When Derek Corey was in high school, his imagination had a habit of drifting out the door and into the woods and mountains. Those daydreams never stopped. And they always involved the sound of an engine and sometimes wheels, sometimes the crunch of a trail under a snow- mobile track.
“I didn’t test that well in high school,” Corey says. “I was smart, but I didn’t really care for school. I’d always been super into snowmobiling and dirt bikes, BMX, mountain biking. I did it all and I was good, but I couldn’t make a living out of it.”
After high school, Corey got his dealer’s license and started selling cars before opening an auto body shop. But his restless mind kept sketching designs and company logos. One of those sketches turned into a prototype: a track kit that could fit onto a dirt bike. “I finished a prototype in my garage and then sure as hell, someone came out with something similar and Polaris bought it,” he recalls. “He beat me to it, and it was great.”
Corey sold the autobody shop and took time to regroup. “I went through a hard time for three or four years after giving up the body shop and becoming an auto mechanic,” he says. “I was determined to start a business, but I didn’t have much money.”
Then, in 2019, he posted an idea for a snow bike on Facebook and got an unexpected message from Michael Edwards. “I’d said, ‘I have this idea for a bike and think I can scale it,’” Corey recalls. “And Michael provided $50,000.”
Edwards, who is now Corey’s partner in Ruffian Snowbikes, had long wanted to own a powersports company. “I was immediately drawn in. It’s a cool product,” he says. “After the meeting with Derek I could tell he has chutzpah.”
Corey built 10 bikes that first year and each one sold before it was finished. By the next year, Edwards had invested nearly $300,000 as the two tested models in the backcountry near Pittsburg.
Their flagship model, the Pro Mountain, weighs about 300 pounds and has a 600cc engine. The Ruffian Send-E runs on a 4,000-watt electric motor with the punch of a 30-horsepower engine. Selling for $11,999, it looks part dirt bike, part snowmobile and is designed to perform like a cross between both.
Ruffian Snowbikes, which operates out of Kingston and Chester, has produced more than 100 units and drawn hundreds of inquiries. A demo fleet is set to hit the trails this season.
“We’re taking it slow, and that’s been part of our success,” Corey says. “It’s more organic that way.”
Edwards agrees, “We’re just two guys who are really passionate about power sports. We’re avid snowmobilers who wanted to make something that’s the coolest thing you can ride.” For more information, visit ruffiansnowbikes.com.
