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QuietKat First Snow Ride

QuietKat First Snow Ride

I have been looking forward to this day in which I could try out the QuietKat Apex in snow.  The snow mobile trails haven’t yet been groomed, nor compacted with snowmobile traffic this early into the first snows.  There were some 4x4 traffic, foot, and ski traffic that provided some compacted trail.

I rode an electric Bulls Monster in the snow last lesson.  The Monster was an excellent snow rider with sufficient power to essentially navigate most of the local snowmobile trails.  The question has nagged at me what would the experience be like with more power?

Hence the QuietKat Apex.  A totally different machine, compared to the Bulls Monster,  the Apex is coupled with a 1000 watt Bafang Mid Drive.  The Apex has 4.6 inch wide tires in which I didn’t bother decreasing the 20lbs of air for this first quick excursion.  My first impression was whoa it’s a juggernaut.  It was a little squirrelly, less air pressure will fix this, however its rear tire gripped and propelled forward with little slip.  On the flat in 1 ft of snow this 80 pound beast could maintain over 12 miles an hour at level 3 assist.  The limiting factor was more a function of maintaining control of the front tire than the bike being hindered by snow drag. 

The extra power did in fact provide another dimension to the experience.  I was able to power up several hills at close to twice the speed I would have been relegated to with the Bulls Monster.  No doubt packed snow is going to be a thrill with this machine.

Stay Tuned: Can this machine be a viable steed to get to the base of a backcountry hill or butte to ski via snowmobile trail? Let’s find out!

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