OMG!! 1000 kold kutters per tire? that seems like an awful lot. How big are those tires, 20, 22? Most of the guys around here run 300 or less in 18" chen shings or about 400-500 each in 20" dunlop kt tires off the old zillas. But hey, if it hooks up great for you, i'll do nothing but cheer you on!

What length kutters are you using? 1/2?

 

Thats 2000 total in 4 tires and they are 20 in. rears and 21 in. ft. . The chin chin tires are too soft and the studs keep pulling out ! the dominators are a very hard compound that seems to work very well . They are 1/2 in. Each **** gets between 4-5 studs the ft. tires have the groove of the stud turned parellel with rotation and the rears are perpendicular .

 

Ok, i see now. The rubber is soft, but not nearly as soft as other tires like turf tamers and the like. the best way to harden them up is to leave them in the sun during the summer, they will get as tough as a board.

 

Sounds like for starters i should add some more screws to the rears, like 250-400 total per rear, up from my 200 a piece. I only have 3 rows of **** studded in the front, and that works ok for turns for me.

Secondly, ill have to drag out the TIG welder and fab a cro-moly -1" swing arm, and maybe a -2" and try each and see what works best? Maybe the -2 in the ice, and the -1 in the summer on the trails.

Yes the other bikes were mainlly 400's. One was a suzuki with the dr400 type motor, and the other was some honda? Wasnt paying much attention to there quads, just out having fun. Other guy was on a 2000 ds with a 45mm carb, slip on, and pref. CDI box. He had same problems, no traction, no wheelies without hitting a bump, and no traction off the line. His clutch was starting to slip top end as well. He had much taller gear then me also. But same traction troubles.

 

Get some turf tamers, before installing the screws pump up the tire so its rock hard. Put in the screws, put a screw in every single square if you want. After installing drop air pressure to where it should be, this will seat the screws in better. Drop a couple teeth in the rear or add one to the front and that will help you with starts.

 

Back to the tire questionasked by MRDS650. I am running 20" ITP holeshots XC's. Are these to soft to hold good screw penetration/grip in the ice?

Plans are to go eventually build a -1 or -2" swing arm, and install, maybe turf tamers? out back for next year.

Are the holeshots my major problem, or is the swingarm the way to go. (both) Remember, it is a bit traction challanged in the dirt for my little 185lbs boddy weight.

Thanks for all the great input

Dave.

 

I understand that others may like them, but IMO turf tamers suck. Mr. Rath suggests what every ice racer has known for a long time, cheng shin c826 tires were made for ice racing and are also used for flattrack. There is a reason why everyone uses them, they are the best availible. Now, if you are going to go unstudded, itp holeshots and turftamers, when properly cut, can be great. But the best studded tires are the cheng shins and dunlop ltz500 oems.

 

Ok. I will look for the cheng shins when the cash comes around.

 

If you have the stock dominators that are in good shape why not stud them ? The turf tamers will not work very well at all . Whatever you do I wouldn't waste any money on the swingarm stuff either , it transfers weight just fine . With the money you saved you should get the ron woods cdi w/o rev limiter , I used to bounce the thing in the first 3 gears all the time making me slow in the straits . The stock gears will also work fine as long as you get rid of the rev limiter . I very rarely see 5 th. gear at all . I can almost leave it in 3rd or forth gear (depending on the track ) and hardly ever have to shift .

 

Jacked tire psi up to 8 psi. Was at about 4. Added 50 more screws in a pattern to prevent digging grooves in the ice. Up to about 240 Kold cutter screws per rear. MUCH better! adding more screws in a pattern to clean up teh rest of the burn out mark. If i did a burn out before, there was a pattern in the ice: ice| groove| ice| groove| so on....... So i stagered teh added screws to make it eat ice the whole width on the inside 1/2 of the tire. Will finish the other half of each for next weekend.

Lessons possably learned:

1. 240 screws got better traction then 190. (ice)
2. 8 psi got better traction then 3 psi. (ice)
3. Pattern the screws to eat all the ice not just grooves of it. (ice)
4. 3 psi seemed to wheelie eassier in the hard pack SNOW then at 8 psi. (SNOW)