Polaris Steers for White Space With Snow Bikes

Polaris Industries has built an empire (and an impressive stock market run) on cool and quirky machines—motorcycles, snowmobiles, and all-terrain vehicles. Its newest toy is particularly strange: the snow bike.

Picture a dirt bike with a ski in the place of a front wheel and a snowmobile tread instead of a rear wheel. A small crew of people in northwern Idaho has been perfecting the weird winter whip, and Polaris just bought their business, Timbersled. Essentially, Timbersled sells kits that converts the lower half of a traditional dirt bike into something that can porpoise through deep powder. Its bestseller, the “Mountain Horse,” costs about $5,300.