SHAMAN sledges
It is easy now to buy sledges for dogs - sledge manufacturers offer a huge variety of different
vehicles., You can pick up good dog sledges for almost any purpose now. Price categories are
also very different - starting with several thousand rubles for a training sledge for one dog and
ending with hundreds of thousands for sledges for long-distance racing, sledges for hiking and
expeditions.
Sportive sledge manufacturing in Russia was practically absent until the last time, because
sledding itself appeared relatively recently. In fact, only the natives of the north who use dogs in
everyday life had the skill to make sledges for sledding, but their traditional dog sledges did not
meet the requirements of the sleddog sport rules and the criteria that an entertainment or sporting
sledge must match. Authentic knitted wooden sledges are too heavy, bulky, they do not fold. As
a rule, these are sledges for large buckles. Yes, the first dog races took place on such ones, but
time goes ahead, more modern materials displace wooden ones. Today, almost all imported
sports sledges for dogs are made of metal and plastic, they have less weight with a comparable
allowable load, they look more aesthetically pleasing wooden, can be compactly folded. Our
craftsmen are also interested in making their sledges for teams, even for numerous ones, as easy
and durable as possible. I see how expensive aluminum alloys, carbon, ice resistant plastics, high
molecular weight polyethylene come into use.
In general, a two-skied sledge for dogs is a rather more laconic and conservative thing in terms
of the emergence of new ideas. Obviously, therefore, I see that most of our manufacturers have
chosen to copy imported sledges. And this, of course, has a certain logic to buy inexpensive
sledges for dogs, but of acceptable quality, for many buyers it is more correct than investing in
an expensive imported sledge, and then, when it turns out that sport is a grave, try to sell it.
Therefore, probably, this has a future too. Imported dog sledge, run-and-proven on the race, there
will always be a subject of imitation and a win-win commercial project for local craftsmen.
Well, the SHAMAN offers an alternative.
At the time my products appeared on the sledge market in Russia, there was already decent
competition. The production level of some workshops reached decent heights. Even comparing
the sledges for dogs of ten years ago with those products that were offered to the consumer in
12-13 years, one can notice a decent progress, in any case, progress of copying quality.
In order to get to your buyer with a highly competitive environment, you must offer something
that has not been done before.
I chose a guideline for myself which I will follow – the really excellent driving performance and
the reliability of my products, confirmed by passing the most difficult sections of the route by
crash tests. Partly for this reason some design decisions of imported sledges are unacceptable for
me. Therefore, I apologize in advance if what comes out of my workshop does not fit the
stereotype that has already taken part in the minds of many people.
When my team was consisted of four huskies, skiing with them ceased to be safe for health. I
was lazy by nature and it was not for me to ride two dogs in two times. But the four huskies and
skis are not the most successful combination, and when I returned home separately from the dogs
again and was limping, I realized - I need a sledge.
I bought a copy of a sledge for 2-4 dogs and it was probably not the worst one by the standards
of the Russian sledge market. And I even liked the first couple of trips. But as soon as I turned
from the fields into the forest, on my usual twisting paths, then I realized - we need other dog
sledges here.
Studying the market of metal-plastic folding racing sledges attentively, I realized that almost all
of them repeated the same scheme invented abroad, to varying degrees of similarity. The scheme
of a sportive sledge with vertical folding.
This scheme is convenient for transporting sledges in a passenger sedan, because it allows you to
make the skids easily removable from the frame. In addition, this scheme is quite rational in
terms of the ratio of weight and working strength - that is, the strength required by the rules of
the race.
But I saw the drawbacks of this scheme. And for my skiing, these drawbacks outweighed the
advantages, because it made it impossible to drive along unprepared tracks with a lot of turns and
rough roads.
I determined my ultimate goal: my sledge for dogs should be, firstly, stronger, secondly, more
universal, thirdly, more maneuverable, fourthly, easy and not expensive to repair.
It was necessary to achieve a better ratio of the own mass of the projectile and its working
strength.
It was required to get sledges designed for the complete absence of a high-quality track and more
steadily enduring a collision with obstacles.
It was necessary to reconsider the existing ideas about the "good controllability" of the sledges,
because my requirements for it were much tougher. I needed sledges that allowed me to go my
ski routes on four or six dogs, without much effort in terms of driving.
I will make a reservation right away - I do not position my sledges as sportive. In sport, there are
own canons and rules, and athletes probably know better what their equipment should be. I just
did what I needed according to my requests, and maybe, the requests of other people who are
free from stereotypes and ride for pleasure. I am extremely interested in their experience in using
my sledges, on the basis of their comments, I have already made many design changes. In fact,
sledges in the first season are different from the sledges in season of 2016-2017, not
fundamentally, but in in many details. Perhaps this is the most optimal approach - not to put on
the stream, but to plan small batches of products, and observing their work, make amendments
on time. Brushing away the established dogmas, rules, stereotypes invented by someone
somewhere. They interfere and restrict.
Therefore, if you opted for my product, be prepared for the upgrade :))
In general, today I am ready to offer you a whole model line of sledges for huskies and other dog
breeds. There are both sledges for 1-2 dogs, and sledges for trips for 6-10 dogs and sledges for
cargo transportation in the lineup.
In order to buy sledges from me as convenient as possible, I adhere to two basic rules:
1 The sledge must be ready on time
2 I don’t take any, even partial prepayments for a sledge that is not ready yet. To accept the
order, one just writes me in personal correspondence. That is, the payment should be done only
after the sledge’s readiness, before sending.
Such a system completely eliminates the possibility that a person, who paid the money, will not
receive the sledge on time.
Sincerely, Roman Karev (developer, manufacturer, sledge tester and owner of the “Shaman”
company)