Hard, frozen ground

[Leapin Lisa]

Have any of you ladies ridden on frozen, but not snow covered ground?

I rode on Sunday because the temperature was 45 degrees and my husband bought himself a new KTM 520 EXC for Valentine's Day and was anxious to try it out. I'm not sorry I went out at all. I was a bit apprehensive because I didn't know what to expect at first.

Right away I gave my GG enduro bike some gas and WHAM, I'm on the ground. How did that happen so fast is what I was thinking as my head hit the ground. I picked up the bike and followed my husband into the woods.

When we got out to a clearing where it looked like nice grass and pasture, I gassed it and fell down again. Those were the only two crashes I had on Sunday. Both crashes were in places that I never would have thought the traction was so poor. When I fell, I looked at the grass, and sure enough, there was a nice pond of ice beneath it.

There was lots and lots of mud, also. And being I'm not very experienced with the mud, I rode around it as much as I could in the frozen grassy terrain. Sometimes I had to ride through it and it was a funny feeling because it was frozen ground underneath, but slimy on top, which caused the bike to really squirrel around.

New experiences are always frightening at first, but I'm chalking this up to another new experience in unknown terrain to better my chances in the Pine Ridge Enduro in Nebraska in April.

Anybody got any good suggestions about going through the mud that can help me not be so apprehensive?

 

[bbbom]

Woohoo, sounds like fun!!! I love mud, it's soft to land in and you can throw it at the turds that laugh at you! :p

My normal technique is pretty simple, put both feet down on the mud and let them slide along to keep from tipping over - usually works but doesn't look very pretty and gets my boots really welllll MUDDY!!!

The technique I have been trying to master is to speed up a bit (2nd gear or so on my 500), keep the front end light, stand up :eek: and stay loose to flow with the bike. Like I said that is what I'm supposed to be doing (as least as best I can remember but it's been 3 months since I've ridden my bike). That is also what usually gives me the opportunity to grab a handful of mud to throw at the passerby's while I pull myself and bike outa the mud!

 

[Motogrl307]

I ride on frozen ground all winter long. We even ride harescrambles in the winter. Go to www.winterstuds.com they sell studded tires for your bike. You won't believe the difference they make. You hook up better than you do in the summer. We have to gear down when we run them. Its pretty kool to ride wheelies across the ice. We ran one harescramble and my dad didn't have any studs and I lapped him twice. He had studs the next weekend;) :moon:

 

[Motogrl307]

Oh and riding in mud, keep your feet on the pegs! I know you want to put them down but that raises center of gravity. Keep feet on pegs and try to stand as much as possible it will put more weight to bottom of bike. Stay back for traction and keep front end from plowing and stay on the gas to keep wheel spinning to clean the tread out.:cool:

 

[Milquetoast]

Raises the center of gravity?

 

[Motogrl307]

yeah if your feet are off the pegs all your weight is on the seat which is higher than if you stand on pegs It's hard for me to explain I'm only 12 but it works that way, I ride lots of mud.

 

[bbbom]

Pretty impressive 12 year old - and she's right about the center of gravity! :)

 

[Leapin Lisa]

My husband rides on the ice and screws ice screws into his tires. I have a Trelleborg tire coming that I will try and use in the dirt on my bike, both a front and rear. The studs in the dirt sounds like a lot of fun. I'm not too fired up to ride on the ice. A guy I know broke his leg this January when he rode on the ice for the first time.

Motogrl: Thanks for the advice. I'll try to keep my speed up next time through the mud. I guess that's how I ride in the sand, is pin the throttle and stand up. When I think about it, the feeling on the bike was similar, only things happened faster because it was slippery & slimy with the frozen ground under the mud.

 

[Motogrl307]

Thanks bbbom. I ride lot of mud and my dad gets after me if I put my feet down and it works alot better if you keep them up. The mud is the reason I got protested and kicked out of the womens class last year because I wanted to run 2 motos and the other girl only wanted to run 1 because it was muddy and I do well in the mud. 4 out of the 6 WML races were in the mud last year so I guess I have no choice but to ride mud.

 

[Leapin Lisa]

Hi FritoBandito:

My husband, Dave, has been talking about how much fun the ice is, also. The guys are planning to ride this weekend east of Bismarck on a slough and I may just have to give it a try. He has studded up his 200EX/C KTM. He used to ride a 500 Honda Four stroke and that was a little too big and heavy for me to feel comfortable on. At least the 200 I would be able to pick up and start if I did crash.

Glendive is one of our favorite places to ride. Perhaps we'll cross paths this summer?!