Post pictures of your winter ride

[AKJason]

Hey, we have all this white space to fill in our forum right? (No pun intended.)

Here's my winter ride. It certainly isn't anything fancy, but if I take a picture of it at Summit it doesn't seem so bad. Where can I get a "my other snowmachine is a VTX1800" bumper sticker for it?

Although, "at least it's paid for" would be more appropriate. Anybody else have some snowmachine pictures to post?

Oh, wait. I have to keep this motorcycle related: Black is the fastest color. There. :P

http://www.acsalaska.net/~jasnmic/116_1690_IMG.JPG

[Skinny]

Bring back memorys,,Great Pic

[KingCobra]

Bring back memorys,,Great Pic

Hi Skinny,,

This picture has a different look than the one above. ;) do you know who owns this bike? :)

http://kingofthecruisers.com/photogalleries/guest/guest_photos_1/vtx_side.jpg

[wildabouthorses]

Wow brings back memories, our first snowmobile was a early Polaris(may have been the first one they made) then Artic Cats. My brother's shop had a world champ winner racing Artic Cat one year, man those are wild looking machines. He showed me one when we went back home one year after they had won the world championship.
I was jealous when they came out with the Kitty Cat for the little kids! I still suffer from nearly having frostbit hands, anytime its cold my hands hurt bad. What happened was I drove the snowmobile across the lake at about 50 miles an hour in high winds for an hour straight and it was -20 degrees that day without the wind chill factor...stupid huh! I consider myself lucky not to be one of the ones that fell thru the ice into the lake as many did back then! When I got tired of snowmobiling, I got into snow skiing.

[AKJason]

Wow brings back memories, our first snowmobile was a early Polaris(may have been the first one they made) then Artic Cats. My brother's shop had a world champ winner racing Artic Cat one year, man those are wild looking machines. He showed me one when we went back home one year after they had won the world championship.
I was jealous when they came out with the Kitty Cat for the little kids! I still suffer from nearly having frostbit hands, anytime its cold my hands hurt bad. What happened was I drove the snowmobile across the lake at about 50 miles an hour in high winds for an hour straight and it was -20 degrees that day without the wind chill factor...stupid huh! I consider myself lucky not to be one of the ones that fell thru the ice into the lake as many did back then! When I got tired of snowmobiling, I got into snow skiing.

Have you seen new snowmachines lately? Holy Buckets...

They have progressed so far that it blows my mind what you can buy. (just like motorcycles) Consider the latest Polaris mountain machine, with a 900cc twin. Available with up to a 166" track, with 2.5" tall paddles, and the engine putting out something in the neighborhood of 150+ horsepower. The front suspension has 9" of travel, and the rear up to 18.5" of travel! Yamaha has a machine with a 4 stroke 4 cylinder based on the R1 motorcycle engine.

Once you learn the machine, a person with little common sense can quite easily get themselves killed in the mountains with one of these things. Not like the old days where you had to work your butt off just to climb the bunny hill.

Consider the pictures below. I got stuck trying to climb this hill, which was too tall and too steep for a lead sled like mine. If you look at the 2nd picture you can get an idea of how steep it was. I was cruising up it just fine on somebody else's frozen track when my rear end suddenly sank in. I stopped so fast that I couldn't even turn it around. Dumb mistake, I should have turned sooner.

Anyway, look at the big track in the foreground. What don't you see? Ski tracks. Somebody was doing a track stand all the way up this hill. Not only could they climb it, they had enough power and traction to "wheelie" all the way up. Imagine the mountain you could find yourself stuck on with one of those!!! (Sweet) By the way, after the 2nd picture was taken I jumped up and down once and immediately sank in all the way to my waist.

When I was in high school a friend and I went out for a last ride of spring and went onto a small un-touched lake. We got promptly stuck, which was real smart considering we were wearing jeans and sneakers. When I stepped off my machine, I learned that the surface of the ice was covered in about 18" of snow, and the bottom 9" of snow was under water! BRRRRR I had some seriously cold feet by the time we got off that thing.

http://www.acsalaska.net/~jasnmic/DCP_1508.JPG

http://www.acsalaska.net/~jasnmic/DCP_1509.JPG


This link may or may not work:
http://snowmobiles.polarisindustries.com/snowmobiles/specs.aspx?ModelID=C5DF57D6-D5E0-4F99-A6B2-97F628C585A1

[AKJason]

Here's a link to a page with an interactive panorama I made. Pretty cool, it it works on your machine. This isn't very well tested and on some machines this just won't work. Remember, once you see the picture, click on the picture and drag the rotate the view around. Remember to look up and down too. What did we have for lunch?

Okay, I guess I should get back to work :lol:

http://www.acsalaska.net/~jasnmic/Summit_Panorama_View.html

[wildabouthorses]

Holy cow that is some slope you have the snowmobile on! :shock: That panorama is so cool.

[Skinny]

Wow brings back memories, our first snowmobile was a early Polaris(may have been the first one they made) then Artic Cats. My brother's shop had a world champ winner racing Artic Cat one year, man those are wild looking machines. He showed me one when we went back home one year after they had won the world championship.
I was jealous when they came out with the Kitty Cat for the little kids! I still suffer from nearly having frostbit hands, anytime its cold my hands hurt bad. What happened was I drove the snowmobile across the lake at about 50 miles an hour in high winds for an hour straight and it was -20 degrees that day without the wind chill factor...stupid huh! I consider myself lucky not to be one of the ones that fell thru the ice into the lake as many did back then! When I got tired of snowmobiling, I got into snow skiing.

Have you seen new snowmachines lately? Holy Buckets...

They have progressed so far that it blows my mind what you can buy. (just like motorcycles) Consider the latest Polaris mountain machine, with a 900cc twin. Available with up to a 166" track, with 2.5" tall paddles, and the engine putting out something in the neighborhood of 150+ horsepower. The front suspension has 9" of travel, and the rear up to 18.5" of travel! Yamaha has a machine with a 4 stroke 4 cylinder based on the R1 motorcycle engine.

Once you learn the machine, a person with little common sense can quite easily get themselves killed in the mountains with one of these things. Not like the old days where you had to work your butt off just to climb the bunny hill.

Consider the pictures below. I got stuck trying to climb this hill, which was too tall and too steep for a lead sled like mine. If you look at the 2nd picture you can get an idea of how steep it was. I was cruising up it just fine on somebody else's frozen track when my rear end suddenly sank in. I stopped so fast that I couldn't even turn it around. Dumb mistake, I should have turned sooner.

Anyway, look at the big track in the foreground. What don't you see? Ski tracks. Somebody was doing a track stand all the way up this hill. Not only could they climb it, they had enough power and traction to "wheelie" all the way up. Imagine the mountain you could find yourself stuck on with one of those!!! (Sweet) By the way, after the 2nd picture was taken I jumped up and down once and immediately sank in all the way to my waist.

When I was in high school a friend and I went out for a last ride of spring and went onto a small un-touched lake. We got promptly stuck, which was real smart considering we were wearing jeans and sneakers. When I stepped off my machine, I learned that the surface of the ice was covered in about 18" of snow, and the bottom 9" of snow was under water! BRRRRR I had some seriously cold feet by the time we got off that thing.

http://www.acsalaska.net/~jasnmic/DCP_1508.JPG

http://www.acsalaska.net/~jasnmic/DCP_1509.JPG


This link may or may not work:
http://snowmobiles.polarisindustries.com/snowmobiles/specs.aspx?ModelID=C5DF57D6-D5E0-4F99-A6B2-97F628C585A1

I got to tell ya, That sled looks not a thing like the one that the Army gave me to use while up in Alaska in 71-73 , I had a Army White Ski Doo double track work horse. If it did 50 MPH, I would have had more fun..

[AKJason]

If I had more spare time, in addition to riding my VTX I'd also be playing around with photography and panoramas more. All in favor of moving to 32 hours per day please say 'aye'.

That slope was pretty steep. It's far steeper when you're standing on it! I anchored the back of the sled, and my nephew pulled the front end around until it was almost pointing straight sideways on the hill. THen he held it while I climbed out of my hole and got up on the high side of the machine. He moved out of the way, and told me to be ready. As soon as he started to pull the skis towards downhill, the whole machine let go and started sliding. My engine was stalled so I was riding 'dead stick'. It was real exciting for a few seconds but then it straightened out and I slid down the hill quite a ways until it got flat enough to stop.

About 6 years earlier I was riding a different machine, with a 670cc two stroke. I was going full throttle climbing a hill about 10 degrees steeper, and I was maybe 20' from the top when I knew I wouldn't make it. So I turned out before it got too slow, just like I should. The problem was, my drive belt grenaded just then, so suddenly my engine was no longer connected to the track. I was digging quite a trench so I just stopped instantly, sideways. I was sure it was going to let go and I'd be watching it roll down the hill. Somebody was nice enough to drop off the top and give my front end a pull so I could coast down and replace the belt in a more sane position.

It goes without saying that avalanches are a risk. But then, cars are a risk too, and it doesn't keep me from riding my bike.

[alaskarider]

Hey Jason its been almost a year to the day when this chapter got started. I think this may be the first post. Maybe sometime this winter we can meet and go snow machining. Ak neo has machines and I bought some too.

[AKJason]

Hi,

Yeah, that would be fun! I just got back from South Dakota and there's a whole winter wonderland here in Fairbanks. Time to load the bike back into the trailer.

I like the sound of a winter VTXOA gathering - we'll have to work on that. Also, this winter I solemnly swear I'm getting a picture of me actually riding my bike in front of a time&temp sign at -40 or colder.

[alaskarider]

I rode to girdwood tonight and It was cold but beautiful. I wore 2 sweaters my vest and leather Jacket . long johns and it was still a bit nippy. It is getting close to the end here.