ow much better entertainment can you have?” Mike Nelson, Parts Manager at Craft’s Trading Center in Marshfield, WI, explains the attraction of the annual Parts Unlimited Snow Ride. “It’s about the only snowmobiling I get. I think I’ve made six (Snow Rides). I was on the first one,” he recollects proudly.
     Dealers from nine different states assembled at Bay Mills Resort and Casinos in Brimley, Michigan, for the 10th anniversary edition of this celebration of the snowmobile business. Leading aftermarket companies were on hand to show, discuss and demonstrate their products to the best dealers in the business. Decker Sno-Venture Tours organized outstanding trail riding in the eastern Upper Peninsula complete with lunch at trailside restaurants, the Resort provided sumptuous morning and evening meals and the Casinos provided additional diversions for everyone in attendance.
     “It’s a full V.I.P. event for our dealers,” says Parts Unlimited’s National Sales Manager Lou Lopez. “The whole idea behind the event is to get our dealers together to enjoy a good time and take it out of their business atmosphere for a couple of days. The philosophy of the company is to support the sport.”

The Face-Time Factor
     Two dealerships, Bob’s Cycle Supply of St. Paul, Minnesota, and Schnelker Marine of New Haven, Indiana, have been represented at all ten Parts Unlimited Snow Rides. Each dealership was awarded a custom set of Arctiva apparel to commemorate their perfect attendance at the Snow Rides.
     “It’s a great communications tool for the industry,” says Scott Muellner, part owner of Bob’s, “(to) have all these people together in one spot and be able to talk.” He explains that their business has three partners and that “the three of us fight over being here. We all love coming.”
     “There’s a lot of new products here. (It’s) more hands-on than just looking at a picture in a catalog,” says Vern Schnelker, owner of Schnelker Marine. “I’m starting to understand the (Arctiva) clothing a little better. We’ve had success selling the product.” Schnelker was also impressed with the vision products that he had a chance to demo. “I tried some (Smith) goggles. With glasses, it (good vision on the trail) was a challenge. I think I’ll be recommending them (the Smith goggles) to certain riders.”
     Several of the attendees were dealership parts and service managers, and they were naturally interested in the hard parts side of the business. “It’s neat when you put your hands on something,” relates Dan Cunningham, service coordinator for Honda East in the Toledo suburb of Maumee, Ohio. He really liked the lightweight track clips from Camoplast and the Tekvest. But he also appreciated some of the lesser-understood features of the Arctiva line. “The jackets that have the padding in them. I really liked that,” noted Cunningham, who was attending his first Snow Ride.
     

Dan Cunningham gives the thumbs up, ready to ride. The service coordinator from Honda East in Toledo, OH, was a first-timer at the Snow Ride. He describes the activities as “meet some people, have some fun, and learn about some new stuff.”

Sponsoring vendor Ehlert Publishing (Snow Goer magazine and Snow Week racing newspaper) was on hand with their custom trailer full of new sleds.

A group photo was the first order of business on Monday morning. Wayne Davis provided an enlargement to everyone as a souvenir of the 10th Annual Snow Ride.

One of the trail groups pauses briefly to enjoy the view of Lake Superior from the Mission Hill Overlook near Brimley.

Some of the trails from Bay Mills Resort lead out over the ice of Waishkey Bay.

     Dealer and racer Bill Lutz, owner of Fun Unlimited in Gouverneur, New York, was also interested in tracks and traction. “I always like the Woody’s stuff,” he said, “and I just put a Camoplast track on my new sled. I got a Rip Saw. It was pre-drilled (for track studs)”. Lutz continues, explaining a key reason for attending the Snow Ride. “The guy from Camoplast filled me in on the track. I didn’t realize that it has more cords to make it tighter for the studs. I had called around looking for info on it and could never find any.”
     “I think the contacts are awesome,” Frank Colon stated emphatically. The customer service manager from Keene Motorsports in Keene, New Hampshire, expounded “we invested the time to come out to meet everybody and develop the relationship. It’s an investment. We want to take advantage of the opportunity, strengthen our ties with Parts Unlimited and with the vendors.” Colon liked a lot of what he saw, including the Arctiva jackets. “I foresee picking up one when I get back to the office,” he remarked. And he went on to say that “we’re going to start pushing the Tekvest, the M-10 suspension and Sportech. We already handle PowerMadd.”
     Keene Motorsports also won an Arctiva jacket as the dealership who came the farthest to participate. “We drove non-stop 21 hours; 1,100 miles. Brought our rep, Jeff Newth, too,” enthused Colon, another first-time Snow Ride participant.

Vendors Go All Out
     Top industry vendors also appreciate the opportunity to meet and talk with forward-thinking dealers, and nearly two dozen different products were sponsors of this year’s Snow Ride.
     TekRider’s Nancy Brand was busy fitting dealers with TekVests. “They have the opportunity to try them on, which gives them an opportunity to explain them to their customers,” she explained. “It’s a touchy-feely thing.” Some dealers even got to try out TekVests during the trail rides.
     “I had a dealer that came in who sold four (M-10 suspensions) last week,” related Jim Bozich of FAST, Inc. “He wanted some more catalogs because he sees increasing interest in them.”
Carlisle Power Transmission’s Larry Klein spent much of his time explaining the evolution of the drive belt business. “We’re the former Dayco that they’ve always bought their belts from, the same engineers, the same factory. In the past it was the Dayco name they saw, but now it’s Carlisle, not Dayco,” Klein emphazised.
Klotz representative Joe Horstman spent a lot of time talking lubrication with attending dealers. “We discussed OEM versus aftermarket synthetics (oils),” Joe related. He also took the opportunity to educate attendees about other Klotz products. “They didn’t know we had an octane booster/gas line anti-freeze,” he disclosed.
     Dealers had a chance to closely inspect real production samples during evening reception hours and after dinner. Vendors distributed magazines, catalogs and other information while showing off their marketing aids. Some also passed out product samples and promotional materials.

Dick Decker leads his group of Snow Riders along another fabulous trail in the eastern U.P.

Al Mondus, of Decker Tours, leads a group of Snow Ride participants through the snow-decked woodlands of the Upper Peninsula.

Mark Rosacker (Rev) and John Prusak (ZR in back) represented Snow Goer magazine at the 10th Annual Snow Ride.

Miles roll up in a hurry on abandoned railroads like the Brimley grade, also known as Raco Road.

Time To Ride
     But the Snow Ride isn’t all talk by any means. As Mark Miller explained, it’s the riding that makes this event extraordinary. “We had a lot of fun last year. Rode in a lot of deep powder,” recalled the owner of NESCO in Gouverneur, New York. “We rode with Tony (Zale) in Group One. He took us off trail and we had a blast.”
     This year the riders broke up into eight groups based on mileage goals. A veteran guide from Decker’s Sno-Venture Tours headed up each group, with a mix of dealers, vendors and Parts Unlimited personnel in each one. Following a Monday morning photo of all riders combined, the groups fanned out on the snow trails of the eastern Upper Peninsula. Some groups covered almost 200 miles a day, while others did less, but all logged a minimum of a hundred a day on each of the two full days of snowmobiling.
     One ride group received more V.I. P. treatment when they dropped in on qualifying at the I-500 enduro race in nearby Sault Ste. Marie. Other groups rode out to diverse points like Paradise, Trout Lake, Drummond Island and Tahquamenon Falls, American’s second highest cataract east of the Mississippi. “The organization was great,” said Frank Colon of Keene Motorsports. “The trail riding (in the U.P.) is awesome.”
Premier snowsled photographer Wayne Davis and support rider Scott Anderson worked around and between the trail groups taking photos of as many participants as possible. In celebration of the Snow Ride’s 10th anniversary, Wayne presented a specially composed retrospective of images from this and past Snow Rides at dinner one evening.

Mike Nelson gets away from the shop to enjoy some riding. The Marshfield, WI, dealer attended the very first Snow Ride and says “it’s about the only snowmobiling I get.”

Mark Miller, from New England Sports (NESCO) brought a pre-production 2005 turbo Arctic Cat to enjoy on the Snow Ride.

PowerMadd’s Matt Pfankuch carves a turn on his Polaris Indy.

Todd Cooperider’s motorcycle experience serves him well on a snowmobile.

Parts Unlimited’s Gary Cartwright is the tail man as another group heads off into the back country of the eastern U.P.

Scott Anderson served as a support rider for photographer Wayne Davis, but also grabbed a few chances to get some shots of his own.

Special Recognition
     It wouldn’t be a Snow Ride without special recognition of both significant and dubious achievements. Besides the attendance and long-distance awards noted above, there were the usual stories of little faux pas on the trails, like a rolled RX-1, that led to the “other” awards.
     The annual Floppy Crappie award went to John Griese of Smith Sport Optics. TekRider’s Kim George ended up in the Decker Tours Hall of Shame through no fault of her own. She had the distinct bad luck to have two different snowmobiles, neither of them hers, fail while she was riding them.
     Parts Unlimited’s Lou Lopez thanked all the dealers who attended the 10th annual Snow Ride, and acknowledged the sponsorship from the participating vendors. He commented that “we all got into this business because we like to ride something. But sometimes we don’t have much time to do it,” and invited everyone back next winter.
     Everyone in attendance went home with an eight-by-ten color group photo by Wayne Davis and a selection of remembrances bearing the unique Parts Unlimited 10th anniversary Snow Ride logo.

A trail break in Yooper territory. Front row on sleds: TekRider’s Nancy Brand and Kim George; CPT/Dayco’s Larry Klein. Front row, standing: Decker Tour Guide John “Doc” McArthur. Back row: Parts Magazine’s Dave Wells; CPT/Dayco’s Fran Grillo; Meyer Enterprises’ Don Meyer; Parts Magazine’s Ted Perkins; Keene Motorsports’ Frank Colon; Parts Unlimited’s Gary Cartwright and Todd Cooperider (partially hidden); and Keene Motorsports’ Bill Hogue.

Parts Unlimited’s Gary Cartwright doesn’t miss the chance to record some great memories.

Frank Colon gets into it on a new Rev. The customer service manager from Keene Motorsports described trail riding in the U.P. as “awesome.”

CPT/Dayco’s Larry Klein is another rider who puts his motorcycling experience to good use in the snow.

Fran Grillo of Carlisle Power Transmission tries out one of his Dayco drive belts on a new turbo Arctic Cat.

Don Meyer on his way to Paradise. Or, judging by the trail and the snow, maybe he’s already there. The village of Paradise, on famous Whitefish Bay, was a lunch and gas stop for several trail groups.

“Doc” McArthur’s group had lunch in Paradise, specifically at the Yukon Inn. Front row: Photographer support rider Scott Anderson; Decker Tour Guide “Doc” McArthur; and Keene Motorsports’ Frank Colon. Back row: CPT/Dayco’s Larry Klein; Meyer Enterprises’ Don Meyer; Parts Magazine’s Dave Wells; TekRider’s Kim George; CPT/Dayco’s Fran Grillo; Parts Unlimited’s Todd Cooperider and Gary Cartwright; Craft’s Trading Center’s Mike Nelson; Keene Motorsports’ Bill Hogue; Parts Magazine’s Ted Perkins; and TekRider’s Nancy Brand.

Decker Tour Guide “Doc” McArther leads his group out of Paradise and back onto the trail for an afternoon ride.

Some of the riders took the time to walk down to Tahquamenon Falls. Left to right: Keene Motorsports’ Bill Hogue; Part’s Magazine’s Ted Perkins; CPT/Dayco’s Fran Grillo and Larry Klein; Parts Unlimited’s Gary Cartwright; TekRider’s Kim George; Keene Motorsports’ Frank Colon; and Parts Unlimited’s Todd Cooperider.

Looking Ahead
     Is the Snow Ride worth your time this season? Listen to upstate New York dealer Bill Lutz explaining why he made a return trip to last winter’s ride. “I’ve qualified for it for the last six or seven years, and they finally talked me into coming out last year. We had a ball!”
     See your Parts Unlimited rep about qualifying to attend this season’s Snow Ride. You won’t regret it.

Don Meyer of Meyer Enterprises shares a laugh during a trail break.

A very frozen Tahquamenon Falls.

“Start ’em up!” Left to right: Keene Motorsports’ Frank Colon; TekRider’s Nancy Brand; Part’s Magazine’s Dave Wells; Meyer Enterprises’ Don Meyer; Keene Motorsports’ Bill Hogue; Parts Unlimited’s Todd Cooperider; and TekRider’s Kim George.

CPT/Dayco’s Larry Klein and TekRider’s Nancy Brand enjoy the great trails of the eastern U.P.

Parts Magazine’s Dave Wells enjoys a day on the fabulous trails of the eastern U.P.

Smith Goggles provided eyewear for anyone who wanted to try them out. Many took them up on it.

Everyone enjoyed Sunday evening’s Super Bowl XXXVIII broadcast on the big screen televisions in the main meeting room.

Sportech always has cool windscreens to show off.

TekRider’s impressive product display.

Keene Motorsports’ Frank Colon gets the scoop from Klotz’s Joe Horstman.

Getting to catch up with friends is part of the fun.

Parts Unlimited’s Lou Lopez discusses upcoming events as Gary Cartwright listens in.

The Snow Ride is an excellent opportunity for everyone to have fun and learn about lots of new products.

Sportech’s Chris Carlson emcee’s part of the evening fun.

TekRider’s Kim George.

Dealerships Participant(s)
Bob’s Cycle Supply Scott & Becky Muellner
Bob’s Cycle Center, Inc. Buster Jones
Chenango Import Motors, Inc. Richard Ernst
Craft’s Trading Center Mike Nelson
Eric’s Small Engine Mike Davies
Extreme Power Sports Jim Ellafrits, Dan Nordhof
Fun Unlimited Bill Lutz
Grefe Automotive Jim McVeigh
Honda East Dan Cunningham
Houghton Lake Marina James & Cynthia Haverstick
Keene Motorsports Frank Colon, Bill Hogue
Ken’s Sports Rick Beining, Cody Kees
Magnum Powersports Brett Van Huysen
Meyer Enterprises Don Meyer
Mike’s Cycle & Sport Shop Allyn Rosebaum
New England Sports (NESCO) Mark Miller
N-MAN Motorsports Chris & Karen Ashley
Pro-Source Distribution Rusty Sergent, Royal Taylor
Rich’s Yamaha John Matijevich
Robert’s Sports Center (Malone) Howard Moore
Schnelker Marine Vernon Schnelker
Sno Pro Performance Dan Richardson
Spanky’s Powersports Jerry & Karen Kovacs
Sportline Power Products Kyle Armstrong, Brian Sullivan
Carl F. Statz and Sons Marc Cobbs
T. A. Motorsports Rich Rothmund

Sponsoring Vendors Participant(s)
Arctiva Cory Jonson, Don Jensen
Cambridge Metals & Plastics (CMP) Paul Beeksma
Camoplast Bruce Dashnaw,
Romuald Mercier
Carlisle Power Transmission (Dayco belts) Larry Klein, Fran Grillo
Cometic Gasket Greg Poe
Ehlert Publishing (Snow Goer/Snow Week) John Prusak, Mark Rosacker
FAST, Inc. Jim Bozich
Klotz Performance Lubricants Joe & Kathy Horstman
Moose Off-Road Brad Kruckenberg
Moose Utility Division Kyle Phillips, Kevin Kelly
PowerMadd Accessories Randy Shimanski, Matt Pfankuch
Smith Sport Optics John Grise
Sportech/Holeshot Accessories Chris Carlson, Barb Benik,
Warren Swanson
TekRider Nancy Brand, Kim George
Trukke Boots Tom Kingsland
Wiseco Pistons Jon Hanson
Woody’s Traction Products Mark Musselman, Deb Nentwig
Z1R Tom Kingsland

Parts Unlimited Personnel
Gary Cartwright Tom Merritt
Jason Cleasby Jeff Newth
Todd Cooperider Larry Page
Dan Davis Chris Riley
Brian Fox Bruce Schumacher
Don Gonzales Dave Segler
Eric Jorgensen Mike Villers
Errin Kolden Scott Walker
Lou Lopez Steve Wood

Decker Sno-Venture Tours Trail Guides and Support Team
Dick & Audrey Decker Mike Atto
Allen Decker Paul Atto
Chuck Decker Jeff Larson
Tom Anderson John “Doc” McArthur
Scott Anderson Al & Sherry Mondus
Tony Zale
Official Photographer
Wayne Davis

Don Emde Productions (Parts Magazine)
David Wells Ted Perkins