cost of racing

[gixer400]

just so i know for when i can ride a bit faster how much does it cost to start racing and then to keep doing it. also what kind of bike would be good for a (very) novice rider, would it be a 400? 250? im also short and when i sat on a zx6r it was way too big for me so i think 600's are out of the question.if i do get the funds to start, how do i go about it?

[Tark]

Well......

I started racing on less than £80 a week when I bought my CBR6.

You would be best off on a 400 as the 4 strokes are more relaible and they have a low seat height.

After you have bought the bike you will need to join a club (£20 for a year) and get an ACU licence (£30 year). Then you need to sort out which meetings you want to race with and then you have the cost of the race entries (£160 ish for 2 day meeting with 2 races each day)

This is about as basic as you get. You will then need to pay to get to the meeting, petrol for the bike, food for when your there etc etc etc.

You could spend as much as you like. If you use road tyres then they will last you a while. If you choose to use race tyres then they will cost you about £200 a set and not last long. Then you have things like tyre warmers and a genny to run them. Also cost of oil every now and again (depends on how tuned your engine is) and not forgetting parts WHEN you crash!

I found that If I had a bad crash I cant afford to race and pay for repairs so I take a month off.

Just do a few meetings as a novice in a novice championship, on a standard bike with stickyish tyres.

My race entries this year totaled £1200. This is for the full championship. Then there is about £30 diesle to get there, £20 petrol for the bike and genny and £20 for oil after each meeting.

I would say the Min you could race a season on is £2K and thats the bare bones! Non of this rebuilds every meeting and 5 sets of tyres a weekend! Thats why I am not racing in the Nationals!

It always adds up to more than you expect though! Its only my 3rd round and I have spent over £700 on the credit card and am well in my overdraft most of the time! :roll:

It is worth doing though! Meeting people, camping, the Buzz of racing etc etc etc.

Go and do it!! :twisted:

[gixer400]

thanks for the info. i think i will get a few track days under my belt before i start, just so i know what its like to be on a atrack and just so i know im not gonna poo my pants too much.

[Tark]

Sounds like a plan.

[gixer400]

what kind of insurance is needed to race, and how much is it?

[Tark]

:lol:

You dont need any!

Imagine how much they would want to insure a 17 year old on a CBR600 race bike!

you crash you pay!

[gixer400]

now thats what i like to hear

[troutslayer]

hey gixxer400 -

a club like bemsee would be a good place for you to start, as it's southern biased, covers brands, lydden, snetterton, silverstone, then cadwell and oulton. and france of course!

have a look at www.ypmrc.co.uk we're trying to sort out cheap hire bikes to help people get onto the grid for the first time, with all the support and advice that you'll need. you cant race with bemsee without first having to do an expensive race school (ess, css, yamaha race school, mick boddice etc...) however we have a special dispensation meaning we can run our own race school with the rentals, meaning that you have immediately saved about £250!

seriously, have a look, bear in mind the site is still under construction though, so not all the info is there yet...

[gixer400]

thanks for telling me that site. to join that club do you have to have a tzr250 or similar or can yo join with any bike? i am getting very interested in starting now. but im not gonna rush things, yno learning to crawl first and such.

[troutslayer]

tzr250/rd 250LC/350LC/350YPVS

or, hire one for a race meeting or 2. think of it as an inexpensive way to see if you really will enjoy it.


imagine, buying a reasonably competitive 600cc (£3k++) and the spare wets on wheels, warmers, clipons, footrests, levers etc. new leathers/lids/boots etc etc etc.

then ya find that you dont actually enjoy it.........

try before you buy instead!

ps. a competitive tzr would cost between £700 - £1200 with all the spares...

[gixer400]

how much are the hire bikes, do you know? i didnt see on the site. also do you know the price of the course id need to take, with and without a hire bike?

do you know of anywhere to buy the bikes that are ready to race with or is it a case of just keep looking on e-bay and other places like that.
it the tzr250 as easy to ride as the 125 with similar riding position or completely different?

[troutslayer]

they are bloody marvellous to ride!

come down to lydden any point next weekend, we are racing on both saturday and sunday. there'll probably be 1 or 2 tzr's there that are for sale, you can watch us lot and see how much fun it is and how fast we really go (we'll only be about 3-4 seconds off the ss600 pace ay lydden).

we plan on pitching all the ypm's in the same area of the paddock, so u should find us lot without any problems.... just look for an area, near a burger van, with 30 odd tzr's!

I dont know how much the bike hire will be, as it's still being organised. if you use the email link on the ypmrc website, contact daz mowat and he should be able to help out or point you in the right direction. when we have our own hirebike (as a club, we're trying to get a couple of our own bikes to hire out...) i guess it would probably be around £80. Martin Taymar or Gerry Pell hire them out, but i think they charge IRO £150.

You'd still need to have your acu license, and new acu license holders have to do an eyesight test (£15 at opticians).

have a look on www.motoforum.net which is a racing forum (mainly bemsee orientated but is there for all race clubs) as there is a for sale/wanted section. have a look around the whole motoforum website as there is lots of tzr stuff on there, sign up, ask questions about YPM's and they will be answered!

[gixer400]

is that the weekend beggining sat 15th. if it is i may well pop down, weather permitting as it is a rather long ride from chelmsford.

[troutslayer]

yep, 15th/16th may

see you there!

[gixer400]

well if its nice ill go and see the teezers, whats the entrance cost? will it be easy enough to find you lot? i guess it will be. ill hopefully see you there and have a chat about getting started. sometimes i forget things when im typing so any questions i have ill remember by then.

[troutslayer]

bugger! i wrote a long reply and it gave me 'session invalid' message!

its a tenner to get in, or try and blag it saying you're taking some tzr parts into the ypm area... for a tenner, your getting to spectate 20 odd races, timetable http://www.bemsee.co.uk/2004/events/club/event06.php
timetables on left side of page. sunday is a late start (12:00) due to local laws and engine noise etc.

for the record... shakey shane byrne holds the ss600 lap record at lydden, 43.11 seconds. the tzr record is 45.60seconds. thats how close it is! my personal best last year was 49s hopefully i'll be down to 47 this time!

circuit map here: http://www.lyddenracecircuit.co.uk/map.htm where the word PADDOCK is, we'll be to the right (as you approach from the entrance road) of the orange buildings by the letter 'p' i think. look for lots of tzr's (30 odd tzr's should be easy to find...)

[Tark]

All you have to do if you get that message is click back, Copy the txt, Click back again and then click reply again. Paste your txt and jobs a good un.

Saves you having to write it all out again!

[troutslayer]

lol! yea, i did that and this time it took me back to an empty reply box... d'oh!

[gixer400]

sounds good. lydden is near canterbury isnt it? is the track easy to find or do i just follow the noise.

[troutslayer]

yep, piece of cake to find. follow the a2 towards dover. you'll go past a bike shop (possibly harley?? cant remember...) and theres a turning on the right, take that and the entrance to the circuit is on the left. its nearer dover than canterbury.
take note: lydden circuit is in WOOTON not LYDDEN. dont ask me how i know... lets just say, 2am, very dark/foggy, unable to see further than 2 foot, very small country roads, transit van, trying to find a race circuit...

multimap: http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?X=624000.000331654&Y=146000.738741677&width=700&height=400&client=public&gride=&gridn=&srec=0&coordsys=gb&addr1=&addr2=&addr3=&pc=&advanced=&local=&scale=25000&up.x=11&up.y=7

[Dan]

Hope none of you mind, but i've made this post sticky as I think a fair few people will be interested in its contents.

Trouty - would I be able to race with my NC30, or would I have to hire a 2 stroke if I wanted to take part?

[Dan]

bugger! i wrote a long reply and it gave me 'session invalid' message!


This is a problem that I am aware of, and is caused when someone logs onto the forum as you are typing the message. Hit the BACK button in your browser, copy your post to the clipboard - then go back to the forum main screen and go back into the post to paste your reply.

I'm quite busy at the moment, but I am trying to fix it as and when i get time ;) Sorry trouty - I know how annoying that can be.

[troutslayer]

cheers for stickying it dan, that'll be a great help to all, and will help promote ypmrc too.

if u want to race your nc30, you'll have to go into a 400cc class, rookie400's or supersport400's (actually, you'd be eligible for both! ) i wouldnt recomend using your road bike though. cheaper and easier to buy one already prepped. although, the basic minimum you'd need to do is: ditch lights/indicators, fit race fairing including belly pan with catch container, run overflow pipes into a catch bottle, lockwire sump plug, remove stands/rear footpegs/other unecessary road gear etc. various ducuments on class regs (ie. what you can and cant do to the bike) available on the bemsee website, but basically, it works out easier to buy pre prepped!
then get acu license and club membership. acu testing for new license holders. race school (pre requisite fot new racers who wish to race with bemsee). pay entry fee's, worry for weeks/months, fret about your tyres, wets, spare wheels, spare parts, worry some more, panic about tyre pressures, suspension settings, transport etc, turn up, scrutineering, sign on, practice, race.

OR -
acu license, club membership. hire a bike from ypmrc (tzr) and race school incorporated (ie. run by us lot, special dispensation from bemsee... should have proper details after this weekend). turn up. find bike has been delivered and theres 20-30 tzr riders all there to help you and give you advice. bike will be fully prepped and setup for the circuit (gearing) and relevent spares will already be there. scrutineer. sign on. practice. race. if it turns out that you dont like it, you havent spent out on tyres/clipons/footrests/wets/wheels/tyre warmers/generator/trailer/van/engine tuning etc etc. :)

ps. i know someone who spent a helluva lot of money on an nc30 for they're first rookie400 season... £5k on the bike, a few more grand on parts/trackdays etc, trailer, then a van etc. spent about £16k and couldn't lap brands indy any faster than 1m16 (i do about 57/58seconds on the tzr) and ended up skint and had to flog the lot and give up before even entering a race.

it CAN be a very expensive sport. look realistically at how much you can afford and spend the money wisely. dont get an 80bhp tuneup done if you cant afford to have the engine rebuilt after the imminent blow up... dont do the practice day before the race if you learn circuits quickly (you get 10minute practice on the day).

i race tzr's cos realistaically, i cant afford to do 400's/600's etc competitively. tzr racers (and mz racers) smile a lot more than 600cc/powerbike racers after a race.

[troutslayer]

oh yeah... original post was about costs... i can only go by tzr costs, so here goes a rundown of my costs thus far.

engine rebuild over winter - £££'s! £850 after my discount. pricey... but it was a full crank build. should see the engine good for 2-3 seasons. i'll have to replace the rings mid season, and pistons/rings for the start of next season. the difference is, last year i struggled at the back of the mid pack. this year, when i'm not cartwheeling it, im up front ish.

tyres - so far, naff all. i'm skint, so i'm still using last seasons tyres! £190 will sort you out an am23 club compound rear and a bt090 front, should last half a season easily. i'm on bt39ss front/rear, cheaper, but they dont make them anymore so once i've worn these ones out, i have to buy new ones.

entry fee's - call it about £100 per day. 2 day events work out cheaper. example, lydden 2 days is £140. brands indy 2 days is £160. brands indy 1 day is £90. if u say £100 per day, then that'll account for food. The ypm's run 20 rounds. i'll be doing about 12 rounds out of the 20, so about £1200 on entry fee's. i like to have a bit of time in between rounds to sort out any problems... even then, i seem to leave them until the day before!

personal insurance - not mandatory. £30 per month through cica will pay you out on broken bones/time off work thru injury etc.

fuel - a 20 litre jerry can will do a full trackday with no problems, so a weekends racing with fuel to spare! £15 per weekend.

transport - ok ok, i get out of this one... at company car choosing time, i was adamant that a transit van would be better than a vectra for work, and after a few arguments, i got a transit van and they pay all the fuel that goes in it! but add it into the costs if youre budgeting for yourself!

thats about it really. you can make it as cheap as you like, or on the other hand, you can throw as much money as you can lay your hands on at it! buying a pre built bike means the engine may have been already well sorted - find out when and whom by. if in doubt, call the engine tuner and ask him, and explain why!

my own expenses this year has mainly been the engine build and the entry fee's. i've had to replace the left side rearset twice, and patch up the fairings too. blagged a free seat unit. broke a clip on and a clutch lever. i think my crash damage this year (so far) has cost me £30 in parts.

[gixer400]

making it a sticky will help people interested in racing. all the cost information posted has been a great help for me and has helped me work out what i will need. but i was just thinnking of it all and have run into a problem.. I cant drive :x this is going to make transport to the races very difficult, so ill have to learn to drve before i can learn to race. ill still try to get the racing licence as soon as possible so thats out of the way.

i still will probably go to lydden this weekend. most likely sunday, but if ive nothing happpening it will be saturday.

[troutslayer]

what a crap set of results that was for me. on the plus side, i started and finished al my races without crashing! however, i was running at the same pace as i did last year and struggled mid pack. all weekend, the bike didnt feel right, like it had no go behind it, but i couldnt find anything wrong with the bike, so maybe it was me??? going to stick it on the dyno mid week and see how it compares against how it was at the start of the year.

[gixer400]

sorry to hear about your results. i was gonna go and see the race but my bike is running bad. the exhaust has a hole in it that i can fit my finger in. im just gonna have to wait till tuesday to put my new pipes on.