Well,I saw Bruce Cribbs ride his ice bike around Rosebank today,and yes,he did break the lap record.The track was near pefrect today,and the best riders in the country competing in the Solo Champs were flying...best time I heard was 60secs (for 4 laps) The track record is somewhere in the 58 sec bracket - Cribbs did it in 57 something secs....not bad for a 59 tear old (not that I think 59 is old)
I've never seen an ice bike in the flesh,and it was a bit different than I thought,considering it's based on a speedway solo.Tyres obviously,besides the 240 2in spikes in the rear tyre,and 160 in the front...they were very narrow.It has full guards,the rear completely enclosed to protect other riders from the spikes.But the biggest thing is how high it sits,very tall for a speedway bike - I guess that's to get maximum lean,ice bikes get so low the bars touch the ground,the higher the rider and bars the more lean....kinda like foot pegs,but speedway bikes don't have inside pegs.It had gears too,like a long track bike.
But it didn't look that fast,didn't look like he was going fast enough to break the record.I was standing on the exit of turn 2,and as he came out of the corner he nailed it...the 500cc alky burning single with 14:1 compression just shot down the straight with no wheelspin at all,then he backed off for the turn (you don't do that on a speedway solo) But he could carry the speed even with the throttle off,that front wheel was going nowhere - then he'd nail it down the straight again.The track has a few bumps in it and he was really getting knocked around in a few spots,on a perfect track he'd be able to go much faster.
I've watched a lot of speedway,but never seen an ice bike,and never seen one ridden on a speedway track....and I doubt if it'll ever be seen again - so a special day for me.
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