| Author | Message | ||
     Chris_mackay |
Through some good luck and a deal or 2 off Ebay I find myself with a 2003 XB9R. I wanna race it! Where, when and how do I get into it? I have no dreams of winning, but I want to get out there and go fast. Yeah, I know, track days. I'll be there. But I want more! (Yes, I'm Steve's brother) | ||
| Ingemar |
Welcome Steve's brother and congrats on the new bike! Can't help you on your question though ... | ||
| M1combat |
I recomend talking to Englishman119, HobanBrothers... There are a couple more on this board. | ||
| Dmurphy48 |
Chris: Depending on where you are in the country getting into racing is a lot easier than you would expect. I race a SV650 in Colorado in the MRA and hopefully will race my 04' xb12R at some point in the near future. Buy a copy of Roadracing World magazine and look in the back area. They list out all of the reputable roadracing organizations in the country. From there you will have to call the local organization and get a race lisence which shouldn't be more than a "don't crash track day". My recommendation is that before you spend all of your money on making your Buell the "fastest" go out and race one year in stock trim (or as stock as the club will let you) and save your money for practice and tires. If you happen to live around Colorado give me a call and I will get you hooked up with the right people. Dale Murphy 720-232-7926 | ||
| Hobanbrothers |
Learning curves roadracing school is what I did years ago and I believe they are still in operation, Blackhawk Farms is in S Beliot and runs quite often with CCS. You could look at diesel joe.com as I believe they have links to the above gigs? Rick Breuer I believe is still running it. Dave S at Appleton is also in with a roadracing school that I believe you can also get your CCS licence through?? You may want to stop in and speak with Dan Bilanski at Hals, he races (has raced) there quite a bit and may give you more info. He is a good guy and will send you in the right direction. | ||
| Glitch |
Breathe don't forget to breathe. | ||
| Gearhead |
Welcome Chris_mackay, I've been studying this myself but I'm hoping to find an XB12R. As has been mentioned Learning Curves www.learningcurves.com and Edge Racing www.edgeracing.net offer licensing schools that will allow you to participate with several racing organizations. The one I've been interested in is CCS because of the favorable classes the Buells fall into and the proximity of tracks in my area, (Iowa). CCS has divisions across the country which appeals to me as well Check out www.ccsracing.com and go to "new racers information" This will allow you to download all the rules, requirements and class information. Hopefully I'll see you at the track, too!!! | ||
| Steve_mackay |
Wow! Didn't expect all the input! Thanks! I had planned on attending Learning Curves and getting my feet wet and taking it from there. Stopped at Hal's and they were extremely encouraging. Looks like all I need to do is choose a good set of tires and get the bus ready for road trips! I'll have room for at least 3 bikes in the back. Anybody wanna go? | ||
| Chris_mackay |
Oops... The last post was me, not him! | ||
| Shred |
Ed Bargey Race school is also a great school. At the end of lesson you'll have a chance to take your full competition lic. If you don't pass you can still get certified for practice days with cheaper track time. Look into "WERA" they have a lot of race class's to choose from. Start with a lower cc race class to get some track time and learn the ropes.. I would buy a starter bike something you can lay down. It will happen.A Savage title bike. The average cost of a race can be from 500 to 1500 dollars. Tires are very costly! I hope you do well. I can try to get you a starter kit for being an independant racer! Just a little list of stuff you'll need to get you started young JEDI! So many race div. check local tracks and race schools. Good luck! | ||
| Chris_mackay |
The XB9R IS my "starter" bike. It came complete with a salvage title! I fully intend to be laying it down every now and then. Living in between the Harley plant and the Buell plant makes it real easy to stop on the way home to pick up foot pegs, handlebars and levers! As far as "young" JEDI goes... Um... Well... My first Harley was an AMF creation. So... | ||
| Wyckedflesh |
Buy the Buell frame pucks...and check out the swingarm and fork pucks from Darkhorse Moto one of our sponsors available through DaveS at Appleton who is another sponsor  | ||
| Bcordb3 |
I have no dreams of winning Your competitive juices will eliminate that in a hurry. Remember to ride a clean line and if a fast guy wants to get by, let him go. You will be riding in the front of the pack in no time at all by using your brain and throttle, not just the throttle. As mentioned take a good riders course and enjoy. | ||
| Jarhead |
Has anyone had any experience with how well the Buell stick on frame sliders work? They look good, but I question the effectiveness of a stick on slider | ||
| Jarhead |
never mind, I just found a post showing how well they worked! ordering mine today | ||
| Steve_mackay |
And here are some pics of Chris's cheap XB track bike... http://www.brewcitybrag.org/index.php?name=coppermine&file=thumbnails&album=5 | ||
| Buelldealer |
At some point(as early as possible),invest some money in yourself and attend a real performance riding school, not just a one day "clinic". It will pay big dividends for you in the long run. If you want world class instruction check out Freddie Spencer's in Las Vegas (www.fastfreddie.com) and Kevin Schwantz's in Atlanta (www.schwnatzschool.com). Both are pricey, but well worth the coin. These guys are former world champions and the quality of their programs reflect this. Freddie has three world championships and Schwantz earned one. Nicky Hayden and Jason Desalvo are a couple of Freddies' regular students and other top riders continue to train at both of these schools. For considerably less money Jason Pridmore's Star School (www.starmotorcycle.com) provides excellent basic training. Jason's school travels around the country visiting different race tracks throughout the year, including Road America. In fact, a couple of my buddies took Jason's class this past year at RA and had Michael Jordan as a classmate for two days. For simple track day instruction, Monte Lutz of Sportbike Track Time (www.sportbiketracktime.com) does a great job as does the NESBA organization (www.nesba.com). At first glance, some of the schools seem a bit expensive. . .until you consider the cost of repairing or replacing ones motorcycle after wading it up from a simple and preventable mistake. Hope to see you at the track this next season. | ||
| Buelldealer |
(www.schwantzschool.com) Sorry. | ||
| Blake |
First off is equipment. Good quality leathers, back/spine protector, boots, gloves, and of course helmet. You might start out on street tires, but once you get the feel for riding around a track, please do yourself a big favor and get yourself a good set of racing compound DOT tires. I like the Pirelis and Metzelers. Soft front medium rear for cool weather, medium front hard rear for hot weather. Tire pressure should be around 30 psi rear, maybe a bit more in front. Be forewarned, the tires will feel really squirelly until they heat up. heat them up by accelerating hard and braking hard on your first lap; take the turns real easy. Only use the front brake! Don't use the rear brake for now. You'll either need a rear swingarm stand or a strap and something to tie it around to support your bike. You'll not be allowed to race with a kickstand. I wouldn't ride on a track with one unless it was firmly tie-wrapped in place. If your front brake pads are worn more than 25% of their original thickness, mount new ones for the track/race day. Thicker pads help reduce heat to the calipers and simply work better. Of course do the whole safety wiring thing. Find out if you need a belly pan. Since the oil is in the swingarm with no way to catch it should the line break there, the CMRA allows XBs to run sans belly pan. At least this year they did. Make sure your clutch and brake hand-levers are optimally adjusted. Too far up is REALLY bad. Too far down is not a big deal. Remove all unecessary stuff, especially lights and signals. Mount swingarm, fork, frame, and bar-end sliders. Install a good brand of synthetic engine and tranny lube. Practice, practice, practice. Don't try to force yourself to go faster; let it come naturally adn comfortably. Once you are confortable on the track, you can start experiementing with your suspension. A good track class would be most highly beneficial. And never be afraid to ask other guys at the track to help you out by leading you for a few laps here and there. Most experienced racers are more than happy to help a new guy learn the quick way around the track. Remember to practice your starts too. Oh yeah, a lap timer is essential. I like the MyChron timer. The new ones are real compact too. | ||
| Chris_mackay |
This is cool! Keep the info coming! I don't need to sleep. I can spend all these cold nights reading away. Just gonna have to get some sleep before spring. I fully intend to go to school. I didn't think reading about it would cut it. The "high priced" schools look great, but I think I'd really like to be able to learn on my own bike. Or is there an advantage to riding a school supplied bike? To me, riding someone elses bike would only be one step from reading about it. You get the theory down, but still have to learn how yours reacts. Tires! Geez! Everyone has a favorite. My XB came with a set of Avon's on it. They seem great on the street, even with the 40 degree temps lately. But my brother donated a set of Dunlop 208 GP's that should suffice for my first couple times out. I've got a stand, so the kickstand can go. Brake pads? I'm fairly picky about things like that and they get replaced quite often. I can't believe how far some guys let 'em go. Spend all their time going faster without thinking about having to stop. I'm working on sliders now. To start with I plan on using Buells. But, if things go right, I'll be putting Hal's Sharkskin fairing on and I'll have to flip the bike over to weld the slider mounts to the frame. I figure I can take it in to work, drain the gas and oil, pull the battery and flip it with one of the cranes. Makes way more sense than taking the whole thing apart! Aside from protecting the cases, the oil cooler and the pipe, that fairing would cover the belly pan issue also. When I first started looking into all this I quickly got discouraged. It's not easy finding info on getting started. I greatly appreciate all the help! In return for all the advice, I'd be happy to offer help in developing any ideas anyone would have for cool Buell parts. I have access to probably $10 - $15M in machines that would allow me to make pretty much anything someone can draw out on a napkin. Let me know! Thanks again! | ||
| Trojan |
We raced our bike on a tight budget too, so this may be of help to you: Faring: We used a Yamaha TRX 850 top fairing. It fits the original Buell brackets and is widely available is glassfibre at around £40 in the UK (US$70 ish). We made our own belly pan, but you can get a race belly pan from Henry Duga at Buell for a very reasonable price. Tyres: Metzeler Rennsports are the best race tyre for the XB by a country mile! You should try to get a set of spare wheels for wet weather tyres if required. Brakes : SBS racing sintered pads with Braking Wave front rotor (cheaper than a stock item over here). We eventually changed to radial mount brembo brakes because the original suffers badly with heat and the handling was better with the smaller discs. Oil: We used Torco synthetic 5/40 engine oil and Torco RTF racing transmission fluid in the primary.  you should also consider a chain drive conversion for better gearing. Rich Cronrath at Racingmotorcycles.com has a host of tuning and lightweight race parts available. (Message edited by trojan on November 16, 2004) | ||
| Buelldealer |
Learning the basic skills necessary to be a competent and smooth rider can be taught and learned on any decent Sportbike. Spencer’s school uses Honda 600RR’s while Schwantz’s school utilizes the Suzuki v-twin SV600S or the GSX-R600. Most other schools, including Jason Pridmore’s Star School, allow you to use your own bike. We’ve experimented with a number of different brake pads at the track and found that when using the Buell front rotor and caliper that the stock Buell pads actually worked better and lasted longer than any of the others we've tried. Also, whether required by the sanctioning body or not, an oil catch pan should always be a must have when racing. They are a good idea even for track days because unfortunately, motorcycles do occasionally leak oil and there is nothing much worse than crashing in your own oil, with the exception of being responsible for someone else crashing.  | ||
| Hobanbrothers |
Met Josh finally at Miami, very nice guy and a quality racer. One quick note on riding tech. Seeing as you said you could read on cold nights, when I started racing I bought all of Kieth Codes books, very good reading and then I took his course which tied it all together | ||
| Uwgriz |
Check out CCS racing's website, particularly here if you haven't already. The XB9 can run in ultra-lightweight superbike, thunderbike and supertwins among others so you'll have plenty of chances to race on any race weekend. Blackhawk Farms is a really fun track that suits Buells very well and is only about an hour and a half from you. Not that I've looked into this stuff. Besides the fact that I have a copy of the 2004 rules here at my desk in preparation for the mountainess task of convincing the other half to let me do it. (Message edited by uwgriz on November 16, 2004) |
