We Bought a Kicksled!

Hey Tribe,

We bought a kicksled!  I am so excited about it; I don’t even know where to begin this post – Fly is excited about it too.

Fly says, "Woo wooo!" 

First, you might be thinking, “What is a kicksled?” so I will begin there.  Essentially, it is a chair with handlebars that is mounted to two runners: a person holds on to the handlebars and stands on the runners and kicks the ground to make the contraption move.  A passenger can sit on the chair.  They are used most commonly in Sweden, Norway, and Finland as a means of transportation and are called “potkukelkka” or, directly translated from Finnish into English, “kicksled.” Wikipedia has a good overview if your curiosity is piqued.  There is one company in Finland making a very fine kicksled: Esla.

Initially, I wanted to buy one from a little local company that is a vendor from the manufacturer in Finland – shop small and support local business, right?  But, when I reached out to the Kicksled business in Alaska, they didn’t have time to meet with me and said they would get back with me to schedule a time (they do not have a physical store).  I waited.  Nothing.  I had been forgotten.  Apparently they do not value my business, so I headed to the internet.  After some sifting, I hit upon Kickbike Worldwide and discovered that their price, after currency conversions AND shipping charges, was cheaper by over $100 than buying local.  For the same product.  I’d have to build the kicksled myself, but for a savings of over $100, I’d happily do that.  I recommend you do the same.

I even love the packaging.

Nine short days later, a large package arrived at my front door.  Imagine my shock at the speed at which the package traveled across continents and an ocean – shorter than the length of time I waited for the local company to remember I wanted to buy their product; Amazon and REI don’t even ship packages to Alaska as fast as this Esla was transported to my eager arms.

Everyone must investigate.

I digress.

The long, black plastic cocooned package had minimal wear and damage to its exterior, keeping in mind its journey, and it was displayed in my living room floor for us to marvel at for a few moments while I rummaged for a box cutter.

Not a small package, that's for sure.

Opening it was straightforward and easy.

The Karelian Bear Dogs helped a little bit.

Fly firmly believes that all packages are meant for her; she had to be involved at every step of the build.

Finnish dog, Finnish sled.

Freed from its packaging, I was saddened to immediately find one of the seat slats was broken.  I took photos and emailed the company – the sled came with a warranty.  Those folks over at Kickbike Worldwide were so nice and promptly got a new sled seat in the mail to me.  No fuss.  Great customer service!

It was broken so I set it back in place, but you can see it will fail.

Minimal tools were required for the build, mostly the sled unfolds and only a few nuts have to be secured in place.  It took less than 10 minutes.

The KBDs help select the correct socket (in millimeters not inches, fyi).

The most challenging part was determining where to put the footrests, based on how I would stand on the runners; a lot of standing and scooching closer and further from the handlebars ensued and I must have been a ridiculous sight indeed.

Is she helping set runners or does she want to eat the mallet?

I bought snow runners as well and decided to attach them right away, since we will mostly be running on snow, instead of ice.  They easily squeeze onto the bottom of the runners and are held in place by two simple zipties.  Basic, easy, and cost effective.  I don’t have to fret if I want to run on snow one day, ice the next, and back to snow after that. 

Rex helped read the runner installation directions.

So, there the kicksled stood, in all its gleaming red painted birch glory, right in the middle of my living room.  Hem, now what?  Not to worry, the thing only weighs 20 pounds, and actually feels light as a feather, so it was simple to lift.  Navigating through doorways was less easy, because the long runners, though flexible, needed to be maneuvered in and through the space.  Nothing got whacked, and we all made it outside in relative ease.

Go team!

Naturally, we had to take it for a test run, which went splendidly, but I was too eager (and it was too cold) to document much of that stage of the kicksled’s blog debut.

Finnish dogs pull my Finnish kicksled.

Here is a video clip of our -10F (-23C) run into the sunset.  Marvelous, right?!

Stay tuned for many more posts about our kicksled adventures; if you now need your own kicksled, do check out Kickbike Worldwide!

(No, I was not paid to promote Kickbike Worldwide, nor do they have any idea I have written about them here.  I just really appreciated their customer service and think you will too.)