Best starter bike class and machinery

Lean over far enough and you can throttle steer anything

 

Oh, right! I forgot about all those vicious power slides in Moto3.

 

FJ1100/1200 on slicks. It wouldn’t steer from the pogo stick front so you got it compressed in the front and just throttled while also on the rear brake until it either broke loose or it pitched you off and then tried to point it.
Worked great in the rain but falling two or three times a lap didn’t make lap times. Rains were unavailable and it hated dots and beat you up to tell you.

fun street bike but stupid near a track.

 

I took new racer school with him! When he was in new racer school that is. He was on a rented GS500 and I was on my $900 EX500. Good times.

 

I remember seeing a team endurance racing at Texas World back in the mid 80's. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.....but you could say that about a lot of bikes that were raced back then

 

The same with me.

 

If getting him into Jr Cup is the short term goal, I think the Ninja 400 is the way to go. Even if the grids are small, the D and E classes are usually gridded up with the LW twins so there are a bunch of bikes on the grid.
I know he will be a novice, but when he switches to expert, Kawi still has a really strong contingency program.
https://www.kawasaki.com/Content/pdfs/Racing/RR_pay22.pdf

 

Best learning tool , 125

 

wera had their own school on various weekends. Definitely a Ken Hill course

 

As far as progressing up the ladder, I think Ninja 400 and Jr Cup is the way to go. Seems like the kids who do well there also do well in the faster classes.

Plan B would be to put him on a budget build R7 (i.e. stock-ish motor) let him race his brains out in WERA, and "ride up" in Twins Cup. If he shows promise, you can build the motor and go for it.

 

I wish the grids, and the parts, were still full of these things.

 

ring a ding

 

Got him a Yamaha Fz on the way!

 

Sweet!!

 

Robby, a 600. No better tool from beginner to pro. Maybe a twin, but still not sold on it. I would stay away from 300/400. Teaches really bad habits… Won’t be popular opinion, but I have my reasons.

 

^

Interesting comment coming from someone coaching a up and comer.

Only thing that scares me on a 600 are tire costs and increased injury risks with off's.

But that R7 sure is growing on me!

 

Your opinion is extremely valid and the reason we went with a Yamaha 700 is because at the end of the day, if he hates asphalt, and road racing, we can still use the engine and electronics to build a Twin Dirt Track bike for when he makes the move to Pro.

I would LOVE a 600, but I would imagine he will know in a few trips to the track if he wants to get serious or just play on the road racer.

 

I'd love to hear what the bad habits are!
And that's a serious question too not a loaded one looking for a fight.

 

The first thing that comes to mind is throttle control. I spend a lot of time explaining throttle control to newbies on 600/1000 and what they are doing to their tires. Ham fisting a 400 is part of riding them.