Monday, December 19, 2016

Riding two wheels in winter conditions?

   We often discuss winter gear, and staying comfortable in the winter months. How often do we talk about where a normal bike can go? Not a metal studded knobby on a full blown dirt machine, but a regularly driven street machine.
    We would need a proper place to test our machines. Thankfully, nature provided the perfect spot when it decided to cover our driveway in ice. At about 600 feet long and seriously uphill it has become impassable for a few days to everything except 4 wheel drive vehicles. Would a scooter make it up the ice monster?
                                                               

   Coming down was it's own challenge. We chose our trusty Lance Cabo 150 and a Genuine Roughhouse 50 for our test mules. The two bikes had slightly different tires discussed in an earlier blog here.
                                                                   

   We did manage to make it down, we purposely didn't lower the air pressure or do anything special to the scoots. We wanted to see if we could climb the hill without any special modifications.
                                                                         
                                                   So yes, we did make it, several times. To be fair, both riders are experienced dirt bike guys and willing to throw the bike at the hill with aggression. We don't recommend this for everyone. As you can see from the video, there was quite a bit of slipping and sliding going on, but if you kept your momentum up you could make it. That was just to the first turn on the driveway ( maybe a third of the way), but we did ride up repeatedly without a fall. So, with experience and willingness these bikes continue to impress with the places they will take us.

    We have plans to ride both of these machines through the winter. So, stay tuned for more miles, smiles, and torture testing.
                                                                             

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