help or hinderance?

[kennethbenson]

It's good for kids to hang on to or to pull your sled over on the shop floor. Otherwise very little use for one. If your handlebars are at about belt level you will have no problem with leverage. Ride wrong foot forward when sidehilling. Check out Bret Rasmussen & Chris Burandt new video "Schooled". They don't use them. Lefty or mountain bar.

You got it, PP. Buy the video SCHOOLED. These guys reinforce the dis-advantages of using a mountain strap and having a lefty hanging off your bars. Learn to ride without, take off the training wheels and you will perform better in the end. It is all weight tranfer left to right and moving forward/aft on the sled. I am guilty of having and using all this junk in the past but have learned to make it happen with the sled and myself, not using the cheats.

 

[Going West]

I dont use mine a whole lot. But some times its worth its weight in gold. Just wait till your deep in the trees on a steep slop and your line dissapers, and you have to do some crazy off camber slow speed work to make it through. Its not hurting anything being on you bar and when you do need a little extra leverage it could be the difference between a good run and being stuck or hitting a tree. I dont think theres any point using it if you can make it just using the bars because you dont have as much controll, its more for extreme situations where with out it you couldnt do what you need.

 

[turboless terry]

You got it, PP. Buy the video SCHOOLED. These guys reinforce the dis-advantages of using a mountain strap and having a lefty hanging off your bars. Learn to ride without, take off the training wheels and you will perform better in the end. It is all weight tranfer left to right and moving forward/aft on the sled. I am guilty of having and using all this junk in the past but have learned to make it happen with the sled and myself, not using the cheats.

Exactly! You do not have the leverage or control when using a mountain bar. The reason the guy in the pictures lost the sidehill is because he had the weight over the middle of the sled. You have to learn to countersteer and hold onto the bars. This, in turn, weeds out a left handed throttle. I tried to show a gal, who weights less than a 100 pounds how to sidehill. She refuses to let go of the mountain bar. It is hard to countersteer when your hand is on the grab bar. It makes the skis want to turn into your turn which is backwards of what you should be doing. She will never get it until she lets go of the mountain bar. You should be able to sidehill with one hand.

 

[PowderCrew]

.... She will never get it until she lets go of the mountain bar. You should be able to sidehill with one hand.[/QUOTE]

...until you hit a rock or stump and your sled unexpectedly launches! When it lands, how is your "form" gonna be?... body on the uphill side? Skis turned out? Sleds gonna land into the hill again and continue to carve? Usually doesnt matter too much... lose it and you can just turn down. But what about that CLIFF your sidehilling above? Or the WALL of timber below?... been there, and was SURE GLAD that bar was there to grab and pull on to get the sled to dig back into the hill again... especially since I was OUT OF WACK!

 

[One]

If the slope/space/snow conditions make it hard to throw the sled on one ski it is handy to grab the bar with your outside hand and put a little more weight uphill. jmho

 

[RMKcowboy]

I've found that on my 03 (w/o a lefty) I rarely use the mountain bar. On my old 01 with a lefty, I would use it when the hill was sloped out and I needed to make a turn-around or a slow turn back to the left... grab the mountain bar and use the lefty and bring it around. On my 03 in a situation where I'm going slow and I don't have the leverage I need to pull it up on an outsloped hill for an uphill left turn, I usually end up making a turn so that I can get pointed in the right direction with some speed built up (haven't run out of room yet!) That said, a lefty is going on my 03 this season. Don't need it often, but when you do it's sure nice to have. I'm not Chris Burandt and can't ride like a rock star so I'll use the stuff if I need to. 6'2" and about 175 w/o gear on FWIW.

 

[snengineer]

for kids to hold on to...and the occasional emergency situation where form is not an issue

 

[turboless terry]

.... She will never get it until she lets go of the mountain bar. You should be able to sidehill with one hand.

...until you hit a rock or stump and your sled unexpectedly launches! When it lands, how is your "form" gonna be?... body on the uphill side? Skis turned out? Sleds gonna land into the hill again and continue to carve? Usually doesnt matter too much... lose it and you can just turn down. But what about that CLIFF your sidehilling above? Or the WALL of timber below?... been there, and was SURE GLAD that bar was there to grab and pull on to get the sled to dig back into the hill again... especially since I was OUT OF WACK![/QUOTE]

If you hit a rock you have a better chance keeping control if both hands are on the bars. I don't sidehill with one hand. I was just giving a reference on how much effort it should take. I guess you have to do what works for you but I guarantee you can manuever a sled better with hands on the bars. There are a bunch of other things involved to do it properly. Throttle position, handle bar position, weight in the right spot. It doesn't do any good to have your hands on the handlebars either if you don't have these things to go along with it. I have rode with a lot of people who don't understand the concept of countersteer or turning the skis left so you can go right.

 

[kevinscof]

WOW and all this time I thought this was the "Oh Sh*t" handle. lol

 

[longtrack156]

Rarely use mine but as mentioned above bigger guys probably don't use them. I am 6'1" and 215lbs. As stated above mountain bars are probably like lefty's if your a bigger guy then you don't have or need a lefty. Its all about leverage and little guys just don't have it. If I were smaller I would probably use my mountain bar all the time and have a lefty. My question is if smaller guys have to have these extra devices to get it done on the mountain what do they use in the bedroom?

That's where skill comes in.