It’s truly wintertime here in Wisconsin again. With eight or so inches of snow on the ground and temperatures maintaining highs in the low teens and dipping down to minus ten at night, what is a guy to do? More importantly what is a motorcycle guy to do when riding is not tolerable? If you are lucky, your garage is heated and tinkering on those old bikes is pleasurable. In my case the garage can be heated very easily, but I’ve got another option. Three years ago I purchased a large, thick, dense rubber mat from the local farm supply store for my dining room. On top of that mat sits a bottle jack type bike lift. You guessed it, on that of that bike lift sits a motorcycle. The bikes that I put on this lift are usually long term projects and very clean. Sometimes they just start as a nicely done frame that will have all the components bolted onto it……yes in the dining room. Never had much of a use for a dining room or even a kitchen table for that matter. All a table would serve as is another surface for crap to accumulate on. Even if I had a dining room table, it would probably be used as a final assembly area for carburetors and possibly engines/transmissions. There are too many solvents and “harmful” chemicals involved with those operations, best just not to have a table in the dining room.
There was a time when putting a motorcycle in the house was a novelty. When negotiating the deal on my first Guzzi I was told that the bike was always kept inside the house during winter. For a brief second I tried to convince myself that putting a motorcycle in a house was an alright thing to do. Some people collect unicorns or Precious Moment figurines, I just happen to collect old motorcycles. What’s the difference between a few old bikes in a house and wall full of Chinese made porcelain? Not much besides the fact the bikes won’t be sold for twenty-five cents a piece in a garage sale in three years. Here’s another point for all you who rent when the landlord comes knocking and tells you “no motorcycles in the house”. Explain to him that there are no batteries in them and that all gasoline, including in the tank and carburetors is completely gone. Then remind him that the refrigerator, dishwasher, washer and dryer all have a quantity of oil in them that could potentially leak at any given time. Parking the bikes on some sort of mat that won’t allow the tires or kickstand/center stand to come in direct contact with the carpet is a good idea. Also, take a cake pan and slide it under the engine/transmission just in case. How many times have you seen a “no motorcycles in the rented unit” clause on a lease?
Now that we have established that there are motorcycle activities that can be completed during the long, cold winters up here. There’s another activity that some of us partake in……taking a perfectly good tire, screwing several hundred specially made studs into it and riding our bikes on the frozen lakes. It was in Sweden in the 1920’s where some of the first records indicate motorcycles racing on the ice. Then in 1970 the movie “On Any Sunday” had a clip or two of this sport as well.
There are studded and non-studded classes, but really what’s the point of not running studs for better grip? There are sanctioned races via clubs in different parts of the country, but most of us go out and ride without just riding around a few laps then calling it quits for the day. The great thing about this type of riding, is that any bike literally can be used and can cost very little to start out. There are even kids that ride with their little fifties on the ice and don’t think they won’t pass you if you don’t know what you’re doing, because they will. Generally there are two different tracks made. The first being a traditional flat track style oval that is any where’s from a 1/8 of a mile to ½ mile in diameter. Then there are road racing style courses that can stretch several miles, they are a lot of fun on smaller 125cc-250cc machines. Personal preference is the oval tracks; they are pretty wide and allow high speeds down the straightaways.
My bike is nothing more than a near stock 77 Yamaha TT500 dirt bike with the stock sized rims front and rear. There are folding pegs and a folding shift lever installed because you will go down. No need to break up nice original vintage foot pegs and shifters. There are no words that can explain the pure adrenalin rush of screaming down a straightaway in high gear, sitting up on the tank, downshifting, tossing out your left foot down on the ice and throttling that bike through the corner, then moving to the back of the seat to gain traction heading onto the next straightaway. Nothing. Just like in flat track racing, you use the throttle to help get your around that corner. When you feel the back end start to slide out from underneath you, peg the throttle because only two things can happen. The first being the tire grabs and pushes you around the corner and the second being the tire doesn’t grab. If the later of the two happens, just let go and more than likely you’ll go sliding on your backside across the ice coming to a nice stop twenty five or so feet away from your bike.
In ice racing it’s all about tires. What tires you use, where you place each stud, how you “clock” those studs and how much tire pressure you run in them. There’s no correct formula or combination. Most recreational riders will give you tips on what works best for them. Just remember, it’s all about the tires…”Tires is what wins the race”. One thing I don’t suggest anyone trying is screwing sheet metal screws into the knobs of their tires to ride on. They will grip so well that they will tear out of the knob and possibly hurt someone. Look into purchasing or making a set of ice tires. Oh, wear a snowmobile or street helmet and motocross boots or boots that cover the shins. One more pointer when starting out is install some brush guards on your handlebars……broken levers aren’t much fun to deal with when it’s -10 outside. Another word of warning is that ATV’s like to stud up their tires as well and ride on the ice. Those things destroy ice FAST and make the ice pretty loose. If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m not a huge advocate of ATV’s for anything more than checking on the cows.
So, there’s the run down on what a lot of us do and how we do it in the bitter cold winters in these parts.
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