Every December it happens. Ski bikes flood timelines. A viral clip here, a slow-mo carve there, maybe a helmet-mounted POV of someone drifting through pow on what looks like a downhill bike with skis.
Then? Nothing. By the time spring rolls around, ski bikes vanish back into the algorithm’s basement and most riders go back to regular winter habits.
In the Bow Valley though, at least one person is betting that ski bikes are more than a novelty.
“I decided to jump into the ski biking business,” says Jayden Paul, owner of Electric Mountain. “It’s still such a niche sport. I knew I was going into a sport that people have probably never seen, never heard of.”
Paul runs a fleet of twelve rental ski bikes out of the Calgary area, servicing Sunshine Village, Lake Louise and resorts around Canmore and Kananaskis. He also distributes bikes for U.S. brand SkiByk and helps lead the newly formed Canadian Ski Bike Association.
From Melbourne sparky to Banff ski bike guy
Paul grew up in Melbourne, moved to Canada eight years ago and spent years working as an electrician around Toronto.
“I spent seven years in Toronto,” he says. “I was between Brampton, Scarborough and Port Hope, working downtown as a sparky.”
He moved west to Alberta and went all in on a winter sport he had never actually done.
“I drove to Washington state, picked up 12 bikes, drove them across the border to Canada and then opened up shop and learned and got really good at it last season,” he says. “I kind of had to, right, I had no choice.”
This winter is his second season renting ski bikes in Alberta and handling Canada-wide sales for the brand.
Three types of ski bikes
If you have ever tried to make sense of all the different ski bike designs out there, Paul breaks it down into three basic classes.
“Way back in the day when people were kind of like experimenting with bike frames and putting skis on it, they had ski bikes that were very low to the ground,” he says. “They had a ski in front and a ski in back and then they put outriggers on their feet. So that’s a type 1 ski bike.”
The second style is the one most riders will recognise.
“The one that I deal with, is SkiByke. Tngnt, Lenz and there’s a few brands that come out of Europe as well, is the two skis in tandem with the pedals,” he says. “That’s the more popular ski bike that most people have seen.”
Type 3 is the three-ski design that has been showing up more in videos.
“The ski bike…
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