A COOL RIDE; THOUGH RECREATIONAL, SNOW BIKING BECOMING X-TREMELY COMPETITIVE.

Byline: MARK LANGTON Cycling

If you're an extreme-sports junky, the last few days you have been glued to the tube, locked onto ESPN much like a tongue to a frozen piece of metal. It's that time again when the made-for-TV Winter X Games takes just-left-of-center stage.

Over the short life span of the Winter X Games, ESPN has elevated ice climbing and snowmobile racing to almost cult status.

Already established sports like snowboarding and skiing were given twists that not only make them more fun to watch, but give them that extra bit of danger necessary to keep you on the couch and your fingers off the remote.

Butthe most bizarre event has to be Biker X, in which six snow mountain bike racers slalom through course at speeds exceeding 45 mph with a last-cyclist pedaling mentality. (Biker X airs tonight from 5 to 7:30 on ESPN2 and 9:30 to 11 on ESPN; watch for terms like potato chip - a seriously bent wheel - and wild pigs - squeaky brakes.)

``My neck still hurts from a bad crash in the dual slalom, which ESPN featured again and again and again from three different angles. That was nice,'' said Dan Hanebrink of Big Bear Lake, a mountain bike pioneer and former Winter X Games competitor.

Not only has Hanebrink been a seminal figure in mountain bike design, from frames to suspension, he is also the brains behind perhaps the most distinctive mountain bike available today, the Extreme Terrain.

Developed in 1994 to enable mountain bikers to ride the snow drifts that descend each winter onto his home town nestled high in the San Bernardino Mountains, Hanebrink's radical bike is designed around the tires of all-terrain vehicles, or ATVs. The result is a bike that can float over snow, sand and loose gravel like no conventional mountain bike. He even has a design in which the front wheel has been replaced by a pair of skis.

To be sure, snow biking was not born out of competition, but rather practicality. As far back as the early 1900s, prospectors in Alaska used bicycles to cross the tundra.

Mountain bikes can traverse snow quite well, actually, depending on the consistency of the surface. A crusty top works best, one that has melted slightly and then been refrozen. It's best to have slightly lowered tire pressure and the widest tire possible, preferably studded, and a very soft touch on the front brake while descending - just in case you were thinking of finding some snow to ride.

But many recreational activities end up as sports, and snow biking is not excluded.

Even though mountain bike racing on snow might seem right out of the ``Weird Science'' bin, downhill snow-bike racing has been going on for almost 10 years at places like Colorado's Breckenridge and Arapahoe Basin resort, and locally at Bear Mountain. The Winter X Games' snow mountain biking events debuted in 1997 at Snow Summit; this year's event was held for the second consecutive year at Crested Butte in Colorado.

The IditaSport, a 200-mile winter race in Alaska open to mountain bikers, cross country skiers and snowshoers, is routinely won by mountain bikes, some specially equipped with double-wide rims and tires.

There's even a movement afoot by the Alpine Snow Bike Association to get snow mountain bike racing into the Olympics. As the interest in mountain bikes escalates, it stands to reason more people are crossing over to snow mountain biking.

``It's hard to know the numbers, because we're really just starting out,'' said ASBA chairman Dean Crandall. ``Currently there are about 200 active snow bike racers, but it's probably a lot like mountain biking in general. Look at mountain bike racing; there are about 35,000 NORBA (National Off-Road Bicycle Association) members, and 10 million mountain bikers.

``There is probably a larger number of people snow biking recreationally, we just don't know about them all yet. But we're gettiTng more and more people every day calling telling us that they're snow biking.''

Hanebrink has done his part to promote the recreation, which has reverted to a practical mode of mountain transportation.

``I have my own personal Extreme Terrain bike that I commute to work on,'' said John Keating, manager of Hanebrink's manufacturing facility in Big Bear City. ``I can ride right out the door on a fresh powder morning, pedaling past stuck motorists or people lying on their backs putting chains on.''

Hanebrink has built nearly 2,000 Extreme Terrain bikes, with a customer list that includes Joe Montana, Dustin Hoffman and Michael Ovitz. Hanebrink also recently delivered two bikes that will assist scientists from the Center of Astrophysical Research for the Antarctic explore the dry valleys of the South Pole, where temperatures can reach 130 degrees below zero.

``There is an enormous interest in the idea of riding bikes on snow. That's what got me started,'' Hanebrink said. ``But it turns out that regular mountain bikes really don't do so good on snow; they're very limited. I've tried every scheme to ride on snow (with regular mountain bikes) - studs, low-pressure tires - but you're really at the mercy of the conditions.

``For that reason, I totally designed the Extreme Terrain bike for people like myself - serious mountain bike racers who lived in ski resorts,'' he said. ``But what I found was that racers weren't interested. It was everybody else, plumbers, doctors, lawyers, even the guy who doesn't have a bicycle. It appeals to the non-racer more than the racer.''

At 58, Hanebrink can still go wheel-to-wheel with the best in gravity biking.

While he didn't medal at the inaugural Winter X Games two years ago, he certainly got ``air time,'' as his was the most spectacular crash of any of the runs, bouncing and cart-wheeling down the speed course (since eliminated from the Winter X Games) and giving new meaning to the term ``the agony of defeat.''

More recently, Hanebrink is going for a more practical application for his Extreme Terrain bikes - adapting them for use on golf courses as an alternative to walking or using an electric cart. So as you're watching cyclist hurtle themselves down the slopes, just remember that you don't have to be extreme to ride a bike on snow.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) While snow mountain biking can be intensely competitive - as evidenced by the Winter X Games, pictured here at Snow Summit in 1997 - it is also a recreation that has its roots in practicality.

Scott Clarke/ESPN

(2--Color) A pioneer in mountain bike design, Dan Hanebrink of Big Bear Lake has provided a recreational side to the sport of snow biking by crafting cycles with tires from all-terrain vehicles. Some even have skis in place of the front tire. Snow mountain biking was not borne out of competition, but rather practicality. As far back as the early 1900s, prospectors in Alaska used bicycles to cross the frozen tundra.

Special to the Daily News

(3--Color) Snow mountain bike racers get started on the dual slalom event during the 1997 Winter X Games at Snow Summit.

Scott Clarke/ESPN