If studded tires are good on ice because they dig in to the ice and help the bike hook up on a slippery surface, then surely a saw blade, a tool designed for cutting through things, would do the same job better, right? As it turns out, that hypothesis holds no water. The folks from CboysTV on YouTube found out the hard way, after laser cutting a couple hundred pounds of half-inch-thick steel into the shape of a saw blade and bolting them to the extremities of a Honda CRF250R dirt bike.
This video is a trip from start to finish. Not only do these wild boys load up a motorcycle and four-wheeler to go ineffectively rip around on saw blades on ice, they manage to use the blades for what they were designed to do. While riding around in the woods, they hop the back wheel up on a fallen tree and rip a fat burnout on the wood cleaving it in twain. As it turns out, the saw blades are better on dirt than they are on ice. There are probably a few too many close calls in this video for my liking, however.
One of my personal goals this winter was to get out on the ice for some steel shoe motorcycle racing. Unfortunately the unseasonably warm weather thwarted all attempts to do so this season, and if trends continue the way they have been, the lower midwest might not see ice thick enough to hold an ice race for quite some time. I guess I’ll have to haul up to northern Michigan or Minnesota (where these folks are) or something to make it happen.
If you live somewhere with nice thick frozen lakes, invest in some studded tires and hit the slippery flats. Maybe don’t use saw blades, though.