After NYC was blanketed with nearly 30 inches of snow, I thought it would be an ideal time to enjoy the weather. I still haven’t got my airfoil rim Coker back on the road yet (it’s gonna have the street tire on it, anyway), so I had to use my good ole stock Coker that has a completely bald tire on it.
Out of necessity I learned how to do a new kind of mount… the sliding mount! It starts off as a rolling mount, but when you hop aboard the Coker, it slides anywhere between a foot and about 3 feet (depending on how much momentum you use to mount). It was really cool! Of course I couldn’t nail it every time, but I was amazed at how often I did nail it. I got lots of practice, though, because there were some roads that didn’t have any bare pavement at all, so there really was no other way to mount!
Slip-sliding around on my Coker in the snow (snokering) has got to be one of my favorite things to do on my Coker. Sorry I don’t have any video to post, being that I don’t own a video camera (where’s Brian MacKenzie when you need him?)… but about a dozen or more New Yorkers have me on their video cameras! It seemed like nearly everybody who braved the weather to go outside in NYC today were out there taking pictures and video… and so I was a natural addition to their photographic mementoes – and they sure did get a kick out of it!
I had tons of fun sliding and skidding. I certainly got a good appreciation for how to apply torque gingerly… but it was also fun to spin the wheel. One time I think I spun over two full revs without going anywhere and then I eased up, caught some traction, and rode away! It was also really cool to be able to see the skid marks in the snow so that I could see exactly how far I skidded! Can’t wait to go out again, tomorrow… I just wish I could find someone to shoot some video! Anyway, I think I may have to add “snokering” to my tagline, because I had way too much fun :D!
I’m trying to picture using the word “need” and Brian MacKenzie in the same sentence. It’s not working for me. Snokering is a peachy term indeed. Work a chopper in there for pull gliding and you’ve really got someting.
I don’t think pull gliding would work out too well in the snow… pull sliding, perhaps. Pull gliding using a chopper would make a great scene for a movie, though (especially since a chopper is prolly the only aircraft that can fly low and slow enough)… and I’d love to be the pilot for that scene – I’ll just have to get my external load rating first! All these darn ratings!
Brian must have proven his usefulness in your presence on at least one occasion, no???
Thanks, harper… I had a feeling snokering might be a peachy term, but I wasn’t 100% sure. Now that you have confirmed that it is indeed a peachy term I feel a lot more confident with its usage.
Yup, Andrew – snokering is a blast. Most of my most memorable Coker rides were in the snow.
As for freemounting and riding, I was amazed to find that the best way to get on is to jump mount (rather than to take a big step as we often do in good conditions). Riding on the snow is actually easier than walking because the tire tends to cover a large area AND because the rider is forced to stay almost straight up. OK, turning or stopping short are pretty much out of the Q, but maintaining an even speed and direction isn’t too hard.
I agree 100%… my rolling mount technique consisted of pushing the uni in front of me at a decent pace and then jumping on with the intent of landing with the frame being as vertical as possible and then gently accelerating away. For me, that was the only way I could mount. After unintentionally sliding on the snow when I landed on the uni and then riding away succesfully, I thought… wow, that was a lot of fun! And then from that point on I looked forward to falling off so that I could practice my “sliding mount.” I got consistent at it enough that I boldly told an onlooker who asked me how I was going to get on that thing that I would do it by sliding… and then I pulled off a nice sliding mount right there in front of him to his amazement. That was one of the highlights of my ride! I hope we get at least one more snow storm so that I can get some more snokering in this year!