Buying a racebike

Hi,

I'm toying with the idea of stating racing in the minitwins league next season. I have never raced before and do not know anyone who has, so I have got a number of questions with regard to buying a bike and would be grateful anyone could help me.

Firstly is the pointy much faster than the curvy model? I'm sure I will be one of the slow ones/novices out there so could probably do with as much help as possible!!

Would I be correct in saying that the best time to buy a race bike is at the end of the season?

Is there anything in particular to look out for when buying a race bike, I?m guessing the rules are different to buying a road bike, such has it ever been on the track/ridden in the wet/crashed?

I will probably have around ?3000 to pay for the bike, what will this get me?

Cheers

Will

If you've got £3000 to spend fella, get a pointy.

They are slightly quicker out of the box, easier to set up and parts very readily available.

You have to do a fair bit of work to get a carby up to the same engine performance.

Just my two penneth worth

Paul T

if your wanting 2 spend the 3000 grand then defo go for a pointy model but you could easy get your self a curvy race bike for 1000-1500 depens on how big you wana go in 2 it.

[yorkie_chris]

For 4k you could set up a curvy very well, the only engine difference is the cams really, and that isn't too hard a swap

Hasn't blue still got a very cheap curvy trackbike for sale?

If you are not that fussed (or expecting to be overly competitive) then I shouldn't overly worry.

For ?3k you should be able to get a 2nd hand 'proved' bike that is capable of running at the front

As mentioned above, the pointys are more powerful more easily.

The curvys are temperature sensitive, on a good day you can get one to make the power limit if you have a strong motor, the pointy cams, a filter and full 'zorst, but if the atmospherics are different to how it was set up on the dyno, then you will be down on power ... the pointys 'intelligent' FI means this isn't an issue

The curvys are supposed to be slightly lighter and handle a bit better though IIRC.

To my mind, if you are a noob, then you will be fine with a curvy (say ?1500 ready to run) and could keep the remaining cash for tracktime/superbike school

If you are new to track riding (which you imply you are), it is safe to say you will drop much more off your laptimes with increased tracktime than you will do with the benefits of a pointy over a curvy!!

If you have the ?3k and plenty more to fund the racing, then spend the full ?3k on ready 'sorted' bike (pointy preferred), the better the bike, the better ... but assuming your resources are finite, I recommend you spend part of the allocated cash on a older bike and tracktime ... better still 2 bikes ... having 2 bikes puts you at a huge psychological advantage ...

You know if you drop your #1 in a race, you have the spare for the next race!! ... massive psychological advantage that to push hard in the race and perhaps take a few more 'not totally sure' moves Also if the weather is changeable and everyone is thinking 'wets or drys' and dashing for last min changes ... you just prepare one bike with wets, the other with dry, then just ride whichever one is appropriate come race time .. this again makes things much more relaxed and having this last second tyre choice could really make the difference ... you might even win if you have the right tyres and no one else has

Thanks for the help guys.

It sounds like my best option would be to go for a £1,500 bike then, how much can you pick a pointy model up for?

Where is the best place to buy one, obviously bikes are advertised on various forums, do you often see bike for sale at the track on the at race weekends? Is it best to buy at the end of the race season?

I have done around 25+ trackdays and I'm booked in to level 2 of the California Superbike School later in the summer, so I have got some track experience just not race experience. Although I'm sure extra money towards race school will always help!!

Cheers

Will

Originally Posted by sweepdoggydog

Thanks for the help guys.

It sounds like my best option would be to go for a £1,500 bike then, how much can you pick a pointy model up for?

Where is the best place to buy one, obviously bikes are advertised on various forums, do you often see bike for sale at the track on the at race weekends? Is it best to buy at the end of the race season?

I have done around 25+ trackdays and I'm booked in to level 2 of the California Superbike School later in the summer, so I have got some track experience just not race experience. Although I'm sure extra money towards race school will always help!!

Cheers

Will

Ah right, got a better idea of your experience now, from the statement "I'm sure I will be one of the slow ones/novices out there" I assumed you meant you were just starting out with the track thing ... 25+ trackdays I'd hope you got the gist by now and wouldn't be a wobbler!! I apologise for making that assumption .. my-bad!!

To be fair, you are not really going to gain much more by doing trackdays (you have prolly worked this out already haven't you, hence starting racing!!! ), you need to get out there with other racers, it'll be the only way to get faster now. There are some ACU groups/trackdays, getting on one or more of them might be beneficial as the pace is much MUCH quicker!! To be honest, with 25+ trackdays, I doubt schooling would help much, so not sure that would be great/massive VFM at this point

Any idea what sort of laptimes you are doing?

With this new information, I am now thinking spend it all on the bike, not on extra tracktime!!

Originally Posted by Blue_SV650S

Ah right, got a better idea of your experience now, from the statement "I'm sure I will be one of the slow ones/novices out there" I assumed you meant you were just starting out with the track thing ... 25+ trackdays I'd hope you got the gist by now and wouldn't be a wobbler!! I apologise for making that assumption .. my-bad!!

To be fair, you are not really going to gain much more by doing trackdays (you have prolly worked this out already haven't you, hence starting racing!!! ), you need to get out there with other racers, it'll be the only way to get faster now. There are some ACU groups/trackdays, getting on one or more of them might be beneficial as the pace is much MUCH quicker!! To be honest, with 25+ trackdays, I doubt schooling would help much, so not sure that would be great/massive VFM at this point

Any idea what sort of laptimes you are doing?

With this new information, I am now thinking spend it all on the bike, not on extra tracktime!!

As I have no experience at racing I assumed I would be one of the slow ones out there when I start. Do you get racers out there with very little track experience?

The only place I really know my lap times are at Brands Indy (my local) where I can do around 54/55 seconds on my ZX6R, would I be right in saying 52 secs is what the faster guys do?

I know what you mean about not improving from doing more trackdays, although I'm hoping that the CSS will help me improve my riding as its bloody expensive!!

Would it be possible to do some races this season, or am I to late to start now? Do they still do the ACU courses?

Originally Posted by sweepdoggydog

As I have no experience at racing I assumed I would be one of the slow ones out there when I start. Do you get racers out there with very little track experience?

The only place I really know my lap times are at Brands Indy (my local) where I can do around 54/55 seconds on my ZX6R, would I be right in saying 52 secs is what the faster guys do?

I know what you mean about not improving from doing more trackdays, although I'm hoping that the CSS will help me improve my riding as its bloody expensive!!

Would it be possible to do some races this season, or am I to late to start now? Do they still do the ACU courses?

You are right to be realistic about the pace out there, things are quick at the sharp end, but there will always be be other rookies, some faster than others, some more experienced that others, but still slower. If you could do 55s on a race prepped SV under race conditions (assuming the ZX6R was stock road bike? this sounds feasible) , then I think you good to go now and prolly won't be wobbling round at the back!!

I think you can join the clubs and ACU at any time, not sure about the ACU training though. What club were you thinking of racing with? Perhaps not all of them will insist on training first?? Or is it the ACU themselves that insist on it now? You'll have to look that up (or hopefully someone else on here can answer?) as I have no idea (didn't have to do it when I started racing ).

Cheers for all the help Blue,

Going back to the original point, do you think it would be best to go for a cheaper £1500 bike or spend a bit more?

Where would you recommend looking for a bike?

I think I will probably join Bemsee as I'm from south east London, so I think it is probably the most locally based club.

Cheers