Noob needs some advice on how to get started.

[k38s]

cooker1;185307 wrote: Okay try again New to trackday scene only done 1 weekend at BHF bought my sv from a guy in ohio 4 1800 bucks he is an A rider in AMA and a bunch of other alphabet groups , it dont cost that much to get a good bike . I have been riding a looooong time and it will take a looooong time to out ride this sv it is an awesome machine just ask anyone who rides one ! It is not all about HP its about how fast you get around track which Im working hard on ! OK thats all I got to say on this see yall at RA in 2 weeks !

Thanks for the post cooker1. I will have to keep looking. Most of the sv's I have seen are around 2500 - 3500. I got some time and I can wait for the right bike. How was your first track day on the motorcycle?

 

[ct1200]

I've done 2 days so far...
Day 1- You can't wipe that grin off your face all day n night.
Day 2- Ok, how do I pay for tires, trailer, etc etc etc...

One thing I'll say is don't go cheap on the riding gear, good comfortable gear put my mind a little more at ease to know I'd make it to work on Monday, to pay for the above.

The ppl here are great, GO SAY HI to them, they are busy prepping but most will make time for you if they know its your 1st day.

 

[Kegger]

Yeah, K38s, that ride share probably wont materialize, but I am sure there is someone in your area that can help you out. Worse comes to worse you can rent a U-haul MC trailer for 40 bucks

 

[noobinacan]

k38s;185248 wrote: Tracking a motorcycle is that much more fun? I hope so because I really get a kick out of the STI!! I gotta be honest though. It scares me a little to think about tracking a bike :notsure: I almost bought a track bike when I was in college but then I got married, more school, kids, blah blah blah. It is now or never for me so I think I am going to give it a try and see how it goes.

I am seeing a lot of sub $3000 Yamaha, Susuki, and Honda 600's. Most of the SV650 I have seen are about 3500 - 4000. Why do you like the R6 for a track only weapon, also is a SV650 that much cheaper to run and that much easier to learn on?

Thanks again. You guys have already been a ton of help.

There was a time when I had to decide between car vs bike. you'll be doing more passing (that's the fun part if you ask me) on the bike. Its easier to go around people, vs in a car you can be stuck behind someone.
the feeling is more intense also, my car is my daily driver...if I wreck it, its a DONE deal.

I have a Mazdaspeed3 and I've stopped doing mods to it. No matter what I do, it still won't get me the sensation a 600 does on a track.

look for 05 + 600's
that's when all of them got inverted forks. bigger/better brakes and frame...got lighter etc.
like several folks have said..
when you get one...don't show up straight to the track with it. spend a month or two and familiarize yourself with it.
they are violently fast after 10k on the tach.

R6 ergonomics and power delivery are setup for the track more so than street.
cbr600rr ergonomics are all rounder. track/commute/tour, it does all of it well.

narrow down your bike list and sit on one and see how you feel.

 

[fitz]

noobinacan;185393 wrote: when you get one...don't show up straight to the track with it. spend a month or two and familiarize yourself with it.

Lol, so that's how you do it huh?

The first time I rode a sport bike was when I rolled my R6 on to the track that I just bought a week before. There are a few things I wish I would have learned eariler, mainly the shifting on the R6 but the rest wasn't an issue. In a way I think it was better for me, I had no bad habbits to break. CRs said do this, so I did it. What's kind of funny is I have no idea how to ride my R6 slow, I'm more nervous in the padock than I'm on the track. I would be a total mess if I tried to ride a sportbike on the street, to me, the street and track are as different as night and day. :dunno:

fitz

 

[rk97]

k38s;185310 wrote: I will have to keep looking. Most of the sv's I have seen are around 2500 - 3500. I got some time and I can wait for the right bike.

There's a pretty big price drop between first gen and second gen SV's. I don't know the exact year they changed; maybe 2004?

In any case, the most significant difference between the generations is fuel injection. I will say that FI is super convenient on cold mornings, but if it does foul up, you can't pull it apart in your garage to work on it...

If you can tolerate carbs, a first gen SV should be in the $1800-$2500 range, and pretty nicely set up for that price. Buying anything that USED TO be competitive in a racing segment is a great way to get deals, because the market gets flooded when everyone steps up to the next best thing.

If you're not sold on an SV650, I wouldn't shy away from older (~'98-'05) 600's either. There are some great deals in that range. You'll have slightly higher tire bills, but on bigger tracks, the extra 15 mph of top-speed keeps the straights from seeming too long, and in a trackday environment, being on a lower powered bike can get frustrating at times - it forces you to learn more, but it's frustrating until you do.

 

[Gorecki]

I’ll give you a breakdown of what I did. About two years ago, I started realizing I really wanted to ride again. I had ridden street for years but not for a long time. I didn’t exactly know what direction I wanted to go other than I don’t care for cruisers at all, sport touring wasn’t out of the picture but a crotch rocket sure seems like fun. But at this stage, it didn’t matter. What I needed before anything else was licensing. So knowing DMV based processes were notoriously lame and even wrong, I found the MSF training would get me the certificate to get my license more easily. They have a BRC (basic rider course) that takes like a week, geared toward pretty much the absolute novice. They also had BRCII which the alternate basic rider course, only one day! Book school and testing in the morning, riding class and testing in the afternoon. Glorious! I walked out with ticket in hand heading to DMV the next morning.

Now I begin (well months later actually) bike selection. Again at that time, track riding and related addictions were nowhere in my thinking or even knowledge of how organized it is. But I settled in after lots and lots of research a sport style was what I wanted. To save you from the floundering details my initial choice was a Kawasaki 650r, a twin very much like the SV 650 mentioned throughout this thread. But it was the ZX-6R was such a beautiful piece of machine, was reviewed so well and was a BEAST compared to the 650r the temptation was strong, so sure enough I walked into the dealership intending on walking away with a 650r and instead walked away with the ZX-6R.

Honestly I was a little afraid of it! The rider profile was so low (never had a sport before) and I quickly concluded there was so much more to this machine than sitting back and enjoying the scenery! So I began to READ MY ASS OFF! Total Control, Twist of the Wrist, Videos galore and subscribing to places I could as questions. In the meantime I concluded this track riding thing is a freaking cool idea, but there was absolutely no way I was going to take my shiny new machine into potential crash central. So of course I began to seek out a dedicated crash (I mean track) bike.

I couldn’t sink a lot of money into a second bike so after lots of research and questions I went into the ‘least expensive track ready as possible’ bike search. I was focusing on the I4 600 because my street was an I4 600 and it is deemed a good median machine I would be able to learn lots of riding on and even possibly never out grow it. What I tried to spearhead was an older Yamaha R6 as they has such a grand track record throughout their entire production life. I ended up with an older Kawasaki ZX-6R. Radically different than the new ZX-6R I already had but in some ways, similar.

As I mentioned, ‘track ready’ was as I discovered on a low budget also meaning ‘needs attention’. But I have learned MASSIVE amounts about the machine by fixing, replacing and maintaining bits on the machine. It has been a priceless education that truthfully hasn’t been all that expensive.

So, my first official TD is in June with these fine people.

The advice for you I would have is to realize your questions here have in so many words ‘opened a book’ and I’m here to tell you. IT’S A REALLY, REALLY BIG BOOK! :rtfm:

Enjoy the process!

 

[betarace]

this may be helpful
http://cid-63f638059cc62354.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Keith%20Code/Keith.Code-A.Twist.Of.The.Wrist.Volume.II.pdf

poster/link not known to me

 

[trailmug]

It's my opinion that a lot of the reasons 600s are not recommended for learning or re-learning on the street don't apply nearly as heavily in the track world. You're not going to have the bike "surprise you" and race up into the powerband when the rear goes through a chuck hole or over a painted line, or veer into another lane because you got surprised by a power wheelie born from a careless downshift, etc, etc. One possible thought is that if you have any desire to take a motorcycle skills test to get a license endorsement, it's nearly impossible to do it (at least in Indiana) on a 600 sportbike. The turns required are too tight for ram-air-accommodating steering heads.

I agree that a good share of people learn to be very, very fast on "lightweight" bikes like SVs. Really, I can't imagine a better way to get better at passing in the corners. The only frustration I can fathom is having to re-take "parker-screamers" that blast by you on the straight and take slow, abrupt, nasty lines in the corners. But you can always pit out and put half a lap between you.

As far as the CBR goes, I've ridden a friend's, and it has smooth, unintimidating upper-midrange-biased power delivery and compact ergonomics that I think would be a good introduction to track riding, and would preclude a future itch to need to "upgrade." Plus, I believe the out-of-the-box suspension might be more sorted for track riding.

 

[k38s]

I just want to thank everyone. Your comments have been an immense help in getting me pointed in the right direction. The people on this site are super friendly and willing to share their knowledge. I guess I kinda expected lots of testosterone and not so much support. I am glad I was mistaken.

Thanks again.

Dan

 

[tiggen]

My first track bike as a 03-04 CBR600RR. Still my most favorite bike I've ridden. Super planted feeling, super forgiving. Parts (esp bodywork) can be expensive; something to think about. If I had to do it all over again, I might get an SV just b/c of cost (so many spares out there from racers), but I don't think you can go wrong either way.

 

[cooker1]

k38s;185310 wrote: Thanks for the post cooker1. I will have to keep looking. Most of the sv's I have seen are around 2500 - 3500. I got some time and I can wait for the right bike. How was your first track day on the motorcycle?

My 1st day at BHF was awesome took some time to get in the groove been riding on street all my life . The most important thing is to listen to the CRs and have fun dont worry about fast it will come soon enough . Im slow but I listen well and have a blast on the 2nd day I was rollin a little faster and hittin the line with a few F-ups but at the end of the weekend the bike and me were still in 1 piece . Just keep lookin for a bike lots out there try WERA 13x forums lots of bikes 4 sale !

 

[rk97]

Not as many as there used to be. For better or worse, WERA separated their classifieds into www.weraclassifieds.com and now charges a few bucks to list your bike. There are a lot fewer ads than there used to be.

I got my first track bike off the Nesba board and my second off the WERA board.

 

[noobinacan]

k38s;185608 wrote: I just want to thank everyone. Your comments have been an immense help in getting me pointed in the right direction. The people on this site are super friendly and willing to share their knowledge. I guess I kinda expected lots of testosterone and not so much support. I am glad I was mistaken.

Thanks again.

Dan

you wait till you show up to a event...everyone is very cool and laid back...
all the testosterone intimidation is on the WERA site, cause now we're talking racing!!! opcorn:

 

[PJZOCC624]

Look up/PM "JeffH" on here. He's currently on a '05 600RR, his previous bike was a SV650 (dont know the year) that took him to "A", and he has an Audi that he does track days with. He'd be a good guy to bounce ideas off of. Plus he's "super cool"...

 

[ckw373]

k38s;185143 wrote: Hi everyone. My name is Dan.

I have been feeling the itch to try riding a motorcycle on a track day. I have a car that I track regularly (08 STI) but have always thought taking a bike out there seemed like a lot of fun. Problem is that I have not ridden a motorcycle since high school (had a 1988 Honda Hurricane). I have been looking in the classifieds and have seen a few that look interesting but I really have no idea what direction to go or what to look for.

My question is this. Would a CBR 600 be too much bike to start out on. (Keep in mind I just want to track day the thing and have fun, no racing aspirations for this guy). I would like a bike that will be forgiving to learn on but one I can grow with as well. Really, the only reason I thought about a CBR 600 is that is what I rode on the street in the past, so any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks tons.

Dan

Hey Dan. Welcome to the addiction.

In my usual form, I will state up front that I am no expert. I am new at this as well. However, I was asking these exact questions about what bike to start out on and buy because I did one weekend at the track and was hooked. I owned a 2005 SV650 in complete street trim at the time. I went back and forth a bunch of times....SV.....no 600.....no SV.....on and on. I wanted my track bike to be fuel injected, and I found that the 2nd generation SVs were harder to find, more expensive, and farther away. I looked and looked and contemplated buying a bunch of different bikes, anything from early 2000s and newer.

Then, a buddy of mine that I work with (thanks Joe!) made me a deal on his GSXR 600 that I couldn't pass up. It was practically in my back yard already, had a very traceable history, and was very nice. I am extremely happy with my bike. It is a very common model that a lot of people have a lot of experience on and parts are extremely plentiful. I have heard many times that if you want to learn to be really fast to get a slow bike, but I still feel that I can learn just as much on the 600. I think it us up to the rider to be in the correct mindset to learn. I ask a billion questions and listen to the feedback I get. I have purposely followed slower bikes around the track because I knew they were running a particular section better than I was and I wanted to see what they were doing. I didn't just blow by them on the front straight to not screw up my lap time (I don't even own a lap timer anyway). In my first full day in the Intermediate group, I actually found that out of the bikes that I caught around the track, most of the time they were holding me up in the corners, not on the straights. But like always, there's always somebody on a liter bike that you can't just motor on by on the front straight that you will have to work to past.

The 600 has been great to me so far. I had never ridden one until I bought the one I have now. I owned a GS500 and then the SV650. It has been a very confidence-inspiring bike for me and I didn't find that the power was too much to learn on.

Just my opinion.

-Chris

 

[dudette]

The newer the better. Alot of the newer stuff has everything you need except steel brake lines and rearsets so you're comforable. I have an 07 cbr600rr, I've put aftermarket rearsets, some case covers and race plastics(crashed the street one's). Rides awesome...love it.
You might find something on were,ccs or locally and here of course. Good luck.
Donna
07 cbr600rr "626"