Racing for just one season?

[Tim in Belgium]

Racers on the .org, I'm interested in your ever helpful advice. There's a chance I may have the whole of 2011 in the UK. I fancy doing some form of circuit racing on bikes at some stage in my life, and this could be a possible year. So I've a few questions:

Time

Is one season too little to get into the racing properly and settling down to it and everything that goes along with it?

From what I've read about other people's experiences the first year seems to be very much finding your feet, with racing itself, how to do your race weekends, maintenance/modding etc..

Series

Series wise what's good to go for? I'd likely be based in the Hampshire/Berkshire area, and looking for a series which has good racing for a newcomer which isn't based on just how big your wallet is. Also I'd like to race something quick/modern ish, no MZ series or Early Stocks. Therefore minitwins is a definite consideration, but what about 600cc club racing? Or even some of the endurance type races done by the TD organisers? Anything else to consider

Finance

How much extra kit would I need to buy over my (tyrewarmers, and generator spring to mind, possibly spare sets of wheels, a one piece suit)? And if doing it just over a year how easy would it be to sell on at the end/what would my losses be like?

As such some class with quite fixed bike development would be an advantage, I'd imagine it would be easy to sell on a mini twin style bike at the end of the season than some class that has more cut throat development?

The above and any other/different advice would be much appreciated, am I being realistic or should I save this for later in life and just do lots of TDs if I'm back next year?

[Tim in Belgium]

Any of the racers on here?

[Wester]

Tim, I'm a relative newbie to racing, I did around half a year last year and this year will be my first full season.

Time:
People seem to have this big thing around racing that they have to do a full season to enjoy it, or that it is pointless if you don't go to every single round. I will still say I'm still finding my feet and after my first off in november last year and its taken all my confidence, I feel pretty much like I'm starting over from the start of this season this year, I've only ever been round mallory, but I'm still learning and I still dont feel fast enough.
So I guess yes the first season is finding your feet, but its still racing, its still fun, and if you dont start now when will you?

Series:
I'm a short **** and I dont weigh very much. I made the decision early on that I didnt want to start in a novice 600 class as they call them axemurderers for a reason. Its tough, and when you get an awful lot of rookies trying very hard there are quite a few spills and what I considered (I am probably wrong) quite an intimidating class. I first rode on a gp125 on a testday and had my heart set on racing the two smokers, Till i found a zxr400 going cheap, It's a barrel of laughs, its pretty bloody quick and its all I need for racing round mallory park, I still dont have it at its limits so i still have stuff to learn.
From your nurburgring trips my guess is you ride quite a lot, and I know you've done a few trackdays so you may feel 600s is the way to go, From what i hear the steel framed pre-injection 600's are cheap to pick up and would give you a fairly good start point at any club. If you are thinking SV and don't want to spend a lot getting it to the sharp end you could run it in some 400 classes, there are three SV's that run at emra in the open F400 and because of their size, they are very limited by what you can do with them. I will say that at the point where you are starting out that bhp wont make barely any noticeable difference. You dont need to worry about the odd bhp and weight saving till your up at the sharp end.

Finance:
Racing costs. A lot.
I live at home still, And bring in just over £1000 a month. I work a basic job and racing eats all of my cash. I built up my kit over last year 2009 and late 2008 doing trackdays, I bought a trailer cheap of ebay and made it into a box trailer myself for about £200. Tyre warmers cost me about £180. Race entry fee's cost me £135 a time for two races on a sunday. Other clubs cost more. Tyres are about £320 a full set. I dropped my zxr wearing a shoei i bought two months previously. That's £200 to replace. I bought a second bike middle of last season for £1200(absouloubt steal!) that came with another two sets of wheels so I now have a full set of dry/wets/inters. I've got a cheapish RST one peice suit at £300, It's been crashed once and survived alright you will also want a back protector.
You will also need an ACU race licence and will have to do the ctc course. Licence at £55(i think) and the course costs about the same again initially. For your first year you will also need an eye test.
I've probably missed a fair bit here, if you want more info just PM me.
With regards to buying and selling a bike. They hold value quite well. I don't think you would lose much money over a year on an SV or something similar as age doesnt mean all that much, and as long as you look after it you may get lucky and make some money back on it.

At the start of this year I thought about wether I wanted to do it again, I quiite want to move out and start my own life etc but my parents said to me if I didnt do it now, I never ever would. I would say the same to you. If you want to do it, do it. There is no better feeling than flying round in the summer weather on a race bike, When we get back to that nice point of the year, I'm sure I'll be happy I threw all my earnings at it again.

[Tim in Belgium]

Wester, thanks very much for the detailed reply above, it gives a real flavour of what can be involved and what to consider before setting out. As someone else said to me, this is an itch that I need to scratch!

[Berlin]

Tim,
GEAR:
My race set up cost me less than £3000 for the lot. (Bike, stands, tyre warmers, tyres for the season (scrubs), generator, Wets on Wheels (2 sets) jerry cans and loads of sprockets levers, tools etc. etc. That also includes a van and awning!

Leave out the van and you could do it for less than £2000! And I'm doing it "properly" If I was doing it for the season, for a laugh, I could get the lot down to £1500 all in for gear. If you want to win, it costs a lot more! But to have a go, it costs nowt.

TRAVELLING:
Using a bike trailer (£100), £1500 bike and getting stuck in, you are looking at about £300-500 for a weekend including fuel for bike and van/car, all food and general bits and bobs for you and the pit team Including entry fees but using scrubs. Add £250 if you plan on running fresh tyres.

ENTRY FEES:
Race weekends entry costs are about £200-£250 for two days or £90-£120 for single days

So for 10 race days bank on £1500 plus the above travelling costs.

If you stack the bike, times everything by 5 :)

My budget for the whole year is 5K. Lets see how much over that I go! :)

C

[Tim in Belgium]

Thanks for the above, what kind of class are you racing in Carl?

Financially I should be ok in one of the less expensive series, it's getting through the mountains of tyres etc that I really need to look at and how things like this affect the costs of the different series. I have a bike trailer currently, and would proabably buy some form of semi civilized van as my main mode of transport if I went down the racing route (VW T4 looks promising).

[lukemillar]

..and and general bits and bobs for you and the pit team

Pit team? :o

[lukemillar]

Tim - I'll write something tomorrow, but only half really carries over to the UK as racing is a bit different (and cheaper :wink) here in NZ - woohoo!

[Tim in Belgium]

Cheers Luke, I'm looking forward to it.

[lukemillar]

Ok, this is my take on it from someone who has only done a handful of meeting and there pretty wets behind the ears still

Time:- You can do as little or as much as you like with racing - you don't have to enter every round! You can also enter meetings from a different club to that which you belong to, so there is a lot of scope. Also, I wouldn't look on it as "racing for a year and then stopping". Instead think of it as "postponing until you can next race again" :). When I started in NZ, my work contract only had 3 months left to run, and if it didn't get renewed, then my bike would've gone wherever I did and I would have kept racing there. (so even if you leave the UK, probably not going to sell everything race related!)

Classes:- FWIW I jumped straight into 600s. Mainly because I owned one, and I figured it was a bike I really enjoy riding. In hindsight, I may in time sell it and shift class. 600's (or F2) is by far the most popular class here and it is damn competitive! 600s are also allowed to cross-enter in superbikes (F1) and the guy who finished 3rd in last years winter series in F1 was riding a 600! :eek: That's how quick some of the guys are. The good thing about a popular class is there is usually quite a few people to race against and if you do decide to sell off stuff, you easily find a lot of people willing to buy. The downside is that it is going to take a lot more to get to the pointy end of the field! Mini-twins I think is a pretty good compromise + you already have track experience on an SV, so that is beneficial. Just remember - you're allowed to enter your bike into whatever classes it conforms to the regs. So, despite doing 600 sprint racing, there are a couple of endurance races here in NZ, which I can enter as well if I like. Or street racing if my balls grow enough.... :wink:

Finance:- Ok, when I first started I bought a whole load of stuff based on what I knew from the UK. When I rocked up to the paddock for my first meeting, I felt like Mr. "all the gear and no idea!" People in NZ don't go anyway near as all out as the UK club racing scene. For instance, people say to change tyres once a round (or 2 rounds) :shock: You don't need to do that - not unless you chasing the championship. Especially as a rookie, you'll get more benefit from gaining race experience than having new tyres. I used on set of tyres for my first 3 meetings, and even then I reckon I could've got one more! Things I would recommend:

-Van instead of a trailer. You can sleep in it if needs be. Plus vans are cool to drive :cool: Also, bolt a wheel chock into the van. And don't forget a ramp (which I did :oops:)

-Wets. I spent a lot track down a spare set of wheel and managed to score some new but 2nd hand tyres. Then the next 3 meetings were sunny! However, last time out it ****ed it down and having wets was a god send!

-Warmers (+stands). In a 8-12 lap sprint, you can't be taking 2-3 laps to get your tyres up to temp. In fact, I still take it a little easier in the first 2-3 laps as it has been ingrained in me from trackdays. Really need to get over this as I'm finding I could be challenging for the lead on laptimes if I wasn't 8 secs back for taking so long getting up to pace!

-1 piece suit and a back protector goes without saying - don't think you can get onto the track without them!

-Lastly - Camping chairs! these are by far one of my most used purchases!

I don't own a genny - all the tracks I'm at have powered garages, so I rent and share one of those. Quite a nice way to meet other racers too. Guess it depends on the track and it's facilities.

There are a load of other bits an pieces which are handy to own - spare parts, jerry cans, tools, footpump, tyre pressure gauge etc. But a lot of this stuff I owned anyway, so I don't count it.

Hope that is of some use

Cheers
Luke

[Tim in Belgium]

Cheers for that Luke, more things to think about, especially tyres etc. As for a year, it would then likely be moving East to that country with a lot of people, taking a bike in and out of there would be "interesting".

[lukemillar]

Cheers for that Luke, more things to think about, especially tyres etc. As for a year, it would then likely be moving East to that country with a lot of people, taking a bike in and out of there would be "interesting".

I may be being dumb, but which country!? When I moved to Oz, I wish I had shipped my R6 rather than sell it first. Still miss that bike. If it is a unregistered race bike, then you might not have to jump through as much red tape.

[Tim in Belgium]

China. Imagine the red tape!

[charlie13]

hi tim, i'm having a go in the gp2 class the thundersportgb on my sv this season. if you have the spare cash and time to spend on it give it a go. I fortunately have a very understanding other half, have been getting spares, kit transport, etc, etc, together for the last year and have spent every spare moment since the start of january getting the bike fully prepped. Even cutting a few corners like using old road bodywork and doing all the prep work myself there are some expenses you just can't get away from. Tyres and other consumables all add up. I fully expect to crash at some point but decent riding gear should do it's job. Best advice I got was from the scruntineer this sunday just gone and he basically said spend money you have on getting the bike handling as best you can, and on the gear to keep you in one piece when you fall off. If you spend £600 on fancy bodywork it'll be down the tubes in your first spill, but the same money on suspension, tyres and good kit will be very well spent. You have plenty of time from now til next feb to get everything planned and sorted.

A quick list of what I've got together:
bike - converted road sv, 2 sets of wheels - 1 for race rubber and 1 for wets, spare bodywork, handlebars, levers, rad, tank, forks, decent race brake pads, paddock stands, 3 x 3m awning, van, sleeping and cooking gear (thundersport meets are 2 - 3 day events), tyre warmers, loads of tools, transponder (some clubs hire them).

You'll also need to get everything sorted for your race licence, and have a look at which class you want to race in and which tracks you fancy. I wanted to run my sv but have room to tweek it a bit and gp2 class really suited me that way.

The club ran a novice course on sunday to let all us newbs know what we are letting us in for, it was excellent and explained everything we could expect on a race weekend and the order they run things in. It was quite reassuring to hear it all from the horses mouth as up til then it had seemed a bit daunting. I'd be more than happy to chat to you sometime if you wanted to know anymore or drop me a pm with any qn's and i'll help out if I can. This may be my one and only chance to do a full(ish) season and I'll be doing 9 rounds out of 10 this year. Can't wait for March 13th now. Good luck with your racing, hope you get it all sorted :-)

[lukemillar]

Man, why does everyone always talk about crashing!? Sure it is a possibility, but I don't think you should go into a race season thinking "ok, I'm going to crash a few times this year..."

I fully intend to not crash if I can help it! If it happens it happens, but until it does, it isn't even on my mind. :)

[Berlin]

Pit team? :o

Pit team - Read as "Mates who stand around drinking your beer watching you change your own tyres and offer the odd bit of unnecessary advice" :)

[yorkie_chris]

Pit team - Read as "Mates who stand around drinking your beer watching you change your own tyres and offer the odd bit of unnecessary advice" :)

:thumright:

[Nobbylad]

Man, why does everyone always talk about crashing!? Sure it is a possibility, but I don't think you should go into a race season thinking "ok, I'm going to crash a few times this year..."

I fully intend to not crash if I can help it! If it happens it happens, but until it does, it isn't even on my mind. :)

I crashed on my 1st trackday....God help me if I ever got into racing lol! :cool:

I never, ever, intend to crash....it just kinda happens sometimes :rolleyes:

[Berlin]

Thanks for the above, what kind of class are you racing in Carl?

Financially I should be ok in one of the less expensive series, it's getting through the mountains of tyres etc that I really need to look at and how things like this affect the costs of the different series. I have a bike trailer currently, and would proabably buy some form of semi civilized van as my main mode of transport if I went down the racing route (VW T4 looks promising).

I'm in the F600 but originally planned to race in the pre-injection 600's but ended up buying the wrong bike! I set out with the intension of buying a carby R6 or CBR and ended up with a 01 Gixxer. :)

Vans: I looked far and wide at vans and the T4 is about as expensive an option as you could choose. The cheapest out there is the Iveco Daily (for age and mileage) and you'll pay 3-4 times the money (literally) for a T4 than you will for an Iveco. In fact, you could buy an Iveco or similar and have enough chash left to buy a *serious* race bike rather than buy a T4

I bought an excellent condition 2001 Iveco with 113,000 miles for 1500 quid. The same age VW transporter with double that mileage (knackered) will cost you £2500! So a good one you are looking at 4 grand!

For the bike, have a search on Ebay and racing sites for *race* bikes and you could just pick up the whole package from someone getting out of racing. Its astounding how many spares and extras people include in the sale! and fear not about race bikes, they are very well cared for. Track bikes on the other hand.. maybe not so much.

I can't belive how much more prep time and money I'm putting into the bike just because its now a "racing" bike and not a "track" bike any more. Its a state of mind. Yes I used to spend a lot of time on the track bike but now its been promoted, I'm ridiculously anal about every nut and bolt. Wierd! :)

C

[Tim in Belgium]

The idea behind a T4 is that I could have it as my everyday vehicle too (as they are not too big), it could be used for surfing/mountain biking in the winter and I would not have to bother buying a car too. If I was having a car too, a cheaper van would definitely be a good idea.

Do many clubs do the carb 600 class? It sounds a nice compromise between cost and performance.

I have been watching a few "race" bikes on evil bay out of interest, but will have a scan of the racing sites too, thanks for the tip.

[Berlin]

Ah so its for looking good whilst surfing? ;)

Look at the Peugeot Partner (High top LWB) as a (much) cheaper alternative to the T4. Its a "larger" smaller van and will get better MPG than the T4.

The transit, Vivaro and relay are all very good every day vans (basically any of the 2 litre turbo, front wheel drive vans). The Ford Connect High top LWB is an excellent big small everyday transport van.

Don't foprget to look at a Minibus too. Some bargains to be had.

... and it might be worth just hiring a van for the weekend if you aren't going to do may meetings and just use your car for everything else.

C

[Tim in Belgium]

Progress is being made in the general race direction, I'm in discussions with a race organiserm and a possible bike vendor. Once details have been confirmed on both accounts I'll spill a few more beans.... but for now schtum's the word ;) I don't want to tempt fate....

[lukemillar]

Progress is being made in the general race direction, I'm in discussions with a race organiserm and a possible bike vendor. Once details have been confirmed on both accounts I'll spill a few more beans.... but for now schtum's the word ;) I don't want to tempt fate....

Sweet! Keep us posted :)

[Tim in Belgium]

Bike looks secure, assuming ferries and trip to West Yorkshire for collection all goes well.

Still trying to confirm entry....but one step closer :)

[malongworth]

btw, an absolutely awsome read.
im planning on starting a few track days but am aiming to do a few races at some point, not a whole season but coz i dont have the time till i retire in, say, 40years! but really interesting, please let us know more, how did you tim, find it going into racing in the uk?
cheers

[Tim in Belgium]

Well, I went and entered a series mainly in Belgium as I'm still in Holland and don't know where I'll be next year and wanted to scratch that racing itch. The follow up thread is here, first race for me is Tuesday:

http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=150217

[UKPrincess]

Hey guys some really good stuff here, just wanted to compliment you all, says everything about racing and starting and i can related to each and every point made.

If i were to add one, dont worry so much about your position in the race in the first and maybe the second year, if you finish and get a signature, then you achieved a great deal, your race is with the person in front off you, aim to beat her, oh and him i suppose, one you beat him, aim to beat the guy in front of you, and so on.

Racing is adictive, and i love it, made a few friends along the way to which is a bonus

best thing though to remember is just enjoy it to the Max

Joanne