APP Moto Jam

January 2020

By Kimberly Maroon

A Hill Climb at Holiday Mountain, New York

The Pits

Early morning the gates opening and folks starting filing in. Within an hour or so the lot was busy with trucks, vans, bike trailers, teams setting up tents, or taking laps thru deep mud puddles. The pits at any race event are an organized chaos: a space to work, lay out tools and supplies, and get bikes up and running.

Josh

After racing at Holiday Mountain on the dirt last year, Josh wanted to try out racing on snow so he made the 2 1/2 hour-drive from Emmaeus PA. Josh started out with friends in motocross and just stuck with it. He has been racing a lot of dirt track this year, like the X Games and a handful of Roland Sands events.

I like the idea of taking a bike that's not meant for it and just making it work -- I've had a lot of fun with it. The most challenging part is that you don't know what you're going to be hitting.

The Bike

The Harley Sportster was a salvage bike, mostly stock with a few modifications. The previous owner had put on 19” rims. Josh noted the suspension was too soft so he put in better springs and 15" shocks in the rear put the bike in a better position. Normally a Harley Sportster has the weight too far forward which isn't ideal for racing.

Josh worked on getting the weight back and more underneath the center of the bike, changing the foot peg and brake so you can put your weight on them better.

He finished off with rustoleum for the glitter flake paint and stayed up until 1am to add the sharpie art snowmen. Very fitting!

Staging Area

After the racers meeting in the lodge, bikes started assembling in the small area before the start line based on their class. It quickly turned into a big pack of bikes of all types! Old Harleys, dirt bikes, mini bikes, customs, flat trackers, some with knobby tires some without. All hoping they could stay on top of the snow pack. The racers with heavier bikes stuck to the dirt and mud areas to get more traction when it was time to move up to the line.

The People

Despite the conditions everyone had a smile! The race organizers and officials attempted to pack the snow by running the machine on the course more often, using shovels to fill in the ruts that were sometimes waist deep. Everyone pitched in to push bikes if they got jammed up. It became a real rivalry to see who could get the furtherest up the hill, dodging the trenches at the start.

King of The Hill

Bikes took their shot at making a run up to the top of the hill. The dirt bikes, 3 and 4 wheelers, anything lighter had a much better time hammering through.