Sunday on the Ice.

"Birddog" (maintmgt) 01/09/2018 at 04:24 • Filed to: None

4

21

Sunday turned out pretty good. I had 3 locals stop by with their quads and there were about 8 snowmobile runners down the street. The quads were ok, not my thing though. Those snowmobiles? They’re insanely fast. In a straight line.. I may need one. Just for laughs.

Nobody could keep up with the old 3 wheeler in the rough stuff though. When everyone else has 2-3x your displacement you take advantage of what you can.. It wasn’t really a race so much as an exploration. I could cut through the woods easier.

I had a few issues though. I lost my taillight somewhere. Literally lost it. It’s not there anymore. I had a tree branch swing up and whack the back of my helmet somewhere, I’m betting that’s when I lost it.. No worries. I have spares (lights and helmets!). The headlight went out just at dusk and had to run to O’Reillys, my rear brake started dragging and it started running a little hot toward the end of the night. Nothing big. Everyone decided to hit the Pub around 8pm and I headed home. Best Sunday ever!

Fixes/changes for next weekend.

PoBoy tire studs (done!)

Swap the 14 tooth front sprocket for a 12

Fix or remove the rear brakes

Quickie rebuild on the carb and jet it up

Buy another “Go Pro” (this should be #1 really)

Less than a month ago I was trying to sell this machine. What the hell was I thinking?!

pip bip - choose Corrour > Birddog 01/09/2018 at 05:39

2

taillamps aren’t a neccesity

Birddog > pip bip - choose Corrour 01/09/2018 at 06:30

0

They’re mandatory here.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Birddog 01/09/2018 at 06:42

1

mandatory here too, but c’mon for what you’re doing they’re not strictly necessary though.

8)

CalzoneGolem > pip bip - choose Corrour 01/09/2018 at 06:57

1

Racing through the woods in the snow? I think I’d want as many lights as possible.

pip bip - choose Corrour > CalzoneGolem 01/09/2018 at 07:01

0

going forward yes i agree, but not at the rear

shop-teacher > Birddog 01/09/2018 at 07:16

1

Sounds like a pretty great day to me!

CalzoneGolem > pip bip - choose Corrour 01/09/2018 at 07:17

0

All the better to not get run into my dear.

Birddog > shop-teacher 01/09/2018 at 07:41

1

Not as great as I had hoped for but it was a heck of a day.

pip bip - choose Corrour > CalzoneGolem 01/09/2018 at 07:41

0

minor detail

Pickup_man > Birddog 01/09/2018 at 09:07

1

Sounds like a pretty good day. I still need to get out, do some river riding, and find some good deep snow to try this thing out.

I’ve had it in a just a little and it works way better than I expected. Just need to find some deep stuff to really see what it’ll do.

shop-teacher > Birddog 01/09/2018 at 09:40

1

That’s pretty much how I’d sum up our Rallycross/snowcross/mudbog day :)

functionoverfashion > Birddog 01/09/2018 at 09:41

1

I used to have a snowmobile when I lived near a lake, and over a few good winters I put a ton of miles on it, without really even going anywhere, just messing around on/near the lake and on some local trails. Man, those things are amazing. Show me another vehicle that works on dirt, pavement, grass, ice, deep snow, open water... you name it - and can scream along at 100mph on demand.

On the topic of lights, I found that when it was snowing hard out on the open lake, I couldn’t see ANYTHING, and was better off with the headlight off. So I installed a headlight kill switch on the high beam. With the switch off, I could still flick my lights on (low beams) with the high-low switch on the handlebars. But I could flick them off so I could see based on distant silhouettes of trees, islands, etc which was far more effective than squinting into a 1995 screensaver. It helped immensely that I spent a ton of time on the lake at night in the summer, so I knew the outlines of the shore extremely well.

Anyway. It sounds like you’re having a blast. You gotta do something when there’s snow and ice everywhere. I cannot understand those who don’t like winter weather. It’s so much fun!! Don’t like it? Move south.

Birddog > Pickup_man 01/11/2018 at 03:10

0

I’ve been itching for one of those! It actually works?

I thought the AutoX was out of action for a while. Did you rebuild?

Birddog > functionoverfashion 01/11/2018 at 03:24

0

I was trying to reply earlier but..

It gets dark here. We don’t have much light pollution so when it gets dark it’s dark. One place we group ride/camp at prohibits night rides year round. The lights aren’t necessarily for us, they’re for the other guy.

I’m interested in snowmobiles now though. The last time I was on one was in the mid 1980s. They’ve come a frickin long way since. I have to control my ADD. One project at a time.

Birddog > pip bip - choose Corrour 01/11/2018 at 03:28

0

You NEED taillights in the woods.

Birddog > shop-teacher 01/11/2018 at 03:29

1

That day was everything I hoped for and more!

shop-teacher > Birddog 01/11/2018 at 06:59

0

I was hoping for a second heat, but oh well. Still had a ball!

Pickup_man > Birddog 01/11/2018 at 09:11

1

I’ve been wanting one for a while too. Last year I managed to find a couple of free skis and I have access to a laser cutter at work, so it finally got built. It works a lot better than I expected. Still need to see how it does on ice, but I expect it’ll work pretty good. I’ve got quite a few extras of all the flat parts, if you really want some I can send a set.

It was out for a while but I did get it rebuilt. Bored up from the 185 to a standard 200 bore, with a 10.25:1 piston, pulled the case cover off and cleaned everything up real nice, little bit of re-jetting and it runs good!

functionoverfashion > Birddog 01/11/2018 at 10:51

1

The lights aren’t necessarily for us, they’re for the other guy.

This makes sense, and why my headlight kill switch didn’t kill the taillight. And actually, I had a little LED in the front that pointed mostly down, but was something facing forward when the main light was off. Granted, we’re out in the middle of a 7,000 acre lake at the time, and for one, no one else really went out there at night during the times we were out. Second, I’ve talked to some other riders who just won’t go on the lake at night because they don’t know it well enough.

Anyway, yeah. Snowmobiles have come a LONG way. My family still has a couple old ones from the late 80's and they are TINY compared to most everything you can buy now. That, and they have absolutely no suspension by comparison. Still fun to throw around, though because they are so small and light.

I started carrying around a come-a-long and long cables on my Polaris because if I got stuck miles from home by myself, I often couldn’t get the thing out without assistance. I did walk about a mile out of the woods once, when I got it royally stuck. It was after that I started carrying recovery equipment.

Birddog > Pickup_man 01/20/2018 at 19:03

1

10.25 is the sweet spot! Glad to hear it’s back out there!

I’d be interested in a ski for sure. I think that’d be the setup for heavy snow. Honestly, the zip screw tire studs are working so well out on the ice I’m shocked. It’s actually difficult to lose traction.

Have you thought about carb upgrades at all? I’m finally getting to top out in sixth and it’s going flat after half throttle. I’m thinking about slapping on a 250x carb for giggles.

Pickup_man > Birddog 01/22/2018 at 09:12

0

I’ve thought about it, but I’m pretty happy with the performance overall right now, I’ll see how I like the 10.25 for a while before I do anything else. It’s still running a 185s cam so there’s definitely still room for improvement.

I don’t have any actual skis to send but I’ve got several sets of the flat metal parts I used to build it. Shoot me an email, zeke dot hollaren at gmail, and I can send out a few parts, get you some more pictures and some basic plans on how to build it.