How much cheaper is racing a small bike really?

All depends how far up the pointy end of the stick you are or want to be. Don’t know the small bikes too well but seems motor wise once you get that last 15 or so % reliability goes down a lot when a 4 doesn’t need to be built that crazy to be competitive, not saying doesn’t need to be built but for most, even very fast club level don’t have superbike spec engines, yes a few so but with exception of a handful of people I can think of it’s the exception and not the norm. As far as good racing though, hard to beat the twins class. Lwt twins has always been great racing.

 

You just not flash your headlights like I do. Works for me 60% or time, every time.

 

This post is pure gold.

 

On the little bikes it's polite to honk and signal for lane change. Then leave your signal on. @Johnny B can tell you about the horn honking on the starting grid at Loudon.. Always cracked me up.

 

Good to know.

 

I think you will be bored to tears on the 300 based on your post. Nothing against the small bikes, as I have seen them set some incredible times.

At mid pack expert pace, a front is good for the whole weekend on a 600, maybe 2 rears if you do a lot of racing, or it's a track that eats rears like Daytona.

The best trade off IMO is the SV or FZ. They can be bought pretty well set up for cheap, they are much easier on tires than a 600, and they are just fast enough to be fun, but not scary. A good SV rider can do 600 lap times at alot of tracks, so there's always a challenge, but IMO the risk is less- you're more likely to low side pushing the corner speed, as opposed to a bone crunching high side trying to make your time with the HP on a bigger bike.

 

I’m pretty sure that’s at least in top 100 if not too 50 best posts of all time. He left out the part of track day trophies and asking if. 29 gopros mounted to the bike will slow it down due to wind resistance. Obviously he needs to be educated so we “should” cut him some slack but... it’s worse than normal as it’s rona time and we are all forced to be keyboard warriors until tracks open back up.

 

Only slows you down in a head wind. Tail wind its beneficial. The weight handicap work on the same principle. Up hill not so good, down, much better. Though I haven't tried either.

 

As gently as I can say it: pretty much everything about that is wrong.

 

https://www.wikihow.com/Tell-Someone-They-Are-Wrong

 

Nevermind how cheaper it is. It simply is more funner to ride a small bike like a freaking animal, m'kay ?

 

My (limited/not a fast guy) experience: The faster you are the more tires you use regardless of displacement. I raced against Vintage 160/175 and Ninja 250 guys (really fast guys on any bike) who burn through a set of tires a weekend and 600 racers who flip tires after three weekends on principle.

However, I think that the most fun I had on track was racing against good friends on slow bikes like CB175s and Ninja 250s. You corner just as fast as the "big bikes," but you have more time to plan your next overtake between corners. It is eye opening to see a CB175 enter a corner full stick while sliding both wheels as the rider calmly holds the throttle open as they pull the front brake lever to warm up the brake shoes for the braking zone at the bottom of the next hill. On the straights you have enough time to look over at your competitors and give them a hand signal (rider's choice) regarding the last thing that happened. And then grab onto their bike as they s l o w l y pass you down the straight (and everything is a straightaway on a slow bike).

 

[QUOTE="joec, post: 5704262, member: 5963 @Johnny B can tell you about the horn honking on the starting grid at Loudon.[/QUOTE]
(Or) Put a bell on your bike so that ALL the grid girls KNOW you are digging them !

 

I've hat 1000's, 750's and 600's for track days. They've all been a LOT of fun and I've learned as a rider from each platform.

MiniGP creeped into my life 2 years ago. It's my freakin' son's fault! He wanted to do it when he was 7..well, 6, but I kinda put him off a year.
But after watching him, it got me thinkin' that I wanted to give it a shot, so I got a Grom, put Dunlop's on it, Ohlins (I'm 240 pounds, the stock suspension wasn't gonna work),
some brake lines, rearsets, and a $100 exhaust from Amazon. What a freakin' hoot! Damned kids!

I've added a Ohvale 160 for myself, and getting the kid one for his 10th bday.

I inject this point into the discussion because the OP mentioned he has kids. Might be a consideration for you to buy a smaller bike to maybe stretch your budget to consider some mini racing as well and get your kids involved in the sport as well depending on your location when you return Stateside. It's a great family weekend to spend with everyone racing in their classes, cheering each other on, and doing pit support for each other. We love it.

 

I’m sure it’s already been covered. The biggest difference is tires.

Things like entry fees, gear, etc will all be a wash. The difference is tires and fuel.

The only little bike I’ve raced is a Grom, so I can’t speak for a 300/400. I can’t tell you how long tires last on them.

It also depends on the track (surface) At Talladega, I’d change rears every two races. At Barber or Road Atlanta, they can go longer.

Personally, I’ve never flipped rears for races. Like at Tally, by “flipping time” the left side is beaten pretty bad. Flipping it would mean the ride side would be toast.

I wouldn’t want to sacrifice drive, or take any chances in the right hander, so I wouldn’t flip.

YMMV

 

It's not the bike that makes racing fun, it's the part of actually racing against someone that makes it fun. Sure, its fun going fast but fast is relative when you're all on slow bikes.

 

This is the school of thought I subscribe to.

I've never had the chance to test this out but for example I would imagine that Moto3 teams go though about as many tires as MotoGP teams do.

So if you're a guy that can make a set of tires last half a year on a SV650, you're probably not going to be need a set of tires every session on a leader bike.

 

I raced a 1000 at the pointy end and raced a sv650 at the pointy end. Race weekend for tires for the 1000 was 2 fronts 3 rears. Sv was front every other weekend and a rear every weekend. Gas was alot more for the 1000 as well if you are using race gas 5 to 10 gallons more a weekend. Building a bike to be competitive in the 1000 class and the sv650 class is also very differen .

 

Great idea

+1 Cheapest way to train and learn proper racecraft, while still having fun. A 150R is very fast on a tight mini track. I presume an Ohvale is too. I've also "track day" a 450 on a mini track and that is very fun too, but I never raced that big of a bike on the mini track.

I was surprised how much gas we used in a weekend once Tyler went up to 600's and 1000's. No different than what others said, but Ty could run race winning pace on a SV with one set of tires for the weekend. On 600's race winning pace was multiple sets per weekend, usually 2 fronts and 3-4 rears. He ran the 1000 two race weekends and won races, but I think the number of tires was about the same as a 600, but he said they were going off more.

 

I would imagine that they factor that in when they come up with the compounds. I'm pulling this out of my ass but they would probably go all weekend on a hard MotoGP tire.