It has been waiting in the background, slowly growing in popularity and support, and now it is ready to be unveiled on the world properly.The sport of snowbiking takes place on a normal piste and involves traveling down the mountainside on a modified push-bike. The idea was conceived over 50 years ago, but people found that using a conventional bike was ineffective and rather dangerous. For many years ski and snowboard fans have been working on advancing designs in the hope of developing something that worked. After years of trial and error, and a few accidents, a snowbike design was finally conceived that was both functional and practical.

The best snowbike on the market is produced by a Canadian company, and they are so confident that the sport will be a huge hit, that they are arranging the first even world championship for 2010. Snowbikes are not really freestyle or jumping pieces or equipment, but instead built for speed and manoeuvrability. This will be reflected in the world championship events that will be based around slalom and speed competitions. Unsurprisingly, the best snowbikes available today take heavy influence from powered snowmobiles. They maintain a lower centre of gravity and are steered using a bladed mounted to the front which can dig into the snow to change direction. This gives the rider much better steering control, but only one blade is needed as snowbikes are a lot lighter and do not travel as fast as snowmobiles.

Snowbike manufactures admit that snowbiking is not the easiest of extreme sports to master, but that it is well worth putting in the hours to master. Apparently learning how to snowbike shares similarities with learning to ride basic mountain bikes. It is a skill that takes a little while to get right, but it has a steep learning curve and once you’ve mastered it you won’t lose it.Now that adult snowbikes have proved a success, women’s and children’s snowbikes are starting to be manufactured. A portable fold-up version of the snowbike has also now been made that can fit in a regular backpack.

There will be a temptation for many proficient snowboarders and skiers to tackle the hardest runs straight away, but manufacturers urge people to start of small and build up, no matter how good you think you will be. Snowbikes are much harder to stop than snowboards or skis, and if you haven’t mastered the technique you will not only be risking your own safety, but you may be endangering the safety of other winter sports enthusiasts also.

In fact there have been a number of ski resorts in America who have banned snowbiking from their slopes until they have done their own safety tests. The majority of locations however are understanding to snowbikers, but still suggest that everyone is careful until we know just how safe they are. Despite the mild controversy surrounding the sport, it doesn’t seem to be putting people off giving it a go, and there are now a predicted 40,000 snowbikers in the USA alone.

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