Arrowhead Lake Ice Riding March 1, 2015

Another great day on the ice in Milton.

2004 Honda CRF 450 R

Well now! The sale of the XL600 streettracker made it possible for me to buy this beast. And I love it. Bought it for flattrack racing and ice riding. I just had it out on the ice at Arrowhead Lake today. Super fun. I rode it for the first time last Sunday, but the rear tire went flat pretty quickly and I never really got a good feel for the tires or the bike. Today we had an oval and a road course set up, so I got to spend a lot more time on it.

I'll get some detail photos soon and post 'em up. It's staying at Fred's right now, tucked into his new/used trailer that you see behind it.

What a great F*ing Day!

Holy shit whata great fucking day.
Matt plowed a nice sized oval and road course on Arrowhead Lake, ostensibly to test his new tire, but he didn't mind sharing it with us. I picked up Fred and we met up with Rees, Aaron, Charlie and Randy and proceeded to tear around both the tracks to our hearts content. The ice was great, 'cause it was still freakishly cold out, but it was also pretty rough because we were crossing over some old car tracks that Matt's plow couldn't clean. So it was pretty hard work to go fast and be smooth, but it was still so much fun to be riding on another crystal clear winter/spring day.
There were lot's of great little episodes of epic slides and tank slappers and near crashes going on. At one point we were joined by a snowmobiler on the road course, who thought he'd be able to keep up with the bikes. He couldn't.

Fred and Aaron chatting. Charlie never took his helmet off.

L to  R, Charlie, Rees, some kinda weird Miltonian that just wanted to hang with us, and Randy.

Anyway, after riding for a few hours, Fred suggested that we go back to his place and ride the Browns River, which happens to be in his back yard. He had walked down to it yesterday and deemed it to be rideable. For many years now, he and Rees have been telling me tales of how epic that ride is,  and now seemed to be the time to see if it was all true. Well, OMf*ingG were they right. This was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced on a motorcycle. This is a rather small and narrow river, as rivers go, with high banks that often conceal what's around the bend, so flying along on the motorcycles, you get the full range of pucker factor from entering a turn in 5th gear or 2nd gear and not knowing exactly what's coming. One of the most exhilarating things I've ever done.
We ran a few sections near Fred's farm several times in both directions, then we went as far south as we could go until we ran into some open pools, turned around and went north for several miles until we didn't dare go much further, turned around and ripped at high speed back to Fred's. Everyone was so amped up, we had to go inside and watch the GoPro footage immediately, augmented with some beers.

Aaron, Rees, Fred and Randy....and my KTM.

Same crew, with Charlie joining.

There were many bridges to duck under.

Group photo.

Group photo 2

Lake Iroquois Ice Day

This past Sunday was a great ice riding day on Lake Iroquois. The weather was perfect, mid 20's but bright and sunny, the ice was still rock hard. We had to modify our road course, ice fishermen had drilled holes on our back straight and water had flooded that portion of the track, making it a little too dangerous for the plow to clear, so Rees plowed a detour to the return loop. It was still a fun and fast road course and we spent most of the day riding it. There were 11 bikes running, with well over 20 people taking turns riding.
After about 45 minutes of open road course riding, we took a break and rode the oval. The road course actually starts and finishes on the oval, so it was deemed too dangerous to have mixed use. Riding the oval is great practice for racing dirt ovals, and for a lot of riders it's their only chance to try it.

Rees on the oval, preparing for a right turn onto the road course

The back section of the road course

Charlie turning onto the road course

Rees turning onto the road course, view from the inside of the oval

Matt

Joe (I think)...

Rees entering the road course, view from standing on the oval

Charlie on the road course

Tanner

Aaron, Amanda and Charlie on his KTM

This is Neil riding my bike

Matt

Aaron, Matt & Neil

Parking in the center of the Oval

Lake Iroquois

Here we are in March, in Vermont. It's still cold...like 20 inch thick ice on the lake cold. Perfect for another day of riding. Fred and I met up with Tanner and Brad. It was Brad's first time out on the ice, and as usual for these things, he thought he'd just screw some "ice racing" screws into his knobby tires and come out and have fun on his CR250 2-stroke motocrosser. Well, he had some fun, but it really started when he got on Tanner's 450 with real ice racing tires.

Anyway, here's Tanner, Fred and Brad. Fred looking cold.

 Fred reinstalling his header pipe after I rode his bike so hard it spit the header pipe off in protest.

 Gassing up.

 End of the session, bikes loaded.

We've done some riding on this lake in years past, but I don't have photos to prove it. This year we have access to the lake via private property, and Rees has done a superb job of plowing out a long road course linked to a good size oval. More to come.

But I'll still ride...

Sunday was a beautiful day to be out on the ice again, the sun was out and temps got into the teens or better. We'd got about 7 or 8 inches of snow on Friday night, so Matt stepped up with his yard truck to plow us an oval. The ice was in great condition under the snow, so we had a smooth 5th mile oval to run around on. As usual in Milton a few quads showed up and joined us on the track.

These photos were taken by Brett Macy, a super nice guy and avid photographer who happened to be driving by and saw us getting ready to go out. Thanks to Brett for sharing these on facebook.


Matt in his classic form, stretching that throttle cable.

Mike Kuebler on his air-cooled Suzuki 250.

Rees chasing me down.

Seamus threw some ice tires on this 2003 CRF450, said it was a blast to ride. I didn't get a chance on it.

Clean ice...

Rees was pushing pretty hard. Ultimately crashing a few laps after this photo. Unfortunately I was right behind him and couldn't avoid hitting his bike as it spun back across the track. We both walked away, but both bikes suffered some damage and were unrideable after the crash. His sub-frame, exhaust and rear fender took the hit and were mangled beyond repair, my handlebar hit the ice so hard it bent, and I've never seen a Renthal Fat-bar bend. My exhaust also got punched in.

The aftermath. Rees's bike doesn't look so good, I haven't even gotten up, Seamus arrives.

Unidentified quad rider. He was the first out on the track and thought he was running pretty fast. Till we all roosted him.

This photo shows all the ice chipped up from our tires. It gets deep enough that we have to plow it off...

or this happens...

Although to be fair, Matt was also pushing pretty hard, if he dialed it back a notch he wouldn't have crashed, but Matt doesn't dial it back on the ice very often, if ever.