Track days - best way to get started

[TurbosSuck]

Hi folks,

I want next year to be the year that I finally get myself onto the track, but I'm wondering whether I should get a cheap track suitable bike (SV650) straight away, or whether I would be better off hiring a bike for several sessions next year and buying something better (ZX-6R) the year after? I will also have to buy all of the gear as my road kit is unsuitable.

Cheers

[dibblecorse]

If completely new to it, then I'd book a rental bike, a few well regarded outfits out there like MFM and Smallboys who have a range and are also there on the day to assist, so just turn up and ride ...

[robinh73]

If it is your very first time out on track, I would personally look at hiring a bike. While it may not be hugely cheap, it would be a good and safe introduction to track riding with a well prepared machine. An SV650 is a great bike, but they are also hugely popular on the race front too, so a decent one will be pricey. A 600 is a great track bike (don't let people tell you that a 1000 is the only bike to have, as they probably haven't ridden a 600) and there is so much choice in this field. Don't restrict yourself to just a ZX6, all the Japanese machines are superb.

[Harry H]

Buy second hand sports 600, buy second hand leathers off ebay, book track day in novice group, Check oil, tyres, pads etc before. Go out and have fun.

If you enjoy it expect to have an empty bank account.

If it's not for you, flog it all on ebay again. Buy well in the first place and you'll lose very little.

People over think the track day thing at the beginning. It's 10 times safer than riding on the road and 10 times more fun. Break yourself in slowly and you won't break yourself.

[TurbosSuck]

Thanks for the suggestions, those Smallboy track rental prices are actually pretty reasonable at £199 for a full day on a CBR650F. It would still add up pretty quickly if I did a few of them though...

The only reason that I'm not automatically leaning towards rentals is that for me this is not a 'do a track day' bucket list kind of thing, but rather something that I have always wanted to do and will hopefully be just the first step to a garage full of bikes and a full on track day obsession. I also like the idea of having something a bit more exciting along side my current winter steed.

How did everyone else get started? Seems like quite a few people have friends who are already into it and can show them the ropes.

[Bikesalot]

Be prepared to have enormous amounts of fun, make loads of new friends and spend enormous amounts of money.

[Freakuk]

Certainly to assess if this something you want to get into I'd hire a bike for a few trackdays before committing to the £££ on a bike.

If the bug bites it can become addictive and before you know it it'll be bike, leathers, boots, helmet, gloves, tyre warmers, paddock stands, van... the list just goes on and on.

I'd suggest look at smaller capacity bikes and learn to ride them fast, carrying corner speed, look at Ron Haslam, CSS for coaching too.

Weirdly I did my first trackday (on my roadbike) back around 2000 with Matt (Who is smallboy) and a group of others just mucking around.

[robinh73]

I would still say that for your first day, hire a bike. Matt at Smallboy is very good and has some good bikes, such as the CBR650. Don't rush out and buy a cheap bike to get a taster on. Chances are you will get hooked and want to do more, so do some homework and find out what bikes fetch what sort of prices. R6s and ZX6s will fetch higher money than GSXR600s and CBR600s, as they are more popular for racing on for various reasons, but I would say that a £4-5,000 budget will get a good 600 hopefully with spare wheels and a few other bits and bobs.
I got started on trackdays in about 2008 and after 3 of them, decided to go racing.

[black-k1]

Lots of advice here:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[TurbosSuck]

Thanks black-k1, I think I've read that before but I'll definitely give it another read.

So it seems like the general consensus is rent first, it would certainly be one less thing to worry about knowing that it has been properly prepared and setup. My next question would be whether it's better to book a generic track day and hire the bike separately, or should I be looking at one of those all in one packages where you get the bike and gear and tuition all included?

Then there is the question of circuits, I had a look and MSVT do novice only days but only at Snetterton and Brands. My local circuit is Cadwell but I've heard that can be a bit narrow?

robinh73, I'm intrigued, why do some bikes become more popular for track days or racing? Is it because they are more reliable or more tuneable, or is it due to parts availability?

[Berz]

Nothing wrong with Cadwell, it's great fun. I've only been to Cadwell and Anglesey so I don't know how narrow it is compared to other places, but I've never noticed any problems because of it.

[Harry H]

Have a look at Hopp rider training. They do days at Cadwell.

It's more about training than a full on track day but you get more than enough time to give it the full beens. You can turn up at one of their days on anything road legal. On the last one I went too there was everything from an R1M to a bloke on a Honda Silverwing scraping the boards on every corner.

Certainly give you a taste on what riding on a circuit is all about and take away some of the mystique.

[robinh73]

TurbosSuck said:

Thanks black-k1, I think I've read that before but I'll definitely give it another read.

So it seems like the general consensus is rent first, it would certainly be one less thing to worry about knowing that it has been properly prepared and setup. My next question would be whether it's better to book a generic track day and hire the bike separately, or should I be looking at one of those all in one packages where you get the bike and gear and tuition all included?

Then there is the question of circuits, I had a look and MSVT do novice only days but only at Snetterton and Brands. My local circuit is Cadwell but I've heard that can be a bit narrow?

robinh73, I'm intrigued, why do some bikes become more popular for track days or racing? Is it because they are more reliable or more tuneable, or is it due to parts availability?

I think I would look at getting your own gear, but hiring the bike alongside a track day. Do a No Limits day, they are superb. As for tuition, maybe do the first session without tuition and then if you feel you need some pointers, then seek out an instructor. Circuit wise, I would book a circuit that is near, so Cadwell in your case. Don't go worrying about width, layout etc., it will all fall into place once you are out there.
As for bikes, the R6 and ZX6 are easier to get more power out of without spending lots on the engine. I ran a few R6s for my first years in racing and they were superb, but I never quite felt at home on them. I am 6'1" and always felt I was sitting on the bike. I also ran a GSXR600 (despite the spend required on the engine to get the power) and loved it. Awesome chassis, lovely riding position and massively underrated. I managed to get 132hp out of it, but it did cost me £4,500 to get there.

[graylag]

Berz said:

Nothing wrong with Cadwell, it's great fun. I've only been to Cadwell and Anglesey so I don't know how narrow it is compared to other places, but I've never noticed any problems because of it.

You should be able to tell the difference in width between Cadwell and Anglesey. Anglesey is huge compared to Cadwell.

[graylag]

TurbosSuck said:

Thanks black-k1, I think I've read that before but I'll definitely give it another read.

So it seems like the general consensus is rent first, it would certainly be one less thing to worry about knowing that it has been properly prepared and setup. My next question would be whether it's better to book a generic track day and hire the bike separately, or should I be looking at one of those all in one packages where you get the bike and gear and tuition all included?

Then there is the question of circuits, I had a look and MSVT do novice only days but only at Snetterton and Brands. My local circuit is Cadwell but I've heard that can be a bit narrow?

robinh73, I'm intrigued, why do some bikes become more popular for track days or racing? Is it because they are more reliable or more tuneable, or is it due to parts availability?

You don’t need a Novice only day, you just need to book into Novice group at any trackday. Hire the bike, book the track and just enjoy it. A lot of people forget that the cost of hiring a bike means no fuel bill, no tyre bill and no consumables of your own being used up either.

Get some free instruction for a couple of sessions in you’re on a No Limits day too.

It’s miles more fun just turning up in a car, chucking your leathers on and going out for a ride.

[graeme4130]

TurbosSuck said:

Thanks for the suggestions, those Smallboy track rental prices are actually pretty reasonable at £199 for a full day on a CBR650F. It would still add up pretty quickly if I did a few of them though...

The only reason that I'm not automatically leaning towards rentals is that for me this is not a 'do a track day' bucket list kind of thing, but rather something that I have always wanted to do and will hopefully be just the first step to a garage full of bikes and a full on track day obsession. I also like the idea of having something a bit more exciting along side my current winter steed.

How did everyone else get started? Seems like quite a few people have friends who are already into it and can show them the ropes.

I'd still recommend going down the rental route for the first couple of days. If, for no other reason, to give you an idea of what they're all about and what sort of bike you actually want.
I know plenty of people that have gone out and bought what they thought they wanted, and then when they've got a bit more involved in the trackday scene, wished they'd bought something all together different
Alternatively, if you have a bigger budget, try one of the rental/instructional days - Silverstone Masterclass is a full day on the track during a trackday, and you could rent an R1M to try too. Or California Superbike School, which isn't on a trackday as such, but you could rent a Ducati for the day, and they run at places like Donington or Brands hatch (they don't run at Silverstone Stowe circuit anymore as that's now owned by Aston Martin)
Matt at Smallboys is a good guy, and you know if you're renting from him, you'll at least have a fully working bike, and they'll do all the wheel changes, fuelling and tyre warmers etc for you

[Dakkon]

graeme4130 said:

TurbosSuck said:

Thanks for the suggestions, those Smallboy track rental prices are actually pretty reasonable at £199 for a full day on a CBR650F. It would still add up pretty quickly if I did a few of them though...

The only reason that I'm not automatically leaning towards rentals is that for me this is not a 'do a track day' bucket list kind of thing, but rather something that I have always wanted to do and will hopefully be just the first step to a garage full of bikes and a full on track day obsession. I also like the idea of having something a bit more exciting along side my current winter steed.

How did everyone else get started? Seems like quite a few people have friends who are already into it and can show them the ropes.

I'd still recommend going down the rental route for the first couple of days. If, for no other reason, to give you an idea of what they're all about and what sort of bike you actually want.
I know plenty of people that have gone out and bought what they thought they wanted, and then when they've got a bit more involved in the trackday scene, wished they'd bought something all together different
Alternatively, if you have a bigger budget, try one of the rental/instructional days - Silverstone Masterclass is a full day on the track during a trackday, and you could rent an R1M to try too. Or California Superbike School, which isn't on a trackday as such, but you could rent a Ducati for the day, and they run at places like Donington or Brands hatch (they don't run at Silverstone Stowe circuit anymore as that's now owned by Aston Martin)
Matt at Smallboys is a good guy, and you know if you're renting from him, you'll at least have a fully working bike, and they'll do all the wheel changes, fuelling and tyre warmers etc for you

Just to add to what Graeme has written, I have done the Californian Superbike School level 1 & 2, and I hired their Ducati's, in all honesty, I would advise using your own bike for that. I am looking at booking level 3 early next year and I am going to use my own bike. The cost of adding the hire of one of their bikes significantly changes the cost of the day and given that it is not a trackday I think the risks are minimal of you actually having any sort of incident.

For a full on trackday, I do agree with hiring for the first couple of days.

[Killboy]

Personally I'd go do something like California Superbike School first, just to get used to it without the pressure of a TD. I did a TD (and have done several in a car), and then did California Superbike school, and wished I'd have done it the other way around. Mostly because I found the track too busy to get comfortable the first time out.

[Dakkon]

Killboy said:

Personally I'd go do something like California Superbike School first, just to get used to it without the pressure of a TD. I did a TD (and have done several in a car), and then did California Superbike school, and wished I'd have done it the other way around. Mostly because I found the track too busy to get comfortable the first time out.

Agreed, that or Ron Haslam School.

CSS is a maximum of 3 to one with an instructor who will be with your for the entire day and you can ask him anything. They are very keen to help you get better.

CSS level one is a useful course to do with helpful stuff for road or track. Once you get to level 2 & 3 it is really more track focused techniques that they are teaching and I think doing additional trackday to practise what they are teaching is the way to grow and improve as a rider on track. It also gives you track exposure in a very controlled environment which I think would help in making your first trackday less daunting.

Another option is that more advanced rider groups offer something too. I am a member of TVAM and doing my advanced test and they off track skills days, for me this is Castle Combe or Thruxton and they have intructors who are there to help you progress, but this would be on your own bike, but not too expensive. I have done one of these and plan to do more.

[TurbosSuck]

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

When I originally posted I was definitely swaying towards buying a sportier bike to compliment my daily hack and using that, now I'm almost certainly going to rent, at least for the first year. I was thinking about this most of yesterday evening and I think I've come up with a pretty good plan:

1) Buy all of the gear I need over the next few winter months

2) Do one 'complete package' track day with training and bike hire such as California Superbike School or Ron Haslam, or possibly Hopp Rider Training on my own bike.

3) Do a couple more track days with hire bikes, probably from Smallboy or similar.

4) Next year buy a track bike and say goodbye to all of my money

Also, I didn't realise when you hired they took care of the fuel and everything - That's amazing!