Hi All, Thanks for having me. Very excited for my first track day coming up next month. I've been riding 7 yrs and have logged around 60k miles in total on various bikes. Funny how things work as my 1st bike was a 300cc Ninja and now I'm riding a Paniglae V2. The V2 wold be epic on the track but I feel more comfortable getting on a 300cc and growing from there. I'll be renting a bike for my 1st track session but would appreciate some advice on my 3 options I currently have. 3 options for a track bike. Buy new and start off with bare essentials to track - what would that be? Rear sets and crash protection - Race fairings, sliders, case covers etc.... Buy a used rc390 cup for $4500, low miles (1k), has been down once, only damage is surface starches Buy a track ready R3 with the following mods (asking is $9500) What is a fair offer for a bike that has 700 miles and only 5 track session under the belt? R3 Track ready bike mods Lacomoto Full race bodywork Black Puig Racing Windscreen Yoshimura R77 Race Exhaust Full System Andreani Group USA - Misano Cartridge kit Ohlins rear shock YA467 Ohlins Steering Damper CoreMoto brake lines - ABS delete MotionPro Rev2 Throttle Kit Woodcraft Killswitch Eliminator Right hand switch - Remove ignition GEN2 design Drive Systems USA F=14 R=43 Chain=ERT3 (gold) Graves Steering stops AiM Solo2 Lap Timer DynoJet Power Commander V Fuel Tuner DynoJet Power Commander QuickShifter GP Shift Woodcraft Rearsets Woodcraft Frame Sliders Flash Tune ECU - ECU flash *track bike* CRG RC2 Levers Graves Works Radiator Cap Driven Racing Engine Block Off Plate Dunlop Q3 Plus Sportmax Tires Thanks everyone Trizzle
I vote for the KTM as it’s the coolest option You mentioned in my opinion. Price seems good for what you’re getting as well. I would advise against buying new and building it piece by piece....that gets pricey and very time consuming. Pay a little more for someone else’s time and effort and get a light used, well set up bike. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Well the ktm took a deposit from someone. Pretty annoyed as I asked how I can get 1st dibs. Wouldve been nice if they have me the option when someone offered.
Ah man that sucks...try to see it as it wasn’t meant to be. In my experience sellers are mainly concerned with the first person who comes with cash money. Unless you’re friends. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I personally would pay that much for a R3. There are two very nice 400 ninjas for sale on here, one at 7000, that just sold or I ticked the guy off and another that was 10k and he just dropped to 9k. That’s too much for my budget but it would be very great if you are racing. Personally for trackdays, I think you would do perfectly fine with a SV, and actually those are better at a trackday IMO, because you have a little more straight line speed and they will still teach you what a 400 will IMO. A little extra straight away speed on a trackday is nice because you will have a lot of slow pokes passing you in the straight and parking it in the corners. Good SV’s are 2-6k.
My advice? Something cheap enough TO YOU that you can laugh with no worry at all when you demolish it. For me, thats about $4500 max. For motion, we'd be talking limited edition brand new italian v4.
For trackdays a clapped out SV650 is as slow as I generally recommend, especially in the novice group. As mentioned above, there are guys on GSXR 1000s blasting down the straights and braking so early they have time to stop and run to the toilet before turning in at tricycle speed. On an SV, it is annoying. Just as you get alongside him on the exit and your engine runs out of steam, he hits his powerband in the wrong gear and blasts away, only to come to a complete stop for the next corner, right in your way. And in novice there is no inside passing, or any passing in corners depending on the organization. I'm not bitter... Just annoyed because my 750 ate another fuel pump last week, so I'm taking my clapped out SV (that is supposed to be retired) to the track tomorrow for my first trackday in 5 or 6 years. I can't even imagine how frustrating it would be to try and navigate a novice track day on a 300-400.
As much as I love the 390, everyone I know who has had one has had serious QC issues with that bike. One rider I know had his stock motor blow during race practice. Another friend has gone through like four fuel tanks as they keep leaking. You probably dodged a bullet. I have heard the later bikes are better, but it’s not a gas-and-go machine like the Ninjas or R3.
Ive done many of them this year... what Ive observed is folks egos cant handle being passed. Also its a track day... not Q4 or superpole. The point of TD is to find your ref points and markers or work on the weak points of your riding. Id venture to say 100% of the middle group riders couldnt put a 20 min session of track time together with near perfect apexes let alone find them on a track map. The more amusing part is the TD that havent raced worried about lap times...lol
Offered 8k for the R3 guys not budging from $8700. I don’t mind getting passed on straights with a slower bike. Cause when the time comes I’ll be confident on my V2 from the skills I learned from the R3.
Lol it’s really clean, 2020 600 miles only a handful of track days. Maybe just buy a R3 for 3500ish and throw on some rear sets and tank grips and call it a day?
That's based on your real life budget/financial constraints. If this is chump change to you, decide what class you want to run and buy the absolute best already built version you can find. If you actually have budget constraints, decide what class you're going to run and track down an already built bike in your budget. If you plan on doing a bunch of track days, I'd lean toward a Ninja 400 at minimum. Better yet, a LW Twin like a SV. A noob doesn't need the trickest suspension stuff money can buy when you won't even be coming close to approaching the limits of stock stuff. The only way I would recommend you start with a stock bike and build your own is if you just want to do it as a project, learn to wrench on a bike, etc. Fancy race parts add up quick and the already built bikes are pennies on the dollar of build costs usually.
Great stuff in this thread, really helping me figure out what I want as a new track rider. One thing I would suggest to OP is to get a bike you would have no fear absolutely binning in a corner. Part of serious track riding is finding the limit, and that inevitably means going down on the bike (usually more than once). Good luck bike hunting
