Buyer Beware: Frank Babuska Sr

That is a valid point.

And that is why every single race motor build that leaves Livengood's shop, was built by him and him only. There are obviously several other guys that work there and have different jobs and get involved in stuff. But when it comes to race motors, if his name is going on it, he is going to be the one building it with his own hands. And he has tons of little tricks that he just isn't willing to pass on.

 

not to get off topic for too long..
all things equal? (both having awesome mapping and engine braking strategy, etc.) a little better. but the tune is actually where a LOT of performance comes from. I know some guys that have all kinds of expensive parts, but skimp on tuning, or trust "auto-tune" for mapping. A well tuned/mapped stock motor, will likely outperform a supersport built bike with average mapping.. and we are not talking just power. I'm also talking rideability. Ease of going fast on track. You can have a $7k superbike build, without good engine braking strategy, and GOOD mapping (i'm talking hours on a dyno sorting the closed to just open throttle stuff) , a guy will likely go FASTER on a stock motor, with good mapping. This is a fact, i'm one of those guys. And i see a few other riders spend $$$ on superbike motors (speaking of r6's from experience) but go faster on their "supersport" bike.

 

Absofuckinglutely. I have made those same comments many times. The tuning is where the magic happens (and where Livengood shines). If people are only worried about peak HP, they are really missing the big picture.

 

Keith Perry builds all Team Hammer's GSX-R600 engines. Barry McMahan builds all the GSX-R1000 engines. So far this season the MotoAmerica Supersport record is 7 podiums in four rounds.

Team Hammer stands behind the racebikes we sell. And so do I.

 

You must be really good to those guys as they've been with you a very long time. You can't beat that.

 

I've decided that when it's time to come off hiatus I'm going to buy a prepped bike. The time and expense of doing it myself was worth it when I enjoyed it, but now I just want to ride. Hammer will be my first phone call.

 

What if any parts do you pull out of the motor when you sell your old bikes? I understand that reputable teams always refresh the suspension/chassis/motors before they sell them, but am I the buyer, getting the exact same motor with the exact same parts as Team Hammer raced it?

Just trying to get an education on what a weekend club racer can reasonably expect to receive when buying from a pro level team.

 

I can't speak for any team other than Team Hammer, Inc., (now racing in MotoAmerica as M4 SportbikeTrackGear.com Suzuki), which has been in business and racing as a professional organization for 36 consecutive seasons (www.teamhammer.com).

But Team Hammer sells you exactly what it races. The exact same parts. Or new identical parts, if needed. Whatever you prefer. The Exact Same Parts.

We don't take anything out of it or change anything unless you want something different. For example, if you want to buy a MotoAmerica Superstock 600 bike but want to race it in club races that allow cut cylinder heads or cut cylinders, you might want the FIM Superstock-legal parts replaced with parts that have been cut to increase compression. But if we race them with Brembo master cylinders, they get sold with Brembo master cylinders. We race them with Ohlins suspension, and they get sold with the same Ohlins suspension we ran in the races.

The whole question of getting what you think you're getting, is why we started offering to sell them as they come off the track. As in, you can roll the bike away as soon as MotoAmerica releases it from parc ferme following the last race of the day, at the New Jersey finale. Or, you can come over to the shop, point at one of the racebikes, see it run on the dyno, and then buy it or see another bike you want to buy run on the dyno back to back with that bike. Or you can point at the fresh engine you want and we can install it. (We carry several spare, fresh engines on the truck.)

Xavier Zayat won four National Challenge races at the 2015 GNF. You could have bought that bike right then and there. Or you can buy something at the 2016 GNF at Barber or the 2016 ROC at Daytona. Or you can have one delivered for your use at the GNF or ROC.

Having said all that, these bikes are front-running, professionally prepared racebikes. They are NOT sold at fire-sale prices, and there are no cheap deals. But they are sold for a LOT less money than it would cost you to buy the parts and build the bike yourself, and get it set-up and tuned to be competitive, assuming you could do that or hire somebody else to do that. They are not cheap. But they do represent a huge value. And they do come backed by Team Hammer's guarantee that you are getting exactly what you ask for and pay for.

 

I have nothing to add, other than I need a Team Hammer bike! Question is, how do I convince the wife to pay for it?!

 

John29, you would not be offended if someone asks for a basic write up of the bike, as if it were an advertisement , to give the prospective seller would you? something in writing.. and i suspect you even have a waiver of some sort a buyer signs, to protect the business entity from any future liability ?

 

and Broome should get a dollar from BL for every time he types "livengood" LOL

 

Boy would have like eight million dollars or some shit.

 

I now have the urge to buy a Team Hammer bike....

 

No I would not be offended, and yes we have paperwork that would apply if, for example, somebody bought a perfectly good bike and happily raced it several weekends; then crashed it on the left side and subsequently called up and complained that suddenly it had stopped shifting correctly! (Yes, that happened once!)

 

2 dollars....

 

There is a big difference between buying a bike from a pro rider.....and an established professional team with sponsors. Do your research no matter who you buy a bike from, but if you are buying a bike from somebody like Team Hammer you will have no issues.

Hey John, Dave did a piece about 5 years ago for the Track Day Directory on buying bikes from AMA Teams. Maybe its worth while to repost it on RRW.com?

 

I was only thinking of stepping up to a better built SV, but now I am almost convinced to jump up to the meatgrinder class on a Hammer bike! Almost, lol.

Thanks for that in depth explanation of how your team does it John. Sounds like you set the gold standard for the selling of pro level race bikes.

 

Dude wanted one of our factory triumphs.

He had the option to buy a bike Rapp raced all season or one Fong got a podium on.

He chose the Rapp bike with certain changes for his rules along with a brand new fresh 0 mile motor.

Another case of giving the customer EXACTLY what they want.

I offer build progress sheets and pics as well as in Broome and Gillis case, 38727384838 messages durin the process

But the end result with their happiness and going above their expectations is much more satisfying than trying to explain why this or that wasn't done...