Since 2010, Timbersled has been making kits that transform dirt bikes into capable snow bikes. For riders that live in areas with lots of snow in the winter, that can potentially give so much more time back in the saddle. It’s certainly not the least expensive modification—but if it’s in your budget and you’re sad about having to put your bike away for the winter, then it seems like a potentially great idea.
Let’s say you love snow bikes, but you want to push the boundaries and do something slightly (OK, more than slightly) nuts, though. What if you were to, say, get your hands on a used 2005 Suzuki Hayabusa and outfit it with a Timbersled kit, all in the name of creating the world’s fastest snow bike? If that sounds like an idea that’s right up your street, then you’ll want to see what the guys at Grind Hard Plumbing Company just did. They’re based in Idaho, which is known both for its potatoes and its snow (and only one of those things matters for the purposes of this video).
When they go to pick it up and trailer it home, the Hayabusa in question is in good running order. It even sounds good, and looks, at a cursory glance, like it’s in pretty decent shape. It’s been lowered, which is something the guys want to change back before taking it out on its new Timbersled setup, but that shouldn’t be too difficult to do.
From the beginning of the video, GHPC stresses that they aren’t advising that anyone else try this at home—and indeed, there aren’t currently any Timbersled kits that are made with the Hayabusa in mind. It’s significantly heavier than a dirt bike, in addition to being much more powerful. Unsurprisingly, more than a few modifications are necessary in order to get the chosen Timbersled Riot setup properly fitted to the ‘Busa, but with a bit of machining and finagling, they manage to get it done.
All told, they say that this build took about a week to complete. After it’s together, of course, it’s time for a test run on their very snowy property in order to see what kinds of tweaks need to be made before they take it to the mountains. Thankfully, we get to see a bunch of the time spent testing it (for science, of course) in this video.
It handles surprisingly well, and although it is heavy, that doesn’t mean that it won’t wheelie—well, if you’d still call it a wheelie when the bike has no wheels to speak of. All in all, there are a few little concerns to address, like adding an extra shock up front, and also getting a new spindle for the front ski because this one got a bit bent in testing. (Again, it’s a 500-plus-pound street bike, not a dirt bike that weighs less than half that amount, so that’s totally reasonable.)
Is it the world’s fastest snow bike? That’s going to be difficult to tell, even when they get it to the mountain and can get it to go as fast as it wants. Is it the funnest? That’s totally subjective, but we feel reasonably confident in saying that any day spent riding is a better day than if you don’t.
