North Legion develops fat skis - SMX captures backcountry
by Erik Thorvik
May is normally a month associated with green meadows, blossoming trees, flowers and, unfortunately where I come from, with the smell of fresh manure. This year, however, I spent a week in deep slushy summer snow. I was invited to Røldal to document the first test of North Legion’s SMX on fat skis.
The destination for North Legion’s test crew, Røldal, (pronounced Rurldal) is a remote village on the west coast of Norway. Røldal is usually free of any tales of spring until mid June. It’s not until summer that the sun finally gets the upper hand in the long lasting battle with several meters of snow. Røldal is home to a ski-resort by the same name. If you are a keen skier or snowboarder you may recognize the name Røldal from skiinfo.com where it has been topping the snow charts for the last couple of winters.The target of our mission was to test the off-piste capabilities of the North Legion SMX, a tantalizing development with the capabilities of giving the rider a full-on mountain bike experience on snow. Previously, the SMX has proved to perform beyond expectations in well groomed slopes and fun parks. But, North Legion wanted to meet the demands of their team members and make the SMX into a powder beast suitable for cliff-dropping, steep backcountry runs, or whatever you normally do with your fat skis when the Gods have blessed your local hill with a meter of fresh white powder.
We now had a small pile of fat skis, fresh from the manufacturer, and a bunch of loose canons - capable of putting the SMX to its ultimate test. Mads Andrè Haugen is one of the pioneers of SMX riding who is possibly best described as a farmer on Duracell batteries. Mads Andrè is a talented freeride mountain biker and he does one of the meanest superman seatgrabs I’ve ever seen. Cato Lægreid, already 25 years old, is a legendary big-mountain skier capable of pulling the biggest stunts off huge cliffs. Niki Leitner, Austrian freeride MTB star, flew in from Vienna. I will not claim that he is your typical Arnold Schwarzenegger look-alike, but he sure has a tendency to sound just like him. French SMX pilot Nicolas Pillin came in from France to show us Norwegians how to fraternize with women drive-by-style and how to do a tailwhip over a 6-meter road gap. SMX rookie Anders Skarpeid was the last man to join the crew and with his experience from downhill biking and big-mountain skiing he should be the right person for testing the new powder rig.
The North Legion support crew, a film crew and a photographer were always present to make sure the riders never had a chance to enjoy a relaxing moment. They were joined by two beautiful Norwegian models (Thanks Julia and Linn), which had been hired by a British clothing brand for a photo shoot. The latter were - not surprisingly – most popular with the riders.
Røldal is not the place you go to if you want to work on your tan. The place gets way too much snow for that, but in April and May you can be really lucky and “the snow hole” can turn on its charm. That is exactly what happened during the second week of May this year and all of the sudden we had a ski-resort with several meters of snow and perfect blue skies while everyone else in Europe was mowing lawns and trimming hedges.
The first day we hoped to build some huge backcountry kickers but the snow cat we were meant to use had tumbled down a crack in the snow and was now useless. Our local expert, Cato, had business elsewhere that day and we were suddenly helplessly stuck in the slopes with a few tourists and the Norwegian downhill ski team.
If the first day was a bit of a letdown, the second day was really everything we had been hoping for. We were transported by snowmobiles to a valley that is somehow like a sponge to snow when the northwesterly wind blows it off the mountains. The snow had been piling up into various shapes which all had one thing in common - they made up perfect backcountry kickers!
The riders gave us some incredible action with huge airs and began expanding their bag of tricks. Mads Andrè did some stylish supermans - he almost seemed to touch the sky - and he also nailed a few stylish backflips. Niki Leitner reminds me of the milkman in the way that you know he always delivers. This session was no exception. He did some mean backflips and supermans and topped them off with a couple of huge backflip no-handers.
![photo]()
In spite of all that, it was hard not to be impressed by Anders, the rookie from Stavanger. According to himself, he’s a downhill rider and hasn’t really done any major tricks on his bike. On the SMX, he started off with a backflip and we were all stoked by his effort. Then he walked up the mountain, rode some perfect high-speed turns down the hillside and pulled off a huge backflip with perfect landing. He now seemed to go into a trance and kept pushing the envelope throughout the session. Anders decided to do a flair and after ten attempts he landed it perfectly. Then he walked back up and repeated it. This inspired Niki to try his first flair ever and he pulled it off like it was the most natural thing in the world. And to stress that even further, he pulled off his second attempt as well. The session went on with Anders nailing a sideflip and nearly a 540 barrelroll (540 flip). Nicolas, French king of tailwhips, had an injured leg and was forced to watch the other lads go ballistic. He could only hope his leg would heal miraculously over night.
After a session like that you would expect people to be satisfied, but this was not the time and place for relaxation or any other human-like behavior for that matter! We had a quick dinner and then we drove up to the other side of the mountain to check out a potential drop off the roof of a tunnel that we had discovered the day before. The setup looked sketchy as the landing was way too flat and it would take quite a bit of speed to do a trick before crashing into the landing. But, the guys were crazy about it and after a few attempts Anders decided to do a 6-meter flip drop on his second day of riding the SMX! He looked ok for the first half of the rotation but then he slowed down and crashed down on what must have been the face plant of the month. That was the end of the session and we went back to our cabins to kick back with a few well-deserved beers.
The following days, we saw some amazing riding and Cato came back to nail a few stunning photos of his stylish 360s …some to faceplant. Nicolas’s leg got a little better and he nailed some huge superman tailwhips. We also got to test the new skis in some really steep sections normally only accessible for big-mountain skiers and snowboarders. The new skis made off-piste SMX riding fairly easy and bloody fun once you figured out the technique. I’m convinced that we’ll already see some breathtaking SMX action in deep powder next season. Try to imagine someone pulling off a superman seatgrab from a ten meter cliff into meters of powder and I’d say you have the future right there.
For the last session of the trip we went to a road gap we had built the night before. Although the weather had turned bad over night, Niki and Nicolas had spent far too much time building it to leave it alone. Nicolas did his signature tailwhip over the road gap which he landed with perfection and Niki followed with a stunning backflip which I call a worthy final of our mission. Niki described his perfect stunt more like a freerider: “That’s SMX shit!”
![photo]()
Facts about SMX
•SMX is short for Snow Moto Cross.
•The first SMX bike was invented by the Norwegian company North Legion in 2003 to give MTB and BMX riders a tool to exercise their respective sports on snow.
•The world’s first SMX contest was the adidas Winter Slopestyle in December 2006. Winner was Hervè Bonnefont from France.
•Some of the leading freeride mountain bike stars like Matt Hunter, Eric Porter, Darren Berrecloth, Cameron Zink, Trond Hansen, Niels Windfeldt, Niki Leitner, Mads Andrè Hansen, Lance Mc Dermott, Gaspi, NPJ and more have already signed up with North Legion to ride SMX.
•Basically all bike tricks can be done on snow with the SMX bike. Here are some common SMX tricks:
oBarspin: Turn handlebar 360° while in the air.
oTailwhip: Kick SMX away and use arms to help the SMX rotate 360° and then catch it with your legs before landing.
oSuperwhip: Same as tailwhip but involves stretching your body horizontal while the SMX is rotating.
oFlair: Jump off a quarterpipe/ halfpipe and make a 180° rotation and a flip before landing.
oBackflip: Rotating 360° backwards and landing in the same direction as you take off.
Official website: www.northlegion.com
May is normally a month associated with green meadows, blossoming trees, flowers and, unfortunately where I come from, with the smell of fresh manure. This year, however, I spent a week in deep slushy summer snow. I was invited to Røldal to document the first test of North Legion’s SMX on fat skis.
The destination for North Legion’s test crew, Røldal, (pronounced Rurldal) is a remote village on the west coast of Norway. Røldal is usually free of any tales of spring until mid June. It’s not until summer that the sun finally gets the upper hand in the long lasting battle with several meters of snow. Røldal is home to a ski-resort by the same name. If you are a keen skier or snowboarder you may recognize the name Røldal from skiinfo.com where it has been topping the snow charts for the last couple of winters.The target of our mission was to test the off-piste capabilities of the North Legion SMX, a tantalizing development with the capabilities of giving the rider a full-on mountain bike experience on snow. Previously, the SMX has proved to perform beyond expectations in well groomed slopes and fun parks. But, North Legion wanted to meet the demands of their team members and make the SMX into a powder beast suitable for cliff-dropping, steep backcountry runs, or whatever you normally do with your fat skis when the Gods have blessed your local hill with a meter of fresh white powder.
We now had a small pile of fat skis, fresh from the manufacturer, and a bunch of loose canons - capable of putting the SMX to its ultimate test. Mads Andrè Haugen is one of the pioneers of SMX riding who is possibly best described as a farmer on Duracell batteries. Mads Andrè is a talented freeride mountain biker and he does one of the meanest superman seatgrabs I’ve ever seen. Cato Lægreid, already 25 years old, is a legendary big-mountain skier capable of pulling the biggest stunts off huge cliffs. Niki Leitner, Austrian freeride MTB star, flew in from Vienna. I will not claim that he is your typical Arnold Schwarzenegger look-alike, but he sure has a tendency to sound just like him. French SMX pilot Nicolas Pillin came in from France to show us Norwegians how to fraternize with women drive-by-style and how to do a tailwhip over a 6-meter road gap. SMX rookie Anders Skarpeid was the last man to join the crew and with his experience from downhill biking and big-mountain skiing he should be the right person for testing the new powder rig.
The North Legion support crew, a film crew and a photographer were always present to make sure the riders never had a chance to enjoy a relaxing moment. They were joined by two beautiful Norwegian models (Thanks Julia and Linn), which had been hired by a British clothing brand for a photo shoot. The latter were - not surprisingly – most popular with the riders.
Røldal is not the place you go to if you want to work on your tan. The place gets way too much snow for that, but in April and May you can be really lucky and “the snow hole” can turn on its charm. That is exactly what happened during the second week of May this year and all of the sudden we had a ski-resort with several meters of snow and perfect blue skies while everyone else in Europe was mowing lawns and trimming hedges.
The first day we hoped to build some huge backcountry kickers but the snow cat we were meant to use had tumbled down a crack in the snow and was now useless. Our local expert, Cato, had business elsewhere that day and we were suddenly helplessly stuck in the slopes with a few tourists and the Norwegian downhill ski team.
If the first day was a bit of a letdown, the second day was really everything we had been hoping for. We were transported by snowmobiles to a valley that is somehow like a sponge to snow when the northwesterly wind blows it off the mountains. The snow had been piling up into various shapes which all had one thing in common - they made up perfect backcountry kickers!
The riders gave us some incredible action with huge airs and began expanding their bag of tricks. Mads Andrè did some stylish supermans - he almost seemed to touch the sky - and he also nailed a few stylish backflips. Niki Leitner reminds me of the milkman in the way that you know he always delivers. This session was no exception. He did some mean backflips and supermans and topped them off with a couple of huge backflip no-handers.
In spite of all that, it was hard not to be impressed by Anders, the rookie from Stavanger. According to himself, he’s a downhill rider and hasn’t really done any major tricks on his bike. On the SMX, he started off with a backflip and we were all stoked by his effort. Then he walked up the mountain, rode some perfect high-speed turns down the hillside and pulled off a huge backflip with perfect landing. He now seemed to go into a trance and kept pushing the envelope throughout the session. Anders decided to do a flair and after ten attempts he landed it perfectly. Then he walked back up and repeated it. This inspired Niki to try his first flair ever and he pulled it off like it was the most natural thing in the world. And to stress that even further, he pulled off his second attempt as well. The session went on with Anders nailing a sideflip and nearly a 540 barrelroll (540 flip). Nicolas, French king of tailwhips, had an injured leg and was forced to watch the other lads go ballistic. He could only hope his leg would heal miraculously over night.
After a session like that you would expect people to be satisfied, but this was not the time and place for relaxation or any other human-like behavior for that matter! We had a quick dinner and then we drove up to the other side of the mountain to check out a potential drop off the roof of a tunnel that we had discovered the day before. The setup looked sketchy as the landing was way too flat and it would take quite a bit of speed to do a trick before crashing into the landing. But, the guys were crazy about it and after a few attempts Anders decided to do a 6-meter flip drop on his second day of riding the SMX! He looked ok for the first half of the rotation but then he slowed down and crashed down on what must have been the face plant of the month. That was the end of the session and we went back to our cabins to kick back with a few well-deserved beers.
The following days, we saw some amazing riding and Cato came back to nail a few stunning photos of his stylish 360s …some to faceplant. Nicolas’s leg got a little better and he nailed some huge superman tailwhips. We also got to test the new skis in some really steep sections normally only accessible for big-mountain skiers and snowboarders. The new skis made off-piste SMX riding fairly easy and bloody fun once you figured out the technique. I’m convinced that we’ll already see some breathtaking SMX action in deep powder next season. Try to imagine someone pulling off a superman seatgrab from a ten meter cliff into meters of powder and I’d say you have the future right there.
For the last session of the trip we went to a road gap we had built the night before. Although the weather had turned bad over night, Niki and Nicolas had spent far too much time building it to leave it alone. Nicolas did his signature tailwhip over the road gap which he landed with perfection and Niki followed with a stunning backflip which I call a worthy final of our mission. Niki described his perfect stunt more like a freerider: “That’s SMX shit!”
Facts about SMX
•SMX is short for Snow Moto Cross.
•The first SMX bike was invented by the Norwegian company North Legion in 2003 to give MTB and BMX riders a tool to exercise their respective sports on snow.
•The world’s first SMX contest was the adidas Winter Slopestyle in December 2006. Winner was Hervè Bonnefont from France.
•Some of the leading freeride mountain bike stars like Matt Hunter, Eric Porter, Darren Berrecloth, Cameron Zink, Trond Hansen, Niels Windfeldt, Niki Leitner, Mads Andrè Hansen, Lance Mc Dermott, Gaspi, NPJ and more have already signed up with North Legion to ride SMX.
•Basically all bike tricks can be done on snow with the SMX bike. Here are some common SMX tricks:
oBarspin: Turn handlebar 360° while in the air.
oTailwhip: Kick SMX away and use arms to help the SMX rotate 360° and then catch it with your legs before landing.
oSuperwhip: Same as tailwhip but involves stretching your body horizontal while the SMX is rotating.
oFlair: Jump off a quarterpipe/ halfpipe and make a 180° rotation and a flip before landing.
oBackflip: Rotating 360° backwards and landing in the same direction as you take off.
Official website: www.northlegion.com
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anybody seen these upgrades for stock bikes at euro/interbike?
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