take 6
SNOW HAWK
SINGLE NO LONGER
Many people didn’t realize that the single-ski snowmobile market has been around since Pink Floyd, The Beatles and The Stones were busy topping the charts, and families would huddle around their 23” Phillips black and white TV to watch Star Trek and Bewitched. For those of you that have never seen a television that isn’t a flat screen, or are not familiar with those bands, we’re talking about the mid-1960s. There were many attempts at single-ski snowmobiles over the years, but nothing really stuck around long enough to be a successful single-ski snowmobile, other than the Ski-Doo Alpine, which was designed and purpose-built for other reasons than recreational riding. The single-ski market never became popular until the “kit” made it possible in the mid2000s, to transform a dirt bike into a “snow bike”. Over the last decade, there has been a growing popularity of snow bike riders that travel off-trail, exploring the deep snow that the outback has to offer across North America, from the east to west coast, whether it be in Wyoming or in Quebec. In this issue of Take 5, we take a look at one-ski snow vehicles that tried their hand at the one-ski market, and are no longer around.
Truly a snowmobile with one-ski that shares more characteristics with a watercraft than a snowmobile. The AD Boivin Snow Hawk was purely a snow vehicle, unlike today’s current kits that are based on a dirt bike, allowing the owner to swap the ski and track out for tires in the off-season. The Snow Hawk entered the snowmobile market in 2001 with a Rotax 503cc fan cooled engine, which was a little underpowered for what riders expected, but was fun to ride. In 2005, they replaced the fan cooled engine with a more powerful Rotax 600cc liquid cooled engine, and shortly thereafter there was a Rotax 800 H.O. offering. In the final year of production (2008), the Snow Hawk was only available in the 800 H.O. trim, which pointed in the direction that owners wanted more power with a better power to weight ration. In its final year of production, the Snow Hawk tipped in between 410 lbs. to 416 lbs. with three different models; a trail, mountain and enduro.
HONDA CUB EZ-SNOW
One of Honda’s “efforts” into the snowmobile market was this “snow bike” conversion kit, which made a lot of sense for Honda at the time. The EZ-Snow kit was based on the 90cc Cub, which was already being produced as an off-road motorcycle in the model line-up. All the owner had to do to transform the Cub was to swap out both tries for a ski and track. This all made perfect sense to many, but it never took off, possibly because it was only available on a 90cc two-stroke, and it never expanded into large engine sizes of Honda’s off-road bikes. Sadly, they chose not to stick with the EZ-Snow kit after the Cub was discontinued in 1996. Looking back, some might say they were well ahead of their time with a “kit” that transformed a dirt bike into a snow bike.
CHRYSLER SNO-RUNNER
Chrysler is said to have jumped into the snowmobile market in the mid 1970’s as an opportunity to take advantage of the booming market. They did so with the Sno-Runner, which in their marketing tools called it a “snow bike”, even though it resembled more of a GT Snowracer. The single-ski, Sno-Runner featured a twist-like motorcycle throttle, and was powered by a Chryslerbuilt 134cc engine producing 7 HP, and could reach a top speed of 25 MPH. A unique feature was that with the help of five pins, the Sno-Runner could be assembled or disassembled, allowing it to be transported in a sub-compact car. Everything sounded great for the Sno-Runner and Chrysler dealers were ordering larger numbers. However, it turned out that the Sno-Runner had a problem that would prove to be detrimental to its future. The Sno-Runner was incapable of performing in any depth of snow that wasn’t hard packed, thanks to a twenty-one cleat, 3”-wide track and a narrow front ski. This is very problematic for a “snowmobile”. In the Sno-Runner heyday, Chrysler sold 28,000 units from 1979 to 1981, for less than seven hundred bucks!
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ON SNOW MAGAZINE • VOL 12 • ISSUE 1
