My First Two Rides on Ice Racing Motorcycles

This past Saturday, I watched the NWIRC ice race in Bloomer, WI. After the ice racing was finished, the track is opened up for riding.

I’ve been wanting to ride an ice bike since the first time I saw them on TV, and then again after I saw them in real life. Kevin suggested that if I came out to watch him race, I’d get a chance to ride his bike. I couldn’t resist an offer like that!

I was fortunate enough to ride two ice bikes back to back on the same day. I am still smiling when I think about it! There are three videos embedded/linked at the end of this post.

The first bike was a 450 Kawasaki owned by Trent. He was extremely kind, and offered me a ride on his bike. His generosity amazed me as I had only met him a few hours before. This was my first chance to ride a ice racing bike, and it was a blast!  THANK YOU!

Kevin from Scrambler Cycle seen in blue below

 

He couldn’t resist the opportunity to come out and pass me a few times with his 1964 Bridgestone. He’s getting pretty good.

Riding an ice bike is a lot harder than it looks. I really struggled to wrap my brain around how much the bike could lean over due to the amazing traction of the studs on the ice.

My first lap I was nearly vertical. I was riding it like a street bike.

I rode a few laps, and then came in. Trent gave me some good advice and then sent me out again. His biggest tip was to support all my weight on the outside peg. This helped a lot!

I finally started to lean the bike over more:

Kevin passing me some more. It was good practice for him. Notice how much further he leans.

I rode about two dozen laps and then my legs were very tired. My right leg was jelly by the time I came in. Who needs the gym? Just ride an ice bike every day!

Kevin also let me ride his Bridgestone. Thanks Kevin!! I did a number of laps with it. The bike was a bit more wild than the Kawasaki, but just as much fun. I really enjoyed riding it as well! A fun fact: the Bridgestone is now the oldest bike I’ve ridden. Cool!

Kevin built his ice racing bike from spare parts he had. It’s a combination of a number of different bikes. You can read more about his build here.

What a difference in the two bikes both in power, suspension, and even shifting! The Bridgestone shifts with neutral on top and then one through five down. The Kawasaki is normal with the one down and four up pattern. I really enjoyed riding them. Thank you Kevin and Trent for the privilege!

I see my WR250R getting studded up in the future, but I’ll need a lot more practice (and fitness) to keep up with the racers I saw today!

Full Flickr Set here

 

Video of me riding a 450 Kawasaki Ice Bike: This one is a bit long, but has some good advice mixed into the middle and end

Video of me riding the Bridgestone:

 

If you want to get a feel for how the Bridgestone SHOULD be ridden, here is a great video of Kevin riding the wheels off it. Link here

Ice Racing in Bloomer, WI on Lake Como

This past Saturday, Northern Wisconsin Ice Racing (NWIRC) cleaned off a nice oval track on Lake Como in Bloomer, WI. Bloomer is 90 miles east of Minneapolis. They mostly race quads, but started racing motorcycles last year. They have two motorcycle classes -- a 250/450 and a 125/250. Each rider pays $10 to race and the winner gets 80% back.

Seven riders showed up to race with six in the first class and one in the second. Amazingly, they were all on different makes of bike: Cannondale, Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki, KTM, Honda, and Bridgestone.

This is Trent. We’ve never met before today. He said he’s heard of me on the radio, and he’s seen my website. Apparently, one of the local radio shows has a segment called “Ray of Hope” where listeners say what positive thing inspired them.

According to Trent, my winter Ural riding has made the show a couple of times. I’m honored and shocked. I do enjoy the smiles I get riding around. I’m happy I can brighten someone’s day by just riding to work. Cool!

The racing was delayed because practice went long, and it was snowing quite heavily. The plow needed extra time to clean the track off. Ice racing is best on smooth, flat, clean ice.

While the plow was working, these kids found a way to keep busy:

The riders assembled for their meeting to remind everyone of the rules. They ran two races of five laps each.

First it was the quads:

 

and then the bikes:

 

  

Kevin Hahn #43 from Scrambler Cycle ended up racing alone again in the 125/250 class with his 1964 Bridgestone 175cc 2-stroke.

 

Trent M #8 on his Kawasaki 450cc won the first race, but lost the second race to his friend Mike T on the #40 KTM. Trent below:

 

A number of spectators showed up to watch:

There were some spectacular moments in the race as a number of riders crashed into the snow banks or spun around. This ATV rode up onto the back wheel of another ATV and rolled over. Video here.

All the fuel required for an ice race -- Gatorade for in between races, gas for the bike, and beer for afterwards.

It was a fun day of racing! It was much more low-key and smaller than the stud club in Minnesota. Everyone I met was extremely friendly. Most of the riders go to a local bar after the event. I was unable to attend as we had tickets for a concert back in Minneapolis.

After the racing, the track is open for riding. More on that in my next post!

Full Flickr Photo Set here

HD Video: 250/450 Race #1 (1080p)

HD Video: 250/450 Race #2 (1080p)

Stud Club 2010 State Finals Ice Racing

The Stud Club is one of Minnesota’s ice racing groups and they seem to be the largest. They held the State Championship Finals in Garrison, MN on Mille Lacs Lake this past weekend. Garrison is about 100 miles north of Minneapolis, and it takes about two hours to get there.

Mille Lacs is covers over 132,516 acres (536 sq kms). It is Minnesota’s second largest lake behind Red Lake (288,800 acres). Lake Superior doesn’t count because we have to share it with Canada, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Mille Lacs is so large, in many places you cannot see across to the other side.

Since I was busy with the Motorcycle Safety Conference on Saturday, I was only able to attend the races on Sunday. We arrived a few minutes before the riders meeting started at 10:45am. As you can see, it was a beautiful day and quite warm at 28F.

The Stud Club races both studded and unstudded ATVs (quads) and studded motorcycles.

They had over twenty one different races on Sunday. My favorites are always the larger (250cc+) studded motorcycles. The little kids are pretty fun to watch too.

The track was a decent size with one large, long corner.

We weren’t allowed to walk around the track like at other races we’ve been to, so the shots only from two different areas.

We used the GoPro HD as a handheld and got some decent footage for a first attempt. Transcoding the video to upload to youtube reduced the quality quite a bit from 18Mbps to less than 5Mbps. I’m working on fixing that in the future.

 Youtube Video here:

 

Here are some other photos of the event. The full flickr album is here:

 

3rd Annual John Larson Memorial Ice Race

A friend and I attended the 3rd Annual John Larson Memorial Ice Race on February 14, 2010. The race was held on Long Lake in Isanti, MN which is just a short one hour drive north of Minneapolis up MN-47.

The track was massive! One of the largest I’ve seen for an ice race. This, of course, isn’t saying too much since I’ve only seen a few events. I heard someone say it was over two miles long! I couldn't get close to capturing it with the camera, but here's the panorama anyways:

Before the race started, the national anthem was sung as a rider road around part of the track with the American flag. I really thought it was a nice touch and more events should consider it.

The race was three hours long and broken into two 90 minute halves with a 30 minute break between the sections for track cleaning.

There were 27 bikes in 25 teams. Many teams had multiple riders. One team, #17, did the first half solo!

For the start, the bikes were lined up into three rows of ten with #1-#10 in the first row, #11-#20 in the second row, and the rest in row three.

During the break in between the races, the teams worked on their bikes. Some just needed gas while others had to replace parts. Many of them re-tightened the ice screws back into the tires.

The second half started with everyone lined up in their finishing order from the first half. It was just a long line of bikes that quickly spread out after the start.

The day started as a beautifully sunny day at 18F and ended with a snow storm and dished out more than two inches.

I think it is impressive to see the handlebars below the knees in the middle of a turn and the bike is still stable. The ice studs give the bike a lot of traction.

I took an amazing amount of photos and video for this event. I took over 350 photos --only 260 photos were worth keeping. I also captured over 40 minutes of videos and cut it down to two videos. A long version at thirteen minutes and a shorter, more lively five minute version.

 

The full flickr photo set is here.

Short Video at Youtube: (short video on Vimeo)

 

Long Video at Vimeo: