A little ice racing setup advice for a prospective new ice racer??

[zmpolaristech]

Way to be specific.
Tire pressure doesn't do squat, unless you have an ill handling trike with a bent frame or tweaked axle that you are trying to sort out. Keep your tire pressure so that all your studs are making contact. Play more with the pattern of the studs.

In dirt oval racing, you see them run stagger, they inflate ( or run a bigger tire) on the outside, to help it turn. This doesn't work on the ice, because once you inflate the outside tire too much, the screws are no longer in contact with the ice, and it will have the opposite effect.

I love how you have an answer for everything, not just any answer...THE ANSWER...THE ONLY ANSWER.....

for 1, Air pressures are huge, if everything else is "good", you'll notice a few pounds here and there.
2, stagger is also HUGE. Especially on a smaller track. It will make the bike rotate into the turn as soon as you lift off the gass, instead of trying to "turn" the bike in.
3, stagger isn't necessarilly air pressures, it's about tire roll out (size). There are many methods of stretching a tires diameter, without distorting the contact patch (tread), so that your not "ballooning" the tire to get the extra roll out.A slightly larger roll out on the outside of the bike (circle track obviously), helps tremendously on corner entry....YES, even on ice.
But hey, what the hell do I know...., I'm just learning, right?

[ChrisD]

I see what you are saying Eddie. Sometimes I have te same problem. Although, my solution is a little more brute. My simple problem is balls. Some days u have more balls than others. If I come into the turn hot, I walk away from most. Other times I come in slow, tapping the front brake, ruining my momentum. Coming in hot is a great place to pass. When other guys slow down the minivan for the turn, I like to zip underneath. It's also good to shotgun onto the straight.

I would say that tire pressure helps on small tracks, but most of the time we are on larger tracks and it ends up pulling too hard to the left in the straight.

Prep for your turn 2/3 down the straight pin it and hold on for dear life. I know this is a dumb answer, but racing is as much about psychology as technology.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Lots of good info pouring out here!

But as to the cornering, it seems that when all is said and done, we trikers are at a disadvantage in the turns against the quads in that we have to take a little more setup time coming into a turn...

Which I figure makes victory that much sweeter huh John and Riverrat??

[JohnR.]

Every year it gets harder to beat the quads. They get faster every year as technology improves while I get older and my bones get more brittle.

Putting the quad into a corner is a lot easier. When I ran dirt track on mine we would pitch it sideways before we even got to the turn, hold it wide open and hang on through the turn. Try that on a trike and you'll end up on your head.

[eddie pettengil]

Let's not forget about where we do have the advantage. I feel once you do get the tires spinning ( in my case) in late corner entry (before middle of turn on a oval) the trike hooks up better and gets down the straight faster.

I have a problem with the setup on corner entry. This pretty much kills everything after that. If you don't get into a corner good it effects the rest of that turn. If you find that magical corner entry setup you will walk away from any quad rider with the same skill level as you.

[riverrat]

I love how you have an answer for everything, not just any answer...THE ANSWER...THE ONLY ANSWER.....

for 1, Air pressures are huge, if everything else is "good", you'll notice a few pounds here and there.
2, stagger is also HUGE. Especially on a smaller track. It will make the bike rotate into the turn as soon as you lift off the gass, instead of trying to "turn" the bike in.
3, stagger isn't necessarilly air pressures, it's about tire roll out (size). There are many methods of stretching a tires diameter, without distorting the contact patch (tread), so that your not "ballooning" the tire to get the extra roll out.A slightly larger roll out on the outside of the bike (circle track obviously), helps tremendously on corner entry....YES, even on ice.
But hey, what the hell do I know...., I'm just learning, right?

The only answer? Yes, I am "THE ONE"

Someone is a little touchy there. Why did it take my comment to get you to explain your comment about tire pressure? Oh I know why, because you are afraid by revealing information to us that we might beat you then? I heard a rumor that you studied our tapes and web postings to try and learn how to beat us, is that true? For someone complaining about me "hiding" my engine size, you sure hide a lot. Well we don't, we just want to have fun and pass our knowledge onto our friends and fellow ice racers. At least I took the time to explain what I know, and not just make a passing useless comment like "play with your tire pressure".

I also never said that stagger was limited to just tire pressure, I am well aware of what stagger is. What I found with the limited amount testing I have tried, and what others have tried doesn't really help that much. Sure you can get it to rotate more into the turn, but if your studs are set up right,. And if your stagger turns your bike then that leads too.....wait let me stop and not give away anymore secrets, especially since I HAVE THE ONLY ANSWERS.

[riverrat]

Lots of good info pouring out here!

But as to the cornering, it seems that when all is said and done, we trikers are at a disadvantage in the turns against the quads in that we have to take a little more setup time coming into a turn...

Which I figure makes victory that much sweeter huh John and Riverrat??

People call us trikers crazy, I love that. It's definitely more work than a 4 wheeler to race one of these.

[eddie pettengil]

I see what you are saying Eddie. Sometimes I have te same problem. Although, my solution is a little more brute. My simple problem is balls. Some days u have more balls than others. If I come into the turn hot, I walk away from most. Other times I come in slow, tapping the front brake, ruining my momentum. Coming in hot is a great place to pass. When other guys slow down the minivan for the turn, I like to zip underneath. It's also good to shotgun onto the straight.

I would say that tire pressure helps on small tracks, but most of the time we are on larger tracks and it ends up pulling too hard to the left in the straight.

Prep for your turn 2/3 down the straight pin it and hold on for dear life. I know this is a dumb answer, but racing is as much about psychology as technology.

I used the dive underneath move alot in the past but, these guys are hardly blurping the throttle entering the corner anymore. They just run it down the straight release throttle, rear end kicks to the right and boom right to full throttle again. I'm having to race it in so deep because I feel I will get run over if not. Once I get to the corner entry I gotta tap the front brake just to get the rear end loose. Lets face it, the days of me feeling comfortable sliding a trike into the corner sideways are over. But if i could just loosen it up a little bit it would help.

This will be my 4th weekend this year on the ice. I have tried to loosen it up every week with no responce from the trike. I have found some things that will help in other areas like preloading the front forks really helps with the arm pump and overall muscle you need to use. This will be nice as we run 8-10 lap heats and 12-14 lap features but, it also added to my rear grip problem when entering.

Here are some drastic changes for this weekend to loosen the rear up on corner entry.
-I usually run about 8 lb in each tire, This week I'm starting with 12 lb (cant stagger as we are practicing on a tt course)
-I measured around my tire and came up with 54.5 inches and 55 inches. I put the bigger tire on the right rear (most of the turns are left)
-I also changed the spring on my rear shock to a trx450r spring. I'm not sure what the difference is in spring rate but I do know its stiffer and also its a inch shorter leaving me plenty of room to preload. That also makes me wonder if I might not of had enough preload on my old spring. i had to back it off all the way to get the ride hieght correct.

Well, Just thought I would share some of my setup stuff as none of you guys are my compitition up here in NH.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

UPDATE: Received my 10" 3x3 Banshee rim today.. Looks like a winner. Get em while you can from Recreation tire fellas!

Glad 3WW is back!

[cochran]

Setting up a couple Tecates to be effective ice racers I found this thread full of useful information. Thank you to the veterans that shared their information on this thread.