Ever since getting my WR450F I’ve had my eye a snow bike conversion kit for it. However, it’s quite a bit of $$ to get one without ever trying it out. So, somewhere in the midst of my internet research, I came across a KSL ad for a snow bike rental. It was perfect; new bikes with the latest 2018 ARO long track kits, all for a good deal and exactly what I was looking for. I booked a bike back in December and picked a weekend in February thinking for sure we’d have good snow by then. Somewhere along the way, my friend James decided that he would rent one of the bikes as well as opposed to hauling his sled down here, and he asked if we could slip the trip by a week. Well, that made all the difference. We were in full on spring weather the week we originally planned to go. Temps were in the 50’s in the day, the tulips were blooming, and there was basically no snow below 9000 feet. Then, all of a sudden Mr. Winter decided to wake up and we got pelted for a week. We actually had to shovel our driveway for the 2nd and 3rd time this season. All of a sudden things were looking pretty good for our snow bike trip.
The day finally came around and I picked up the bikes and met up with James in Heber. We took off towards Strawberry Reservoir and started climbing up the canyon. Things still didn’t look great, even at the parking lot. There was like an inch of snow was all. However, once we got on the bikes and gained a couple hundred feet of elevation, things started to look better real quick. It turned out to be the perfect day for the snow bikes. Probably the best day of the year. Up at elevation, there was around 2 feet of soft sugar snow on top of a heavy base. The snow bikes, or Timbersleds, were in their element. We were able to side hill like a boss, weave between the trees, tackle hill climbs, and just romp all around. We were able to get to a lot of places that would be very difficult, or impossible to get on a snowmobile, all with very little effort. I was really glad that James was on a bike instead of his sled. It just made it that much more fun, and it was great that we could get to wherever the other person was if we got stuck or needed help.
The bikes do have their limitations. Really, they could use some more power. In the deep stuff, we were almost always running at full throttle. They were also a bit of work to ride on the hard packed trail up to the mountain. Riding in the parking lot was the most tricky of all. Also, the seat in nice and stiff, not a nice cushy seat like on a snowmobile.
I think the biggest plus these bikes have over a snowmobile is just how easy they are to ride and how effortless they are to ride in deep powder and on the sidehills. I was in hundreds of situations that would have resulted in getting badly stuck on a sled where on the bike I could just ride right through no problem. And you just don’t have to work very hard at it. You don’t muscle the bike around like you do on a sled. You just ride it. One day on the snow bike and we were going places that would take years of practice on a sled. I do think that it helps that the dirt bike experience almost directly transferred over to the snowbike. I don’t believe the same is true for quads to snowmobiles.
Anyway, it was an awesome experience. I don’t think I’ll be buying a conversion kit anytime soon, but I do intend to rent the bikes again next year. Also, if anyone would like to try them out, reach out to Mark at Ride Rentals. http://utriderentals.com/. He was great to work with. I highly recommend.
I think this shot of our GPS tracks gives the best idea of just how much fun we had.
