Past winter memories

All this talk of impending winter weather makes me remember when I was young and stupid along with the morons I hung out with. We had a hard time putting our bikes away for the winter eaven though in the Great White Mountains of NH we had plenty odf skiing around to fill the need for speed but that was not enough.
We approached the auto ice racing track officials on lake Winnepasaki if they would be interested in running some bikes. Much to our horror they said "If your stupid enough to do it we're stupid enough to get the entertainment out of watching.
The word was put out and the first of what was hoped to be a weekly event was 3 weeks away. How the heck do you race a bike on the ice? We had seen the Swedes do it with the 3 inch spikes but that was not only very dangerous but too time consuming. Late one night while I was making snow on one of great ski areas I had a vision..dream, i took a nap ok? any way..........
I went home and wrapped a dog chain around my tire and wheel. I was the man!!!! So I called all of my friends who had comitted to this event, 9 of us, and told of my ingeneious engineering. So they jumped in the truck and went down to the feed supply and bought their very own chain. It was not all the same as some found more promise of traction from different designs.
My dad said, "I realize you were born with rocks in your head, do you thik that will work?" Heck ya. I was 17 and had an XS400........ I and the bike where invinsable. Dad asked " shouldn't you at least test it?" nope!
Saturday morning....Race day. 9 of us idiots rolled up to the line to take the green flag for our virgin race. The flag dropped and off we went into racing history. History because none of us finnished the race. Before the second lap there was change, rubber, body parts as well as clothing and seat foam flying through the air and raining down on the unsuspecting fans that had turned up to see the fiasco. It was brilliant in its simplicity but equally stupid in it's simplicity.
My wife echos my dad's questions to this day, "Do you think thats such a good idea?"

 

Even if our bikes were able to handle snow and ice in all their stock glory, I'd still be more afraid of all the cager morons that can't keep their four wheels on the road.

 

I remember riding mine in Edmonton in February. I chipped it out of the snowbank at work and took it out at -18C. Cresting the hill coming up behind the U of A, I suddenly found myself approaching a stretch of icy road where the sun hadn't reached the pavement, with two vehicles parked in the road with their driver's chatting to each other. I applied the brakes and did my best flat tracker impersonation as I slid between them sideways. Fortunately, I no longer feel the need to impress anybody, but I did have to repeat the whole thing the following year when the differential went on my car. I remember the startled looks from the other drivers as I pulled up to the stoplights bundled up like the Michelin man, with the snow blowing across the road.