What Track / Race bike?? decisions, decisions??? any ideas?
Discussion
Just a question for all you trackday addicts or racers.
I bought a steel frame CBR 600 about 4 years ago from a lad in leeds who raced it in the DP race series. Apparently he did exceptionally well on it with top 3 places a number of times through the time he rode the bike. I have a dyno readout for the bike at 113bhp which against my 2 mates who have them, it's a load faster. the bike has been brilliant and in the intermediate group I was caining all the road bike 1000's and most other things out there.
So, i was doing Oulton Park on it last week, first trackday for a year and when in the fast group i'm finding that the 1000's race bikes are pulling away from me on the straights. please don't state the obvious that there is 60bhp difference... but I reckon that it's time for me to sell the 600 and get a 1000. if anyone wants to know more then drop me a pm as the bike will be for sale soon.
so my question is, working on a budget of between £2500 to £3500, i've seen a number of GSXR's, R1's and ZX10's.. but which one is the better one to go for?
I have a GSXR1000 k3 as my roadbike, so i'm use to the handling of this, but am i missing out on something not looking at the others?
I'm also wondering if i'm better with a past race bike which has been cained for the past few years, but better specced. or just a normal road bike, someone's put onto the track? obviously not as well kitted up, but not ridden so hard?
i'm unlikely to race the bike as i don't have time, but would like to get another 8-10 trackdays in this year, so something capable.
Any advice would be good.
cheers.
I bought a steel frame CBR 600 about 4 years ago from a lad in leeds who raced it in the DP race series. Apparently he did exceptionally well on it with top 3 places a number of times through the time he rode the bike. I have a dyno readout for the bike at 113bhp which against my 2 mates who have them, it's a load faster. the bike has been brilliant and in the intermediate group I was caining all the road bike 1000's and most other things out there.
So, i was doing Oulton Park on it last week, first trackday for a year and when in the fast group i'm finding that the 1000's race bikes are pulling away from me on the straights. please don't state the obvious that there is 60bhp difference... but I reckon that it's time for me to sell the 600 and get a 1000. if anyone wants to know more then drop me a pm as the bike will be for sale soon.
so my question is, working on a budget of between £2500 to £3500, i've seen a number of GSXR's, R1's and ZX10's.. but which one is the better one to go for?
I have a GSXR1000 k3 as my roadbike, so i'm use to the handling of this, but am i missing out on something not looking at the others?
I'm also wondering if i'm better with a past race bike which has been cained for the past few years, but better specced. or just a normal road bike, someone's put onto the track? obviously not as well kitted up, but not ridden so hard?
i'm unlikely to race the bike as i don't have time, but would like to get another 8-10 trackdays in this year, so something capable.
Any advice would be good.
cheers.
race bikes (as opposed to trackday 'race' bikes) are typically far better maintained than 99% of the road bikes out there.
in terms of the usual suspects, you may be better off with an early zx10 for the money you'te talking about. beware that the kwaks stock suspension is far harder than the other bikes in your list. The power delivery is also far more savage. They also *feel* a lot shorter wheelbase. They are relatively easy to spin the back wheel on, so be careful of highsiding it first time out, esp if you are on slicks.
in terms of the usual suspects, you may be better off with an early zx10 for the money you'te talking about. beware that the kwaks stock suspension is far harder than the other bikes in your list. The power delivery is also far more savage. They also *feel* a lot shorter wheelbase. They are relatively easy to spin the back wheel on, so be careful of highsiding it first time out, esp if you are on slicks.
I've not seen that website, so thanks for that, just been looking on fleabay at bike really as I didn't know where else has a good selection of them.
I think you're right with the race bike being looked after better than the road bikes, but how reliable are the engines?
to be fair this 600 i have runs as sweet as, but i'm sure there are plenty out there that have had there problems.?
I think you're right with the race bike being looked after better than the road bikes, but how reliable are the engines?
to be fair this 600 i have runs as sweet as, but i'm sure there are plenty out there that have had there problems.?
chubbsr1 said:
I've not seen that website, so thanks for that, just been looking on fleabay at bike really as I didn't know where else has a good selection of them.
I think you're right with the race bike being looked after better than the road bikes, but how reliable are the engines?
to be fair this 600 i have runs as sweet as, but i'm sure there are plenty out there that have had there problems.?
get a super stock bike, they will only have been blueprinted (at best) so will not be much more stressed than factory units on prodn bikes. you don't need 200 rwhp. crisp throttle response is more importantI think you're right with the race bike being looked after better than the road bikes, but how reliable are the engines?
to be fair this 600 i have runs as sweet as, but i'm sure there are plenty out there that have had there problems.?
chubbsr1 said:
yeah, to be fair, i can't see myself needing 200bhp, i was thinking of 160bhp as being quite enough.
I've heard that the ZX10's are a handful compared to the others available, does anyone have first hand experience of this on a track?
Yes, I highsided Paul Wilson's ZX10 (owner of 100% bikes) at Jerez back in 2004 due to getting on the power too early when the slicks weren't fully warm on the left hand side. Cue one slipped disc and a 120mph high side! Also due to Paul liking the suspension absolutely solid like on the old 250cc bikes he used to race. Despite me being almost twice as heavy, it barely moved!I've heard that the ZX10's are a handful compared to the others available, does anyone have first hand experience of this on a track?
Other than that, they corner like on rails.
Edited by fergus on Wednesday 28th May 16:26
So, I picked up a lovely GSXR1000 K5 ex british superstock bike last night, it's got 175bhp at the rear, and has a garage full of spares with it.
had a quick blast up the road on it last night and it certainly doesn't hang about, front wheel still lifting in 4th gear..!!
was going to get up to croft today, but the rain is hammering down, so oulton next week for the first proper try out...
had a quick blast up the road on it last night and it certainly doesn't hang about, front wheel still lifting in 4th gear..!!
was going to get up to croft today, but the rain is hammering down, so oulton next week for the first proper try out...
Other end of the scale . . . I got a cat B write off K4 gsxr750, it's got a few nice bits like nrc covers, brembo master cyl, clipons, rearsets, power commander etc paid £2k for it last year, been absolutely perfect, great fun. But I guess it was a risk to start with, could have been a bag of nails.
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