My SV forks held up to many crashes. I'm not the only one. The SV handles most routine low-sides without issue. If you're at the pointy end of the stick looking for tenths you better rush that bike over to PK and get it dialed back in, probably replacing "spaghetti" forks. .. But for the rest of us. Meh.
I raced my SV down to 1.23 territory with a twisted front end. What the fuck ever. It's an SV and I'm an AM. The SV is probably the best choice for low-buck racing these days.
In 2015 I raced an SV. I did the Penguin basic in 2014 and raced one round, so that is not reflected in these sums. But I raced all 7 rounds, save the one round I crashed out in Friday practice before hand and missed.
I spent:
- $3500 on the SV itself : This included wear items like tries and brakes plus repairs and "upgrades". I had the rear shock rebuilt by Computrack, for example. It also included a large cache of spares I built up-spare forks (used 'em), tank (didn't), radiator (used it), lots of Woodcraft rearset bits (used, used, used!)
- $1400 on "track days" : This included the full season of Penguin Friday practice.. but also includes Sausagefest 2015, so lets say I spent about $900 in track days for practice time
- $1575 on race entries
- $1200 on gear : This included new helmet and the suit I replaced after a crash mid season
- $375 on misc "racing" items : Includes the transponder and mailing it to Australia for repair
I used tires a HELL of a lot faster than I ever did doing track days. With Friday practices and 3-4 races/weekend I was getting 2 weekends out of a rear and 4 out of a front. So I would budget for 4 rears and 2 fronts for a season. I found good, fresh rubber was the #1 best thing for my confidence on track. I would not fuck around with takeoffs.. but that's me. For me this was money very well spent.
I do not have a sum spent on medical treatment, fortunately. Also fortunately; I did not require much from racing. Most of my injuries were treated with ibuprofen. I did have one visit to an urgent care center. I had three crashes racing in '15. Two were simple low-sides. One the bike was 100% operable after the crash, just required some plastics rework. The second I managed to destroy my clutch, but the bike was otherwise fine. The third the bike cartwheeled in the martian soil off T9. That's where a lot of the money put into the SV went buying spares to repair that incident.
This also does not include the $3500 trailer I bought and built out to live in track-side.
Based on this, I'm going to agree that $3k is the bare minimum as well. $5k is a much more reasonable number.
And all of that is based on already having a prep'ed bike and the basic gear from doing track days.