Woods or MX bike for Ice

[Crconnor18]

Looking to possibly add another bike to the fleet and while I do that I was hoping to check a number of boxes off with the same bike. J-Days, recreational trails/woods riding and some “off season” ice fun.

The current intention is to grab a street titled 2 stroke woods bike and a spare set of wheels for some ice racing. That being said, I’m unsure how the suspension setups differ between the ice & NE woods. Josh’s 250 has my eye but I’m trying to see if it will work with everything or if I’d ultimately end up doing a number of major suspension changes between ice & dirt.

There has to be a number of ice riders here and at least know where to point me in the right direction for the information.

[Paul_E_D]

Recreational ice? or racing? For recreation, any decent mx/woods bike will work. I love my xc-f250 on the ice.

[Paul_E_D]

But I also love a crf150 in the ice.

[Crconnor18]

Never rode ice but feel it to be similar to track days where racing is inevitable. Telling myself another bike can be used for multiple uses/seasons is what I’m trying to rationalize. I understand you can’t have a bike be great for both but if something can get me in the “good” region I would love to have a purpose built bike for each application but having 2 dirt bikes & 2 street bikes is a little unreasonable at this time.

[Paul_E_D]

Yeah, same, just rip my dirtbike on the ice as is. Works for me.

[Kurlon]

You could always go the Tom Hynes route, stud up a set of tires for your street bike?

[Stoneman]

You could always go the Tom Hynes route, stud up a set of tires for your street bike?

Paging RandyO. Paging RandyO...

[Crconnor18]

You could always go the Tom Hynes route, stud up a set of tires for your street bike?

The bad luck I’ve had with my 790 would only leave me to believe it would sink on its first time out.

[Kurlon]

For the record, I've set my 500 up with woods (XC-W stock forks, Ohlins XC-W shock I scored used) suspension for Ice mode.

[backinthesaddle]

Buddy set up a 300xc-tpi for the ice.

[breakdirt916]

do you already have a dirty bike?

or just adding one?

how tall/fat are you, which percentage of trail/jday/ice, and what's your dirty riding experience?

[typeone]

FYI ... my '19 200RR will be going up for sale next month, awesome bike for what you describe (sans street plate) ... unless you are on the larger side (125 chassis)

[Momoney7878]

do you already have a dirty bike?

or just adding one?

how tall/fat are you, which percentage of trail/jday/ice, and what's your dirty riding experience?

Would it be wise to convert a 250 sxf competition bike to Ice bike just by way of tires? Or are the rim sizes, shock/fork set up too rough for ice racing?

[Kurlon]

Do it up! Ice bike vs no ice bike, ice bike wins every time even if it's not the 'perfect' setup. If you really dig it, you can get alternate springs for winter duty, etc. I'll note you specifically said 'racing', if actually racing, go see what those guys are doing. For play time, again run what ya brung and then spend more after if you want.