Pity the poor professional ice racer. He’s out there risking his life, on a track filled with spiky-tired bikes, and who shows up? Nobody but the most hard-core. And, you can forget about having a pretty girl hold an umbrella for you in the pits.
However, if Harley-Davidson has their way, that could change. The MoCo is apparently at the Winter X-Games in Aspen with their new liquid-cooled Street 750s, complete with studded tires and other ice racing setup. They had AMA flat track champion Brad Baker aboard the machine, and they showed the bikes off yesterday in an ice-racing exhibition, allegedly in the hope the X-Games will recognize the sport’s inherent awesomosity and add it to their program. Baker’s competition for the exhibition was former champ Jared Mees and his wife (also an AMA flat tracker) Nicole Mees.
“We think fans will be captivated by the extreme attitude and beauty they’ll see on the ice,” said Dino Bernacchi, a bigwig with Harley-Davidson’s communications department.
Now that the exhibition is over, X-Games fans can hit social media to let organizers know what they think of the display, by using the #XGIceRace hashtag on Twitter.
[…] Ever since last winter, we’ve known Harley-Davidson is keen to get the X Games to introduce some sort of racing event promoting their motorcycles; last January, it was ice racing. […]
[…] dernier, Harley-Davidson s’est présenté aux X Games, à Aspen, au Colorado et les Street 500 et 750 ont été utilisés pour faire la course sur glace. Avec cette nouvelle […]
[…] showed up at the winter X Games in Aspen last winter to show off their bikes in an ice racing role, gauging the public’s interest in […]
Hope it takes off. Ice racing rocks. And if Harley gets some press and maybe a boost in sales, good on them for thinking outside the box. Ice racing Harley’s. Not what i would of thought of.
Nope. It is usually the domain of repurposed speedway or dirt bikes … but it seems like a natural extension of flat tracking.