Weekday
The weekly feature page of the University Daily Kansan
February 15. 1979
Without studded tires, racing around the scramble track can be quite slippery, especially when negotiating tight turns.
SUNDAY SLIDING
From the snow-covered field that serves as a parking lot, the ruckus coming from the woods sounds like an army of lumberjacks armed with chain saws laying siege to a grove of deadwood.
But further investigation reveals that the noise at the bottom of the deeply ruined road leading into the woods is actually three stories high.
These motorcyclists are a group of usually sane men who leave the warmth of their homes on Sunday mornings to slide down the street.
The owner of the pond, Robbie Johnson, 1909 W. 28th St., said,
"I gives these guys a chance to have some fun in the off-season."
(AP)
The riders are on the pond to compete in a short series of races sponsored by the Wheelsport Motorcycle Club of Lawrence, 48th.
Johnson said the woods were laced with trails the riders use for enduro riding. And he said two ponds which freeze solid were used to measure the heat.
The racers deal with the cold in many ways. Some are dressed in insulated apparel and others in layers of loose underwear.
One man is dressed in pants made from a scuba wetsuit cut off
at the knees.
"I plan on falling down today," he said, "and I don't want to get my ass wet!"
But most of them seem to use the same kind of internal antifreeze, packaged in pint bottles and thinly disguised in brown
The spectators, on the other hand, are generally girlfriends and good friends who stay close to the smoky bonfires, and are often a bit nervous.
Some of the racers are professional riders during the regular season but most of them are amateurs to have a good time.
"There's only a few of our members." he said. "Most of them
are from Kansas City and Topeka, and some of them race professionally."
One of the amateurs, Joe Klinger, 33, of Lawrence, said the rigors of the racing circuit made it more of a bobby for him than a thriller.
"There's a uplift on the machines and travel expenses," he said. "Sometimes you may have to take three or four days off to
Klingler said the ice races were an outlet for the riders, who didn't mind getting a little cold if it meant they could get out and
"We're doing this to have fun and keep the sport alive," he said. "It's a bellina lot of fun. You don't really fail, you just slide on."
There are two basic classes of riders—those whose bikes have studded tires and those whose bikes do not.
According to Klinger, the studs are sheet metal screws that have been screwed into the knobby parts of the off-road tires.
David Barkley, a 35-year old pipefitter from Topeka, is one of the racers in the studded class.
"I've rucked just about everything, mostly motocross," he said. " like this kind of track, a scramble track, the best."
A scramble track is a short track with left- and right-hand turns, as opposed to an oval track.
our ice race is kind of a knock-down, drag-out fight."
halliday said. "The bigger bikes are so heavy that you go into
a fall."
The non-studded class races force most of the riders to walk their bikes gingerly around the corners, and to accelerate gently at high speeds.
After all the races have ended and the plaques have been handed out to the winners, about 18 of the riders rearrange the tires that mark the roughly triangular course runs into an oval and go back on the ice.
"They'll play out there until they run out of gas," Klinger said, warming up next to a log fire on the bank. "They're just a small part of it."
David Barkley, 35, of Topeka, not only enjoys the competition of racing around the frozen pond, but the series of Sunday races also offers the opportunity of having fun and being out with friends.
Motorcycles are divided into two classes for racing: studded and non-studded tires. The studded class may have as many as 400 studs or screws a tire for better traction on the ice and snow.
Story by Mark L. Olson Photos by Alan Zlotky