What's fastest on snow - a snowmobile or a BMW G450X? The obvious choice is a snowmobile, given that it's designed specifically to ride on the white stuff, but when you put seven-times world enduro champion, Anders Eriksson into the mix on his factory BMW sport enduro, then the results are slightly harder to predict.

World Snowmobile Champion Emil Öhman on a Lynx snowmobile
and Anders Eriksson on a BMW G450X motorcycle

To find out, journalists Johan Ahlberg and Bjrn Fristrm of Swedish Fastbikes.se and Snowrider magazine set up a contest that put world world champion Emil Öhman - the fastest snowmobile rider out there - on his race-kitted Lynx, against Anders Eriksson on his BMW G450X. The test was done for fun of course, but as it turned out with these two fierce competitors, there's no such thing as `friendly rivalry'.

The test consisted of three different parts: the first took place on a motocross track in quite deep snow - almost perfect conditions for the snowmobile, but extremely hard work for an enduro bike. The second test was held on a flat field where the top surface of the snow was scraped away by a tractor, leaving a hard-packed track. This would surely suit the bike, even though the high banks would help the snowmobile find its way around the track. The final test was a drag race, with Anders and his BMW at full throttle on a straight road with an ice surface, while Emil and his snowmobile did the same, but in the snow track beside the road.

So, a varied and comprehensive test procedure that suited both machines in different ways. Emil's race-kitted snowmobile has around 80-90hp at the belt and the weight is just over 200 kg. Anders' BMW G450X puts out approximately 40hp at the rear wheel and weighs approximately 100kg, which gives both machines a similar power-to-weight ratio.

A snowmobile is designed to ride in the snow of course - at the front there is a pair of skis and instead of a rear tyre there is a drive `belt' that is specially designed for this purpose. A snowmobile doesn't like pure ice, unless it has a belt equipped with spikes, but that wasn't the case with the one used for this test. An enduro bike such as the G450X doesn't work very well in deep snow, but if you are a good rider like Anders then you'll always find some drive! However, it will be unstable and the speed will not be very high. With spiked tyres though, you have a fighting chance - especially on the ice!

As soon as the first warm-up-lap started on the motocross track, it was obvious that the snow made it hard for Anders - especially while entering the jumps - due to a lack of grip. The snowmobile of course found loads of traction and Emil could hit the throttle really hard around the track. And while Emil was enjoying some big jumps, Anders was struggling to find any grip at all with his rear tyre.

Anders Eriksson on his BMW G450X

To make the contest as even as possible, a flying start was used. Emil was the first rider to compete against the clock and he flew past the finish line with a time of 1:00.15 - a very quick effort on this track. When Anders took his turn, he really went for it and surprised everyone with how fast he managed to go on the track. On some parts, especially in the corners, it looked like Anders was faster than Emil but the lap time of 1:08.28 told another story. The next lap saw Emil improve his time, while Anders struggled to stay in contention on the motocross track, making Emil and the Snowmobile the winner of round one, as expected.

For the second test, the track on the flat field was quite short and tricky, so both riders made three laps each, every session. Furthermore, a `flying start' was used to make things as fair as possible. After the first session, Emil posted a time of 1:18.09, while shortly after Anders crossed the finish line on his rear wheel with a much quicker time of 1:13.93. During the next session Emil pushed a little harder and cut another two seconds off his total, while Anders managed to find some faster lines and shaved another half a second off his best time.

After a little pause for Anders to change tyres and for Emil to make some adjustments to the snowmobile, their times improved even further, with Emil managing to do the three laps in only 1:12.77 seconds while Anders achieved a slightly faster 1:12.46. For the next session they changed the direction of the track to anti-clockwise but it was Anders on the BMW G450X who still emerged as the clear winner with a time of 1:10.96 against Emil's 1:12.13.

The final `acceleration' test consisted of a drag race, with the two machines and one starter. Before the test, most people were convinced that the snowmobile would be a lot quicker than the bike, but actually it was very even, with Emil and Anders sharing a number of victories each. After a lot of runs though, Anders emerged as the winner, with his fastest time of 1:12.46 just beating Emil's personal best of 1:12.77 on the snowmobile.

Anders Erickkson on a BMW G450X motorcycle and Emil Öhman on a Lynx snowmobile

Although this test was just for fun and a great opportunity to shoot some fantastic pictures of two world-class riders in action, there are some conclusions that can be drawn. In deep snow (more than 20 centimetres) the snowmobile is the fastest, largely due to the fact that it has a much bigger `footprint' in the snow and together with the skis, it just rides on the top of it. However, on more icy tracks the bike is faster - and in terms of outright acceleration everyone was quite surprised at just how quick the BMW G450X actually was. Unstoppable, you might say.

Pictures: Johan Ahlberg & Mattias Klockar