Bolens Diablo Rouge and Hus Ski Discussion Forums

One of the things I like most about this hobby is chance to meet people from all over and hear their stories. Here is one I received tonight. Enjoy the memories!

Wow, just stumbled upon your site.

I'm originally from Wisconsin. My dad is still up in Phillips. Sure would like to see your collection someday.

The Hus-Ski pictures sure bring back memories.

My Dad had twins of the 444 back in the 60's. He would drive one, with me sitting behind him, clutching those metal rods that held the little "seat back" with all my pink-knuckled might. My mom would drive the other, my sister seated behind her.

Many, many funny memories, like the trailer regularly becoming unhitched from the tractor, and my dad being dragged along down the icy road, going faster and faster, unable to let go of the throttle because he was hanging onto the steering bar for dear life.

My mom found it hard to turn, so my dad tried to explain that you had to give 'er a little gas and then it would be easier. So she would gun it, turn hard, and my sister would get whip-cracked and fly into the air and land in the snowbank.

Thanks for maintaining a great website and not keeping all this cool stuff to yourself.

Roy S
Chelsea, MI

I have often told the tale of how I got my first HUS-SKi but seldom tell about going over the gravel pit edge full throttle. I was only 10 -12 yrs old and doing my regular ride above our gravel pit ridge. The ground here is hard packed gravel which when dug into does not fall so all perimiters of the pit had a 10-12 ft vertical face. As I went to turn from the ridge into another field, I was horrified to find the trail blocked with a huge snow drift. Like the Roy's dad in the previous post, I held tighter as the HUS-SKI swerved to the left and headed for the vertical face. The closer i got, the tighter I held on. Not to mention my parents watching from a window to see how I managed on the trail. This HUS-SKI was the SNOWTrAVELLER but I am sure there were parts of its drive train which were not touching snow as I took that leap over the edge. It wust have been a good winter for snow as I landed in a good bed of snow at the bottom. There was a burst of powder in all directions including over the hood and into my face. That was where I stopped. The engine had stalled because of the blast of snow through the front grill and right down the carb throat. The Carb on the WEST BEND engine is facing front and there was no carb cover on this machine at the time. The machine was on about a 45 degree angle and buried up to the handlebars. I got off the seater, dug out the engine and cleaned the snow from the carb then yanked the whole thing to a starting position. That WEST BEND started again and I drove home no worse for the wear.

My favorite memory as a kid was a time when my father had the handlebars of the 503 mash down on his knees once too many times and the fix for that unique design. Later that evening in the garage at home, he cut the handlebars about 6 inches from the dash and installed hinges on the top side of the cuts. He figured that now the handlebars can raise easily when going through a ditch or hole.

The next time out, he was so proud of his design and while the Diablo was sitting there with the engine off, he showed us how easy the handlebars raised. However the first time through the ditch, up went the handlebars and unbeknowith to him, it also pulled the throttle cable tight. It was like giving that Diablo a shot of rocket fuel as it took off and shot out of the ditch and like the references above, he held on for dear life looking like a rag doll flopping around after falling off the ski seater.

That 503 was never the same after that

After getting my Grandpa's Hus-Ski I learned a hard lesson on clockwise and counterclockwise rotation on JLO engines when I put a different one in and after starting it the first time I got pinned between the handlebar and the workbench. Lesson learned!