tracking my street bike

[freeskier]

my current ride is an 09 r6, i dont have a car right now so i ride everywhere and i love the bike. its almost stock right now except for flush mounts, a slip on and a fender eliminator and some sliders. at the end of the season when i go back to my car i had planned to do a full exhaust, brakes, brake lines, and a rear shock for next season because i plan to track the bike. what im wondering is if leving the r6 stock for the street and buying a used track bike is a better option. my parts would cost in the area of 2500 anyways and i have seen track bikes all over for 3000ish. thoughts?

[Chippertheripper]

You can get well set up track bikes for cheap. If that is an option for you, I'd certainly say its better to have a dedicated bike than risk your daily driver.

[kumpy]

Yeah Chip is right, certainly an R6 would be a great track bike, in fact it, I think it's a better race bike and an ok track bike. I think I great track bike would be something a little more manageable power wise as well as budget wise!

[CBR929RE]

I assume you plan on doing a lot of track days right? if so then yeah get a dedicated track bike. if you're only gonna do a few then spend the money on suspension and tires for the current bike and get a car.

[tsorfas]

Chip is right (always).
Do NOT risk your daily street bike.. If you can afford 3k for the conversion you can get a 3k track bike ready to go. Shit I am even selling mine for a bit over that..

[csmutty]

If you are talking a track R6 08+ then you are looking at $6k or more. If you are talking an older track mount..$2-3k is about right.

[freeskier]

im seeing 04-06 cbr's and gsxr's in the 3k range and that works for me. i would love to have another r6 for the track but i cant see spending that kind of cash at this point in my life. i ride the hell out of my r6 but i couldent see wrecking it and modding it would only help me push harder on the street. i ski raced for years and i know crashing is part of getting faster so it looks like i need a dedicated bike

[maxim_X]

Your R6 is a hard edge super capable track bike. If you aren't careful it can chew you up and spit you out. It's great to push the limits on a bike you ride everyday, and many people do. But, if the bike is your pride and joy it's worth getting comfortable on the track with something more expendable. Then when your very comfortable and confident on the track take your street bike there. Also I wouldn't spend money on an exhaust, and the brakes are probably good stock. It's more important to have good fresh fluid in them than anything else. Lines and pads are pretty cheap though. Suspension work is worth it, especially if your 180lbs+

I didn't used to drink the SV650 Kool-aid until I got one. They are great at NHIS. You can get setup 1stgens for 2500.

[G21forme]

Your R6 as it sits is more than capable of going faster than you could ever ride it. I'm not trying to insult you just saying that the bike with a good set of tires and properly adjusted suspension will be more than adequate for a trackday. But yes a dedicated track bike would be the best way to go if you could swing it financially.

[Bkilm]

To the OP,
Im currently in the same situation as you. I have an 09 Cbr and have been going back in forth about tracking it. Its all about the pros and cons, personally i dont believe its worth dropping 2-3k into my street bike in order to make it track worthy with suspension sliders fairings rearsets etc. I know damn well if i take my Street bike to the track and crash it im going to be REALLY pissed when i cant ride to work or go out on the weekends. Since i can buy a older track bike for the same amount as the upgrades would cost 2-3 k its a no brainer because im NEW to track and im not expecting to go out and compete with the experts, i need to LEARN how to ride track, i would ratehr do this on a model that is a decade old and when i on the track i dont have "dont crash dont crash dont crash" repeating over and over in my head.
Just like you said with ski racing, Nothing is going to slow your progression like the Fear of what WILL eventually happen.

[Paul_E_D]

If I owned an R6, I'd track it all day long. In stock form it is better than most "track" bikes. I have 12K miles on my street bike. 5K of those are track miles. It has definitely been cheaper to just own one bike for both duties.

I still have a loan on it and everything. I have gotten through the crashing part of the learning curve tho...

[freeskier]

the r6 is very fast, that is not the issue. im not looking for a faster bike im looking for the option that will allow me to progress the quickest and furthest and i think that for now, a no title track bike all dinged up will allow me to push the hardest.

[k_cotter]

the r6 is very fast, that is not the issue. im not looking for a faster bike im looking for the option that will allow me to progress the quickest and furthest and i think that for now, a no title track bike all dinged up will allow me to push the hardest.

that. get savas's (tsorfas) gixxer and beat the piss out of it. or get an old sv and learn what cornerspeed is. either way, a dedicated track bike is the only way youll feel comfortable pushing. by the way...where/when did you ski race? you may have beaten me in the past. i was awesome at not placing well in LOTS of ski races

[OreoGaborio]

Two sides to every coin... and in this case I see least 3 of em (coins, that is).


The bike's a terriffic track bike as it sits.
That said, would upgrading it improve performance? Sure. Not sure there's anything riding wise to be learned from upgrading it though so it'd be more for personal enjoyment and tinkering than anything else... may help you learn something about bike set-up though.


Just because you're on a track doesn't mean you have to push harder than you do on the street. I had zero reservations of tracking my only street bike back in the day ('00 ZX6R, nearly 100% stock).
That said, I also had a car to get around if needed. Always good to have a back-up plan.


Speaking of riding hard and "pushing your hardest", there's PLENTY to be learned by riding at 80% of your ability... In fact, often times there's much MORE to be learned riding at 80% than at 95%.
That said, there ARE a few things to learn from riding at 95% that you can't learn riding at 80%. But I don't recommend doing that early in your track riding career when mistakes are MUCH more likely to happen. You certainly don't want to start track riding and immediately start pushing as hard as you can as there's little to be learned from that and you'll only be drastically increasing your risk of crashing and injury.

[nhbubba]

OP: How much tracking do you actually expect to do every year? How many track days have you done to date?

[Half Squid]

Having a track dedicated bike is the way to go in my mind just knowing if I do go down I will not loose my street bike. It's far cheaper for me to fix the SV650 then it would be my Falco. Not too mention lost riding time while I acquired the parts and got the repairs done.

The SV I picked up was all set up for the track yet still street worthy I only needed to get plastics (Personal prefforance) Picked it up for just under $3K.

It is now registered and insured so even if I do go down at the track I may have a chance to get an ins claim to recoup some $.

Just after one trackday at NHIS on the SV and I am in love with riding it there! I loved it so much my Falco sat in the garage all day long as I was having too much fun on the SV!

[freeskier]

i ski raced for waterville vally 05-09, didnt race in VT alot. i think im too attached to the r6 to fully enjoy it on the track at this point. im going to start crusing the clissifieds here and on wera for a track bike and see how it goes.

[csmutty]

Whats a street bike? Screw those things.

[Jim]

i know you could get an 03 R6 race bike for $3k if you're looking to stick with an R6 for the track

[Mr. Kurtz]

Scroll up, read the stuff Oreo posted, and just pretend I also said the same stuff.

[OreoGaborio]

Scroll up, read the stuff Oreo posted, and just pretend I also said the same stuff.

I'm not above editing my post to say a bunch of terrible, terrible things, mostly about your mother

[Mr. Kurtz]

I'm not above editing my post to say a bunch of terrible, terrible things, mostly about your mother

I'll just RE-edit your post...oh, shit, wrong forum...

[OreoGaborio]

This is MY sandbox

[boloson]

That's awesome that u ride your bike as a daily driver but I don't see how practical it is without a car especially in new england. With that said you already have a track bike now. All u need is some race fairings and you're good to go. If u go down u still can put the stock fairings back on and ride street, assuming the crash is minimal of course.

[backinthesaddle]

To the OP,
Im currently in the same situation as you. I have an 09 Cbr and have been going back in forth about tracking it. Its all about the pros and cons, personally i dont believe its worth dropping 2-3k into my street bike in order to make it track worthy with suspension sliders fairings rearsets etc. I know damn well if i take my Street bike to the track and crash it im going to be REALLY pissed when i cant ride to work or go out on the weekends. Since i can buy a older track bike for the same amount as the upgrades would cost 2-3 k its a no brainer because im NEW to track and im not expecting to go out and compete with the experts, i need to LEARN how to ride track, i would ratehr do this on a model that is a decade old and when i on the track i dont have "dont crash dont crash dont crash" repeating over and over in my head.
Just like you said with ski racing, Nothing is going to slow your progression like the Fear of what WILL eventually happen.

I've got 3 track days on my 09 CBR. Fresh tires, proper sag, and it's just fine in red and yellow groups. There is the occasional thought of what if I drop it on the track but other than probably not being covered by insurance I think it's a safer day than some of the road rides Ive done around texting drivers, sand, deer, dogs, and more texting drivers. Plus it lets you get a better appreciation of how good the bike is. Looking forward to day #4 in October.