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The ski bike was an idea that I got one day when it snowed in Comox, BC. It doesn't snow there often, so I could ride my bikes all year round, which I did. Normally, a biker would see the snow outside and call it quits, but I wanted to harness it.
The first bike was made from a pair of skis and a BMX bike that I had kicking around. It worked OK, I guess.
The original ski bike.
Version 2
It wasn't until winter 2003/2004 in Ottawa that I got back to working on the ski bike project. The next design was intended to fix all of the problems that the original had, but it was not much better.
I made the structure from thin steel angle. That part was strong enough, but the garage door hinge folded like a cheap lawn chair the second I attached the ski to the bike and tried to ride it.
Rubbish door hinge didn't last long.
I replaced the thin door hinge with a much stiffer one. This made the ski mount strong enough and tight enough that the bike rode as it should. I could actually travel long distances over ice and snow with this setup.
This thick hinge was much better and had very little play, making the ski bike actually rideable.
Version 2.5
I decided to improve on the previous design by removing all of the thin steel angle with 1" square tubing. This gave the ski attachment even less play and much more strength.
Square tubing helped stiffen the structure a lot. The bike rode like a champ.
Version 3
With the success of the Version 2, I decided to make an all new design that was similar, but for downhill use only. Instead of using two parallel skis and the regular ride height, I used one ski for the front and one for the rear, and made the bike ride very low to the ground.
Front
Rear
Details of the new setup for the downhill-only ski bike.
The downhill ski bike was blast to ride. It would easily outrun a sled down a hill, and had much more control, although the speed made it hard to avoid all of the other people on the hill. I once flipped off of it while trying to avoid a small kid walking up the hill.
Version 4
Version 4 introduced suspension to the design. I bought two springs at a wrecking yard for two dollars, and got to work. Below are some images of the suspension.
Front
Rear
Suspension for version 4.
I also decided to make my own skis instead of using real ones. I made a wooden frame, and then put smooth cardboard on the bottom so that I could put on a few layers fibreglass.
Frames and cardboard.
The fibreglass turned out to be difficult to lay. Also, because I was using what is essentially a male mould, the surface finish was very poor. Even with a ton of palm sanding, the surface was wavy along its length and nowhere near as good as real skis.
Ski bike version 4.
The poor surface finish was bad enough that the ski bike ended up being pretty slow when going down hills. The bike also bobbed back and forth a lot because the springs had no damping. This ski bike was a lot of work and not a success.
Future
For the winter of 2007, I will be making another ski bike. It will put the old designs to shame. Stay tuned!
More images can be found in the ski bike image gallery.
