Little Tribe Of SkiBikers In Hoodoo, OR

Had to share with you all!! Got this picture from The owner and good friend Matthew McFarland at Hoodoo ski area near Sisters OR. http://www.hoodoo.com/

This is a group of kids ridding some of his Mini Snowters on his mountain and all of them ride Stalmach Tigers also!! He himself is a SkiBike rider and supporter that shows it in not only the way he runs his mountain but the true embrace he gives skibikers of all platforms and styles. What a great picture!!! Thx Matthew!!!

Imagine if we had all gotten hokked on SkiBikes at that age!!!

Randy
SkiBikeFun.com

2010/2011 Season- First day on the snow!!

Well, I felt like a kid in a candy shop on 2 for 1 day!! Headed to DMR to get on the snow on my skibike for the first time this season. I had additional plans to meet up with the great folks from 3Ski, Jason Buckley and Chris Darby. (www.3ski.com) I was picking up some bikes from them for the season to retail and demo with.

Funny how being off the snow for 37 weeks can make you feel like you have butterflies in your gut on that first ride up!! I was stoked! DMR had received fresh snow the night before and continued through the weekend. DMR only had most of the front side and some of the stuff back around chair 3 open but more than enough to get my giggle factor working again. The snow under my boards was amazing!! I always forget just how great it feels to be back on the hill every season. I had wrecked my back over Thanksgiving weekend so I was taking it super easy that day and found everything I turned around, the fun meter was pegging! I think I managed about 5 or 6 runs total for the day. Spent a good chunk of time drinking in the bar and chatting with folks. It was mostly about getting back into the groove of the connection between man, bike and snow. What a day it was!! We met up with the Kiwis from 3Ski later in the day. These guys are great and have an incredible product that is like nothing on the SkiBike market today!!! Jason reminded me that during an email conversation years ago, I told him, "You might just have the next greatest skibike on the market". After many seasons of fine tuning and continued development of his product and having crazies like Chris Darby launching their product through the air and ripping runs with him, they have what I think is the next greatest SkiBike in the world!! Its truly and innovative and down right fun piece of equipment!! Its funny to watch Jason and Chris together. It reminded me a lot of Krusty and I on the hill. Each, pushing and goading each other to do things we shouldn't be doing on the hill!!

We took Jason and Chris out for a nice meal in Durango on Saturday night and was glad to see them get a hotel room for a few nights as the two of them had been living in that frozen RV for weeks!! We closed Sunday with some improvised 3ski lesson training in the hotel room and some 3ski assembly tips and techniques in the RV and we parted ways. Them headed back to DMR to ride and do demos with the adaptive school and us back to New Mexico.

Day 1, down...hoping for 30+ more this season. I'll call it a success. If you all remember, last season, 1st day out, I cracked 2 ribs half day and way out of the game for a few weeks!! This was a huge win for my first day out this season.

Keep it shiny side up and don't eat the yellow snow!!

Randy
www.SkiBikeFun.com

SkiBikeFun.com Black Friday Sale

Hello SkiBikers!!!

As promised, SkiBikeFun's second annual "Black Friday Sale". Savings available up to 61% off MSRP!! Both new and used deals!! Only sale of the year!!

Sale is good now through 11/28, 2010. I've provided this link to give all of you a head start at what we have available.

The special sale link is on the front page of SkiBikeFun. Below is a direct link.
http://www.skibikefun.com/BlackFridaySpecials.htm

Please take a look as soon as you can. Very limited quantities on some of these items and once gone, no longer available.

Warmest regards to the entire SkiBike Family, their family members and our men and women serving our country that can not be with their families during this holiday. SkiBikeFun wishes you all our best.

Randy, Melanie and Krusty,

http://www.SkiBikeFun.com

Winter is on the way again!!!

Well, its been a while I suppose!! Summer went by w/o a hitch. Did not get DH MTB in much this summer as an early season bear scare stopped that. Did get some road trips in, a flaot trip on the Salt river and a few camping trips. My kinda summer!!! It is starting to cool down and its balloon fiesta here in New Mexico. Winter is around the corner soon!!!

What's new for the upcoming season? Well.......we have the new 3 skis from New Zealand coming to the US this season. Great bikes that truly blend biking and skiing together! We should have them available by mid November 2010. We will post info once we have them. The Sledgehammer continues to get better. The Sledgehammer #3 debuts this season and its beefed up and improved just for the US market. More travel, beefier frameset and a redesign give the bike a familiar look with greatly improved ride characteristics. Lastly, we have decided to keep our demo events exclusive to Sipapu Ski area here in New Mexico. We have also added Sundays to our demo weekend to allow other people to get an opportunity to try skibiking. SkiBike demo weekends are:

Jan 8/9, Feb 5/6 and March 5/6 2011.

http://www.3ski.com/

http://www.sledgehammer.at/

http://www.sipapunm.com/


Both Saturdays and Sundays on demo weekends and all people who participate in the skibike demos will be entered for a drawing for a free skibike!!! Great stuff for the upcoming season!!

Randy
SkiBikeFun.com

Closing the Winter Depression Summer Play Day #1

Well, I was able to get new wheels laced up, new rubber, new derailleur, shifter etc completed prior to my first ride on Memorial Day 2010 on my DH machine. I had poked at Krusty, calling him out to play with me but he came up with some lame excuse that the bike shop was not able to get his wheels done in time. Funny, they got mine done in time. ??? My first ride of the DH season was at Sandia Ski area on Memorial Day 2010. I was able to get my Azonic some new blood, parts and maintaince completed before the big day. Got out of the house a bit later then I intended but hit Sandia lift by about 10:40 am after getting a season pass for mountain biking.

I came across 2 people hiking on the trail as I made my crazy decent, its always funny to watch them scramble out of the trail after the get the idea you are flying down the hill behind them at mach speed. While it was warm, it was not NM hot. Just cool enough to stop you from sweating up a storm but still had enough moisture on the mountain to clay track my ride down.

I got a few moments of bliss zipping at ultra speed between the trees in the single track. Stopped at my favorite spot on the mountain to listen to the wind howel down different runs. I was a little better after the day.

Randy

End Of The Season Depression Starts!!

Now starts my 9 month long depression. I still have the feeling of the elements on my face from my last few days on the hill at Hoodoo Ski area in Oregon. I've blogged on this subject before, living in the Southwest, my ski seasons are very short. If I'm lucky, I get between the 1st of January until about the middle of March with a huge finisher at Hoodoo on the first weekend of April. This season has been no different.

I was able to get 14 full play days on the snow before the fun meter was shut down. Only 14 days due to poor snow and this pesky day job that eats up my time during the week. I started my season on Dec 11, 2009 at Angel Fire Ski resort. One of my only game-over days at 11:30am when I caught a down hill edge and was thrown to the ground faster then a run-away skier from Texas, cost me a bunch of bruised ribs down my right side and kept me from peek playing performance for several weekends. I was able to complete 3 trips to Hoodoo this season and had 2 incredible powder days. Was not able to get anywhere new to play this season except Elk Ridge in AZ this season but we didn't really play there as much as we planted a seed for future growth. The day job kept me close to Abq this season and the snow overall was not that great. We completed 4 demo days at our favorite local area Sipapu Ski area and spent some really great time on the hill with some really great friends.

High points of the season where my new Brawler. While the Brawler is an incredible bike, it rides very different than most other skibikes. Took me most of the season but really started to connect with the bike. Another high point was meeting new friends from New Zealand and ridding their new equipment the 3ski. I was not sure how I would like the equipment. I typically find the Trike style skibikes not in my favor but only after 15 feet on the 3ski, I had grown man giggling coming out of my mouth!!! On my 3rd run, I was taking the 3ski down stuff I was not comfortable ridding on my own equipment on.Great piece of equipment, can not wait to get additional ones in and work them in our demo fleet. Lastly, finishing up the season at Hoodoo has become one of my bitter-sweet events of the season. First, I love heading up to Hoodoo for a visit. The folks at Hoodoo are fantastic and the owners and employees are even better. I am hugely excited to head up there but very sad knowing the last Sunday we are there, its all going to be over very shortly!!! Sunday April 4, 2010 was no different.

There was my season in a nut-shell. Time to get grieving and start the healing process. Only 9 months until I get to do it all over again. I really need to find a place with more winter!!!

Come on 2010/2011 season...just got excited about the new DH bikes on the front cover
of Mountain Bike Action. There is a little life after skibiking.

My name is Randy, and I am a Skibike junkie!!!!

Day 9.5 through 14 OTS

Let me get caught up.....day 9.5 OTS, we completed another SkiBike demo day at Sipapu Ski area on 3/6/10. Another great turn out and another hand full of people on the hill ridding bikes again. 50 degree day..sun on my face. Sure hoped we got snow soon because it was a bit sketchy and icy under the snow to say the least.

Day 10, I went to Sandia Ski area here in Albuquerque on 3/12/10 to try to get my snowboard back underneath me again. Only spent a 1/2 day on the hill. Thank heavens it was a very deep powder day as I spent a good part of the first 3 runs, "Cart Wheeling" down the mountain with my snowboard attached. Incredible day at Sandia and the weather and snow as incredible. After about 4 runs, started to get my board back under me but my legs were cramping so bad, the fun had been removed. Mental note...need to spend some time on my board next season.

Day 11 was the day directly after the snowboard trip above. Man did I feel like and old guy that day. We completed another SkiBike demo day at Sipapu Ski area on 3/13/10. We had lots of friends and guests that came up just for the event. We had over 20 bikes on the mountain at one time and fun being had by all. This was our final demo of the season at Sipapu and we offered up the bikes for sale. We managed to sell 3 bikes before we even left the hill. Spent the day with our buddy Patrick from Stalmach and his new girlfriend. Finished up the day with a beer and a big green chile burger before we hit the road. Kinda sad...we have a very good time doing demos at Sipapu and they are some of the best folks we come to know through the years. It’s a lot of work doing demos but it is also very rewarding word. Please watch our site next season for demo dates at Sipapu Ski area. The following Sunday...I felt like an old beat up dude!!

Day 12, 13 and 14. Spent my last 3 days OTS at Hoodoo Ski area in Oregon. This event has become a bitter-sweet one for me. 1st, I look forward to it all year but know it is most likely the last of my days on the snow every season. Also, I only get to see some of my friends at this event...1x a year. This years Hoodoo event was no downer. 1st we started out Friday 4/2/10 with snow that never stopped all day. It was wet..heavy..nasty and the light was awful...but I was in fresh snow.....always a good day for me. Due to the flat light and wet heavy snow, I only completed about 10 runs during sun breaks. Saturday 4/3/10 was a different day all together. Yes it continued to snow but the temp had dropped and the snow had dried out a bit more and was becoming very nice. Later that afternoon, the snow had warmed and mixed nicely and I hammered my Brawler and my body for several...several runs. I rode until I was plan wore out for the day. Sunday 4/4/10 the last day was a bit different. It finally quit snowing but I had sold my bike to a fellow by the name of Jeff out of Salem. Funny, I ride all types of bikes and rotate several bikes through my own inventory but was absolutely sad to see my personal Brawler go. I can go home today and build an exact copy out of my new stock but I had some how gotten connected to that big white brawler. Jeff purchased it and got his first full day on the bike on Sunday. He connected with the bike very quickly and is on his personal way to finding a good 12 step program to help him with his new bike addiction. I was able to get on the 3 ski brought in by Jason and Bruno. (Kiwi's) What a great machine and I was able to own this thing in about 15 feet. By my 3rd run, I was ridding expert terrain I am not even comfortable on my own bike on. There was grown man giggling coming out of me on that bike. I love going to Hoodoo but its very hard to leave the place after ridding tons of great snow, sharing the slopes with lots of very cool fellow riders..new and old and its also very hard to leave the hospitality of that little place called Hoodoo no matter where you are from.

Now starts my long depression until I can be on the snow again. Good thing mountain biking will be here soon enough!!!

Randy
Confessions of a bike junkie.

Day 8.5 OTS

Soo...probably was wondering what ".5" of a day is on the snow??

I spent day 8.5 on the snow with my sister and her kids in Flagstaff at a snow play area for sleds. My sister dropped me a call and said she and the family would be in Flagstaff, Az the past weekend. Not having spent any real time with my kid sister in a lot of years, I welcomed the opportunity to meet up with a drive in from Albuquerque, NM.

Knowing my sister and family was from Phoenix, I signed up to bring up some snow toys for all to play on. I loaded up several SkiBikes and sleds and met up with her and the family in Flagstaff. We found a neat little snow play area outside of the flag staff area and had a blast with her and her family of a husband and 4 kids for about 3 hours until everyone in her family was wet and cold (not us..we all had snow clothes) and we called it a day. We had a blast hiking up the sleds and Skibikes and ridding them down through the trees. I hiked up my bike several times..100's of feet up the hill for some really cool rides down some at a minute to almost 2 minutes down. The hill was terraced and made it easier to hike up. Great exercise, lots of fun...best of all free!! We finished up the afternoon in the bar back at the Hotel and finally a dinner with her and her husband.

On the way out of town on Sunday, we stopped at a neat little local ski area I had never heard of called Elk Ridge Ski outside of Williams, Az. Tiny little area, with a rope tow and 1 Poma lift and about 6 runs. Williams is the train station depot for the Grand Canyon Railroad. I have to come back in the summer to see more of this place. We chatted with them on getting access to the area for our bikes and was very well received. We pulled out one of the Metalworx bikes and let them take a few runs. Boy was that a mistake!!! All we heard was grown man giggling from that point forward!! We decided to leave the bike with them and let the manager we chatted with, show his other partners. As we headed down into the parking lot, we continued to hear them giggling and laughing while trying to get that Metalworx up the rope tow lift!! Wish I could have captured it on film!!

That’s what I consider my day 8.5 OTS (on The Snow!!)

Peace, love and SkiBikes.

Randy
SkiBikeFun.com

Krusty Needs a New Tatoo

Brenter Trade In at SkiBikeFun.com

At least till the end of the season and possibly beyond, we will offer a 25% trade in value/discount of any "Complete" Brenter adult bike with skis towards a new bike purchase here at SkiBikeFun.com. If you have the Brenter footskis also, we will offer an additional 2% for a grand total of 27% trade in/discount towards a new bike purchase at SkiBikeFun.com!!

Example- New Sledgehammer Full Suspension Purchase, $695 USD. Send us a complete Adult Brenter Bike, any model and receive 25% ($173.75 USD off) if you had the foot skis, it would be a total of $187.65 USD off the list price on the bike above. Do this same trade in on a New Alpine Brawler Worx and save a whooping $745.20 USD (27% with foot skis)!!!

The Brenter does not need to be serviceable, just have “All” the parts. If the bike is 95-100% complete we should be good.

This is good on any New SkiBike Purchase at SkiBikeFun.com, at any price!! Get a new Sledgehammer or a new Brawler…. Maybe a great Stalmach!!!! How about a new Venom or a Metalworx!!! Your Choice.

Go dig around and find some of those Brenters laying around and give us a call!!! If we don’t accept your trade in, we might be interested in buying your parts!!! Please drop us a note or a call.

We will be posting this info on our site very soon. Please stop by.

Randy
SkiBikeFun.com

Day 8 On The Snow 09/10

I spent day 8 OTS at Hoodoo Ski area outside of Sisters OR with by good buddy Duane aka "Dewey Dude". Had to travel to Portland for business on president's day and decided to squeeze in a day of play. Hoodoo has had some very warm temps this season and while they are covered very well is really soft off trail and slushy as heck at times. With that said, it beats having rocks poking through on thin runs like we get often in NM. Dewey supplied me with one of his bikes for the day (Thx again Brother) and what a killer day it was. We actually had a few runs off the backside on the Hodag chair as it was open, well covered and the wind was not howling up the hill. (With names like Hodag, the folks would get along well here in NM with some of the things we call stuff) The snow was deep thick and heavy. Tough even for a veteran like myself but very doable. I even followed Dewey down leap of faith once. Not what I'm use to but I'll take a day of sliding on the hill any day. We hot lapped the mountain a bit, had a Hoodoo Voodoo beer will chatting Mathew and laughed at Scott for having to work all day!! We saw several other bikes on the hill...personal bikes at that. One of them was a guy I connected up with a few years ago named Cody from Eugene OR.

Had a killer day, counting the days till I can meet up with Dewey, Scott and Matthew to do it again. Thanks again to the incredible hospitality of the Pacific Northwest, Dewey, Matthew, Scott and Hoodoo!!! If I could get my head around all the rain in that part of the world, I'd be living there!! Thanks to all for another killer day on the mountain!! Don't forget about the skibike festival the first weekend of April 3-4 2010.

Randy
SkiBikeFun.com

Day 7 OTS (On the Snow)-SkiBike Demos-Sipapu Ski Area, New Mexico

I spent day 7 OTS doing demos at Sipapu Ski Area here in New Mexico with Melanie and Eugene aka "Krusty". Had the sun on my face for several hours, the liner unzipped from my jacket, good snow under my boards and comped lift tickets. Life does not get much better for me!! As usual, the folks at Sipapu welcomed us with open arms. I brag about the folks at Sipapu all the time. Make sure you go there sometime to see what I'm talking about. Very nice..very cool old school ski area. 1/2 the price of anyone!! Enough terrain to challenge anyone. We were able to get 27 folks signed up and through lessons on that day. All of them but 2 had blast, the other 2 just did not have the near as much fun as the others and decided it's just not their thing. No injuries and lots of smiling teeth behind handlebars. I had one student that had been riding several bikes through the morning. He was doing well and after the first 10 ft down the first run, decided he did not need his feet down any longer and took to it like a fish to water!! He asked me if I was a used car salesman, because he at one point I offered him my new Brawler I got for myself this season and he quickly realized not all my bikes are created equal!! His words not mine...and I quote.."This bike handles very different from the other bikes. This thing is like an extension of you on the runs!!" End quote. Hooked another rider just the way I was hooked from my first run. I could imagine him trying to figure out how he was going to sell the idea he needed a $2900 SkiBike after spending the day with us and our equipment. We took 20 bikes to the demo and at several times, we were lucky to have 2 bikes left at the base with lots of folks hot-lapping the hill on our bikes. We had one fellow that came up and rented footskis and a skibike from Sipapu. I don't think he ever actually rode it on the hill. He rode one of our Sledgehammers all day wrong with those rented footskis. We also had about 6 repeat lessons from folks that had demoed with us at other events. Best part, not a yellow-lawn tubing built, yellow jacket wearing, POS (piece of S#!^) or the mighty She-Ski-Bob and company on the on the hill all day! After smelling those wonderful burgers cooking all day long...We finished up or day with a big Sipapu Burgar with bacon and green chile, fries and a coke before hitting the road. All of us still chattering about the great day we had just experienced. I'm headed to Portland next weekend for some work. Going to ride Hoodoo with my buddy Dewy on Saturday!!! Watch for my post.

Best Regards,

Randy
SkiBikeFun.com

Day 6 OTS (On The Snow)

I spent day #6 on the snow with my buddy Eugene (AKA Krusty) at Angel Fire Ski area Saturday 1/30/10. We had just received a little new snow the previous week. Typical AF man inches as when we arrived, the only 10" of snow anywhere was piled up in the trees. With that said, snow was nice and it even warmed up on the hill for the day. Eugene and I hot-lapped the mountain hitting our favorites like 1-25, The tree runs and the world cup course for mountain bikes. I got up enough wad and rode several boxes in the terrain park. Tried to get Eugene up but no go. He did hit the big jump at the end of the WC course only to eat it off the top with a spiral into the deep stuff. Great day, played hard and decided the snow was not nice enough for 2 days of it. Snow was good, had the sun on my face most of the day, ridding with good friends...nothing better.

Randy

Day 4 & 5 On the Snow 09/10 Season

Day 4 on the Snow Saturday 1/23/10
Angel Fire Ski Area NM

After 2 full weekends off the snow and on my butt on a couch over the weekends, we finally received some new snow in New Mexico!! We had 3 storms that came through the area, each dumping small 4-8" amounts. Nothing SIC mind you but that’s the hand you deal with when skiing in New Mexico. Headed out early on Friday with Eugene to AF in an attempt to miss the frozen roads expected in the am. The storms covered AF incredibly with a nice blend of heavier powder with a mix of made made snow and AF crust. When I busted up my ribs on day 1 this year, there was still lots of rocks poking through. Not the case this weekend. Overall the snow was soft and incredible. Cold as hell as usual, made it to the backside of the area but it was colder and snowed most of the day. Meet up with a friend from Albuquerque named Mark to teach him how to SkiBike. The guy is an ex moto cross rider and got his head around it very quickly. Had to tell him to slow it down all day but he definitely had a killer time with comments like.....I'll never snow board again!! Came off the mountain at about 2pm exhausted and went to the bar and drank the rest of the day. Very cool day!!!

Day 5 on the Snow Sunday 1/24/10
Angel Fire Ski Area NM

Spent the night with Eugene's dad at his sister's new cabin. Very cool place with an incredible view off the deck. Carl actually offered to buy dinner for us. He's never offered as long as I have known him...I jumped on his offer like a bum on a sandwich!!! Started the day at 12 degress with most of the runs groomed over night. Still lots of untracked and tracked powder if you looked for it. Had to head into the trees for most of it. Meet up with 2 ladies from my work. They had received a day of skibiking for 2 from a united way offer I did through work. Both of them new to skibiking but did very well and had a blast. Completed the day with several tree and WC trail runs. Very cool day, lots of great ridding with my buddy Eugene and Mark from the previous day.

Love...Peace...and SkiBikes.

Randy

New Sledgehammer SkiBike Colors

Hello all, over the weekend, we received in the newest Sledgehammer colors that are available.

Currently only available on full suspension models, is Original Orange, Metallic Indigo, Metallic Blue and Metallic Black!!!

Sledgehammer has made a few improvements. The seat has a new cover, the bars are improved a bit, front hook for the o-ring attachment, new style skis and great new paint!!

Same price for the new colors and upgrades.

Come check them out.

http://www.skibikefun.com/SHFS001.htm

Randy
SkiBikeFun.com

Hello all- Just got in a new set of SkiBikeAlley Comics for the year.
Please enjoy!!

http://www.skibikefun.com/SBAMAIN.htm

Ensure you press F5 on your key board when you are at the page or refresh.

Randy
http://SkiBikeFun.com

Day3 on the snow 09/10 SkiBike Season

1/02/10
Had my 3rd day on the snow yesterday at one of my favorite local haunts Sipapu Ski Area. Melanie manned the SkiBikeFun table and Eugene and I hot lapped the mountain and worked getting new skibikers down the mountain safely.

http://www.sipapunm.com/

We complete 4-8 demo days a year with these folks. Its a mutual win for both involved but the guests at Sipapu are the real winners. Free skibike demos with a lift ticket, (equipment and lesson) and if we are not waiting on new lessons, we let you ride the equipment!! Sipapu is a great little old school resort with a heart 7 times bigger!! Great folks, great lift ticket prices.

Any whooo...we had 18 students over the day. We had a huge range of students ranging in age from about 12- 60. We had a few people that remember us from previous demos that were there to watch a bit more. There were a few match ups that tickled us. One was a grandfather and his grand son. Both were skiers, played at Sipapu all the time, been wanting to try it for a while and when he did, I know we changed his life. He and his grand son ripped that mountain the rest of the day on Brawlers only after 10 minute lesson and a guided tour down the mountain. I heard grown man giggling!!! Another was a young lady age 12 by the name of Abby and her dad. She was an beginning skier and dad had been in 2 class and still was not the beginners area. ( Not on the main lift) He was terrified of skiing yet had some confidence around the bikes. ?? 15 minute lesson, 1 guided run down and the two of the rode our bikes the rest of the day also!!! We actually received a $40 tip in lieu of rental from one guest. He stated, I was going to rent skis today and ended up ridding you bike instead. It was more than worth it to him.

I loved the conversation in the truck between Myself, Melanie and Eugene. We were exhausted!! Getting folks on bikes, teaching and getting up/down the mountain is a butt ton of work. We all work our part, we all work our parts well. The demos are never about a sale, its about getting folks the SkiBike Experience. While we were exhausted....we are always very rewarded by the outcome of the work. As my buddy Eugene says, "Theres nothing like watching them get their cherry popped!!". I like to say, I am really rewarded when I see the light bulb come on!!

We had planned to meet up with our buddy Patrick but he bailed. We had planned to play at Angelfire on Sunday but anything else...would have been an boring encore!!! We were able to sell back our room at Sipapu and drove back that night. Eugene and I need to figure out a better way to haul the Brawlers. installing/removing skis from these beasts are very time consuming.

Sipapu, thanks for having us!!!! Its always our pleasure spending the day with you all!!

Randy