Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Hey people,

In the position to have a track bike or street bike. Cant have both because i can't afford it.

I wanna do track days but i dont really want to right off something worth a bit of cash. If i get a track bike that means riding maybe once a month or once every two months. Either way its going to be expensive. What way would you go and have some of you been in this position?

or should i buy a motard and ride everywhere?

cheers

If you are not in a $$$ position to have both then............You can ride a street bike on the track, but you can't ride a track bike on the street! But, if you bought a cheaper roadie, you might have enough left over to buy it raceglass!! That would cover both bases. As it is, if you bin the track bike, you still can;t ride it till you fix it, no diff to it being a roadie!

Welcome to sport bikes mate

Honestly only you know the answer to those questions.

For me, i have to ride the bike atlease 3 times a week or i'll go insane and i really enjoy long rides here and there.
I'm also extremely addicted to track days
ATM i've only got the one bike and thats a risk i'm prepared to take to feed my addiction, until i get a dedicated track bike

Either one is going to cost you

Good luck

Depends what you prefer really.
After doing a few track days on my roadie, I was bitten. I bought a track bike and hardly used the road bike so I sold it.
2 years of track days and I wanted a road bike again, so I sold the trackie...
2 years of road bike and I wanted a trackie again. Sold the road bike and bought zxr750r to race and had that for 18 months and then bought a zx10r race bike to sit next to it.
I now just have the zx10r race bike and intend doing at least 1 track day a month and a few race meetings.
With a wife and kids thats about all the riding I will get away with anyway.
Suits me better as the wife and kids like coming to the track, so its a "family day"

The pros of a trackie
Cheaper to buy
No rego
No insurance
Won't cost a mint if tossed at the track

Cons
Track days are expensive
Can't ride when you want
Need a trailer

Perhaps as Strika said, get a road bike and some race fairings, spare wheels and enjoy both... if you can afford it..

I have a track only bike and I do miss my street rides but there aint nothin like jumping on a well set up track bike for a track day. and if you add up rego and insurance for a year you get a fair few free track days

Go the cheapie road bike and track it occasionally. Try and get one sold with race glass, or buy second hand race glass. Ride on the road, do the odd track day when finance allows. After a couple of years when your finance may improve buy a better road bike and dedicate the old one to the track. At this point you can sell all the raod gear to help pay for the new road bike (or bing) or slicks etc.

That's how I ended up with a CBR600 track bike and a ZX10R. CBR had plenty of Km on it, and it didn't owe me anything, and I have a ZX10, so I don't care if I toss it down the track.

Well, I enjoy my track time waaaaaaay more than my road time. But, I know doing a lot of k's on the road helped in that regard.
Track days are too far apart, and the road is always there. But, so are cops, trees, guard rails, dickheads on the wrong side of the road, wildlife, bad road surfaces, etc
I guess what I'm trying to say, is that there are pros and cons to both. It sucks when you can't have everything you want, I know! Unfortunately, you'll just have to weigh up the pros and cons for yourself, as only your weighting is important.

Before making a decision though, I would find out some rough prices on race glass, so you can think about whether the road bike with race fairings compromise others have mentioned already, might work for you.

Strika wrote:If you are not in a $$$ position to have both then............You can ride a street bike on the track, but you can't ride a track bike on the street! But, if you bought a cheaper roadie, you might have enough left over to buy it raceglass!! That would cover both bases. As it is, if you bin the track bike, you still can;t ride it till you fix it, no diff to it being a roadie!

This would be my suggestion as well, or keep the 6 & save some bucks for the track gear if you can wait... its easier than selling & starting again.

Thanks everyone! You made things clearer and even threw in a few ideas for me to consider. I'll let you know how i go even though it might be a while as i have this friggen debt that I will need to be taken care of. Motard might be the go.... atleast the cops will enjoy my mono's and i can take it to the track.

Thanks again.