MAPLETON - Vintage snowmobile buffs say the machines are hard to beat - and hard on your seat.

Al Hill rode his 1971 Chaparral 10 miles from his home near Harwood to Mapleton, where the East Central Valley Trail Association was hosting a vintage sled show on Saturday.

"Right now, I feel like I need a Jacuzzi," said Hill.

He said he acquired the Chaparral and its lack of a modern suspension system from his brother-in-law about three years ago, trading a VCR for it.

"They (Chaparrals) were built in Denver, from 1968 until about 1974," Hill said. "It's unique."

Hill and other collectors at Saturday's show said the old sleds bring back memories of childhood winters.

But there was no getting around a less attractive truth: the vintage machines are a pain on bumpy terrain.

A planned ride scheduled for Saturday afternoon was canceled because the trail couldn't be groomed in time, said Joanne Seifert, of Casselton, president of the association.

But even parked, the 20 or so sleds from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s packed a thrill for those willing to brave the weather.

Brian Dodd brought several yellow Ski-Dos to the show, the bulbous noses indicating their early vintage.

One of them, a 1967, Dodd rebuilt from the ground up.

"I've been snowmobiling virtually my whole life," the 36-year-old Fargo man said.

One sled that got a lot of attention was Craig King's Harley-Davidson, a model made for only a few years in the early 1970s.

King, of Amenia, bought the immaculate sled for $600 from a friend who found it hard to say goodbye to the machine.

The day after the deal was made, King said his friend called and asked if he had stored the snowmobile in his shed.

"And I go why? And he said, 'that would have been the first time it ever sat outside overnight.'"