Where do new people actually get into snowmobiling for the first time? This is a question the industry has been looking for an answer to forever.
The last few years OEMs have been building baseline sleds with fewer features on them and subsequent lower price tags to try to attract new people into the sport.
Other first-time snowmobilers start out with a non-current leftover sled they saw at a dealership at a bargain price and decided to get into snowmobiling with it.
Still others shop Craig’s List or Kijiji until they find a red-hot deal on a used model.
It’s our belief that many younger snowmobilers are getting into the sport because they helped a family member or a friend with a vintage project.
We’ve been surprised how many late teens and early twenties people are involved at the numerous vintage events around the snowbelt.
We though it would be mostly codgers walking the aisles looking for a left front motor mount for a 1971 Ski-Whiz. Not so.
There are a lot of newbies and young people at these places and we think it’s the super low cost involved in vintage and the fact working on these old sleds actually ends up giving those who do it a Master’s degree in snowmobile technology.
