gonathan85

I came across this idea end of summer 2010...thought we could probably build something similar in a fab shop where a good friend works. I'm not huge on skiing, or snowboarding, so I wanted to give it a shot. Our first model is based around an old school diamondback gt. The next model will probably incorporate suspension. Introducing almost finished ski bike 1.0....

(yes I know it doesn't have wheels, however, it will be traveling down a mountain )

Dannihilator

That may not be very stable. You may want to consider having two ski's in the back instead of one.

NYCJohn170

That's for downhill? Has to be a ski area curiosity..

Went riding yesterday in the woods. Kept hitting big patches of snow and ice. Even with 2.3 inch tires it was tough. Esp uphill.

ed 

No sir...it's for cross country skiing...you just have to wiggle your hips to get it to move.

samburger

That's what I was thinking. Either that or a snowboard--six of one, half a dozen of the other. And what did you have in mind for braking? I don't know how this thing handles so you may be able to just cut it to one side to stop like with regular skis, but if not that may be an issue. Not trying to rain on your parade, seems like a fun sort of 'let's go try something fun & painful' sort of idea. But if you're looking to turn this into a real, usable toy, the ability to stop is an obvious factor.

himespau 

brakes seem desirable here if you're planning on hitting any sort of slope and +1 on upgrading to a snow board in the rear.

cryptid01

Skis and snowboards seem to do fine without brakes. Not sure why this would be any different.

https://www.lenzsport.com/skibike_main.php

dminor 

Thanks for the reminder. I still haven't finished mine yet. Here's the start though . . . on a shoestring for investment so far:













Bought the 4" square 6061 tubing at a local scrap yard for scrap price. Skis were free from a co-worker. Had the frame and a Judy XLC dual-crown fork.


gonathan - how did you attach the pedals thru the BB shell? My plan was a pair of grind pegs bolted through it and then welding some 'teeth' on the pegs; but I like the pedal idea.

Steev

Isn't that second one going to be pretty low to the ground?
How do you get these things to the top of the hill? Pretty sure no ski area around here would let you try to take it on a lift.

dminor 

Maybe an inch lower than the Winter X-bike conversion. I used 4" tubing because it was what I could find. It's a pretty typical height if you check out the links/pics below:

https://www.a2xtreme.com/2000/0068.htm

Quite a few resorts allow them; although some require foot-skis (lame):

https://www.ski-bike.org/ski_areas.html

FYI - - DeweyDude (a PNW downhiller and ski-bike junkie) was selling his own conversions and they were pretty slick. Too bnad he sold them all out. Maybe I'll see if he intends on making more for next winter:

https://ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=226645

NYCJohn170

Actually, DH and skiing are both gravity sports. So it would seem you would have an inside edge in doing this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG3Xb6S7W3w

himespau 

wow that video is crazy.

samburger

I guess it would depend on the rider's skill more than anything, but it seems like there would be a difference in handling with having two skis one behind the other & controlled by only one pivoting ski, rather than two skis parallel being controlled independently. But the video proves me wrong. I would just want to get a lot of practice stopping a ski-bike before taking it to the top of a black diamond slope.

Zephyr11

Hm, I'd hope you'd get some practice stopping skis before you took them to the top of a black diamond slope too.

samburger

Touche. Time for me to put on the stoopid helmet.

Burton

Biggest difference being that on a Snowscoot both feet are firmly attached to the rear board.

Riders can do amazing things with those and they look like a lot of fun!

gonathan85

We thought of going with the Ski Scoot route, and using a small snowboard for the project. We also thought of going with "Ski Blades" which are...well...just google it. =) We wanted to do this with a materials budget of less than $30, so decided to go with a classy pair of "straight-outa-the-90s Elan skis," for a whole whopping $5 at a garage sale.

Stopping isn't a problem. I was planning on linking the vid that crpyt so kindly posted, in order for the skeptics to get an idea of how it works. Now, I'm not sure dimensions-wise that our bike is going to behave exactly like a high-tech space machine shown in noted vids, but we'll see how it goes. Our welding and steel work is strong; if there were a weak point in the bike, it will show up in the geometry. A few runs down the bunny hills will give us an idea of how our design came out.

This was a super-quick, couple saturday build, with a tiny budget. If the idea works, I'd like to improve our bracket design, pick up a pair of ski blades, and find an old Y frame full suspension bike.

D - Fixing the pedals to the BB was a matter of using the proper length piece of pipe cut to fit through the BB. We threaded the inside of this pipe segement, and the pedals were mounted to this. To seal the opening, we found proper sized washers, and welded those to the thru-BB pipe, and to the outside of the BB. Make sense? Your build looks good! Finish it up! Interesting use of aluminum brackets, and u-bolts. I realized that I need more screw holes in my mounts. Hmmph.

Yes...downhill skiing...cross country would involve the training of a dog sled team...eh...too much work. =)

dminor 

Hey, Elans are . . . well . . . as the name implies, élan y'know .


Makes sense. So you have pedal taps at your disposal to thread the pipe, eh? Slick! I was about to say you had the advantage of a steel BB shell to weld to, when I realized that, well, I guess I do too. Hmmmm.

I might play around with an old BB shell, a big-ass thru-bolt and a couple old pedals. Or I may just stick with the grind pegs. I can split the top 7/8 of the way in, pry the 'sides up vertical (tube into a 'U') and grind teeth in a'la MX footpegs.


Thanks! I managed to find the stainless U-bolts at our local Fasteners Inc. branch (didn't want any galvanic reaction). Since the bindings were thinner than the wall thickness of the aluminum tube, I couldn't re-use the binding screws. But I managed to find some perfect 14x3/4" hex head sheet metal screws to replace them.

Love DIY projects. Keep it coming!



BTW, I envy you your Airco - - an AC/DC rig, right? My Airco is just a buzz box; but it's still a darn sight better than my ancient Forney that I was using at first.