Whoaaaa Welland!

Feb 1 2010 - 2:53pm - Dan Paris

Every winter, given enough of a cold snap, the guys from Welland County Motorcycle Club start building ice racing tracks on the Welland Canal. Practically within sight of downtown, the canal banks get lined with spectators every time the bikes are out there. Being 'good old fashioned winter #2 in a row', this season has been especially good. The guys not only plowed off two oval courses but also a much longer road racing style track with a great variety of left and right hairpin and sweeper turns.

Fast dirt track racers like Mike Labelle, Johnny Parker and frequent DMX test-pilot Ryan Rainville were sharing the ice with kids on minibikes, spode-level editors like me and brain-dead loogans tearing straight up and down the canal on ATVs and Snowmobiles. The coolest thing I've found about playing on the ice this winter is the comraderie, with everyone eager to share notes and swap bikes. Other cool stuff? Anything goes when it comes to ice, from Frankenstein four-cylinder monsters to purpose built state of the art ice racers to foo foo bikes with hardware store sheet metal screws in the tires.

I need to thank Greg Gamm and Randy Doan for letting me burn around on their CR500 Hondas. You know that ongoing debate between old guys about how a 500 two-stroke pulled compared to a modern 450F? Well, on the ice, with perfect traction, the five-hunneys will yank a 450F out of the turns with little effort. The 450s have greater overrev and are much more civilized, but I gotta say ripping on the ice with those big honkin' two- strokes was a great experience. Believe it or not I even passed a few people, most assuredly due to the 500s raw horsepower and not my riding ability...Anyway, here's some random pics.

Those CR125R stickers on the swingarm aren't fooling anyone. This CR500R had an offset steering head frame and some engine mods.

That old 500 leaning against the wall of your car-hole might be obsolete for MX, but it's still a great weapon for playing on the ice.

You say a 450F or a 500 smoker still doesn't have enough power for ya? This thing was straight out of Mad Max.

DMX test pilot Ryan Rainville. You see that bridge back there? In high school my friends and I did something like 246,000 ass crackers and flying squirrels off that thing into the canal.