Has anyone experimented with shimming the rear portion of the ski/spindle to cause more down pressure on the rear of the ski while making the front of the ski more apt to tilt up when weight on the ski was reduced. Just thinking it might make the ski more likely to go over rather than catch on obstacles like rocks etc.
Ski to spindle angle/cushion
- Thread starter dooman92
- Start date
I moved my ski forward in an attempt to reduce ski pressure. The 14 kit has 3 bolt settings on the actual ski allowing you to move forward or back about an inch. When I put it back together I put the bumper on backwards and didn't realize until loading. This made the ski want to tilt up pretty aggressively. Similar to the shim idea you mention. It sat flat on the snow in the parking lot so I decided to ride it. I noticed in deep powder when turning sharp at slower speed it tended to wash out easily. It felt a little less stable at high speeds on the packed snow also. Pulling it out of the truck was a challenge also as the ski wanted to lift resulting in the bike trying to tip over.
Im flipping the bumper back to the normal position!
Im flipping the bumper back to the normal position!
Ski shim
Thanks thronson, that's the info I am looking for. Did you also move the ski forward in addition to reversing the bumper/cushion? If you moved the ski do you have an opinion/feedback? I also reversed the bumper, but felt that was too much rear down pressure. Thanks
Thanks thronson, that's the info I am looking for. Did you also move the ski forward in addition to reversing the bumper/cushion? If you moved the ski do you have an opinion/feedback? I also reversed the bumper, but felt that was too much rear down pressure. Thanks
ski experiments
before timbersled built the newski, I tried a different ski config almost every week. wide, wider, big bigger center keel etc.
one mistake was allowing the ski to fold up or come up as far as it wanted in the front, as in no rubber snubber. What would happen is in deep snow turns, the ski tip would abruptly climb up on top of the snow with the ski heel going down, in one move ski is now a big brake, stop you in your tracks and down you go. One of those mods that didn't work at all. I have since noticed that tendency in some of my setups and importand to tune that out of your ski / ski weighting on strut adjustment and suspension setups.
this tendency for the ski to abruptly fold up was also agrivated when I built a wider tip ski thinking it might float up on top of the sno......nope, couldn't make that work.
before timbersled built the newski, I tried a different ski config almost every week. wide, wider, big bigger center keel etc.
one mistake was allowing the ski to fold up or come up as far as it wanted in the front, as in no rubber snubber. What would happen is in deep snow turns, the ski tip would abruptly climb up on top of the snow with the ski heel going down, in one move ski is now a big brake, stop you in your tracks and down you go. One of those mods that didn't work at all. I have since noticed that tendency in some of my setups and importand to tune that out of your ski / ski weighting on strut adjustment and suspension setups.
this tendency for the ski to abruptly fold up was also agrivated when I built a wider tip ski thinking it might float up on top of the sno......nope, couldn't make that work.
"Thanks thronson, that's the info I am looking for. Did you also move the ski forward in addition to reversing the bumper/cushion? If you moved the ski do you have an opinion/feedback? I also reversed the bumper, but felt that was too much rear down pressure. Thanks"
I moved the ski forward hoping to have less ski pressure. Im going to leave it like that for another ride with the bumper/cushion back on the right way. Hopefully that's the right combo for my bike. I suspect Ill end up back in the center position on the ski and trying the shims in the rear suspension to hopefully reduce the ski pressure.
I moved the ski forward hoping to have less ski pressure. Im going to leave it like that for another ride with the bumper/cushion back on the right way. Hopefully that's the right combo for my bike. I suspect Ill end up back in the center position on the ski and trying the shims in the rear suspension to hopefully reduce the ski pressure.
Has anyone else experimented with the ski and snubber?
I made a stiffer rubber bumper and i prefer it. The soft stock bumper allows too much upward motion in the front Of the ski IMHO. This makes the front of the ski bend up too much adding forward resistance. Also sidehilling, the ski offers more grip rather than flexing up. This worked with the snowhawks which have way more weight on the ski than snowbikes. I used a rubber bumper from a semi-trailer rig and cut it down to size. It still allows motion, just less that stock. I have never had it not allow the ski to ride over obstacles except for casing creek gaps... But that stops everyone right?!?
My stiffer rubber bumper is shaped such that it is in contact with the spindle in the front and back when the ski is flat. There is no slack in the dampening. Plus the stiffer rubber limits the upward motion of the ski to about 1/2 of what stock is if i was to guess. The ski itself is designed to flex so no worries driving into stuff. Between the ski flex, limited bumper flex and forks compressing, i have never had any issues ploughing into things.
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