FAQ
Frequently Ask Questions
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Whats makes the Niseko Snowbike Adventures Experience different to elsewhere in the world.
Low Altitude Backcountry - More Engine Power and Rider Fitness - Niseko backcountry ranges from 350m (1148ft) to 1500m (4921ft) at the peaks. Versus locations elsewhere which can start as high as 1500m and often go over 2500m (8200ft)
The low altitude means bikes develop more engine power as do the riders, ride more and recover faster.
Fresh Tracks - The north west coast of Japan gets huge amounts of snow down to sea level.… powder snow down to the beaches!. It also gets record levels of snow in line with the highest snowfall resorts globally but in a shorter season. This means at times it doesn’t stop snowing daily weeks on end. Add to that over 100km of riding area there is always fresh snow available to ride.
Short Approach Trails - Long steep icy trails into the backcountry with minimal snow coverage aren’t fun and spending the first and last 30-60min of the day on one isn’t fun. Our trails are low traffic, never icy and often covered in fresh powder from the previous night. They are also very short.
The practice / orientation area is 1min ride from base and an advanced rider may spend as little as 10min on trails before getting off into backcountry terrain.
Matched Rider Ability - We don’t have an automated booking system with available dates in an online system! These are cheap and easy so why not?…. we make the effort to book you into a group of similar riding ability. This is particularly important for individual or smaller group bookings.
You can have great bikes, terrain and guides but if you are placed in a poorly matched group you can either feel held back in unchallenging terrain, needing to wait for the other participants or out of your depth, getting stuck in terrain thats too hard and having a miserable time.
So when booking tell us about your riding experience and we will do our best to match you up on a day with similar level participants.
High Spec Equipment - Only a small minority of the top tour companies in the industry use snowbike kits from YetiMX. These carbon fibre kits aren’t cheap and neither are the custom snowbike engine modifications and accessories we use, but the performance they provide makes them essential equipment for the deep Niseko powder.
We don’t bait and switch with a high specification hero bike for photos and a low cost version for customers.
Over the years we have continually refined our fleet build, preventative maintenance processes, and hold a large stock of spare parts to achieve our goal of zero cancellations due to mechanical issues. After all one of your key holiday goals is to attend our tour and a simple refund doesn’t address your disappointment or cover your flight, accommodation and meal costs.
All Inclusive Price - Snowbike Rental, Guide Fees and Safety Equipment are in the price upfront… no surprise extras after you turn up.
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What the Best Time of Season to Book a Tour
Tours normally operate from late December to the end of March. *Early December or April Tours are by special arrangement.
Late Dec / Jan / Feb - it often snows heavily every day, with the deepest powder this timing is best for skiing / boarding. For snowbikes yes deep powder is an awesome and unique experience but the limited visibility and short days mean we don't venture as far from base, for this reason for a multi-day tour I would not recommend January. Average Daily Tour Distance 50km+
Late Feb / Early March - mixed snow (powder and clear weather days). This time of the year will give the most variety of snow conditions and most importantly the days are much longer, weather becomes more stable and allows for longer distance touring. Average Daily Tour Distance 70km+
March / Early April - Spring snow, long sunny days and stable weather - the best time to tour way out into the mountains… Spring is the time you can ride mountain peaks and ridge-lines with amazing vistas. Although its not unusual to have a huge dump of powder snow in late march the chances of it happening are much less.. Average Daily Tour Distance 100km+
Types of snow versus riding feel - The type of snow as with off-road surfaces have a big impact in how the snowbike feels to ride … but as a guide the far ends of the scale would be Powder versus Spring Snow. Also note weather isn’t the only determining factor for the snow… trees, aspect to the sun and terrain shape also change the type of snow. Therefore even on a sunny days we can often find powder to ride.
Powder Snow - Powder gives a floating feeling to the bike similar to a jet ski. You can get the bars down and the bike almost horizontal on turns… landing off jumps is super smooth and soft…. Its motocross made easy. But reduced visibility and because powder likes to hide terrain holes and dips… expect to dig out your bike at least once per day.
Spring Snow - provides almost unlimited traction.. you can pretty much climb anything. It converts the average rider into having Graham Jarvis like hill climbing abilities. But more technique is required to land jumps and rail turns as easily as in powder.
Travel Costs - The last two weeks of March onwards the pricing for most accommodations drops significantly. For a group of 6 there are some very good deals for luxury lodge accommodations with pricing competitive to budget hotel pricing.
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Can I Book a Half Day Tour
No, we only do full or multi day tours as we have found by experience the natural flow of the tour works much better as a full day tour. Once the safety briefing, orientation and practice time is over the balance of the day works much better and we can explore further into the back country with out rushing the best part of the tour.
But yes if you must we can come back early or start late, however the price is the same as a full day tour. There are no significant savings we can pass on to the customer as our guide and maintenance business expenses are are on a per day basis.
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How Hard is it to Ride a Snowbike
Snowbikes - The key advantage is that your motorcycle riding skills directly transfer to riding a snowbike which allows you to ride real backcountry terrain not just flat open fields and groomed trails.
It would be wrong to say riding a snowbike is easy unless you have at least some motorcycle experience, but it is much much easier and safer than riding the same motorbike with wheels on dirt, sand or mud.
Easier and Safer than a Motorbike - The snow acts to smooth acceleration, cornering and braking making it extremely unlikely to accidentally grip the throttle and get runaway acceleration panic as can often happen on a motorbike. There is almost no chance of loosing traction on the front or rear, loose control and slide in a corner, also the long rear track stops the front of the bike lifting and flipping. If all else fails falling or jumping off the bike usually makes for a for a soft landing in powder snow.
Snowbikes vs Snowmobiles - It is very difficult for a snowmobile to follow were we ride our snowbikes unless the snowmobile rider is very advanced. Snowbikes have the huge advantage that anyone with motorcycle skills can ride challenging terrain, that is not the case with a snowmobile which are very prone to roll over or unintended sudden acceleration accidents unless ridden on a flat trail.
As such most snowmobile tours are slow paced sit down scenic tours on low powered snowmobiles not suitable for the backcountry. True backcountry snowmobile tours (riding in the same terrain as where we ride the snowbikes) require a different type of high performance snowmobile to what most tours operate and as no one in Niseko maintains a dedicated fleet of backcountry capable snowmobiles we choose not to offer this type of tour. Also the is no such thing as a true backcountry snowmobile tour that accepts participants that have not already had lessons and know how to ride a backcountry snowmobile.
Fitness - riding a snowbike requires less fitness than off-road riding on dirt, but more than on-road riding. On our tours and the pace of riding is group dependent - further and faster for some groups, less for others with more rest periods.
I Cannot Ride a Motorcycle - Then you cannot ride a snowbike!…, but you can learn and it’s safer than learning to ride a motorcycle. How fast you will be able learn to ride a snowbike depends very much on your athletic ability and associated skills. For example an experienced and fit downhill mountain bike rider will very quickly learn how to ride a snowbike, but if you cannot already ride a bicycle you may struggle.
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What is the required Riding Ability?
Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced - The majority of tours are either intermediate and advanced tours. We have a small amount of beginner tours each season.
Beginner Tours - We do not mix beginners with other tours bookings… Beginners are required to either book as a private tour or a large group of 5+ participants Instead of 15mins practice beginners may spend a few hours in the practice area before heading off. Then spend most of the rest of the day on trails and limited to open areas of backcountry.
Intermediate Tours - 15mins practice, trails and easy back country. We increase difficulty gradually, Intermediate covers a wide range of riders and sometimes the tour progresses to an advanced level.
Advanced Tours - 5-15mins practice, we only use the trail to transit quickly into the backcountry. Pace of riding is faster and the terrain more difficult. Weather permitting we ride to destinations too difficult for anyone but advanced riders to reach safely.
Mixed Advanced / Intermediate - these are the majority of our single customer and last minute small group bookings as is difficult to rate peoples riding ability without some background information. These tours still work well as we ride areas where often there is an easy and hard line for most of the terrain we cover. But we may not be able to go to the most advanced areas on some days depending on the rider mix.
Am I Advanced or Intermediate?
Our tours are rated intermediate or advanced. The basic tour is the same for both levels of participant but we vary the difficulty of terrain and the intensity of riding duration and speed. Advanced tours are at times can become very advanced! Jumps, drops and steep terrain… Intermediate tours much less so!!!. Guides will gauge rider ability on the day and increase difficulty based on rider progress.
Advanced tours are usually for riders with motocross and enduro experience, and some experience at the club racing level of higher - we also generally try to separate younger and older riders in groups at this level. Intermediate includes a wider range of riders, usually adventure, on road and dual sport riders.
Advanced riders are comfortable with the bike fully leaving the ground, have good riding form to cope with sudden bumps or harsh landings, comfortable riding at a faster pace over uneven ground and steeper terrain. Have more precise handling and can cope with narrow gaps and thin ridge lines.
Intermediate is everyone else that can ride a motorbike with confidence.
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Private Tours - Normal tours are run with 3 to 5 (6) participants, the purpose of private tours is two fold.
When you book as an individual, two, three or even 4 riders it is likely you will be joined by additional participants. If you do not wish to ride in a mixed group you have the option to make the tour private.
We require a minimum of 3 participants to run the tour, on days we do not have enough bookings if you still want to proceed with the tour you have the option to upgrade to a private tour.
The cost of a Private tour is an additional ¥45,000 for the group. Meaning the cost is shared by the number of riders in the group. (Eg:For 1 rider is ¥45,000, 2 is ¥22,500 each, 3 is ¥15,000 each and 4 is $11,250 each.)
There is no cost to make a 5/6 participant group booking private.
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Do I Need to Book In Advance? - Different People have Different Priorities
Type 1 - Hardcore Skier / Boarders
Your focus is powder and snowbikes are awesome but best left to a clear day. We get it!… you're here to ski or board and locking in a booking with a deposit isn’t your thing, waiting for the one day it isn’t snowing to do snowbikes is.
We take a lot of short notice bookings like this in Jan-Feb… but remember there’s a bunch of people thinking exactly the same thing all looking at the same weather report. First in with the $$$ gets the tour…
However its still worth sending us an inquiry with your contact details and dates … at least by penciling in a tour date we can let you and everyone else know what sort of availability there is in that week. No commitments.
Type 2 - I ski and board… but I’m definitely here to ride snowbikes.
Definitely book ahead for Jan/ Feb… if it looks to be clear with no overnight snowfall we generally get bombarded by bookings and there are only 6 spots available on any one day.
If you book ahead we are also open to shifting the tour date - based on availability. Your options remain flexible up to 48hrs in advance of the set tour date.
Type 3 - Niseko, wheres that! … I don’t ski or board… but those bikes look awesome…..what can I do there the whole of the week?
We can do multi-day group tour packages with accommodation and transport.
Message or email us with your specific needs and we can advise as well as help arrange accommodation / transport based on your budget.
We can also support Corporate groups and events.
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Payment and Refunds - Unfortunately there has been a recent trend for groups to book activities and only show up on the day if they feel like it. Therefore there are some minor changes to our Payment and Refund terms.
Please note going forward
We require a non refundable deposit of 30% to confirm the booking of the tour. However this deposit & balance is refundable if for any reason we (Niseko Snowbike Adventures) are unable to run the tour as booked.
We require full payment prior to running the tour, if a deposit has been paid then under special circumstances the balance payment can be made on the day however to prevent delays in starting the tour we recommend all payments are finalized at least two days prior to the tour.
Last minute bookings made the evening before the tour must be paid in full prior to the day of the tour.
There is no refund if the customer cancels within 48hrs of the tour.
The non refund of deposits or the balance ensures that the tour will still proceed for the remaining participants of the tour and the cost of insurance and guides is covered.