Snowboard Bike

A snowboard bicykle made entirely out off an snowboard and a bike. At least allmost.

This is probably to be seen more of an inspiration than a true guide, since the materials may vary a lot.
However, this is a really simple project that converts two pieces of "rubbish" in to something fun. You could build this in a few hours or days depending on how much energy you want to put in to it...

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, whey where taken using a mobil phone.

Materials required:
*Bicycle
*Snowboard
*(angle iron or similar)

Tools required:
Only your everyday tools like:
*Hammer (important)
*Wrench
*Screwdrivers
*Saw (fine tooth for the steel edges)
*Drill and drill bits

If you dont have an old snowboard lying around, you could of course use a pair of old skis, but miss out on the awsome off pist powder performance =)

Step 1: Back to basics

Bicycle:
Strip the bicycle from its wheels, mud guards, shifters etc. till all that remains is the bare frame with the saddle, handle bars and the forks still attached.

If you have the tools required to remove the chainrings(s) and the crank arms, use them!
If not, follow these simple steps:
1) Turn the bike up side down
2) Grab your largest hammer
3) Smash the chainrings as much as possible out of the way so that its no obstructing anything.
You could probably use the fine tooth saw, but that would have taken a whole lot longer.=)

Snowboard:
Remove the bindings from the snowboard and remove the straps from the bindings.

Comments

[ismith13]

would the layers of the snowboard start to come apart after you cut it?

[Zilduli]

For those with a front suspension mountain bike to spare for this project. You could theoretically take the front fork, cut off the piece that makes the two sides of the fork move together and attach one ski to each side. This would allow you to turn just like normally on skis. If you were to use the snowboard in back you would then have the stability and the better turning. Might want to do some research into shocks first though, I'm just guessing about their structure.

[PerfectPantaloons]

Isn't there a spring inside of the front suspension???? If so this i dea wouldn't work.... Sounds great though!!!!

[TheMadScientist]

I have a bike with front suspension, but it's coupled together, so that wouldn't work. nice try though.

[TheMadScientist]

this is likely so that you don't end up bending your tire axle when counter steering.

[Vulcanator]

cut the arch that bridges the gap between the right and left fork shocks  and remove the axle.

[Zilduli]

I was thinking that you would cut off the piece that couples the two sides of your fork together. Again I'm not sure if that would actually work, so please don't grab a hacksaw and cut your shocks apart without further research.

[Oblongata]

some types of forks would allow this, but you cant bolt both dropouts to one axle (you would lose the independent movement) and without that, the two independent "lowers" would just rotate around freely on the stanchions, so you'd have no steering control. Just do one ski (or board), it works.

[zach12]

im still tring to make a snow scooter. i need help with attaching toe skis

[Oblongata]

Yeah I'm going to do this with one of those larger scooters, the ones with pneumatic tires and hand brakes. Looking for old, small, decent snowboards to use and I'm going to duplicate a commercial "snowscoot" as closely as possible. I can just weld an extra tube from the top of the head tube down to the platform to strengthen it a bit; thats all the real snowscoots are from what I can tell. Oh yeah, and the boards will be rigidly mounted on mine, at least the rear. Now I just gotta find these parts!

[T Bomber]

I've picked up boards and stuff at the dump in Stowe,Vt.Also rental places throw them out sometimes.If you know anyone that works at a ski area,the lost and found at those places gives away unclaimed items in the summer.But that ones tricky.Whoevers in charge and the people they like get the good stuff

[ajs1313]

Have you considered converting the front to a single or double ski. I think it would improve your handling characteristics dramatically.

[matt bennett]

umm _{do you think it would be a good idea to put skis in the front and half a snowboard i the back.. it seems logical because.. iskis turn better but snowboards give more balance..so i think this would be a good idea.. any comments?}

[cmfail]

you should figure out a way to put a rudder system into the pedals to make it a little faster

[sharlston]

hey on the oppostite side of the chain rings there should be a large bolt if you remove that and the other few washers then take the pedal off the whole crank will come of

[footballgirl004]

would a plastic snowboard work as well?

[bones15]

I'm using blocks held together with construction adhesive for my creation. It is available at any home improvement store for under $5. It does take 1-7 days for it to cure, though.

[torkerman]

Great work! I have ridden some K2 brand snow bikes over here in Australia, the trick is to just lean it over to turn, the board will flex and corner on its edge, just like normal! I'll put up mine soon!!

[spencer42]

I saw a snowboard bike that had slats cut out and a thing to lower the snowboards so you could ride the bike in the spring and up a hill in the winter I sketched one out but can't find out how to lower the snowboard I will try to make an instructable to make it.

[spencer42]

how do you use the crank?

[AnarchistAsian]

wow, awesome, i love snowboarding!

[fosho4]

Looks pretty good! I plan on doing something similar but with skis. I just pulled a bike frame out of someones trash 5 minutes ago and I all ready have the skis. One question though. With that set-up do the boards pivot with the contours of the ground or are they rigid?

[Beeaver]

I'm thinking about a project like this too. I wonder which is the best for a project like this, skis or snowboard. A snowboard should be more stable but skis might be more controllable.

[gbosbiker]

in my experience for using snowboard a snowboard it had better balance, but is influenced by deep powder easily, but has excellent turning because of the large surface area digging into the snow. for skis it goes faster and requires more balance and would carve into icy conditions better while the snowboard would slip and slide. the turning seems fine but not as good as the snowboard. it all comes down to what you want out of the bike. steering and balance or speed and icy control....

[fosho4]

It seems like most bikes made for this purpose use skis. Although there are one or two products that use snowboards. I've done quite a bit of research on it because there is a previous instructable that uses skis that made me want to build one. The big difference between skis and a snowboard, I think, would be the ability to lean back and forth like GorillaGrill mentioned below. It is much hard to attach skis to a bike though because they are skinnier. Pros and Cons to both sides I guess.

[GorillaGrill]

Well, they do pivot. The front one is not a problem, since its relatively short and most of the weight is on the back one. With the back one you could experience some wobble, and to counter that you might want to fasten it at a second place.'

Yeah, this is really one of those "straight out of the dumpster" projects =)

[gbosbiker]

if you tighten the brackets enough the boards wont move under their own weight but will easily move under your weight.

[camp6ell]

i like that you used the snowboard bindings - seems like a good way to attach the frame/forks to the boards. they are strong enough, right?

[GorillaGrill]

Yeah, actually they are.. That said, we only tried it out at relatively low speed, I'm not sure that it would take the impact of a big jump for example. But its build using only a minimum of tools and materials (and labour=)), you could probably improve on the design quite a lot.

[gbosbiker]

i made one with wood for the brackets and the wood was screwed onto the board. the wood was drilled and axels were put through them and connecte to the frame. this works fantastically and havent had one problem. i hit jumps where i get 4-5 feet of air and 5-6 feet of distance and it works amazing

[LinuxH4x0r]

Sweet. If I did it I would have added brakes. Great instructable!

[keefurxxcore]

how the hell would you add brakes to a snowboard?

[LinuxH4x0r]

Have something drag through the snow

[keefurxxcore]

Maybe. Ice will be a pain. The only thing I would think off would be like, a scythe kind of blade or something.

[LinuxH4x0r]

Or just a board with some nails through it

[gbosbiker]

i tried it on something similar to this, and the only way is to put some sort of tube through the crank hole with rods going down and one big 2x4 going across and have a lever attached to it to be able to pull. ice would be a problem but could be easily done by an interchangeable brake system, one for powder and one for ice. for ice you could prolly take old ice skates and take the blades off and place them on the braking system so it digs into the ice like a hockey player doing a hockey stop. it would be best to have them at a slight angle so the scraped up ice gets pushed away from the snowboard. to make that better make each blade individually controlled so if you dont get any grip on the ice you could use the blades as rudders. (i gotta do that. i have old skates! and lots of time on my hands....) the best braking technique so far is bailing off into powder or doing the snowboard style stop.

[train10]

I met a guy with a "SkiBike" a couple years ago at Donner Ski Ranch in California. He was able to control it and go as fast as everyone else on the slopes. He took a couple small jumps and didn't have any problem with the landing. I think the front was solid and the rear had a spring for comfort.

[wasserman08]

ya my friend made one.

[nrlaing]

I'd try a ski on the front. You'd probably get better control. Lookin good, mang! I WANT MY TWO DOLLARS!!!

[GorillazMiko]

Looks awesome! Nice to see another person with the name Gorilla in it. :-)