Vintage Sleds

[Bernie]

We had a local vintage snowmobile club set up at our shop today and I took a few pictures I thought some here might like to see.

These guys have spent a lot of time fixing, painting and searching for pieces. Some are almost flawless. I wanted the Evinrude, had one as a kid and spent countless hours of fun on it. I'm sure there are guys out there with stories of their favorites.

Lets hear them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoy these. I sure did.

[Fishnwire]

Those are really cool. I saw a thing on TV about a simular club...the really funny part was that most of the guys also had vintage snowmobile suits. The old vinyl one-peice ones with the big red stripes all over them.

[Roy]

Wow! What a great showing. Some great pieces there for sure. It must be especially nice that it was held on your property! WTG, congrats to you and all those folks who put so many hours into their passion. And yes, that Evinrude is special but I'm kinda partial to the red Moto-Ski.

[Mike the Pike]

Thanks Bernie for posting those pics.

 

I had one of them old yellow Bombardier Ski doo's when I was 14 yrs old.

The half Lemon cab look.

 

That was 30 yrs ago.

[Roy]

I had one of them old yellow Bombardier Ski doo's when I was 14 yrs old.

The half Lemon cab look.

 

Hey Mike, can you imagine how you'd look on the old Bombardier with your big bird suit???

[JohnF]

Didn't see any of the skidoos from my time (69-73) except for what looked like a Valmont from around then. And no Rupps? What kind of people do you let on yer property?

 

I'd forgotten about BoaSkis. I seem to recall that at the peak of their popularity there were something like 72 different brands on the market. A few of them were the same sleds with different colour and decals being marketed by different distributors. It was a fun time.

 

JF

[lew]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane Bernie, some nice old machines there !!

 

Back in the early 80"s my 2 buds & myself decided to get into snowmobiling and went out and bought 3 old junkers, but boy, did we have some laffs on those things. I had a Ski Doo Silver Bullet, one bud had an Evinrude and the other bud had a Suzuki. Don't know what years they were but they all ran half decent and we had a blast on them.

 

We ran them for 2 years then we all bought new machines, but then with the fancy new rides, the wives all decided they wanted in on the action too, so we all had to buy more new ones for them

 

I think we each paid about $100 for the clunkers but it made for a couple fun winters on those machines that we still laff about all the time.

[Radnine]

When I was about 16, I was given a 1970 or so Sno-Jet. I had tons of fun on it but remember the racket that it made. It was like the piston was hitting the spark plug or something (clang clang clang). My buddy Kevin used to wait until he heard me start it before he would put on his snowmobile suit. He lived 7/10ths of a mile from my house!

Another memory is having to pry my hands open after riding it, from the vibrations in the handle bar.

Jim

[Terry]

I know a lot of those

 

we ran them from one place to drink to the next

 

I don't all of it

 

but my back sure does

[dave524]

Remember a guy had a Bolens I think it was , back in the late 60's, maybe early 70's, you sat on a sledlike seat behind the power unit which was kind of like a small tank with a steering handle out the back, it was an idea that didn't catch on.

 

edit: was a Bolens, here is an old advertisement I googled

 

http://www.adclassix.com/ads/67bolensdiablo.htm

 

guy we used to ice fish with on Erie had one, hauled stuff well as I remember

Edited November 28, 2009 by dave524

[Leecher]

Cool Bernie

Never owned a sled before but I can recall seeing some of the ones shown on them pics!!!

Thanks for taking us down memory lane

Leechman

[Terry]

Remember a guy had a Bolens I think it was , back in the late 60's, maybe early 70's, you sat on a sledlike seat behind the power unit which was kind of like a small tank with a steering handle out the back, it was an idea that didn't catch on.

 

edit: was a Bolens, here is an old advertisement I googled

 

http://www.adclassix.com/ads/67bolensdiablo.htm

 

guy we used to ice fish with on Erie had one, hauled stuff well as I remember

 

I played with a bolens Husky, that looked just like that when I was real young

[cranks bait]

Sweet pics thanks for sharing.

 

Back when I was a wee boy I used to go into my uncles hunting camp on Lake Mazinaw for spring break. I remember only a few that were there. Bombardier 399, Elan 250, and Evinrude 440, all of which I see in the pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[Bernie]

Many memories and Bull were spread around these machines today, lots of good stories of fun, and breakdowns.

The fella's that brought these down are fanatics about these machines. Most have several of them either completed or on the mend.

They bring down something different each time they arrive.

John there were a couple of Rupps the last time around. I'll snap a couple shots if they bring them again.

[JohnF]

Many memories and Bull were spread around these machines today, lots of good stories of fun, and breakdowns.

The fella's that brought these down are fanatics about these machines. Most have several of them either completed or on the mend.

They bring down something different each time they arrive.

John there were a couple of Rupps the last time around. I'll snap a couple shots if they bring them again.

 

And if there are any of the '70 - '73 Blizzards. I had a few of them as well. I think my fave was the little round nosed 292 that I made into a mint trail machine. I wish I'd kept it and the '70 399 Olympic that I put a blizzard seat on, a set of sliders under, and promoted the engine to a port-timed 399 TNT. It was a nice road runner for the day.

 

JF

[redneck666]

those look like some pretty heavy pieces of metal there! lol.

theres what i got, 1981 ski-doo citation 3500 with a 377. good reliable sled, just stripped it down to paint it. got the chassis done high gloss black (hopefully it cuts down on the friction) now its onto the cowling which is gettin painted ski-doo yellow and the seat is gettin changed back to the original. got new OEM stickers commin too. lookin for a polaris triple right now for a trail/ice fishing sled.

 

JP

Edited November 28, 2009 by bigredneck

[Wally]

 

Them Crushers never DIE

[Dondorfish]

Thanks Bernie for posting those pics.

 

I had one of them old yellow Bombardier Ski doo's when I was 14 yrs old.

The half Lemon cab look.

 

That was 30 yrs ago.

 

 

 

Somehow we knew it was yellow!

 

Tracker

[bigugli]

I used to love bombing about on an Olympic 12. Thing steered like a tank. Couple of my friends ran Deeres

[Dabluz]

Not many old machines in my area. Here we usually start snowmobiling in October and go until the end of May. This means that the snowmobiles in my area run up a lot of mileage and die a fast death. You don't see many snowmobile owners who only use their snowmobiles a couple of times every winter.