What a gift today truly was. If you care to read a Christmas-tale, it is coming up as today was a real present, wrapped white and just deep enough. Also realized that brother in law had iPhone and snapped some pics while plowing the farm-out=bonus!
Where I am/was in the world yesterday and today had about 12" of base. There had been about 15" of snow on the ground before the last few hours of the storm that had passed through ended up as rain and made the base turn into a good 12" of nice firm snow, then overnight it snowed from 12"-18", the nice fluffy kind, that falls at about 20 degrees and it never got over 30 degrees all day.
The DTS just works so sweet. It helps that I put it on a bike that I spent all this past spring, summer and fall riding off-road and mastering everything about both the bike and riding it on the trails. It made riding the bike in the powder just so effortless and I will now officially say, snowbiking is even more fun than riding on the dirt/off-road. I didn't think it would be, I thought it would be up there, but if one has access to fresh tracks-off trail, my gosh, the snowbike in the powder is a feeling like I've never had on the snow.
Something about me-if you really care, but my first love was skiing. It was actually fishing but as I (looking back now was so thankful that I could)-ride to all the fishing holes in my town in a 5-10 mile radius, skiing was totally dependent on my parents to take me to and all I could think about was skiing in powder, which unfortunately for us up here, we never get too much of, especially when one only has a few chances to on weekends in the winters.
I have been loving how effortless the Camso-and the Beta, have been. Between the power of the bike, which happens to be so linear and with such good pull from idle all the way to redline, a light hydrauilic clutch, quick turn throttle-the QT throttle is a must, and the new 2018 Camso kit, I have 100% confidence that I can go just about anywhere I need to go where I'm riding.
Over the past two days I've been able to ride the bike on just about every surface and can say that the DTS ski is great. Of course, I don't have anything to compare it to, but in the powder, side-hilling in powder, hardback, 2" ice crusted, freshly plowed dirt/snow, tracked-up glared ice, the ski has been working well on all of them. It is a brand new ski/carbides and skags so it should be working as good as it can, but I have no wants from my front end other than maybe getting the valves to add some air to my front forks to stiffen them up just a bit as I was able to jump some 10' plowed-up snowpiles and while the back felt fine landing, the fronts were bottomed or close to it. I do feel that a stiffer front will be a good thing.
The 129", 12.5" x 2.5" track is again, confidence inspiring. I've spent all my time on the snow on a 1.25" IceRipper 121" track, on a pure trail sled, and while I was able to get around on the easy powder trails that I broke with the bike, I have no experience on a pure powder/mountain sled. Even still, to be able to point-and-shoot, or sidehill anywhere and everywhere I wanted, even on some steeper glades we had access to, the bike just went.
I do love that in the deeper powder, that the need to go fast is just not necessary or even desirable. While I love speed-and is the reason why I got a 478cc 4s dirtbike(triple sport), I also value the reliability of the machine, and taking it easy enough so that I don't break anything and I can marathon-ride and make the ride last as well as the bike-last. The ability to stand up while cresting any hills or rises and get the ski up out of the snow-wheeile-is sweet. I am going to change the oils in my bike this week as I have a separate sump for the engine oil and the clutch oil-a nice touch from Beta.
I had noticed that in the deep powder, the engine temps stay a lot lower. This morning I had taken off the PST cold weather part of the engine jacket-the part that covers the area above and forward of the kickstarter. I think that next time I know I'm going to be in deep powder, I need to put the cold weather panel back on. I'm gonna be looking forward to when I dump my engine oil, if any fuel got into it at all.
I also got to test the 7 second "kill" that our (Beta)-bikes have when they end up on their sides. I had maybe 3-4 times when I had the bike go down, and sure enough, after 7 seconds, the bike would shut itself off so I could take my time getting it back up. The beauty of snow over dirt/rocks-for which my bike has had plenty of drops from all the mangina-hurting trails that I have to ride, but at least on snow, none of it hurts the bike-yay!
This is all that I can think of for now but for sure, there will be more stories as there is nothing more fun than this snowbike hobby. I have another day up here tomorrow but will be back next weekend to ride some more as it will stay in the single digits, maybe the low teens all week up here and everywhere in the northeast. Ahhhh. Winter.
I know now, that there is no way I could use a mx-style helmet and goggles, not while powder riding anyway as the waves of white come right into my face, so with the heated shield I run, it eventually melts and I can see again. It is just me and what I've been used to.
Lastly, about weight and how the Camso might weigh more than the other kits out there, and if it does, I can't tell the difference. With me, I'd rather have more weight and reliability than light and fragile. Any and every time I have gone to change direction or carve a different line, no matter if it has been on-camber, off-camber, uphill or downhill, the entire bike just responds, plain and simple. When Camso comes out with a next Generation of these units, it will be hard for me to pass up but at the same time, I do hope that like they did with the 2017-2018 improvements, that they make them retro until there is a big change in the tunnel.
Where I am/was in the world yesterday and today had about 12" of base. There had been about 15" of snow on the ground before the last few hours of the storm that had passed through ended up as rain and made the base turn into a good 12" of nice firm snow, then overnight it snowed from 12"-18", the nice fluffy kind, that falls at about 20 degrees and it never got over 30 degrees all day.
The DTS just works so sweet. It helps that I put it on a bike that I spent all this past spring, summer and fall riding off-road and mastering everything about both the bike and riding it on the trails. It made riding the bike in the powder just so effortless and I will now officially say, snowbiking is even more fun than riding on the dirt/off-road. I didn't think it would be, I thought it would be up there, but if one has access to fresh tracks-off trail, my gosh, the snowbike in the powder is a feeling like I've never had on the snow.
Something about me-if you really care, but my first love was skiing. It was actually fishing but as I (looking back now was so thankful that I could)-ride to all the fishing holes in my town in a 5-10 mile radius, skiing was totally dependent on my parents to take me to and all I could think about was skiing in powder, which unfortunately for us up here, we never get too much of, especially when one only has a few chances to on weekends in the winters.
I have been loving how effortless the Camso-and the Beta, have been. Between the power of the bike, which happens to be so linear and with such good pull from idle all the way to redline, a light hydrauilic clutch, quick turn throttle-the QT throttle is a must, and the new 2018 Camso kit, I have 100% confidence that I can go just about anywhere I need to go where I'm riding.
Over the past two days I've been able to ride the bike on just about every surface and can say that the DTS ski is great. Of course, I don't have anything to compare it to, but in the powder, side-hilling in powder, hardback, 2" ice crusted, freshly plowed dirt/snow, tracked-up glared ice, the ski has been working well on all of them. It is a brand new ski/carbides and skags so it should be working as good as it can, but I have no wants from my front end other than maybe getting the valves to add some air to my front forks to stiffen them up just a bit as I was able to jump some 10' plowed-up snowpiles and while the back felt fine landing, the fronts were bottomed or close to it. I do feel that a stiffer front will be a good thing.
The 129", 12.5" x 2.5" track is again, confidence inspiring. I've spent all my time on the snow on a 1.25" IceRipper 121" track, on a pure trail sled, and while I was able to get around on the easy powder trails that I broke with the bike, I have no experience on a pure powder/mountain sled. Even still, to be able to point-and-shoot, or sidehill anywhere and everywhere I wanted, even on some steeper glades we had access to, the bike just went.
I do love that in the deeper powder, that the need to go fast is just not necessary or even desirable. While I love speed-and is the reason why I got a 478cc 4s dirtbike(triple sport), I also value the reliability of the machine, and taking it easy enough so that I don't break anything and I can marathon-ride and make the ride last as well as the bike-last. The ability to stand up while cresting any hills or rises and get the ski up out of the snow-wheeile-is sweet. I am going to change the oils in my bike this week as I have a separate sump for the engine oil and the clutch oil-a nice touch from Beta.
I had noticed that in the deep powder, the engine temps stay a lot lower. This morning I had taken off the PST cold weather part of the engine jacket-the part that covers the area above and forward of the kickstarter. I think that next time I know I'm going to be in deep powder, I need to put the cold weather panel back on. I'm gonna be looking forward to when I dump my engine oil, if any fuel got into it at all.
I also got to test the 7 second "kill" that our (Beta)-bikes have when they end up on their sides. I had maybe 3-4 times when I had the bike go down, and sure enough, after 7 seconds, the bike would shut itself off so I could take my time getting it back up. The beauty of snow over dirt/rocks-for which my bike has had plenty of drops from all the mangina-hurting trails that I have to ride, but at least on snow, none of it hurts the bike-yay!
This is all that I can think of for now but for sure, there will be more stories as there is nothing more fun than this snowbike hobby. I have another day up here tomorrow but will be back next weekend to ride some more as it will stay in the single digits, maybe the low teens all week up here and everywhere in the northeast. Ahhhh. Winter.
I know now, that there is no way I could use a mx-style helmet and goggles, not while powder riding anyway as the waves of white come right into my face, so with the heated shield I run, it eventually melts and I can see again. It is just me and what I've been used to.
Lastly, about weight and how the Camso might weigh more than the other kits out there, and if it does, I can't tell the difference. With me, I'd rather have more weight and reliability than light and fragile. Any and every time I have gone to change direction or carve a different line, no matter if it has been on-camber, off-camber, uphill or downhill, the entire bike just responds, plain and simple. When Camso comes out with a next Generation of these units, it will be hard for me to pass up but at the same time, I do hope that like they did with the 2017-2018 improvements, that they make them retro until there is a big change in the tunnel.
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