Minitwins or Thunderbikes?

As a novice rider where do I start if I want to have a go at club racing?

Do I go MT or TB?

How do I get an ACU licence?

Cheers.

Minitwins would be my vote. Simpler regs, well, kinda, wheras TB has a power weight ratio thing that can get expensive quick. Minitwins can get expensive quick too but I see more restrictions on MT. Both will work out at least twice as expensive as you budget for tho

ACU licence process is walked through by your club, you choose a club first, download an ACU licence application, your club will need to sign it off and will generally send your licence app to the ACU on your behalf and send you your club membership details back at the same time. As such, you want to choose a club that does the class you're interested in. There are definitely more Minitwins clubs around these days, but the ones I know of are North Glos, MRO & Bemsee. Personally, I'd always recommend North Glos, but your geographical location is something to consider - ie. North Glos spend a lot of time at Pembrey.

Another cheap class to look as is SS400 - someone with money to burn will often blow this class away (or more realistic, has the potential to blow the class away) as the regs allow for more bling, but equally there are plenty of people in SS400 that are on a tight budget, so you'll be up against similar pockets. Getting hard to find bikes for 400 now tho.
Or, perhaps cheaper still - a lot of clubs run streetstock classes - the regs for this are pretty much as you'd expect, road legal, must have (daytime at least) MOT etc. Different CC capacities are generally run dependent upon club.

Blue may disagree with me here, but I'd say avoid any 600 class (and bear in mind that dependent on club, you may have two classes running in one race - you don't want to be anywhere near the 600 boys). They're lunatics, the lot of them

Oh yeah, you'll need to do an ACU course as well, it's just a classroom thing which basically tests whether you know what a red flag means - nobody ever fails this. You *might*, can't remember, need an eye sight/medical thingy signed off by your GP/Optician (who will doubtless charge you for the priviledge).

Download the current form and advisories at acu.org.uk, find a club, find a bike, find the bike's a dog, find several thousand pounds, find a few more, fix the bike, track day it a bit, fix what falls off, turn up to a club race and loiter round the paddock, turn up to the next club race, PARK NEXT TO A TANNOY, get scroot'ed, wait to be called, HAVE A BLAST, get your signature. Repeat

Oh, and aquire a pair of LUCKY UNDERPANTS.

ACU course application form - ?50, every Monday at Rugby, may as well do this first
ACU licence app - you complete this then send it to your club along with your club joining fee/app form
ACU licence app notes - explanations, confirmed, you will need an eye exam done, probably won't need a medical unless you're extra wrinkley or if you've got bits missing.
Next - purveyors of lucky underpants

Paul, if you go racing, I might be able to lend something of a hand, or at least shout encouraging words and be ready with big man hugs, warm milk and a blankey when things go wrong

[flymo]

Originally Posted by MiniMatt

Oh, and aquire a pair of LUCKY UNDERPANTS.

I switched class to minitwins this year so I may have an old spare pare of these somewhere. Let me know if you're interested

Excellent replies! Cheers guys!

Just to add mate you don't drive do you? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Becasue you will need to beable to get to the tracks with the bikes ect, plus most people sleep in their vans.

Thunderbikes will cost a lot more money for sure, than mini twins so I guess it depends on how rich you are, I can just about get by maybe

Also have you though about the cost as well? The bike, van, paddock gear, riding gear, looking after bike (cost more when you crash) insurance, entry fees, praticse day, tyres, fuel well you get the idea. You won't have a spare penny at all!

Also I don't how it works with your job, but what if you have an off and can't work for a month, do you get sick pay? But you want to make sure that is covered for sure, someone/something has to pay the bills if your not working. Oh I have been told medical insurance is a good idea.

Good luck what ever you decided

[jambo]

Ah Paul, excellent, you've come into a large sum of money, have I told you lately that I love you?