I remember seeing a story on the news about a bike race on a lake a few years back and now am thinking it would be fun to try. Calhoun Cycle's website list one for the last Saturday in January but doesn't have any other info on it. Does anyone know of any other winter races in Minnesota? Ideally I would like to find one that has a category for bikes without studs.

check out:
http://www.smithersmpls.com/urthel/CHILLYrace06lores.pdf

In February there's the Arrowhead Ultramarathon. Bike, run, or ski 135 miles.

http://www.arrowheadultra.com/

the race is/was an hpv (human powered vehicle) race, in the past has been run on White Bear Lake. The last time I looked at Calhoun there was a link to the pics of the racers and their rides. Haven't looked in a year or two.
But that doesn't mean we can't throw one for all the forum members in MN. I know there is the super bowl Cat for the messengers, and all comers, but that's usually on the streets. A fun race could incorporate the Luppett route through Wirth Park and down along the Greenway then across Cedar to Calhoun, something like that. We could get the kinks worked out at some place like Bob's Java Hut, or Spy House, where we could work out the maps, and the goal, and where the bonfires are going to be.

http://mnhpva.org/ice/Ice.html

Check out this site, it's the same one with pics from 05 and 04, some fun rides, plus the race is 1/28/06. That gives me a couple weeks to come up with a ride. I have a couple old Trek 730 frames someone pulled all the good stuff off, (bars, shifters, fork, brakes). I'll have to look at them and see what I can come up with, this is getting me excited.

http://mnhpva.org/ice/Ice.html

Check out this site, it's the same one with pics from 05 and 04, some fun rides, plus the race is 1/28/06. That gives me a couple weeks to come up with a ride. I have a couple old Trek 730 frames someone pulled all the good stuff off, (bars, shifters, fork, brakes). I'll have to look at them and see what I can come up with, this is getting me excited.

Thanks. That is the kind of race I was looking for. If I am in the cities that weekend and have a bike that is in good condition I will have to give it a try.

Say, has anyone ever attempted building an "ice" bike? I've looked at the pictures at the site, and have some ideas, but wonder if it is a hit and miss proposition. I was thinking of going fixed gear hub for the rear with studded tires on one of the trek 730s I have, and rig some sort of ski/skate for the fork. Could be the way to go. I'm open to ideas.

Here's one this weekend and next - 3/4 & 3/11. They were postponed due to poor ice conditions in Jan/Feb. There's also some more info on the mcf.net message board.

http://silvercycling.org/ice_bike/ice_bike.html

The 3/11 race was just cancelled - ice is mostly slush.

I forget where the info was - somewhere on Surly's blog, but there was ice biking, ski biking and ice figure-8 of death the same weekend as the HPV one. It was on Brownie lake in Wirth. There'll probably be another one next year.

It's the race for the drunks and stoners...