With the holiday season upon us, I’ve been working a lot and getting a bit soft, so it’s natural to see a contraption like this and think a little. The Skizee seems to be the answer to the poor man’s snowmobile and to me, a lot easier to dig out when you get stuck. A little hard to ski with on your back when you are on the way down, but since it’s self propelled, who needs to go uphill in the first place? Kinda looks like a winter version of the Segway. No? 🙂
At first I laughed at this, but this could actually be really practical for a lot of backcountry skiers. I’ve been lusting after a sled for a long time, but my Subaru can’t really tow one, I don’t have anywhere to store it at my condo, and I sure don’t have $5k or $6k+ to buy a used 4 stroke. This could be the answer and would sure make our long approaches in CO a lot more tolerable.
yeah tom…though completely dorky, it’s kinda cool as well. what would make it cooler? an electric version.
Yeah, electric would be cool, although at least it is a four stroke engine. But I was thinking that some way to strap a 12 pack on top of it would be really cool! Seriously, the thought did occur to me that if you could rig up a sled of some sort to tow supplies into hut trips that would be great. It may look dorky, but people will get over that pretty quickly when you roll a keg into the hut.
Keg into a hut? We did that with human power last year to Ridgeway in CO. Worth it.
The fact that there is no sound with that compelling vid lets us know that it is loud as shit! But still….
What kind of mph do we think?
Actually, this could really be helpful for skiing in the Big Horns for those without a snowmobile. The high peaks here are miles from trailheads in the winter, but some have long approaches on moderately flat roads/forest routes open to snowmobiles. You could use this thing instead. Probably want to bring earplugs though.
yeah freshies…there are a lot of places this would seem beneficial and probably way easier to deal with than a snowmobile. i bet the terrain it can handle is pretty limited though.
Hi guys, I was reading the posts and decided to respond. I am a machinst on the project and I help out with the Cad/Cam design work and machining. Hhaha @ the dorky looking, tru but it’s fun. It adds to what I can use my skis and boots for, great for trails ect.
I am lucky I live in a town with a great ski hill and I have the backcountry at my doorstep. I used to live in an area so flat they had to build a hill for the kids to toboggan on, it is more practical on flater terrain, but you will be surprised what it can do in other areas. The skizee shown in the incline vid is the
6 1/2 hp prototype, we found it underpowered for a larger rider, so we put a 206 Option Briggs and Stratton Kart racing engine in one of the other prototypes, big change in performance. Briggs and Stratton are cool with us using their engine, but are checking with their Lawers.
The top speed of the 6 1/2 hp version was around 30 kph (20 mph)
with a 170lb rider on packed snow. The new one is around the same top speed but has more bottom end Torque and power, ( what was lacking on the other ones), the better bottom end power gives more push to go up a hill as long as you can get traction ( we are also testing diffrent tracks ). If we can not go straight up an incline we switchback up on an angle side to side.
Its as loud as a stock utility engine, (the vid cam sux so poor sound quality) The new one has a straight pipe on it, performs well but to loud, we want to make it as quiet as possible.
The Skizees shown on the website are not exactly what were selling,
(we were a bit to early with the site, used the pics of what we had ) same concept, but after more testing we improved the areas we thought needed it, so this thing is safe, fun, dependable and with power to get you places you cant normally go on skis, I guess its like cross country sking on steroids. We will make a new vid of the Briggs version going up the same incline so you can get a better idea on the performance improvement. Its hard to describe using a skizee, its somthing you need to try before you can make an opinion. If you guys would like to give it a try and are not to far from the Kimberly, Cranbrook BC area come on up for a test drive.
I like cruising around on it, its fun and a good work out.
Cheers Adrian
adrain…thanks for dropping by. i know, deep down, we all want one of these..even with the dorky factor. i’m taking a year off from cananda, but maybe able to check it out next season. let us know when they are available for purchase.