Showing posts with label snowmobile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snowmobile. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Wednesday, March 06, 2019
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
It wasn't Robert Peary's expedition that got to the North Pole first... they lied to you in history class from ignorance. The guys who actually did get there 1st, were snowmobilers from Minnesota!
History books are full of bullshit, such as Columbus reaching America - he never touched foot on any of the United States lands. Vikings landed on Canada hundreds of years earlier.
And the old story about Peary being first to the North Pole, as he claimed to have reached the Pole on April 6, 1909, is easily understood as flawed as it included no one who was trained in navigation and could independently confirm his own navigational work.
Peary was long anointed the discoverer of the North Pole—until 1988, when a re-examination of his records commissioned by the National Geographic Society, a major sponsor of his expeditions, concluded that Peary’s evidence never proved his claim and revealed that he knew he might have fallen short.
No, set aside all the grandstanding megalomaniac wanna be "Admirals of the Sea" and such nonsense that Peary, Columbus, and other names made famous in history books. It's bullshit. You can't trust many writers to get it correct either, even a 2016 article in Popular Mechanics doesn't have the facts, and Guinness is also ignorant.
The real first confirmed surface conquest of the North Pole was that of Ralph Plaisted, Walt Pederson, Gerry Pitzl and Jean Luc Bombardier (nephew of the founder), who traveled over the ice by snowmobile after fundraising 200k for the expedition, and arrived on April 19, 1968. The United States Air Force independently confirmed their position.
Plaisted was an insurance salesman, Pitzl was a Marine veteran, geography teacher and pilot with navigation experience.
With four 16 horsepower 300cc Super Olympic Ski-Doo motor, with improved traction thanks to the insertion of iron crampons inside the tracks rubber to ensure better traction on the ice, they left Ward Hunt Island, the jump off point, in March of 1968, a year after a failed attempt which had Charles Kuralt of CBS along, and these Ski Doos were 6 hp more than the previous years models.
It is 472 straight miles on a map... but, using a snowmobile means being subject to the conditions on the ice pack, and that results in a lot of wasted travel getting around challenges. Instead of 30 days travel, it took 40
While making their way, they tested food for NASA and the Apollo missions!
Something they don't mention in most coverage of artic expeditions, there are no showers or baths for a couple of months. The temps are too cold, and no one is going to lug enough heating fuel to heat enough ice to temps for a bath... as the outdoor temp is -25 to -70
They stayed two days at the north pole, and were air lifted back instead of wasting time traveling back over ice.
Why was the unlikely triumph of the Plaisted expedition lost to history?
The answer is a combination egos and polar politics.
When the expedition returned to Montreal, a writer from National Geographic was waiting, hoping to acquire rights to the story. Rights.... see, that is a powerful word, rights are something you do not "give" away.
Plaisted flatly refused, despite the pleading of his comrades. Since Peary’s day, the magazine had been the official arbiter of exploration claims like theirs; with his refusal, Plaisted denied his team the legitimacy only the society could bestow.
And without "rights" to the story, the Nat Geo Society won't give free publicity to honest people that earn respect by accomplishing a feat they wrongly and without evidence handed to their chosen guy, and promoted for decades. That's the world we live in, when they can profit from it, they hand out accolades, when they can't profit, they ignore their mandate.
https://www.perfectduluthday.com/2016/04/05/hollywood-rumor-will-ferrell-will-star-film-snowmobile-adventure-hatched-drinks-duluths-pickwick/
https://geog.ucsb.edu/who-was-the-first-person-to-reach-the-north-pole/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/who-discovered-the-north-pole-116633746/
http://www.amsnow.com/reviews/snowmobile-trails-travel/2012/01/syrupy-spring-snowmobiling
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/magazine/an-insurance-salesman-and-a-doctor-walk-into-a-bar-and-end-up-at-the-north-pole.html
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/last-of-the-ice-party-that-made-it-to-the/article_d67a1715-c671-51af-ae7f-15cef20024ec.html
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Monday, September 24, 2018
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Did you have cool parents, a lot of luck, and get a Rupp atv as a gift for xmas or a birthday? (if so, I'm jealous)
Rupp made a variety of atvs, minibikes and small dirt bikes, and of course snowmobiles. 2 wheeled, 3, or 4 wheeled off roaders, and snow mobiles too? That's really covering all bases
Rupp Manufacturing, Inc. was founded in 1959 by Mickey Rupp, with 8 employees housed in a 3,000 sq. feet facility, in Ohio manufacturing Dart Karts.
In 1960, Rupp expanded their production to making 1000 mini-bikes.
In 1964, Rupp created a few snowmobile prototypes, and by 1965, became a snowmobile manufacturer making 500 machines that year.
By 1969, Rupp employed over 400 people in a 180,000 sq. feet facility, producing a multitude of recreational machines including mini-bikes, ATVs and go-karts, and five models of Sno-Sport snowmobiles.
In 1970, Rupp sales topped $30 million and owner Mickey Rupp was honored as one of the "Outstanding Young Men of America." Rupp produced 35,000 snowmobiles that year.
By 1971, Rupp employed 850 people, and featured a research center, administration building, all-purpose proving grounds, a styling building, and even had some automatic computerized operations. In addition, owner Mickey Rupp served as a director of the International Snowmobile Industry Association.
By 1972, the good times were over, and Rupp circled the bankruptcy drain for 4 years, instead of just conceding the 70s sucked, and shutting down
This white one was taken away from the kids by their dad when he got afraid they'd kill themselves. With an 18 hp engine optional, it would do about 60 mph.
In the summer of 1975 Elvis bought several trikes, the first of which was a 1975 Rupp Centaur with a 340cc two stroke engine
http://www.oldrupps.com/RuppHistory/RuppHistory.html
https://www.facebook.com/RuppCentaur/
Monday, April 23, 2018
Bought toward the end of the harsh winter of 1975, used for the rest of the winter, and never even touched again. 40 years sitting on the trailer under a tarp, in the shed.
The pair of snowmobiles (with trailer) sold as a package and fetched $23,000.
https://www.farmcollector.com/equipment/john-deere-snowmobiles-zm0z17deczhur
Friday, April 13, 2018
Old bear lets the snowmobilers know he wants them to get off his lawn
Two individuals on snowmobiles were adventuring in Russia earlier this year, when they noticed a large bear close to their fishing camp. They attempted to chase the bear away and, while doing so, captured footage of the agitated creature trying to take a swing at one of the drivers.
Thursday, April 12, 2018
In early 2007, Kimi Räikkönen entered and won a snowmobile race in his native Finland under the name James Hunt.
Kimi Raikkonen started and ended the 2007 season the same way on the track -- with a convincing victory. He also started and ended the 2007 season the same way off the track -- doing his own thing.
In early 2007, Kimi Räikkönen entered and won a snowmobile race in his native Finland under the name James Hunt.
The fact that he chose Hunt’s name – a former world champion and renowned party animal – looked like a window into the real, fun-loving personality he keeps hidden behind the dull, monotonous front we’re used to seeing.
Raikkonen: “My friends and I had always joked about [entering a race as ‘James Hunt’]… My life would definitely have been much easier in the 1970s. I was definitely born in the wrong era.”
But not only did Raikkonen do it, win the snowmobile race, and get away with it, but he then went out and won the Australian Grand Prix as well.
Kimi, a reluctant student who used his schoolbag as a sled to slide down snow-covered hills, enjoyed winter sports, especially ice hockey, though he eventually gave it up because he hated getting up for early-morning practice.
https://kimiraikkonenspace.com/2012/05/24/whats-james-hunt-got-to-do-with-kimi/
https://www.racefans.net/2007/08/12/against-all-odds-eoin-young-james-hunt-1977/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/7055633.stm
http://www.espn.com/racing/news/story?series=6&id=3288179
https://www.formula1.com/en/championship/drivers/hall-of-fame/Kimi_Raikkonen.html
http://www.f1zone.net/news/raikkonen-to-begin-break-with-snowmobile-race/17063/
Monday, April 02, 2018
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
check out this racing at the Mama Tried, Flat Out Friday Race, "inappropriate class" indoor flat track
https://www.analogmotorcycles.com/mama-tried-2018/
Harley-Davidson Motor Company presents Flat Out Friday. Flat Out Friday is an indoor, flat track, motorcycle race on a Dr. Pepper soda syrup surface. The dried syrup will allow the bikes to stick to the floor for maximum traction and speed.
Friday’s race took place at Milwaukee’s BMO Harris/Bradley Center Arena, home to the city’s professional basketball and hockey teams.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgmYHXgnSFe/
https://journal.classiccars.com/2018/03/11/harley-looks-next-generation-bikers-backyard/
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Monday, February 12, 2018
Thursday, February 08, 2018
Friday, January 26, 2018
Aspen X Games 2018 snowmobile finals, LaVallee vs Turcotte, skip the first minute, as always
It's all over at the 3 minutes point
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