Get a Bike
Your gonna need one of them!
This really is up to you, but you do have one major decision to make, do you buy a 'Race Ready' bike or convert a road bike.
Below is listed the pros and cons of the pair:
Buying a race ready bike
Pros:
- Generally cheaper than buying a road bike and converting it
- Ready to race with no effort from you
Cons:
- More than likely had a harder life than a road bike
- History?
Buying a road bike and converting it
Pros:
- Road bikes have a more obvious history, ie service records etc
- You've done the work on the bike, you know whats been modified etc
- If you stop racing, you can always convert it back to a road bike
Cons:
- Its gonna cost you more than buying a bike already converted
- Requires time and effort on your behalf to get it ready
I can only speak from experience, my Yamaha 350 powervalve I bought 'race ready', in all
honest I think I bought it 'bin ready'. The CBR I converted myself from a lovely mint condition
1996 road bike. Its cost me (including the work I am having done on the engine etc at the moment)
approximately 7500 pounds, (the 350 cost me 1000). You can buy an ex-club championship winning
CBR600 for about 6000 pounds to put it into perspective.
So why convert a road bike I hear you cry? Mainly for piece of mind, I know everything about my
CBR600, buying a bike already raced you don't.
Saying all this though I can't bring myself to recommend either one, yet again it depends on you.
Recently I have been helping Tony Gamble (who contacted me via the internet) to get started racing,
(looking forward to next year mate!) and he already has a CBR600 on the road, he's had a few bad
experiences on the road (those nasty hard things called 'cars') and decided to switch to the track (GOOD MAN!)
So for him, it suites him to convert his road bike!
1. How much does it cost?
Depending on which option and bike you choose, I know of a race ready Yam350 YPVS (not mine!) going for 750 right up to
buying a Yam R1 and converting it yourself (mega bucks! 10,000 plus)
Visit the Bike Ads page to have a look whats on offer here.
2. Where do I get one from?
Both road and race bikes can be bought from the MCN, local papers etc. A better option, if your thinking of buying a race ready bike,
is to visit a local club meeting, especially towards of the end the season. Racers are always selling their bikes,
either moving up/down classes or packing it in etc. Atleast then you can normally see it in action.
Remember it pretty hard to test ride a race bike, where are you gonna ride it?
If you want to convert your road bike visit my Road Bike to Racer Guide