When do you consider a bike "too nice for the track" and what does that even mean??

[ANORXIC'51]

Just needing to vent because I get asked a decent amount why I would track my bike. I normally end up saying something like 'mine is nothing! Check out the guys on the 1198S/1098R/RC8/S1000RR/RSV4/1199S/F4/etc.

When I first started I looked at some bikes with the thought of "WOW, what an awesome street bike...no way I'd ever bring that to the track". It took a friend with pretty much the baddest R1 in the country regularly bringing his to thrash on to make me realize NOTHING is "too nice" to come play on as long as you are having fun and learning.

Going down to the NESBA weekend @ Barber last month reassured me that any bike you have, be it a completely stock R6 to a nicely modded RSV4 Factory (seriously drooled at that thing all day Sunday) to the nicest standard D675 I've ever seen (basically better spec stuff than the 675R comes with) is worthy of dual duty.

Do you have a cutoff to when you'd stop bringing your bike to the track? The more stuff I do to mine, the less sense it makes to delegate it to street only. Yeah, crashing in OEM plastic (or say, full carbon bodywork) sucks, but that's what track bodywork is for.

/randomwinterthoughts@2:30amCST

Sincerely,
Insomnia (aka: slow guy on a 'meh...its ok' bike)

[kevin_stevens]

For me it means a bike I'm not willing to crash. The reason could be cost, difficulty of part replacement, or fear of loss - it's not hard to crash a bike hard enough to have the insurance company write it off and refuse to repair it.

I don't go to the track planning to crash, and have not done so to this point, but mile for mile it's certainly more likely than my typical street day.

KeS

[aLive]

Same here - it just boils down to "can I afford fixing this thing and how long would it take me to do so." If I had the cash I'd buy the nicest bikes and trash them regularly on the track.

[Tony216]

If I have a loan on it, it's too nice.

[knonfs]

Originally Posted by kevin_stevens

For me it means a bike I'm not willing to crash. The reason could be cost, difficulty of part replacement, or fear of loss - it's not hard to crash a bike hard enough to have the insurance company write it off and refuse to repair it.

I don't go to the track planning to crash, and have not done so to this point, but mile for mile it's certainly more likely than my typical street day.

KeS

Originally Posted by aLive

Same here - it just boils down to "can I afford fixing this thing and how long would it take me to do so." If I had the cash I'd buy the nicest bikes and trash them regularly on the track.

Originally Posted by Tony216

If I have a loan on it, it's too nice.

All of the above!

[kevinwilly]

I love european bikes. LOVE them. I pretty much won't buy anything else. I hate japanese bikes.

That being said- after buying my last 7 bikes wrecked and fixing them to get them rideable for the street....

I'd never track a european bike. EXCEPT maybe the D675. There are some used parts for those that are kinda easy to get.

But compare that to a GSXR. I can literally get ANYTHING for one of those bikes on ebay for 20 bucks. I bought a set of stock forks for an 06 GSXR600 for 75 bucks. 4 years ago.

You can't do that with a european bike. So yeah- it might be nice to track a ducati. In fact, I'm SURE it is nice.

But I'd pretty much plan on wrecking if I went to the track. I can get a prepped GSXR track bike for like 3 grand, wreck it 10 times, slap it back together, and sell it for 2500 bucks.

There's no reason I'd take my street bike to the track. Just not worth it.

[No Coast Rider]

My street bike is my primary means of transportation so I def dont want to track it and risk breaking it. Plus as someone said euro bikes are real expensive to fix.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Motorcycle.com Free App

[Technomancer]

I get an emotional attachment to my cars and bikes. It isn't a great thing to do with inanimate objects -- crashing them would really bum me out, even after fixing things back to original condition. And you never quite get back to original condition, do you?

Yeah, I'm very conflicted on even going to the track at all, much less with an expensive bike that I love. I have taken my sports car to the track and had a great time, but you don't often highside/lowside a car. I left plenty of reserve performance on the table so I wouldn't even go off track.

- John

[binx_19]

if you cannot afford to fix it.

[acalliste]

I have only done track days on my everyday street ride, and it's worked out fine for me. I don't push my limits or go too far outside my comfort zone though. The only time I crashed at a track day I was barely even on the track yet (lap timer malfunction) and it just resulted in a couple of scratches to the bike and my gear. Other than that I have never even run off, let alone crashed while out riding on a track. So I wouldn't think twice about taking any bike i owned to a track day.

[OreoGaborio]

There's no such thing as "too nice for the track". Ever. Like, ever ever.

You hand me the keys to any kind of exotica and I'll ride it in anger. Done it before & I'll do it again. I've been known to thrash on some high end bikes. RC8R, 999s, MV Agusta F4 1000r to name a few.


Does "shit happen"? Sure. But I'm a lot more comfortable having fun on the track than I am on the street. Way too many unknowns on public roads. On the track it's pretty much just me & the machine. That's about it. If the machine breaks, well, chances are it woulda broken anyway. If I crash it, well, it was my own damn fault. In nearly a decade of track riding I've only had two track day crashes... one was due to inexperience, the other was due to me having a little too much fun before letting my tires come all the way up to temp.

[stamford]

Originally Posted by OreoGaborio

There's no such thing as "too nice for the track". Ever. Like, ever ever.

You hand me the keys to any kind of exotica and I'll ride it in anger. Done it before & I'll do it again. I've been known to thrash on some high end bikes. RC8R, 999s, MV Agusta F4 1000r to name a few.

You owned those bikes and rode them in anger on track!? More power to you.

Ill gladly ride anything on track no matter what it is but if I actually have to buy the motorcycle or pay to repair it for me there is def an limit some where on when it becomes "too nice for the track". That limit is usually what happens to be in my bank account at the moment so I pretty much can't ride most bikes ha!

[Tripped1]

Originally Posted by stamford

You owned those bikes and rode them in anger on track!? More power to you.

Ill gladly ride anything on track no matter what it is but if I actually have to buy the motorcycle or pay to repair it for me there is def an limit some where on when it becomes "too nice for the track". That limit is usually what happens to be in my bank account at the moment so I pretty much can't ride most bikes ha!

What is the point of riding a super sport exotic that can double any posted speed limit in 1st gear if you aren't tracking it?

They aren't that much fun on the street....well they are, for about 25 minutes in traffic before the need for advil kicks in/

Loan or not.

[UltimateOG]

Originally Posted by aLive

Same here - it just boils down to "can I afford fixing this thing and how long would it take me to do so." If I had the cash I'd buy the nicest bikes and trash them regularly on the track.

This is the biggest factor for me. Do i have the funds to fix it and how long would it take to fix it? Do I have the leisure time to fix it or the space to fix it? Do I have the means to fix it? Having your own garage or shop to work out of helps a huge amount.

[Tripped1]

Originally Posted by UltimateOG

This is the biggest factor for me. Do i have the funds to fix it and how long would it take to fix it? Do I have the leisure time to fix it or the space to fix it? Do I have the means to fix it? Having your own garage or shop to work out of helps a huge amount.

If you have stock plastics on anything not a GSXR or R6 you may as well just buy another bike anyway, they all come wrapped in like $3,600 in plastic at OEM price, that is before you bend a rim or snap the spools off in your swing arm.