The 'Ol Bubbletops - > From Marc Sebright - The Exploding Bubble Top Hoods!

"Hi, I see you have already posted your best of the bubble top stories, but I thought maybe you'd be interested in hearing one more.

Not too long after I started collecting/riding vintage snowmobiles in 1994 at the age of 14, I learned that one of my friends' dad had three old snowmobiles he wanted to sell. A buddy of mine picked up the two Scorpion Super Stingers because I didn't want 'em (and now I'm a Scorpion guy....how's that for irony) and I bought the '70 Olympique 335 for $50. The Olympique had serious rust issues, as the only part of the runningboards that remained was the outside 'lip'. As a result, there wasn't really a place to put your feet, but boy did that sled run great!

The 335 had electric start, but even with a fresh battery, wasn't always powerful enough to kick over that Rotax single with it's insane compression. As a result, the recoil saw more starting duty than the ignition key. Once the sled was running, you could walk away from it and come back a week later and it would still be sitting there, popping away faithfully, like a dog waiting for it's owner to come home from work. The problem was getting it started. Recoils just didn't hold up very well with that machine. Two or three outings and the 'guts' would simply give out, or the rope would snap, and we'd be off searching for a replacement.

After awhile, I got tired of replacing recoils and simply wrapped a rope around the end of the crank, gave it a pull, and was off and running. Usually, one of three things would happen. 1.) I'd give it a good hearty tug, but not hard enough to pull the engine all the way over, and it would yank the rope back, tearing my arm off in the process. 2.) I'd give it a good hearty tug and the rope would come off, whipping me in the side of the face as it came back at me at 100mph. Or 3.) the least likely....I'd give it a good hearty tug and we'd be off and running.

Despite it's shortcomings as far as starting went, the sled was an absolute riot, but the missing runningboards were a constant problem. As a result, I located an engineless, but otherwise mint, '71 Olympique at a nearby salvage yard. As much as we hated to say goodbye to the 'black stripe', it had to go. We bolted the '70 engine in and were once again off and running. The only problem the '71 had was keeping a hood on it. After 25 years, the plastic hoods became very brittle, and would shatter like glass if you ran over so much as a mouse turd when it got real cold out. I must have gone through 6 Olympique hoods the first season running the '71 body, and eventually had to have a stockpile of them ready in the barn. 4

One night, my buddy and I were out riding around at night when my dad came out and wanted to ride as well. Dad had been a snowmobiler in the '70s, having owned a few Boa Ski machines new back then, so I stepped off the Oly and hopped on my Scorpion. I had just finished bolting another hood on the Olympique when we took off. My buddy was first up the hill behind our house, and got pretty good air with his Harley Davidson 338, so I figured I'd give it a try. I got pretty far off the ground with my Super Stinger as well. Then dad came up the hill, with the little 335 Rotax a buzzin' away at full throttle. My buddy and I stopped off to the side to get a good view of my 55 year old father about to ramp MY sled!

Dad hit the snowdrift perfectly, flew through the air for a brief second, then came down and made a near perfect landing. When he landed, the headlight, which had previously been in the 'up' position, slammed down through the hood. This caused a crack at some point, and we all got hit with yellow shrapnel as the hood exploded into a million pieces. When dad stopped and we went over to inspect the sled, the only part left of the hood still on the machine were two pieces which held the latches in the rear, a piece holding the hinge up front, and the still shining headlight, still in it's door and dragging beside the machine by it's wiring.

I could have been mad, but it was hard to be pissed when we were all laughing so hard we had tears streaming down our faces. To this day I still find little pieces of yellow hood while mowing out back on mom and dad's property. Well, just had to share that with you. Thanks for listening. -Marc."