MotoTrax differentiates itself from other companies by focusing on providing a snow bike kit that allows the rider to have as close to a dirt bike riding experience as possible.
The snow may be just about gone, but that hasn’t stopped MotoTrax from working to improve. Instead, the company has been running its snow bike in the dirt without the ski for a little over a month now in order to do durability and suspension testing.
Using the MotoTrax patent-pending system, the ski-to-tire swap takes roughly three to five minutes. Instead of clamping around the fork tubes, the system uses the axle holes and a special support bar that has a base on the bottom of the fork tubes. This is done primarily to protect the forks, but there is the extra benefit of making the conversion much faster.
Because it is so easy to swap the tire to a ski, the MotoTrax team chose to leave the tires on during loading and unloading so they could use traditional dirt bike ramps. Then, they would do a quick ski swap before hitting the mountain. They started leaving the tires on longer as the snow disappeared and eventually expanded on the idea.
The kit can be run on both hard dirt and mud because it uses a fully leaning skid that enables it to lean like a conventional dirt bike. It can also be jumped without problems because it has a true rising rate linkage suspension, like what you’d find on a modern motorcross bike. In contrast, other snow bikes generally have a snowmobile-inspired falling (negative) rate suspension and a rigid snowmobile-style skid.
According to MotoTrax personnel, the dirt bikes they offer can land a 100-foot jump smoothly with a single shock and 11.5 inches of suspension travel. As a result of the testing, the MotoTrax snow bike kits can now do the same.
“We are motorcycle riders,” said Jacob Stevens of MotoTrax marketing and public relations. “We make snow bikes because we want to keep riding our dirt bikes in the winter time. So, our number one goal as a company and as a snow bike manufacturer is to make our snow bike kits work and feel as much like a dirt bike as possible.”
Stevens also said that the handling of this hybrid is very similar to a dirt bike. It leans and jumps like one and has a familiar pop off the faces of jumps. The difference is found in how planted it feels. Thanks to the track, there is a tremendous amount of hook-up and driving power. New riders would notice this especially, as they may not be as comfortable in mud, deep puddles or on rugged, uneven terrain.
MotoTrax has been doing a series of public events with the 2017 kits to show attendees the capabilities of a modern snow bike kit. The goal isn’t to race the kit, but the MotoTrax team consists of racers so they go to racing events with their dirt bikes and take the snow bike along as a display piece.
And the team has raced it once – unofficially, at the Yamaha Outdoor National at the Fossil Bowl track in Clarkia, ID.
There was a lot of mud and all but the top pros were struggling to get around the track. The MotoTrax team saw it as the perfect opportunity to test the track system. Randy Gentry raced it in a mixed race of beginners and pros. As it was just for fun and testing purposes, they did not get the official results. The Fossil Bowl is MotoTrax’s home track, as the company is headquartered in Moscow, ID.
The snow bike has not yet been taken down any of the local single track trails because it is still limited by the hyfax. With no snow to provide cooling or lubrication, it gets hot very quickly.
We can’t wait to see how this summer testing translates to the snow this winter.
We will be building a MotoTrax-based project bike this coming winter. Stay tuned to our social media channels for additional content.
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