Vintagesleds.com V3.0* for 2009

Posted 12.31.08 by Boy Wonder

When I put this site up in 2000 2001, I thought I'd play with it, throw up some photos, post a story or two and that would be it.

Oh how wrong I was.

Fast forward to 2009 and I'm just a year two years away from my 10th anniversary of vintagesleds.com, and this thing hasn't stopped growing. December was another record month for new visitors to the site.

Despite the interruption to the Bull Sessions (it was off for a week as we cleaned it up and changed the name to SledTalk 24/7), traffic is up again, and we exceeded our allotted bandwidth this month - twice.

I'm not bragging about any of that. I'm just humbled and sincerely want to say "Thank you".

We've been working hard on a newer, faster, better, much more interactive website for some time now. But to implement those features, we had to build a new "foundation" for the website that would allow us to keep adding on. Today the first part of the foundation is completed - with many thanks to Brandon Johnson for all the content moves and testing, and to J.D. Henderickson for solving a very tricky layout issue.

Note to JD: I think all my whining about the footer paid off. ;-)

Our first new feature I intend to demonstrate February 14th at "Live on Skis" in International Falls, Minnesota. No details now, but a few SledTalk 24/7 members got a tiny glimpse the other night when I accidentally left a link to it in the menu. Suffice to say the new feature is all about you, less about me.

Finally, all of us here at Vintagesleds.com wish you and yours a happy new year. If the recent perfect winter weather is any indication, 2009 is going to be a great year!

Now with this much snow around - let's get out there and ride!

*Version numbers are a bad thing. Websites never stop changing so why add an expiration date? I just put the number on here to denote the structure and style of the website are different.

Who will have the "Find Of The Year" for 2008?

Posted 12.30.08 by Boy Wonder

We all wish you the best for 2009. On the way out of 2008, we will soon have our new "Find of the year". Not any kind of real contest per say, but a yearly running chronicle of the really neat sleds that have been found in the past year. We do have some judges and prizes.

However we strongly encourage bribing the judges - (tongue firmly planted in cheek). This years winner will get a spiffy trophy, and this brand new helmet, courtesy of Koch's Performance of Crivitz Wisconsin.

This years judges go by their SledTalk 24/7 names: Polaris 440, Lasergal, Yamabunch and JLOPower. Each is eagerly anticipating each email and phone call to see what new goodies are being offered. So if you have a sled entered, start the bribing, bribe early and bribe often!

The judges are going to have a very, very tough time. This year some really fascinating new stuff showed up. It's amazing to me how much stuff is out there:

Arctic Cat EXT's, 'Daddlers, Polaris Centurions, Polaris Starfires, Bruts, Ski-Doo Blizzards, Kawasaki Interceptors, Arctic Cat Z's, Vikings, Dauphins, Speedways, Snow Cruisers, Moto-Ski Supersonics, Skeeters, Roll-O-Flex Wild Ones, Yamaha SRX's, John Deere Spitfires, Snow Kings, Johnson JX 650's, Ski Whiz 44WT, TX's, Yamaha GPX's, Kawasaki Invaders, Super Bugs, Polaris Colts, Skiroule RTX440, Ski-Doo TnT's, Moto-Ski SnoPro, Sno*Jet Thunderjets, Rupp Nitros, Rupp Magnums, Ski-Doo SnoPros, Polaris SnoPros (1974, probably Larry Rugland's 650), Johnsons, Polaris Playmates, Mer Trail Twisters, Herters Husky, John Deere Liquifires, Mantas, Arctic Cat Lynx, Yamaha VMax, Jerry Bunke's 73 340cc Starfire, Arctic Cat Cheetah's and Panthers.

That's just one year of finds! Wow! Best of luck to the judges! Check out all the sleds yourself in the Find of the Year thread.

Derby Track to Run Vintage on Late Model Weekend

Posted 12.30.08 by Boy Wonder

The Classic Vintage Weekend (Sponsored by Woody's) is coming up fast! Just 10 days to go! This year, they've added something new to the late model weekend that follows. Besides the 440X class that runs their final on the 11th, racers in that class will be able to run an additional heat race to qualify for a special vintage race to be run on the late model weekend. I like this idea. The huge crowd watching the late model stuff will get to see how nice these vintage racers look - and how fast they really are. Should be a lot of fun for the drivers as well.

The Classic Vintage Weekend starts January 9th, and the finals are on Sunday the 11th. Derby Weekend is race #3 in the Snowmobile Hall of Fame and Vintagesleds.com Vintage SnoPro Series. We'll be there, hopefully interviewing some of the top drivers for a podcast.

Holy Snow Fall

Posted 12.30.08 by Boy Wonder

Don't know how it's going in your neck of the woods, but here in Central Minnesota we've got more snow in December than we've had in years, possibly decades. Yeah Global Warming! I went for about a 50 mile ride over Christmas vacation with my relatives. Other than running out of gas 1.5 miles from home, it was a blast! Perfect snow, perfect trails, and a sunny, 20 degree day. It just doesn't get any better. Most fun I've had with my clothes on in some time.

This has to be good news for the dealers and manufactures - in fact, I heard a Radio story on how the local dealers are surprised to find customers saying "I'm not letting the stupid economy ruin my hobby". Cool.