Yep that was me winning up in Lake George NY at the Winter Carnival on my little YZF, miss that bike. The following year I won on my WR 250 woods bike. Last year the Huskie was undefeated in the Expert TT races with some local pros riding it. Building more tires this weekend, gettin cold next week. Fredette tires are very good, buy some Moose tire wraps for them and don't roll that bike on the concrete, kills em. It is a hassle but worth it.
Throw on Bark busters, it keeps your hand from getting under somebodies front fender and tearing your hand up and helps big time when you finally fall, just pull in the clutch and DON"T let go of the bike.
Here ya go: AMA-legal-tire race. http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/2013-steel-shoe-fund-3-hour-endurance-icerace.30205/ We race this and several other endurance races. Ovals are ok but once you've jammed on a 7 mile ice roadrace course it is hard to go back to ovals..... Check out these tires: http://www.marcelfournier.ca/index-en.php These are not AMA legal and are for outlaw races, "Canadia tire" races, and general playriding. They make ANYONE's AMA-legal tires feel silly. You can darn-near drag your handlebar on the ice.....
Jon, since you made your own tires, were they at least good enough for novice class. Since a novice (like me) isn't going to be pushing these tires to the edge, it seems almost any studded tire would do as long as you got the rubber compound right. I'm just thinking that if a novice rider started building his own tires, it could maybe eventually push him to B class, but then start buying competition grade tires like Steve's when you start pushing things to the max. I know cost is a huge consideration and each person has to decide if they want to spend half the money and a huge amount of time on something that may not work. Last year, Ryan pointed at a nice set of studded tires that were laying in the shop. The customer had just built them and then found them to be "junk". I wish I had asked what lever of rider he was. It will be cool to see how many people at our track build there own tires. It will also be cool to see if any of Steve's tires made it all the way to Colorado. If not, we may have to remedy that.
Tires are everything. A slow rider on great tires will beat a great rider on junk tires. Buy some good ones and take good care of them, never let them touch ANYTHING but ice. The limits have pretty much been found on AMA-legal tires, most people who show up for races have quality tires that put them on a level plating field.
I was thinking about that last night and you just sealed the deal. I will pull the set off my 511. Anything else? The original front fender is usually left on, but I was thinking of taking it off. Awesome! I will have to check it out tonight when I have more time. I don't think we have any endurance events here, but I'm not sure. Can't wait to check that out! I am super excited! Thank you everyone for the contributions!!!
That's what I love about ice racing. Banging bars with world gp riders, gncc racers, six days racers and pro mx racers is a ball. Evens the playing field and luckily all these pros test tires for me for everybodies safety in the end.
We all leave the front fender on as it fxcks with your head if you don't see it there. Weird. A larger main jet and a bigger pilot, raise the needle one clip, GOOD gas, adjust fuel screw, you don't want to hear it popping off throttle. We blow up a few CRFs every year even w/Falicon rods. U never know when they let go. Thus, I race a YZ 2 stroke and ring it's neck.
Best advice for you 4 stroke guys on the ice. Short shift them and stay off of the rev-limiter. We've blown up every 4 stroke made, even grand national motors and the durable YZFs. 250s can take a bit of over rev but the 450s not so much. CR 500s can run w/the 450s but it takes a real man to hook them up going in and coming out. On a big track they are really fun. I've built 3 of them and loved them but my club has short tracks.
Got em! So, the tire consensus is that if you are in it to really compete, you need to get professionally built tires. If you just want to get out there and see what it's all about or just to join in on the fun, then building your own tires good way to get out there on the cheap. Really cheap if you already have a set of useable tires laying around like K5PL5 sounds like he is going to do.
I really hope you do this, just so we can see how you do them and how they do. Also to validate if you have fun or not, even if they turn out to be junk. It just so happens that one of my buddies just got a 1977 Kawasaki KE 250 in running condition for a straight up swap for a bottle of whisky....no kidding! It sounds like it is going to need a clutch though. He would be all about building tires for it just so he could get out there and race with me. No fricken way would he spend $600 plus for a set of tires. I have a hard time getting him to lube his chain....no kidding there either!
Is it the cold thats harder on the motor, or are you just talking in general? I know if your serious most people put a 19'' on the front. Do you find that really adds to the traction? Right now I'm looking to put a 19 on the front of my 07 TC450, but dont know the best / cost effective options. I have thoughts of DTXing it all up for dirt and ice!
Most everybody here runs CRF 450s on the ice. My buddy had a national dirt track team for years and built very fast and bullet proof Hondas and the head work alone cost more than my used YZ. Even his bikes have blown on the ice as you must stay off of the rev-limiter. We grenade 2 or 3 CRFs every winter. 19" front ice tires are unheard of here in the east as our tracks get very snowy after a lap or two and a 21" cuts thru the snow dust and into the hard ice better. We don't get super hard ice like the much colder midwest where the 19s are more popular. We hope to get on the ice here in NJ/NY today or tomorrow before the snow storm that's coming saturday night. Back to the dungeon to build more ice tires, got my firewood in, beer is cold, and thousands of screws should be here today from Fredette.
Looks like he knows what he is doing! Good job teach. I got my bark busters on too! My first day on the Ice was today! I am completely hooked. Went down twice testing my limitations. I am very pleased with how things went. Ryan was the only other one there, so I got a first hand lesson as well. Big D (the guy in charge of all of us) wanted me to video tape the whole session so I could go home and study my mistakes, so I did. Even though I am happy with the day, there is lots of room for improvement. The most interesting rule of the day, and one Steve Kanya mentioned, was to not let go of the bars if you lay it down. It is to keep the bike from spinning around and hitting you with a studded tire. I followed the rule and it works great!
That Billy on the #78 on the outside and I think Jake 59b on the inside. Bill builds my tires and we raced all the J-Day series this past summer. FYI Steve K builds very good tires. Gotta go slide axels this weekend, deer seasons almost over. View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rw9GtF6hDY was this that race ?
Yep, Jake #59B and Jay #21 test for me and are the most fierce competitors I ever met and they are good buddies. Jake is now National number 13 and Jay damn near got his National number this year. As you guys know I'm not a name dropper but now it's known who these kids are. These two are headed to the Cold Cutter race this winter and are so pumped it's nuts. Jay races the indoor ICE series and I will be building him a tire to test this week. Jake gets help from a friend of mine Jay Skidmore who builds the best ice tires I've ever tested and he himself brought the level of ice racing here in the east coast to an intense level. I appreciate the kind words about my ice tires but Skidmore really is the man.
Super bad news. I broke my collar bone yesterday. I am going to be optimistic and hope it will be healed enough to race the last half of ice season. Don't know..I have never broken a collar bone.
