Unimotorcyle racing started in the 1980s in Florida, a fact few will find surprising. The "sport" quickly spread to Europe and beyond. A Russian unimotocyclist named Dmitry Gorbunov attended the Elefantentreffen biker rally in Germany in 2002, and thought it wasn't nutty enough. So two years later, he decided to go racing on ice.
Location: the snow-blanketed town of Togliatti, Russia, where the temperature never climbed above -10 degrees Fahrenheit. The event drew about 1,000 spectators and 35 unimoto riders, many of whom came from hundreds of miles away.
Races began each day around 11 am and continued through the afternoon. Riders astride homemade machines seemingly inspired by Mad Max vied to post the fastest times. Many of them rode contraptions adapted from Honda and Yamaha motorcycles, with runners crafted from shovels and other stuff you'd find in the garage. The more eclectic machines ran on electricity and even steam, while at least one featured four propellers. One guy even cobbled together something that looks a lot like a pulse jet.
No matter what made them go, it was loud. “Like a lion that roars when you cut its balls". He saw a few unimotos scuttle out of control across the ice or catch fire after their motors overheated, but no one seemed too bothered. The fastest racer gets a trophy and an enormous hunting knife, the words "Snow Dogs" engraved into a handle shaped like a dog's head.
When the day's racing is done, the real party begins. People eat, drink, and sing karaoke until the wee hours. “A passionate expression of the joy of life that motors and vodka bring.”
