on Greenwood Lake, New York

 

 

Please remember that racing is dangerous, and accidents happen.......

Click above pic for video

Fortunately he was OK!

Racing is competitive and if you sleep at the wheel, you will be passed!!

 

    A picture from the old days (1989) when there were only black and white pictures.

    and

    Today:

    Can these dinosaurs compete with todays new bikes? Lets look:

    January 2003: ATC250R vs Banshee

    Click the above pic for the race

    This race started as a random lineup, but soon the real race emerged....the ATC and Banshee pulled away from the group and clearly had it out. Both bikes were pushing the top of 5th gear in the last turn. If you listen closely, you can hear us looking for 7th by the end of the straight. This was a great race against a great competitor. We'll have it out again someday......

    February 2004: The "threewheeler that could"

    Click above pic for a video of this bike vs 2 Raptors, a TRX250R, a Banshee and a YFZ450

    This race didn't start out as an official race. 2 Raptors rolled up and started doing laps on our track. This brought out a couple friends on their bikes and an informal race started, so I decided to join in. Don't get me wrong, the bikes were fast and the video doesn't do the pace of the race any justice. I didn't think I could compete until I got out there and was surprised how fast the ATC330R was. This was the first weekend of serious racing after I broke in the motor. WOW!!!

     The beginning of my ice racing passion

We started racing on our local lake, Greenwood Lake, in the late 1980s. We had been riding on the lake for years, but never thought about studding our tires and actually racing until I stumbled upon an Ex-Factory Honda Racer who was selling his 1986 ATC250R when the AMA banned threewheelers in competitions. I bought the bike in 1988 and it came with everything you could imagine including extra everything (motor, swingarm, 3 sets of tires including a set of studded Cheng Shins, carbs, reeds, pipes, short track kit, etc, etc). Well, it got me interested in racing and I never looked back.

I eventually traded the bike for a 300ZX when I was in college, but never lost the bug. I was out of the threewheeler scene for 4 years, but in 1997 bought 2 ATC250R's for $700 and still have them today. One was a 1985 250R and the other was a 1986. The 85R is my ol'reliable bike that I use year round, but doubles as my spare racer in the winter. I completely rebuilt the 86R from the frame up to be my ice racer. I used everything I knew from my HRC250R I had in the 1980's to build my new ice bike.

  The "Woods Bike".....................................The "Ice Racer"

It's about 1 hour outside of New York City on the NY/NJ border.

http://www.greenwoodlake.org/

http://www.villageofgreenwoodlake.org/

Don't let the town home page fool you, we make plenty of noise on the lake when it freezes. If you feel up to the challenge or just want to see some good racing, please pay us a visit. We usually race on the lake's east shore in front of the Castle Tavern Restaurant. It has a great view of the action and has served as a great place to warm up and get some good food.

Usually each weekend involves some late night adjustments to make sure that the bikes will run on race day. As you can see in the lower right picture, we've been stuck rebuilding motors at 2:15 in the morning so we could race the next day. Most of the time it isn't by choice, but race prep usually ends up being the last thing done after a long Friday night out with friends. As you can see in the bottom right picture, we were up very late one weekend.

Early in the season we will take out the trusty 250SX and plow out our track. Each weekend one of us will be up early on Saturday morning to plow out the track and make sure it's ready to go. We replow the track after each heat to get rid of the snow created by the studs digging into the ice.

Click above pics for a video of the SX in action

Then IT's RACE TIME!!!!

The cast includes:

Mike 1986 ATC250R...............................John 1985 ATC330R

 ..............Bill HondaSaki ATC300R powered Tecate ................Keith 1985 ATC270R

Me...Chris 1986 ATC330R..............................Mike T Yamaha Banshee

  ...........................Brian...Yamaha Banshee..................Andrew Fastest Banshee on the track.

.....................................Tom 1988 TRX250R..............................Chris LT250R

There are more riders, but on any given weekend, you will see some or all of this group trying to prove who is the fastest on the track. This is a grass roots, great group of guys that love to ride and love to race. We'll be out there again this year....no matter what year it is when you read this.

How does the 250R compete with a Banshee?.........How does the ATC compare to the TRX?

...... .....................Click above pic for a quick video..............Click above pic for a quick video

Here are a couple last shots of racing: