Road Legal Track Bikes

Want to get more track time this year, but as mine's still relatively
new(ish - 1999) I'm a bit precious about taking it.

Any recco's for a £2k-ish track bike that's happy on the road? Something I
can drop as I learn and not worry too much about the cost.

Thinking of an older version of mine or an RVF400 at the moment...

 

Wanna buy a ZX7R?

 

Hmmm, R6? Mate of mine might be flogging a track bike one soon. Rich
bugger bought 2 plus a load of spares off ebay for track days and has
put another decent spare one together with a mate who did the same
thing. He's handy with spanners and there's pics of him on it at
Snetterton - it's no dog. More details if you need em.

 

Don't think yer gonna find an RVF for that money. VFR(NC30) maybe, but not
RVF(NC35).

Why not spend the £2k on renting bikes[1] at the circuits you go to? It'd
cover about 8-10 track days and you'd not need to worry about repair costs
if you *did* bin your rental bike.

dave

[1] I mean renting a track bike from a company such as Lady Snoots, not a
road bike....

 

Maybe, but if it's the one from your post a few days ago you'd get more by
flogging the bits.

 

Judging by the responses so far perhaps I should've been clearer - I'm after
something road-legal.

 

Mr. Fantastic says...

Yam FZR600, should be loads about in the 2K range.

 

I've just got a '98 Zx-7R which cost 1800 quid.

 

Aye, I sold my 98 GSXR750 for just over that and it would have made a
good track bike.

It's made an even nicer road-bike though with the work Steve's put
into it.

 

It's going on the track later this year as well. Brakes are *miles*
better now that I've had the hoses and lever changed.

Mind you I'm not sure it's worth a lot more than I paid you for it

 

Your original post made it clear, but we're just trying to be helpful based
on the other criteria....

Why does it need to be road legal - you want to hone your track skills,
don't you?

Road legality adds large amounts of wedge onto sorted bikes.

Why not have another ZXR that's track only and has sorted
suspension/motor/tyres etc for £2k, rather than a MoTed/taxed/insured hound
that you'lll crash anyway cos it seizes or the Cheng Slimes don't grip or it
bounces 'cos the dampings gone etc etc etc?

Dave

 

So you had the braided hoses done then? Good choice.

I reckon about 2.5k. The mileage must be racking up a bit now.

 

I thought about this and the main reason I could come up with was,
"getting it to and from the track".

If you have a road legal bike then obviously you can ride it. If you
don't then it means trailers and towbars or vans. Either of which
could cost the difference between a road-legal and non-road-legal
bike.

 

No connection to this but saw it on the Thundercat site

http://groups.msn.com/YamahaThunder...LastModified=4675479310320104424&all_topics=1

 

But my suggestion was to use the money on renting track bikes which are
delivered. OK, so there's no bike you own, but then there's no bike you own
to repair either.... £2k would go quite far on rental 400s.....

 

Hmm I wasn't expecting much of a difference to be honest but I was
amazed. They are even better after a weekend in the garage with the
lever pulled back.

What should I do next?

Yeah I'd say that. I guess when you put it like that 18 months usage and
a £500 profit for about £500 outlay (other than chains, tyres and other
consumables) isn't too bad.

It's due for a 36k service as soon as I book it in. I'm going to ask
Streetbike what they think it's worth but to be honest I'm tempted just
to keep it now 'for ever'!

 

If you're going to use Streetbike, I'd book it now. I booked mine in
last week for it's 7.5k and the earliest I could get was Sat 24th
July.

I reckon they'd say around 1800, but I think it would depend on what
you wanted to buy from them.

 

Noted, ta! Out of interest do you happen to know if they give you a bike
to borrow in general if you ask? I got that VFR for a few days last year
but that's because they'd mucked me around and taken over a week doing
the brakes. If I don't get a bike it's a bit of a ballache getting back
from Halesowen, I might go to Sutton MC instead since at least I can get
the bus back.

As I suspected, it's just not going to be worth trading until I take the
plunge and get a brand new/nearly new one.

 

Whenever I've had a courtesy bike of them it's been on a
first-come-first-served basis, meaning get there bloody early. They
won't book you one and you generally have to make do with whatever
they have a demo bike of. I've had a Bandit 6, SV650S and Burgervan
400 so far but now I don't bother asking and just get someone to pick
me up.

Worth asking though when you book it in.

 

Cheers. TBH that would be okay actually since all I need is to get home
(or to work) and then get back over to pick it up when done. If it's
going to be more than a day I've got a company car I can use so anything
would do. Getting picked up could prove painful since Claire is away for
a lot of July/August.

I will do.

Ta