Jason DiSalvo prepares for the '10 WSS season by dragging the engine cases of his playbike in the snow. image by Bethany DiSalvo

Off-season training for those riders in the snowbelt has always been an interesting problem. The issues are, obviously, the temperature and the accumulated snow.

'80s 500 GP rider Mike Baldwin* was an East Coast native and only rarely made the trek west in the off-season to train. Baldwin rode off-road in all types of inclement winter weather, and as his Bimota WSBK career was winding down, the five-time AMA F-1 champion even raced a professional ice-racing championship in Europe.

New York native Jason DiSalvo, a very good dirt tracker in his own right, spent last weekend with his training bike cranked over to the shift lever and the throttle pinned. He recently had a set of studded tires mounted on his training motorcycle and used a snowblower to cut a flat TT-style course through his expansive back yard.

DiSalvo, who will ride for Triumph in the World Supersport championship this season, reports that studded tires afforded him fantastic traction--he was regularly dragging the foot levers and engine cases in the frozen tundra.

* Baldwin was the subject of a feature story, Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright, written by Kevin Cameron (CYCLE, 1979). It is perhaps the best motorcycle racing story ever published. Google has most of it here.