100 Mile Snow Safari Forum

Jim; personnaly I much rather prefer to meet sledders who keep both hands firmly planted on their grips. Maybe it's just me,however I feel more secure knowing that oncomming sled is under compleat control. For the most part the people I meet who do signal don't need to as I can see the sleds behind them, conversly the ones who don't are ridding faster than their group and probobly should. If you ride safely on the proper side of the trail[even in the corners] hand signals are not nessesary, and actually a pretty stupid thing to do. My motto is expect to meet oncoming traffic and set yourself up on the trail accordingly. While operating a groomer I do expect to see some sort of signal indicating more sleds are comming if it's daylight, though daylight grooming is more or less counter-productive so I try to groom mostly at night to allow the trail time to set-up....paddy

I usually ride the trails at a speed that doesn't require any braking, and slow down even more when I meet oncoming sleds. But it sure would be nice to know if there are any more sleds coming around the corner. And you don't always have to be racing down the trail to slide on them icy corners. But if you're operating at a proper safe speed when meeting other sleds, there should be NO PROBLEM signaling your fellow sledder. It's just common courtesy. Now, if you're out of control, and taking the inside corner on my side of the trail, then by all means-- keep BOTH HANDS on the sled and get the HECK out of my way! And don't worry about the hand signal, I'll give you one!

When I used to groom more, it bothered me, that I couldn't get snowmobilers to use hand signals. When you are grooming with a 10 foot wide machine taking up most of the trail, it is manditory to know if there are more machines coming arround the next corner. A hand wave or a thumbs up meant nothing....I wanted to know if there was someone back there trying to catch up!!! I dreaded taking the tractor around the next corner, not knowing if anyone speeding to catch up. Please let the groomer drivers know if there are more machines coming behind you!!!

Yea the whole hand signal thing is sometimes odd Some I see are:The two up riders, the driver takes his hand off the bar to signal,the passenger could signal couldnt he?? Rideing the RR grade,I can see who is comeing, the trail is straight so while comeing at me 50 to 70 mph KEEP BOTH HANDS ON THE BARS:eek:

[quote=Kevin;7809]Yea the whole hand signal thing is sometimes odd Some I see are:The two up riders, the driver takes his hand off the bar to signal,the passenger could signal couldnt he?? Rideing the RR grade,I can see who is comeing, the trail is straight so while comeing at me 50 to 70 mph KEEP BOTH HANDS ON THE BARS:eek:[/quote]I'd hope they'd slow down a bit before passing you! :p

Either way... that's why I prefer to ride during the week!

Saturday during the day, is the most dangerous time to be on the trails. You have the guys who unloaded on the grade somewhere s. of Wabeno, who want to put 250 miles on, and be back at the valley Sat. night. And you also have ma and pa and their two kids putting around on the trails along with gramps. It is still daylight so you can not see if anyone is coming around the next corner. This is not a good mix. Sat., the day with by far the most traffic, is not the time to be doing time trials on the trails.

I lead most of the time, I would like to only to get a signal from the leader that sleds are behind and then one from the end saying they are the last sled, the people in middle, it would be nice if you keep your hands on the bars and move over the the right, not the left side:rolleyes: . I find more problems with the people that think that they are the safe rider because they are riding slow, but they ride down the middle or wrong side of the trail. If you are leading a group, please stop at the stop signs and check on your group, if there is another group behind you let them past you safely by pulling over after the stop sign

If your in a group you should make sure the people or person behind you is still there?????? We ran into a guy whos sled died last sat.,his group was at the bar a good mile+ ahead of him. One person from that group did go back to look for the guy,we told him where he was;)

We just finished some GREAT mid week riding from Blackwell. I have been riding since 1967 and the trails last week were the best I have ever rode on. I just started grooming for my club, and I know how hard it is to keep the trails in good shape from lots of traffic and hot dog riders. Hat's off to all the people involved in the great trail system in Forest Co. Please keep up the good work so all can enjoy these fantistic trails for many years to come.