I raced a couple yrs in the late 80's. Raced a couple years in 2001/2.....2006-10. In the 1980's you bought a streetbike, put tires on it, and raced/learned, in AM. Leanred how to go-fast, learned the tracks. It was up to yu to try figure it all out, on oem streetbike. Now, you buy street-rocketship, then buy hi-$ susp, geometry, race-motors, etc......do TD's/Schools/instructors/coaches/camps/tracks for years....get winning lap times and Then you go race club-AM. My antique brain says, mmmmm ? sandbaggyish? I am so so far out of the loop. Or have things evolved to this is what it is now, what you are supposed to do, the norm, what is required. Is my brain trapped in the 1950's w/ rotary phone??? Not looking for fight/debate, just looking for conversation/opinions/updates. TY
Stock was taken out of stock long ago. Hence 20k dollar superstock bikes to run for a trophy. Lets be real, a stock off the showroom floor isn't going to win a 600 race. Novice or expert. Rules are way to open in my opinion for it to be a stock class. And yes, one on one mentoring is the now normal.
You used to be able to race/win on stock bike in production, amatuer and expert....Polen/etc/etc You could be dirt poor, and if you could get your oem bike to the track, you could win. It seems like now, you need a hundred grand invested in bike/TDs/training/parts/setups/tuners/etc to compete in am-SS. I remember racing in am in 2001/2002, and one of my friends/competitors 3-bike-mike, had fully-built 2mm overbored bike w/ lots of schools (Visionsports/schwantz/etc) in amatuer. A lot of AM's had built 600 motors. I was bone stock motor....I was like holy cow, shit has changed, from 1988.
Ive only been racing for 6 years now,and I started on a fzr400/600 with 100%stock suspension. I didnt even do springs/emulators and a rear shock until my 3rd year.
I would say that I'm still rotary dialing,but I picked up a 400 dollar 1999 R6 beater bike and started racing that last year.Ive er,um......moved on???
It's not just the lengths Am's are going w/ susp/motors, it's the years of TD's/coaching/schools....seems to take away from what Amatuer was originally designed for....to learn. Again, I am trapped in a 50000BC tarpit
Amateur is still about learning. Just because you know how to go fast, that doesn't mean you know how to race fast. Shoot there is a discussion in the MotoGP race thread implying that MotoGP winning racers Cal Crutchlow and Mav Vinales don't have good race craft.
a 23 year old doug polen could still win on a stock 600. The problem is, as the level gets higher as time goes on, fewer people can reach it.
It’s all relative. A probably fair argument could be made that their racecraft sucks compared to Dovi or Marc. Compared to a normal human? Cal said he’s not the greatest braker on Earth. I’m sure in a club race on a stock 600 he’d outbrake everyone by 100 meters into the first corner and that’s the last you’d ever see of him. Everything in the world has gotten more advanced and complex since 1988. Can’t see why racing is different. Maybe you need to choose a different class where $$ makes less difference. How well can a fast rider do on a stockish SV now? Maybe look at dirty bikes too. I really wanna do some desert racing out here in Californistan. Seems to be much more affordable.
Personally I"m pretty stoked about the bikes that are eligible to run V8 now and thats enough to draw me out of retirement at some point this year. A 04R6 or 600RR is still a fairly potent track bike and can be bought very reasonably. At 40 I have no aspirations of MOTOGP or top level club expert even but going fast and having fun in a competitive environment has a ton of appeal after all these years still. YMMV, JB