to go sledding. We usually alway ride together as a group. But they decided to go sledding and while out they found a pretty huge hill. They decided to try and climb the hill and had no problems , but murphys laws always usually finds it's way to screw things up. My one buddy who didn't have riding experience climbed the hill and when he turned around he started down the steep hill and 20 ft after turning around he grabbed his brakes and said he had no brakes. So he bailed off the sled and watched his sled run down the hill out of control and hit a tree. totaled his sled by riping off the A arms and shocks. So my other friend who watched this, drove his sled to where his sled was and he said he set his brakes to go see the damage on the sled. His sled started to slide down the hill with it's brakes on and it to went down the hill and hit a tree. So my opinion is that they both hit a huge patch of ice under the snow. They believe their brakes went out and after looking at both sleds , i found no leaking brake fluid nowhere. Temperature was about 28 degrees. I think they both hit ice, but they said no their brakes went out. What do you think.

 

[maddog21]

its all about gravity. if you brake too quick, it will not stop, it will just slide down to bottom. brake wasnt the problem. its the riders.

I could just go 80mph downhill without brake as long as there are no rocks or trees in front of me.

they need to practice!!!

 

[shelbwyo]

Sounds like something you would see in a cartoon. I think its the rider issue the first guy should have just engaged the clutch and he would have been alright

 

[rxc8154]

repost

This happened last year and it's a very sore subject because the two friends of mine get very pissed when this subject comes up. Not sure really why they're getting so mad , but I've tried several time to talk about this so they can learn from this . But they won't listen and just say the brakes failed and I don't know what i'm talking about. I've been sledding close to 20 years and have had many sleds and have rode many different types of terrain. Should I just let this pass or should I stir up the pot. In fact just this morning my buddy texted me about the brakes on his sled and brought up this subject of the crash again.

 

[polaris dude]

I would take them out again and show them how on a steep hill with powder the track fills with snow and then stops braking without use of the gas and it starts to slide.

And besides if they aren't smart enough to steer around trees and rocks they wont understand anyway.

 

[skiwiz]

Try using reverse when coming downhill !

 

[skibreeze]

Happens all the time. The brakes are just fine, they just need to realize that when the track locks up, the snow isn't always going to provide a very good stopping surface. Just like in a car that locks up the tires on snow, you actually slide further than if you modulate the brakes to prevent them from locking up.

 

[malleryii]

They can have the best brakes in the world but you can not stop gravity. If it is steep you will slide. Last year was coming down a hill couldn't stop sled going down, but that tree sure did $3600 of damage. Glad I bailed before the tree

 

[jfox1995]

If they won't listen and get pissed when it is brought up then why not just leave it alone? Maybe they will figure it out after they wreck their next ride...Friend or not if they don't want to listen to someone with experience eff em, you can't fix stupid.

 

[Butta]

Note to self....don't let them ride my sled. LMAO!

 

[dp2826]

Funny stuff. I blame all my mistakes on the sled too.

 

[MI1M600EFI]

Perhaps it would make them feel better to know that I rode my entire last day of last year without brakes. The caliper locked up right out of GreenRock, so I just pried it off, took out the pads, and rode the rest of the day. All you have to do when coming down hill is add a bit of throttle to engage the clutch, and you can control speed pretty well. Certainly well enough not to have to bail anyway.

Basically, if the brakes on your buddie's sleds work now, and you didn't do anything to fix them, then they worked then. Sorry about their luck. Move on.

It could also be that the 2nd sled had the parking brake come disengaged. I had snow build up in my parking brake thingy so it didn't want to latch a few times...

A little practice riding w/o brakes is good for making sure you don't panic and bail if your brakes ever do go out.