Small ice track

[R7]

Spent the day on the ice today, small yet very fun pond at a friends house. It's about 2 acres big and is a mix of open ice and a "woods" section. The woods section is all ice, it's really a swamp and a few years ago we broke off the underbrush at ice level and it never grew back. The water was high this year and covered all the stumps, made for a pretty cool ice track.

I went over Friday after work and helped plow the ice off with the quad, worked awesome and only took about an hour. It snowed again last night and today and the plan was to ride. I knew it needed to be plowed again but I couldn't bring the quad and the bike so I loaded the bike and a snow shovel. Nate (the owner of the house) has a lawn tractor with a plow and we were able to use that to clear the ice, though it took a while.

No action shots this time, I wanted to ride and everyone else wanted to ride so I just took a few shots of the ice.

The front straight, I was able to get into 4th gear so the speeds get up there, it's longer than it looks



Heading into the woods section, it's tight...very tight
1st gear...and that's where I had my one spill for the day. Front end washed and the bike slid into a tree. Don't worry, no damage to the bike.



The back straight in the woods section. It's about half as long as the whole pond, fun and fast 3rd gear section



This is a tight spot width wise, plus you're coming out of a corner. This is where I crashed hard 2 years ago when I was on the Raptor. I was moving in that section at a good clip and came out a bit sideways when the rear wheel hit a tree. Snapped off the tree at the ice and sent me spinning in circles. When I went to go again, I realized the damage was done and the axle had a nice 20 degree bend to it



Coming out of that tight section and back onto the straight. I call the straights anyways, but your bike is never fully upright. The pond is shapped like a lima bean.



Todd making some adjustments to his studs



A couple nice bikes



Couple things I learned from today, I needed more studs in my rear tire, and I probably would have had more fun on the Raptor.
I know I can fit another 150 or so screws in the rear, I need to try and double them up on the sides, though the side knobs on the 756 are not that big, and they are spaced kinda far apart. Next year I'll get a more stud friendly set of tires before winter.
As for the Raptor, on this track I think it'll be more fun for me. I tend to stay on the gas later/longer on the quad and I end up going much faster.
I'll be picking up a box of Kold Kutters this week for that

[GixerJockey]

How did the studs you put in hold up? Did many of them rip out?

[R7]

How did the studs you put in hold up? Did many of them rip out?

I didn't lose any yet. I went with the 5/8" for the rear, I've tried the 1/2" in the past and those are the ones that rip out

[theothersean]

Looks like I missed a good day, but the ride down would have been hellish.

[seth399]

damn that looks like a cool spot

[R7]

A little bit of a late start today but we made the best of it Good seeing you Sean

spent 4 hours last night adding screws to the rear of the YZ for a total of 610 just in the rear. Most of that time though was spent with a 1/4" t-handle socket to index all the screw heads. The thing hooks up pretty good

We had a minor problem today, the weight of all the snow we plowed to the edges made the ice settle down a bit. When it settled, it cracked and water starting coming up on the ice through the cracks. Not really an issue for riding but it made plowing it off kinda suck.

Fun day and I can already feel the soreness setting in. It's going to be a long day tomorrow

[Awesome]

How's your ice? We had some problems with slush yesterday and warm holes opening up today and flooding some corners.

[R7]

How's your ice? We had some problems with slush yesterday and warm holes opening up today and flooding some corners.

The ice itself was hard and great for traction, it never got slushy. It was just at the edges where there was water coming up. There were even tadpoles and pond bugs coming out of the holes, It was kinda weird.
We checked the thickness of the ice at the end of the day and there was about 8" of ice.

There's a thread in the rides and races section of NEDB about ice riding in RI, we are thinking about trying that out next weekend.

[theothersean]

here are a few pics from today, It got cold toward the end, I couldn;t get warm.










Mark, if nate gets his pics loaded , have him email them to you so you can forward them to me, I would like to see the vid clips too.

Fun day for sure, I lost quite a few screws today, I'll be spending some time this week tightening all the screws back in , I definately think its time for a front fork spring upgrade, and probably a new chain and sprocket while I'm at it.


thanks for the test ride, it makes me wish I still had my old WR for the ice.

[Omahastylin16]

wow that def looks like a blast. i was driving home on the pike today and i think i saw dirtbikers on just about every lake along the way

[R7]

It did get cold quick. We stayed a good hour or 2 after you left and everything froze up. I couldn't even raise the plow on the quad as there was ice buildup under the whole thing.

I'm working with Nate tomorrow so I'll see what's up with the pictures and video. The starter is what crapped out on his Raptor.

Both you and Nate lost some screws. I know Nate picked up a bunch of them when we were walking around. The funny thing is when he lost them from the quad, you could tell where because a shot of the green slime came out the screw hole and was in the snow...weird looking.

No problem on the test ride, the YZ was the whore of the day.
The mini was fun and it seems like you can rip the corners pretty good with it

here are a few pics from today, It got cold toward the end, I couldn;t get warm.

Mark, if nate gets his pics loaded , have him email them to you so you can forward them to me, I would like to see the vid clips too.

Fun day for sure, I lost quite a few screws today, I'll be spending some time this week tightening all the screws back in , I definately think its time for a front fork spring upgrade, and probably a new chain and sprocket while I'm at it.


thanks for the test ride, it makes me wish I still had my old WR for the ice.

You should get a dirtbike

wow that def looks like a blast. i was driving home on the pike today and i think i saw dirtbikers on just about every lake along the way

[theothersean]

I ordered the heavier fork springs and seal kit tonight, now I have the fun of figuring out how to install them. got a new chain and sprocket set while I was at it. Hopefully that will help with the stearing problem.


As for the screws , I think the next time I do up a tire , I will use gorilla glue or liquid nails on each screw to help prevent them from backing out, although I did say that last year too.


More snow in the forcast , not so good for ice riding we are supposed to get aprox 12''

[R7]

Yup, the front end needed something for sure. Should make quite a difference getting that set up.

I'd pick up a box of the Pro Gold screws, like I was saying Sunday, the threads on them are much sharper than the regular golds.
Gorilla glue gets hard and brittle, you'll need a rubber cement/glue

Yeah, forcast isn't looking good. It's going to be one of those storms for us, snow/sleet/rain/back to snow. I've heard anywhere from 3-5" to 8-12". Either way, I'm sure I won't be able to plow a heavy wet snow on the ice. I'm hoping for rain on this one, flood it and refreeze

I may be out this weekend anyways, may be making a trip to Derry, NH..err nothing

[Awesome]

Yup, the front end needed something for sure. Should make quite a difference getting that set up.

I'd pick up a box of the Pro Gold screws, like I was saying Sunday, the threads on them are much sharper than the regular golds.
Gorilla glue gets hard and brittle, you'll need a rubber cement/glue

Yeah, forcast isn't looking good. It's going to be one of those storms for us, snow/sleet/rain/back to snow. I've heard anywhere from 3-5" to 8-12". Either way, I'm sure I won't be able to plow a heavy wet snow on the ice. I'm hoping for rain on this one, flood it and refreeze

I may be out this weekend anyways, may be making a trip to Derry, NH..err nothing

What's in Derry? You've got a place to stay if you go there.

[R7]

What's in Derry? You've got a place to stay if you go there.

Picking up a SXV from Seacoast on Saturday morning
Thanks for the offer Jay, I'm probably just going to make it a day trip at this point because of all the snow

["Dangerous" Dan K]

That place looks like a lot of fun, bad-ass. My buddy has been ice riding this winter, and I'm finally resolved to put a set of studs in my KX tires for next winter. This thread didn't hurt my decision any.

Sucks on the axle, I did that to an old 230S catching a tree in a turn about 10 years ago. We were able to get it mostly straight with a huge pipe, a couple guys jumping on it, and a BFH. Not sure that's the approach you'd want to take with a newer nicer quad, the 230 was a rat.