My view is both products have their good and bad. I personally wish both companies (TS and Snowhawk) could find ways to lower their overall price of the product.
Snow hawk vs snow bike
- Thread starter skidoomt
- Start date
My view is both products have their good and bad. I personally wish both companies (TS and Snowhawk) could find ways to lower their overall price of the product.
Some things I have noticed. Snowbikers put there foot out quite a bit. Snowhawks not so much. Snowbikes look like there is a lot of bar movment going on. Kind of like someones first time at the dunes on a bike. It appears like the bikes are more tippy than a hawk. Maybe the gyro effect?
Hawk riders keep their feet up because you cant hold up a fallen hawk with one leg and putting a foot down is a good way to pull a groin.
Be really careful about taking your toes off the pegs - the mountains are not a motocross track.
Habits of riding a bike transfers over to the bike kit , either for holding the machine up or assisting in cornering by either putting the foot down or just throwing it out there . I get that , but that is very dangerous in snow .
When it comes to the Snow Hawks the people that ride them know that it has riding techniques of a bike but also has other riding characteristics . Even the owners manual says do not put the feet down for safety reasons .
Because riding in unfamiliar areas can have unseen obstacles under the snow . I scold myself all the time for putting my foot down because one time it caught something and my hip hurt so bad that I had a limp the whole winter and thank my lucky stars I didn't break my hip .
When I taught my better half how to ride I told her never to put her foot down and for some reason women seem to be a lot better about listening and by keeping her feet on the pegs is also improving her riding at a faster pace .
When it comes to the Snow Hawks the people that ride them know that it has riding techniques of a bike but also has other riding characteristics . Even the owners manual says do not put the feet down for safety reasons .
Because riding in unfamiliar areas can have unseen obstacles under the snow . I scold myself all the time for putting my foot down because one time it caught something and my hip hurt so bad that I had a limp the whole winter and thank my lucky stars I didn't break my hip .
When I taught my better half how to ride I told her never to put her foot down and for some reason women seem to be a lot better about listening and by keeping her feet on the pegs is also improving her riding at a faster pace .
Habits are hard to break.
Guess they handle tree crossings better...
P
portgrinder
Well-known member
Snowhawk is a super old design.
Eventually bikes will go away and we'll be riding a one ski stand alone platform. Basically a Snowhawk with updated stance.
Till then snowbikes are the best you can get.
Eventually bikes will go away and we'll be riding a one ski stand alone platform. Basically a Snowhawk with updated stance.
Till then snowbikes are the best you can get.
Chris, is that the R2X or the original 2moto Radix?I've tried a 600 hawk. If you have the skills and strength to muscle them they can be fun, but I found it to be way to nose heavy and underwhelming in power for the weight. Always wanted to wash out the front.. once down I couldn't get it back up on a steep hill by myself. There are some people that have modded theirs to perform on here though.
My friend weighs 250lb and I was outclimbing him on my CR250 2moto, although I weight 150lb
I respectfully disagree with the comments about "gyroscopic" influences in performance. Here's my personal experience. I have a KTM 520 that was originally fitted with a 2012 Timbersled kit. The machine has been bastardized over the years. Really bastardized. To the point that I stuffed an Arctic Cat 580 sled engine and clutches into it last spring. The result was completely insane. Twice the HP, no downside to handling that I can tell. To be honest, it is more capable now. I'll never go back.
I think to give an honest opinion that a Snowhawk's CV clutches produce too much "gyroscopic" motion to the point where it affects handling, you would have to ride a Snowhawk that has some other sort of power transmission. That's the only real honest test. Everything else is speculation. Bottom line: Snowhawks are cool. They will stomp dirtbike based snowbikes in big mountain terrain.
I think to give an honest opinion that a Snowhawk's CV clutches produce too much "gyroscopic" motion to the point where it affects handling, you would have to ride a Snowhawk that has some other sort of power transmission. That's the only real honest test. Everything else is speculation. Bottom line: Snowhawks are cool. They will stomp dirtbike based snowbikes in big mountain terrain.
Here's that CVTech , instant response , engagement 2850 .
It no longer has the ring gear, I put it on because the first time I fired it up and bumped the throttle it spooled up like it didn't even have a clutch on the engine . I finally removed the ring gear mid season and played the game with the crank . That was a few years back and it's had at least two rebuilds on top and one lower repacking .
When I put the 800 in I went with the TRA because everyone advised me to and it was horrible , pulled to the left and one time I face planted down so fast and hard it run my bell and luckily it was soft snow . Even threw a leg over one with a P85 , same outcome as a TRA not only gyro but those clutches are slow .
I steer with my feet and throttle the bar is just something to hang onto .
If you have a good engine?crank that doesn't need the mass to keep it from nuking this clutch is a must .
It is not the same machine , balance and throttle response is aggressive with such an easy engagement off idle .
600 came with this clutch , I went against what everyone said and have never looked back accept to count heads ?
It no longer has the ring gear, I put it on because the first time I fired it up and bumped the throttle it spooled up like it didn't even have a clutch on the engine . I finally removed the ring gear mid season and played the game with the crank . That was a few years back and it's had at least two rebuilds on top and one lower repacking .
When I put the 800 in I went with the TRA because everyone advised me to and it was horrible , pulled to the left and one time I face planted down so fast and hard it run my bell and luckily it was soft snow . Even threw a leg over one with a P85 , same outcome as a TRA not only gyro but those clutches are slow .
I steer with my feet and throttle the bar is just something to hang onto .
If you have a good engine?crank that doesn't need the mass to keep it from nuking this clutch is a must .
It is not the same machine , balance and throttle response is aggressive with such an easy engagement off idle .
600 came with this clutch , I went against what everyone said and have never looked back accept to count heads ?
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Snowhawk will not stomp a snowbike in technical terrain. I had juan. they are only good in open areas not steep tight trees. The flickability and lite weight snowbike rules the tight stuff.I dont even find it short of power in the tight stuff. Yeti efficiency frees up lots of track speed ,sure we always juant more power but not with any weight penalty.
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They are all good , they all have pros and cons , I have no need to jam gears .
I've actually had a few bike kits show up just to test the waters , like there's a cross hair on my back or something . I've also invited a group to come up and ride . They really don't know how much fun thier missing .
What matters is everyone has a good time and all accounted for , I'll ride with anybody or any machine as long as everyone is looking out for each other .
To this day there still isn't a turn key one ski built .
I can ride this better than any dirt bike or street bike I've ever owned and I've took a beating getting to that point and what's sad is no one has upped the anti , maybe that's why it's criticized so much .
I've actually had a few bike kits show up just to test the waters , like there's a cross hair on my back or something . I've also invited a group to come up and ride . They really don't know how much fun thier missing .
What matters is everyone has a good time and all accounted for , I'll ride with anybody or any machine as long as everyone is looking out for each other .
To this day there still isn't a turn key one ski built .
I can ride this better than any dirt bike or street bike I've ever owned and I've took a beating getting to that point and what's sad is no one has upped the anti , maybe that's why it's criticized so much .
I probably should've clarified a bit more. I'm talking deep powder. Every rider I know takes their sleds on deep days. Snowbikes just don't cut it. I'm guessing if you don't find them short on power, you might not be in very deep snow? I haven't seen a dirtbike based snowbike yet that would keep up with an 800 Snowhawk in deep powder.
I Can't compare to a hawk back to back but in tight trees on the deepest days I could stay ahead of a professional rider on a turbo 850 3" with my ktm380 long track. It honestly wasn't that fun racing a sled it's just to stressful and seems to work the bike to hard for the reward. I don't even consider that a useful bench mark for snow biking and have since put a smaller track on the 380 and prefer to just have more fun not being in a big hurry. The turbo sled can wax me easily in open terrain but neither of us like to ride that way, we always try to get stuck in a Creek bottom where no one has ever been... He will literally bend the trees apart with his skis to fit in the places where I lead us. The snow hawk will dominate the faster open terrain and straight up climbs. I'm still thinking a light weight version of a snow hawk would be great and factories could pull it off some day but I do enjoy my clutch and shifter...
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