Four pro riders, one spectacular track made of ice... Joost Wichman (4X), Nico Vink (downhill), Rick Koekoek (trail) and Martijn Jaspers (BMX) added a whole new dimension to the term gravity mountainbiking last Saturday, as they during Red Bull Crashed Ice, in Valkenburg, The Netherlands.
The crowd (25.000+) did not know what hit them. Right before the big final was about to start, they saw four men on bikes flying by. The riders were only a fraction slower than the skaters. Although the track was not entirely suitable, it was clear that this side-event is worth further development.
The audience and the organizers were impressed with the rider and the show they put on. The chances are high that the concept will be repeated. The idea comes from Joost's company Thirty7even, as they specialize in sports promotion, and was developed in cooperation with Red Bull Netherlands.
Video credits: BKN Dirt Productions
Photo credits: Red Bull Newsroom
With studded tires, biking on ice is incredibly fun and not as sketch as you would think. I highly suggest it if you have a frozen pond or lake you could try it on. I'd love to see more of this, although if you did crash, it could get nasty fast.
^ Have you ever ridden on ice before?"
yes, I have ridden on snow and ice, and what I'm saying is that having spikes on your tires makes it easier to ride, and defeats the purpose of riding on ice. It takes skills to ride on ice WITHOUT spikes on your tires. You know very well that with spikes it's not anymore sketch than riding in dirt. This has nothing to do with them being pros.
Welp that about sums up the level of intelligence here...
Aside, riding that course on a bike would be cool, sketchy fun; however, to skate down would be straight up buck nutty.
A few beers in, and you waste 20 minutes of my time trying to figure out if it's me or the author who has some screws loose. Come on, Pinkbike.
Reminds me of a test I did for a couple years ago with my homemade spike tires on a icy road...
www.pinkbike.com/video/83206
I made my own spike tires few years ago to a nokian gazzaloddi G tire, but after two winter-dh race seasons, I decided to replace the side spikes with 15mm screws and left the spikes only to the center of the tire. I haven´t tested them yet, but I hope I get seconds off of my times. Downsides are that screws are heavier and you need to put protection between tire and tube makes them even heavier. Also the risk to get a flat is higher.
EDIT: for the topic, I´d like to see more this kind of racing and to get to participate in something like this!
I hope we'll see more of that ice cross (or whatever you'd call it) in the future!