Midwest Snowbike issues
I bought a snowbike for this last riding season, I called Ed Klim (President of Internation Snowmobile Manufacturers Association) to find out how far out the Midwest is on accepting snowbikes on the trails, and he told me it was going to be a little bit yet, he said the manufacturers are trying to get this pushed through, but the two major issues in the Midwest is the noise levels that snowmobiles have to meet, how does a manufacturer test every dirt bike combination to meet these sound restrictions. The other issue is a snowmobile has a definition that the brake is mounted on the left handlebar. These restrictions need to be modified or altered to make it happen in the Midwest. The issue here is all the private land that we ride on zipping through peoples back yards. MI just made a clarification that snowbikes are not legal on their trails. They are legal to ride on private land, I would think lakes, rivers would be legal as long as there is some sort of registration on them. I got nailed when my son was riding his 120 on a lake because it wasn't a registered machine, we had a nice discussion...
Get involved with your clubs and educate your state snowmobile association as this will be another avenue to help get this pushed through. It won't be quick but someone needs to start pushing this from the consumer side rather than just the manufacturers.