thoughts on racing my 749?

fonzy

Active Member
it is my street bike , but how hard is it to use as dual purpose? other than all the safety stuff, could on not use the same bike for 2 purposes?pros? cons? i m thinking my yzf600 may not be up to the task this year
 

Dave86

Active Member
it is my street bike , but how hard is it to use as dual purpose? other than all the safety stuff, could on not use the same bike for 2 purposes?pros? cons? i m thinking my yzf600 may not be up to the task this year

Might be worth asking on the CMRA forum (http://roadracing.org/phpBB/index.php), they have the Ducati cup in Calgary and I know I've seen at least a few 749s there.

I can't speak for that specific bike, but I know switching between race and street trim is kind of a pain which is why I just sold all my street bits and put my bike to full time track duty. It is do-able, I switched my bike back and forth for my novice season, but I got sick of all that work just to ride on the street pretty quickly.

Pros - well you don't have to buy a second bike to ride it on the street, but that does lead to several cons..

Cons - riding your street bike on the track will lower the resale considerably, since you have to drill bolts, and it is more taking more abuse than a street ridden bike, and if you were to lay the bike down and damage the frame for example, the only value the bike has left is any undamaged parts on it.

I don't have any regrets converting a clean title bike to a race bike, but if I were to do it all over again I would buy a salvage title bike and build it up, makes much more sense financially.
 

racer51

Active Member
Switching from street to race

Might be worth asking on the CMRA forum (http://roadracing.org/phpBB/index.php), they have the Ducati cup in Calgary and I know I've seen at least a few 749s there.

I can't speak for that specific bike, but I know switching between race and street trim is kind of a pain which is why I just sold all my street bits and put my bike to full time track duty. It is do-able, I switched my bike back and forth for my novice season, but I got sick of all that work just to ride on the street pretty quickly.

Pros - well you don't have to buy a second bike to ride it on the street, but that does lead to several cons..

Cons - riding your street bike on the track will lower the resale considerably, since you have to drill bolts, and it is more taking more abuse than a street ridden bike, and if you were to lay the bike down and damage the frame for example, the only value the bike has left is any undamaged parts on it.

I don't have any regrets converting a clean title bike to a race bike, but if I were to do it all over again I would buy a salvage title bike and build it up, makes much more sense financially.

I've done it with my RC51 for 3 years. This year I finally got a dedicated race bike and will leave the RC51 for street duty. After she's all drilled up and safety wired the only thing I had to change out was the upper fairing and put the license plate back on...and I forgot to do that more than once!

Dave makes excellent points about value... In my case the bike was already being raced and I knew that when I bought it. Although the Ducati is a far inferior bike to the RC51 (LOL...) it should hold it's value. You could always simply say you drilled the nuts and bolts for safety reasons, since that's the truth and is exactly why racers do it.
 
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solo

Member
My answer is keep the street bike for the street and a track bike for the track. I'll be running a 1991 CBR 600 F2, I'm pretty sure a '96 yzf 600 would be tough to catch for me... I would rather take my chances pushing it a little harder with an old bike that putting my newer Gixxer on the track. As my riding and racing skills improve, then I'll think about a newer bike.
 
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YZF1000jon

Well-Known Member
I'd race the bike I'm not going to ride on the street. The 600 is a great bike, not an outright racer, but you aren't either yet.:D Run it for a year and see. More than likely in the first couple of years gravity will bite you, what bike are you willing to sacrifice to that particular god?
 

racer51

Active Member
Timmies points

I'd race the bike I'm not going to ride on the street. The 600 is a great bike, not an outright racer, but you aren't either yet.:D Run it for a year and see. More than likely in the first couple of years gravity will bite you, what bike are you willing to sacrifice to that particular god?

Ah, Jon...you're forgetting the looks you get at Tim Hortons when the squids look for chicken strips on your tires...and there aren't any! And a good scuff mark on say, the entire left side also elicits comments of "wow, that guy (or gal) is a maniac!
 

Ducbert

Active Member
Dual purpose is easy to do, but you will get tired of it.

When people ask this question, I would suggest riding what you can afford to fix, unless you have sponsors or deep pockets :)

If you plan to ride conservatively, that is great, but you are not alone on the track, accidents happen and racing is racing.

I love riding my 1098 on the track, I would track day your Duc´if you have the itch.

Also, the mental aspect, I found worrying about dropping my street bike, made me do more stupid/bad things then if I had just focused on riding the damn bike.
 

racer51

Active Member
Racing your street bike

Ducbert is right, you cannot avoid the anxiety created going in to a corner at high speed while braking for position, and worrying about your Monday morning transportation. If you want to ride the track on your street bike, do track days. If you want to race motorcycles, use a race motorcycle.

I used my street bike for 3 years...and I learned to repair fiberglass, bend metal and change tires... :D
 
I tried to double duty my street bike as well, despite plenty of warning like you're getting now. I even bought a seperate set of rims with street tires so I wouldn't have to do tire changes. It got old really quick, racing and trackdays were so much more fun. The street riding sucked to be honest, with the aggressive rear sets, stiff suspension, the bike just wasn't any fun to ride on the street. Sooner or later a race bike is going to hit the gravel. You don't want to ruin the resale on your street bike.
 
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