Winter is No Excuse to Not Ride Your Bike

December 13, 2006 9:53 PM

The KTrak Snowcycle Conversion Kit takes your mountain bike and turns it into a tracked, human-powered snow (or sand) machine, complete with a front ski. Other snow bikes are great at going downhill, like the Hanson Ski-MX Kit or the Winter X Bike Kit, but the KTrak goes up, down and all around.
posted by fenriq (21 comments total)

That makes me want to move somewhere where there's lots of snow and buy a bike and get it converted into a snow bike and then go riding around on it and yelling at people to look at me and see how much I rock.
posted by etc. at 11:19 PM on December 13, 2006

Meh. Gimme a motorcycle conversion like the switchblade and then we're talkin'.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:45 PM on December 13, 2006

This is exactly the sort of thing I would have pestered my parents for when I was a kid . . . despite the fact that we got maybe two weeks of snow-cover, tops, during the course of a year. I'm sure I wasted time as a ten year old trying to figure out how to build my own version of this, anyway.

But yeah, if this cost less than thirty times what I would pay for a bike, it'd be totally worth for that one time in Virginia that it snows.
posted by thecaddy at 12:43 AM on December 14, 2006

awsome, now we can do flatground in the snow! if there was any in Europe
posted by borq at 1:52 AM on December 14, 2006

darn, meant: flatground
posted by borq at 1:53 AM on December 14, 2006

Mine will be even cooler than yours because mine will not coast.
posted by fixedgear at 3:10 AM on December 14, 2006

Interesting. I prefer the greater mobility offered by a pair of Nokian tires on my mountain bike, but this looks like a possible solution for latitudes further north than Calgary. Thanks, fenriq!
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 4:29 AM on December 14, 2006

We made a version of these as kids . . . an old ice skate blade on the front fork (from a friendly local welder) and rear hubs with tacks poking thru extra-strength truck tube bands clustered in three sections. When the tacks weren't down you could coast . . . great for frozen ponds and ice-covered hills.

Kids today got no imagination.
posted by ahimsakid at 5:57 AM on December 14, 2006

Homemade studded tires here (scroll to page bottom).
posted by ahimsakid at 6:03 AM on December 14, 2006

I want my two dollars!
posted by adamrice at 7:02 AM on December 14, 2006

That looks like a lot of fun. Limited usefulness in Philly, but I could get into that as an alternative to skiing/snowboarding.
posted by Mister_A at 8:48 AM on December 14, 2006

When I lived in the snowland, we studded our tires. One of the most fun rides I did was to cruise down our frozen stream, dangerous as hell but really cool fun.

I'd like to play around with this system on the beach but not with one of my bikes (sand is death on bottom brackets!).

adamrice, yeah, that image came to my mind too!
posted by fenriq at 9:55 AM on December 14, 2006

Bora Horza Gobuchul add a lat long to your profile if you'd like to get notified of the next meetup (assuming your actually in Calgary or it's environs).
posted by Mitheral at 9:55 AM on December 14, 2006

Mine will be even cooler than yours because mine will not coast.

Kid, you'll shoot your eye out rip your leg off.

I remember seeing a link to the ultimate winter bike once -- maybe it was here? Dude rides far and a lot in the snow, and has to be completely self-reliant. The beast has 3.5" tires, ridiculous gearing, carries a front wheel with freewheel/sprockets as a spare for the back, had an offset fork in front (I think a combination of the sprocketed front/amount of allowable dish has something to do with that?) and a whole bunch of other imaginative tweaks. Maybe 29" wheels? Custom frame. Keeps stove fuel in the front fork.

This thing made most icebikes look like toys. Danged if I can find the link. Anybody know?
posted by Opposite George at 10:59 AM on December 14, 2006

Danged if I can find the link. Anybody know?

Never mind, found it: Check this out. It is awesome.
posted by Opposite George at 11:13 AM on December 14, 2006

Dang, nice find and rememberance, Opposite George, that bike looks BURLY!
posted by fenriq at 12:47 PM on December 14, 2006

The Snoots (OG's links) looks like it'd also be the ultimate beach bike. Imagine riding it on the sand dunes!

Mmmmm. Beach riding. Sunshine, beautiful girls, and no snow. That sounds like the sport for me.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:47 PM on December 14, 2006

Both the snoot and the Ktrak are awesome. I was thinking about a similar idea earlier this year but lacked the engineering ability to pull it off :C
posted by drezdn at 6:28 AM on December 15, 2006

I posted about ski-bikes today in the blue, not realizing that the Ktrak had already been discussed. anyway, it was suggested that I post it here in the comments, so here goes:

Tired of putting your bike away for the winter? Try Ski-biking! Here's a brief history. You won't be alone, there are even official associations: American, Canadian and British. You can mod your current Mountain Bike, make your own, or buy a custom design. If you want to be the King of the Hill though, you will need one of these.
posted by lobstah at 8:34 AM on December 20, 2006

I've tried winter cycling. It was not so cool when the plastic parts of my shifter froze and then shattered during a hill climb leaving me stuck in ridiculously low gear.
posted by srboisvert at 1:03 PM on December 20, 2006

I've tried winter cycling. It was not so cool when the plastic parts of my shifter froze and then shattered during a hill climb leaving me stuck in ridiculously low gear.

That's why fixed gear bikes are popular in winter. Nothin' to go wrong. Get some fat tires and you're all set.
posted by fixedgear at 1:43 PM on December 20, 2006