World Mountain Bike Championship
Latest Winter Sport – Snowbiking
It has been waiting in the background, slowly growing in popularity and support, and now it is ready to be unveiled on the world properly.The sport of snowbiking involves traveling down a traditional ski run on a modified bicycle. People have been trying to ride their bikes down a snowy run for years, but road bikes were never cut out for very low friction surfaces. For many years ski and snowboard fans have been working on advancing designs in the hope of developing something that worked. unfortunately, early snowbike designs had some major floors, and only recently have snowbikes been produced that really work well in different snow conditions.
A Canadian firm currently offers the best bike on the market and they have announced the first snowbike world championship will take place next year. Snowbikes are not really freestyle or jumping pieces or equipment, but instead built for speed and manoeuvrability. This will be reflected in the world championship events that will be based around slalom and speed competitions. The large majority of snowbikes that have succeeded in the market share many characteristics with snowmobiles. They are lower to the ground than normal bikes and have a blade at the front of the bike attached to the steering column. This enables the rider to turn relatively sharply, but instead of having an engine at the back propelling the device, it of course relies on gravity to build up momentum.
Snowbike manufactures admit that snowbiking is not the easiest of extreme sports to master, but that it is well worth putting in the hours to master. Apparently learning how to snowbike shares similarities with learning to ride traditional mountain bikes. Although a very different movement and balance is needed, once you learn the skills, it will be something you never forgot.Now that adult snowbikes have proved a success, women’s and children’s snowbikes are starting to be manufactured. There are also multiple extras now, such as stabilisers, headlights and even horns.
There will be a temptation for many proficient snowboarders and skiers to tackle the hardest runs straight away, but manufacturers urge people to start of small and build up, no matter how good you think you will be. Snowbikes are much harder to stop than snowboards or skis, and if you haven’t mastered the technique you will not only be risking your own safety, but you may be endangering the safety of other winter sports enthusiasts also.
In fact there have been a number of ski resorts in America who have banned snowbiking from their slopes until they have done their own safety tests. The majority of locations however are understanding to snowbikers, but still suggest that everyone is careful until we know just how safe they are. Whether ski resorts like snowbikes or not, it seems that the popularity of the sport will continue to increase and we could even see some big extreme sports brands enter the market very soon.
Mountain Bike World Championships – Bas De Bever
