Good track bikes?

[Daimo]

Just pondering thoughts really, but if you were looking for a good budget road bike that could be ridden to trackdays, take a days abuse on track and then ridden home again, but also be reliable but rewarding to ride too, what would you go for?

Say a budget of £1500-£2000.

Had a bit of money come in and although I want another bike, I really really would like to do some track days cheaply, and with the bike I want I wouldn't want to risk binning it with my little experience on track with bikes.

Thinking something cheap and realiable (say 600cc il4...) that could be used and sold on later too not much of a loss.

Wouldn't want a track only bike as it means needing a van, more insurance, running etc...

Suprise me ;)

[Lozzo]

A steel framed CBR600 can be bought for silly cheap money and they're an ideal trackbike you can use on the road. Stick Ohlins fork springs in and a Maxton shock off ebay (I paid 75 quid for mine) and you've got a really good handling bike which makes about 90 - 100bhp. 1997/98 bikes are a bit better on power and have better cartridge fork internals.

They're so good I bought one :D

[northwind]

Lozzo speaks truth. Or, any tidy ex-race bike could work well, there's always various slightly outdated 600s etc on the market. Course, race bikes might be a bit, what's the word... ****ed, that's it. Get it on a no-lights MOT and go for it.

[minifun]

I'm a bit of an SRAD fan so thats my recommendation! Loads of parts available and cheap to buy!

[mister c]

My son might have a Steelie for sale, got to wait till after Christmas to see if he changes his mind AGAIN, but I will keep you posted.

[Dicky Ticker]

I know of a 636 that is all tricked up for the track which might be for sale within your budget
[6000miles] and ready to roll

[Skip]

My mate has a steelie CBR600 and its an ideal track bike - gets my vote :)

[Dangerous Dave]

Any of the mid 600's, all great bikes and cheap to source.

[custard]

kwak 750. i know a couple of guys who track these and love em.

hornets are also good. www.rapidtraining.co.uk (http://www.rapidtraining.co.uk) use them for instructing on at the track, and then ride home on them.

[chakraist]

You could get a CB500, then, if you really get into it, you can race in the CB500 cup for very little money.

[mister c]

You could get a CB500, then, if you really get into it, you can race in the CB500 cup for very little money.
Just sold one. The lad is racing next year in the CB cup. The few track days I did on it, I was amazed at how well it handled for a std bike, it was good fun & cheapish to boot :)

[chakraist]

Yeah, I've seen some go for less than a grand with WOW and often a complete bike's worth of spares. With the OP's budget, he could get one of them and a steely CBR600: that's what I'd do.

If you are getting a track bike, it's worth getting something that is able to enter into a racing class as well- if you get into the whole track scene heavily, you don't want to be faffing about selling trackbikes to get slightly different ones to enter races.

You could race a whole season of the CB500 cup on the budget specified for your trackbike, including buying a cheap van and entry fees!

[Lozzo]

If you are getting a track bike, it's worth getting something that is able to enter into a racing class as well

The benefits of this are twofold.

If you do decide to go racing there's a bike sitting there ready to prep and use and even if you don't decide to go racing there are a huge amount of trick parts available to make your trackbike better.

My CBR benefits from race bodywork (82 quid off ebay) Maxton full race shock (75 quid off ebay) Ohlins front springs (20 quid off ebay), alloy race filler cap (20 quid off ebay) and other little bits bought dirt cheap, mostly off ebay

[thefallenangel]

i know of an r6 for sale with truck loads of spares for 2k in hereford if that would take your fancy,

[ThEGr33k]

RSV, you can get a crash repairable old one for that price easy. Ment to be very good track bikes. :)

RS250, something a bit different :D

Or really cheap, an old 600 maybe?

[Daimo]

Wouldn't want a CB, just not enough go for me. I'd rather an SV and minitwins ;)

Im not getting into racing, i was dragged around the country as a child to my dads race meetings, im not doing all that again. Too expensive. I don't want a van, hence wanting a bike that I could use to have fun on trackdays.

RS250, too expensive to run, very expensive to fix, not realiable enough. Like wise with the RSV.

Hence why im thinking IL4 600cc (i'd rather a twin, but the SV hasn't got enough grunt top end for me).

Anyone got any more info on steelie framed CBR's and the era im kinda looking at. Any examples?

[custard]

cheap enough and grunty enough?

http://motors.shop.ebay.co.uk/items/Motorcycles-Scooters__tl1000_W0QQ_catrefZ1QQ_dmptZUKQ5fMotorcy cleQ5fPartsQQ_flnZ1QQ_npmvZ3QQ_sacatZ422QQ_trksidZ p3286Q2ec0Q2em282?_trksid=p3286.c0.m282

[mister c]

Anyone got any more info on steelie framed CBR's and the era im kinda looking at. Any examples?
There are a couple on Ebay at the moment, I'll post the links in a tick, but you are looking at CBR600s between 1989 & 1998 (obviously the later the better in my own mind, what with technology & all). As Lozzo says parts are plentiful & cheap - even a race tuned engine will only cost you about £200 complete.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1991-HONDA-RED-CBR-600-CBR600_W0QQitemZ220333267279QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_ Motorcycles?hash=item220333267279&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1991-HONDA-RED-CBR-600-CBR600_W0QQitemZ220333267279QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_ Motorcycles?hash=item220333267279&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HONDA-CBR-600-F_W0QQitemZ300282254018QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Motor cycles?hash=item300282254018&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HONDA-CBR-600-F_W0QQitemZ300282254018QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Motor cycles?hash=item300282254018&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1997-HONDA-CBR600-DAMAGE-REPAIRABLE_W0QQitemZ380086699892QQcmdZViewItemQQpt ZUK_Motorcycles?hash=item380086699892&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1997-HONDA-CBR600-DAMAGE-REPAIRABLE_W0QQitemZ380086699892QQcmdZViewItemQQpt ZUK_Motorcycles?hash=item380086699892&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HONDA-CBR-600-fs-1992_W0QQitemZ320326544202QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Mo torcycles?hash=item320326544202&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HONDA-CBR-600-fs-1992_W0QQitemZ320326544202QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Mo torcycles?hash=item320326544202&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1997-HONDA-CBR-600-F-NO-RESERVE_W0QQitemZ260335961641QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK _Motorcycles?hash=item260335961641&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1997-HONDA-CBR-600-F-NO-RESERVE_W0QQitemZ260335961641QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK _Motorcycles?hash=item260335961641&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318)

[ThEGr33k]

too expensive to run, very expensive to fix, not realiable enough. Like wise with the RSV.


Hmmm. My Falco has been as reliable as the SV was... that is no issues except one, a starter relay. Same electrics and motor as the RSV so whoever says they are unreliable tells porkies :( But its upto you at the end of the day :)

[Skip]

Falcos are great and are the same as RSVs blah blah blah

;)

:smt110

[yorkie_chris]

Hmmm. My Falco has been as reliable as the SV was... that is no issues except one, a starter relay. Same electrics and motor as the RSV so whoever says they are unreliable tells porkies :( But its upto you at the end of the day :)

And how long to find a spare rearset when you break one? A spare motor is how much? etc etc.

Get something common and jap, that's a bit of a shed so you won't care when you break bits of it.

About the only exotic bike that would make sense would be a supermoto of some description as they are hard to break (with a couple of mods)

[ThEGr33k]

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38.l1313&_nkw=RSV+engine&_sacat=See-All-Categories

With a bit of looking there are 4 motors on Ebay atm. About £400

(+3 falco engines too...)

A 2003 R6 there are only 2... £500-£600.

Still I guess you go for what you want. :)