My 2012 CR144 just completed it's first competiton event this past Sunday. We competed in the 0-200 cc Lightweight class. There were 70 teams (bikes) entered over four classes lightweight, middleweight, heavyweight, and Ironman (solo). We won our class and were 5th overall in the final standings!! I'm thrilled with how the bike worked. There were some heavy hitters there including pro flattracker J.R. Scnabel, prosupermoto racer Ben Carlson, Pro superbiker Blake Young, and the Ironman himself Jeff Fredette. Jeff Fredette layed out the course, a 6.75 mile track with very few straightaways. Lap times were in the low 10minute range ealy on and deteriorated to 11+ mns as the track got chopped up. Setup is a challenge as my partner is a fast vet expert 250#, and I am a vet expert at #155! The bike was stock except for richer jetting, IMS tank, Petcock off my older TC with researve, custom fenders, barkbusters, handlebar gauntlets, and a heated handgrip setup. Walt gave me some info/details that gave me the confidence to wind my own stator (THANKS AGAIN, WALT ) It worked like a charm, it was cold 7f out so heated grips are a must for me! Stew holeshot the race and led for a few laps. We pitted for gas/rider change after 1 and 2 hours. I got into a SWEET battle with Jeff Fredette. Unfortunately, he was on me right as I started my hour stint before I had any idea where the track went. He was an hour in and layed out the track, so I fought a good battle with him but he finally snuffed me and slowly pulled away, he was taking some very crafty lines! By the time I was ripping to my potential he was gone! But it was fun while it lasted! For the record he'd probably beat me no matter what, he's sick fast and an Ice God of sorts. Anyway the bike is awesome and will only get better. The carb works fine I have no issues with it but I can't help but wonder about a 38mm Lectron or APT..... I will add some pictures and video, stay tuned if interested. Unfortunately I'm a GoPro looser failure and forgot to start mine in the excitement of the pitstop. So no Fredette battle footage, countless passes, and one overzealous competitor who refused to go softly into the good night until he highsided his brains out under the pressure. But my partner got some good vid.
Some pics of the bike ..... Yikes! Clean your garage, Man!! The Weapon!! Grip switch in the bar pad. All the winter-specific stuff is mounted to the rear fender. To convert back to Moto in the spring, I only need to swap out the rear fender, handlebars, Change the tank, and remove the custom wire harness. Or I could leave the harness in place to run a headlight for some midnight MX!!! Lol.
Oh thats just great,now i got to put ice tires on it too LOL. Had our first race last weekend out this way. I road my yz450,same bike i flat track with. Got a rear 18 so guess i call Jeff for a front.
Jeff Fredette layed the course out, he also makes Ice tires. To make a icetire you cut the beads off of a 19' street tire and snap the tire inside the kenda icetire, the screw goes through the kenda tire and into the liner tire... This leaves you with two round bead "hoops" for each tire made. Jeff's idea was really ingenious and way better than past attempts. He cut each hoop in half. Then they drilled a hole in the ice and set one end down in the hole and filled it with water, freezing it in place. The leg nearest the raceline was not anchored to not rip your foot off or catch a footpeg, either way killing you to death in the face lol. We started the day on a big parade lap to scratch the course in....even jeff got confused a few times and had to stop. Once scratched in it was easy to follow. Normally the course is plowed into snow and makes an obvious road. Snowless made a huge challenge I was told there were in excess of 300 course hoops.....they all had to get chainsawed out they couldn't just be tugged out. In the past they have used christmas trees (kill you) and orange cones (blow all over the place and get blasted hundreds of feet when hit). These hoops were labor-intensive but worked great!
While watching the video I was thinking that you would not want to get a foot hooked in the tire hoops. It all makes sense!
this video is kind of misleading in that the lightweights started as the first wave this year.you'd never know there was 73 teams that started the race. even though there was a little action early on its is NOTHING like it is when the little bikes start last.. please que marc's 2012 vid (honda cr1xx) the husky brought us a bit of redemption after (old faithful)honda cr1xx blew up last year while leading our class. big thanks to marc & wife for unleashing the checkbook.. clutch purchace bro!! p.s. to all.. save it!! mums the word. if THEY don't know about these bikes they don't NEED to know about these bikes.. how else would a 250lb guy holeshot ANYbody on a small bore??? shhh quiet zip it.
2012... View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTGPMg1idqg 2011...dice with a buddy caught on his gopro... View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzhJE34UO_s
Thats just flat out fun and crazy Makes me want to go somehwere cold to live .. almost That CR sounds like its running good . Well done.
I'm a huge fan of the Steel Shoe and have been blown away by the videos of it. Back east we are now getting into the road course thing as most of us grew up racing mx and are now motarding. I build alot of left/right tires now and we have some pretty fast heroes hangin with us all winter, ice riding is a real equalizer. Kinda fun bangin bars with ex and current world road race guys, national dirt trackers, and very fast Six Days woods riders. Need motor tho to hang with them 505 CRFs with $2500 head jobs and 65 HP, [so they say] My YZ won't hang so I just let em ride the bike to test my tires and I have a sale damn near every time. Hopefully I'll race a built 09 CRF 450 this year that a kid, indoor ice pro, I help out is racing. Can never have enough hp on the ice, the wheels are damn near 30 lbs each and it mellows any bike big time, makes a fast 250 2 stroke feel like it needs a piston and rings.
