Introduction: Snowboard Bike
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.
Step 2: Cut the Snowboard in Half
You want to make the front half of the snowboard (the one you will be steering with) shorter than the other, this is because you will have the mayor part of your weight on the back one.
Use some kind of ruler to draw a straight line at about 2/3 of the boards lenght. Its not really crucial.
Use the fine teeth saw to cut the steel edges, make sure you get all of them, they buried like 15 mm in to the board. Then use a regular saw to cut the snowboard in half, its made out of wood and plexiglass so it shoundt be a problem.
Step 3: Attach the Bicycle
Watch the pictures how to attach the bike to the snowboard bindings.
This is done using the bolts and nuts originally holding the straps of the snowbord binding. Make sure that the nuts have nylon locking so that they dont come of in "mid air" =)
Its important that the two snowboards are level when the construction is put down on flat ground,
Picture number two displays a first design for the front ski which did not work very well.
There for we had to add a angleiron which was flattend to raise the forks by about 6 cm. Also the second modification we did was to turn the forks the other way around to give it an additional 4 cm raise. Improvise!
Step 4: Testing It Out
So, how does it perform?
Well actually better then expected, though its kinda hard to control.
The large surface area of the snowboard gives it good powder performance, however you have to put quite a large amount of pressure on the handle bars to make it turn.
You can stop it by turning and putting it in a steap angle, kind of like you would on an regular snowboard.
Great fun though!
A big plus is that it actually didnt fall appart even once!
Please post a comment if you have any questions
