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Appaloosa Race Motorcycle Goes Ice-Skating with Hundreds of Studs on the Wheels

Indian motorcycles managed to create a more out-of-the-ordinary motorcycle for the Baikal Mile Ice Speed Festival, held in Russia. It is a collaboration between the American company and Workhorse Speed Shop.
Appaloosa 4 photos
Photo: blog.motorcycle.com
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The Baikal Mile Ice Speed Festival is a race that first took place in March 2019, on the solid ice covering Lake Baikal in Russia. After its great success in the media and in the motorcycle fanbase, the organizers decided to make it an annual event. Because of the cold conditions and the fact that the bikes are running on a frozen lake, not only the machines themselves are challenged to endure the harsh conditions of racing, the technical team's endurance is also put to the test.

The main point of this race is to try and set speed records with different types of vehicles on the lake's ice surface. There are 1 mile and 1/8 of a mile ice tracks, and each team has the target to reach the highest speed while not going over this distance. Also there are going to be extra car and moto related shows, like drifting and drag racing, stunt riding or freestyle motocrossing.

The Appaloosa, created by Brice Hennebert, is based on the Indian Scout Bobber model and has support from professional partners like Akrapovic, Beringer Brakes, Dunlop Europe, Ohlins, Motorex, and Evok3 Performance.

The tires fitted on this race bike are the Dunlop SportSmart Mk3, which are manually upgraded with winter studs. The engine cooling is a challenge, as the low -40°C to -20°C (-40°F to -4°F) temperatures combined with the high speeds this motorcycle can reach, mean that the traditional front vent cooling would keep the engine below the normal operating temperature. So the front air vents are covered and only small side panels are used for engine cooling.

This motorcycle has a NOS system fitted, provided by Nitrous Express Setup, in order to make the engine more powerful. Ohlins provided the suspension needed for this type of race, in order to keep the bike stable at the high speeds.

Because this model derived so much from the initial Appaloosa made for tarmac sprints, Benny Maxwell designed a new paint scheme to accommodate the “ice-skater” feeling of the motorcycle.

The full look of the bike will be revealed when the team arrives at Lake Baikal.
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