Well, a few of us went for a ride in D4 today...looped around Erin, Hillsburgh, Marsville, etc...about 90km...first real ride since the beginning of January, so it was great to get it in before the next round of crappy weather...trails were really poor in some spots (ploughed fields), but very nice in others, 6 out of 10 overall...but, big kudos to the Hillsburgh and area clubs for getting the trails open for at least a couple of days!
But...what kind of hand signals are they using out there?? I led two other sleds and gave all approaching sledders two fingers and a thumb back to let them know of my two pals...at least 3/4 of all lead sleds in every group either gave a wave or a raised fist...what's up with that? There were tons of sleds out today, and most in groups...these signals really made it a guessing game as to how many sleds were in these groups!!
Anyone else encounter these signals recently??
Maybe a refresher when people buy their trail passes...you can't buy your pass until you demonstrate correct signals!!
Anyway, my rant for the day...better than complaining about the weather!!!
Cheers all!

People who weren't born and raised with sleds happening more and more.

Signals are on the maps. I really don't care if I know more are coming as I make the assumption there is an oncoming sled around every corner that will be on my side. I think I spend a good deal of my day looking for my way out as I come into a blind corner.

Now that you bring this up, I must say that every sled we came accros today new their hand signals, no problem there. Which was nice to see the PPSC trail riders are safety savei.

Cheers

Unless your fingers are real big, and separated I wouldn't be able to count them at any speed passing you anyways. Maybe the fist up was from guys wearing mitts!

Maybe the raised fists were thumbs pointing backwards.
If you go past my group and I'm on point, all you'll see is my mitten hand in a fist with the thumb pointing back.

Not that I care but, holding up 2,3,4 or 5 fingers isn't an "official signal", it's a courtesy signal.

I always get ready for more sleds unless I get the "last sled" signal from the point rider.

I see the oncoming point rider and hope they see me.
When I see the oncoming point rider, I slow down before even thinking about signaling.



nationally approved snowmobile hand signals

Anyone ever try to doo a multi signal like "Slowing"-"Oncoming sleds" and "Sleds following" at the same time?
You'd pass the oncoming group and not even have time to grab the brake. LOL

not too sure of how the signaling was performed. As a generality when I am out, which is a fair bit, I find that ALMOST EVERYONE that does signal, actually does it wrong, including myself, especially the last rider.

Click to view attachment

I still stand for this. http://www.communicationsafetysystem.com/
Hands should be on the bars.

last sled inline is the only I use

arm down

It really looked like a closed fist, with the palm facing forward (when they weren't just waving "hi"!)...like a"power to the people!" sign...if you can see the line of sleds, a real signal isn't a big deal, but when going through the twisty turnies and can't see the next sled, it's nice to know that it's coming!!

Same here I don't need a countdown of a group that you can see and they can also see the person they are following one after another 5,4,3,2,hand down.
I see this alot on straight stretch's where you can see every one of them about 25 to 30 feet apart , and another group coming up the rear counting off again.
D J

I do the arm down, for last sled in line. Looks like OFSC says it's arm up with closed fist is proper. What do I do now?

I had to add another one to this beef:

The group that goes by and the "last" guy gives the last man signal oblivious to the fact that there is another group following right behind. This especially bothers me when I am following a group. How about some of them maybe looking behind them too.

When I'm last sled in line, I doo as per the nationally approved by OFSC, they chose the straight back closed fist in the hopes that peeps could get their hands back on the handlebars faster than slicing the arm down. Not only that, since I'm usually looking at the driver, it's easy to see the arm come up to their shoulder vice following them cut it down.


I like to include any peeps that follow me, for instance, take today, I was lead, my riding partner and I passed 2 other fellows, and I'd tell oncoming sleds that their was 3 sleds following.

Hey Yellowlab did you stop and have a few hot dogs at Cindy's place, we had at one point 10 sleds parked along the B202 and a ton of guy standing around the bon fire. Hillsburgh was packed today, I did check point at the 202 - 104 intersection and stopped 48 guys in 1 hour then headed over to Cindy's and Ray's and stopped another 30 sleds in 2 hours. All in all a really fun day. Porker Run next weekend ( Feb 10th ) Hillsburgh rain or shine. If there's no snow then we will still hold the event in town and have our chicken dinner, if there is snow then the S.T.O.P will be out in full force, so beware. Their doing radar on the rail line

The 'O' in ofsc stands for Ontario...which is Not National. They didn't choose it.

Can anyone tell me who approved or made these 'Nationally Approved' Hand signals.???? You see the 'signals' in various print, but there is no endorsement by any federal agency. who??

What does 'national approved' mean anyway?? If you think about it.... nothing.

The term that should be used...if it was actually used nation wide and had an endorsement from the Federal Government would be 'Nationally Recognized'


Anyone??

So true it made me smile, snow where.

How about internationaly approved by the Canadian Council of Snowmobile Organizations, American Council of Snowmobile Associations and the International Snowmobile Council .........



________________ < insert owned emoticon here

As per usual SW you forgot to and got

Thanks Nutter and Zoso, was about to reply, but you guys got'er handled.

That said, there was one fellow riding with a group of 4 that in all honesty, I would rather he just keep his hands on the bars, he was getting bucked pretty good.

What do you care?

Hand signals are for trails.

Also, it seems as if the hand signals are actually "internationally" approved.

I think that is a great idea!! Whats another 100 bucks a sled in the overall scheme of things. I am tired of hitting the bush on the rught because some person is trying to drive their sled and tell me that there is a sled behind them... It really anoys me when their buddy is about five feet behind them and sliding sideways to avoid both of us....

I agree, that arm down fist clinched has been the signal for years and used by almost every rider out there.

We turned towards Erin at 104 (I think!), we saw a TP guy standing there and I gave him a wave as we turned south...was that you? we were on a bit of a tight schedule...get in a ride and then get home for Daddy duty...I was on my '04 Adrenaline (black), and I had a '98 Grand Touring (Blue), and '05 GTX (Blue/Silver) behind me...overall, it was pretty good ride...I have my daughter's b-day next weekend, but if there's any snow, a poker run might be fun!
Cheers!

I actually saw one of these the other day on our trails..... I agree a great idea, I wish more people would invest in it!!!

They just freak me out when I see them, even now that I know there out there they still cause me winder down pretty good ... no matter what color light is showing. I'm still old school I guess, if theres a sled behind me in my mirror range I do nothing, if not I give low wave, if at night I do nothing cause there going see the oncoming headlights.

I made a Comment on the other thread that APEXAHOLIC posted!!

THIS IS IT!!! END OF STORY!!! ALL SLEDS NEED THIS THING!! HANDS ON THE BARS!! YOUR RIGHT!!!
I dont care if its $20 bucks or a $100 If you can buy a sled you can buy this thing!! It will make things safe and easy to understand!!

NOW!!! lets try and deal with the snow X wan a bees

Not arguing it if was standard equip for the big 4 it'd be great, but right now we have a hard enough time just getting people to a permit on their sled where visible ............ I just can't see guy's rushing to lay out the coin to stick one of these units on the side of their sled.

Have to agree with Nutter, you already hear peeps bitch about a $180 permit for 40 000km of trails (if only 10% were opened, that's still 4000 km of trail to ride), good luck getting peeps to buy another safety feature. Then there's those that might not turn it on, or have the wrong colour on, forget to change that they're the last sled, then if they hit someone, somebody will sue because they didn't have the correct colour up, etc etc. So, 1000Cat, doo you have one on your sleds? If not, why not?

Just another bullshit gaget that someone will line there pockets with the green.

Riders, open your eyes, pay attention, end of story.

Hand signals are always a hot topic.

I like to see sleds following and last in line and the signals we use as a group to identify things during a ride.

I also signal to those behind slow easy - arm hand down slow wave, hazard - slow now - faster wave, hazard on trail - same as hazard slow now but finish by pointing to the hazard such as a boulder on trail, stump etc, stop for intersections arm up and move over for sleds coming wave over head pointing to side of trail. Depending on conditions we may use right or left arm for these.

I use a hand up and show fingers if one or two following or thumb back is there are more. Most I know do the same.

Last sled is a arm down. Easy to distinguish from sleds following.

I have never seen anyone use the international signs on trail yet although they are on the maps and taught at drivers training.

I guess I should update my signals to keep current!

A new rider following may get confused by all the flapping!

it's always better when you pass a group of 10 people and they are all bunched up and every single person has to signal someone is behind while they can barely control their sled with one hand. IMO signaling sledders behind should be done by the first person in the group and then the last person lets everyone know there is no more. Keep control of your sleds for F*ck sakes.

So, it still doesn't explain a wave or a fist by the lead sled...everyone seems to agree that the lead and last sled are the most important...I guess your leader better know more than a wave or raised fist (mitt or glove...LOL!!)!!

I didn't do any homework. I just asked a question.
I didn't make the statement that the OFSC is a National Organization. I didn't make the statement that the OFSC nationally approved the signals and chose which ones to use.



I just asked who actually decided. Sorry, no ownage here.