First race bike: advice?

[Fat_Nate]

Hello --

I'm going to get into CCS racing as an amateur.  My goal is to ride a CCS race at Daytona in 2006 or before.  I live pretty close to Moroso and Homestead.  I can spend some money, but I don't mind riding an older bike, either.  I would like a bike that "works" (eligible and sort of competitive) in several classes, and I'm no mechanic.  New Duc 800ss?  FZR400 or SV650?  125GP bike?  What's your recommendation?  Thanks,

Nathaniel

[Dawn]

Check out this thread.  It may answer some of your questions.....

http://www.racemotorcycles.com/cgi-bin/board/YaBB.pl?board=ccs1;action=display;num=1099597815;start=0

[Fat_Nate]

Great - thanks.  That was the thread I was looking for.

SV looks to be the hands down winner.  Any thoughts on an 800ss Ducati?

[George_Linhart]

My favorite quote is "Racing a Ducati is God's way of telling you that you have too much money."

Seriously, I love the bikes but parts are expensive, they are tempermental and labor on italian bikes ain't cheep.

Spend you amature year on a bike that doesn't require a lot of work and is common on the track so that other people can loan parts or help you out should you crash.  Once you learn your way around you could decide to do something different, but at least you will know what you are getting into.

If you want maximum eligibility, a 600 super sport is a good choice.  You can get a lot of track time and if you are a reasonably good rider you can be competitive in a lot of classes (GTU, MWSS, MWSB, MWGP, HWSS, HWSB, GTO, USS, UGP). Unfortunately the Middle Weight classes are also the most competitive and the 600 SS race seems to attract the most knuckle heads.

George

[Fat_Nate]

Well -- I definitely don't have too much money.

I think I'll go with an SV or an FZR400.  I see that the FZR can fit into a few classes, but is it common at the track and quick enough to be fun in all but the lowest displacement/weight classes?

[tzracer]

FZR400s are not very common sincs the SV arrived. Go with an SV. It is newer and very common. Parts are easier to get than for the FZR. Besides the newest FZR will be about 14 years old, many parts can wear out in 14 years.

[Zac]

Any thoughts on an 800ss Ducati?

I started racing on a '93 Ducati 750SS.  It was my old street bike, which was replaced by a Guzzi Centauro, so it became my track day bike and then race bike.  It was a great bike to learn on, but as I got better I started to find it's limitations, which would have take some money to fix.  I decided to buy an R6 instead, but sometimes I wish I would have kept the little Duc.

The newer SS Ducs (post '98) are much better platforms for racing because they fixed the chassis geometry problems.  They will run reliably as long as you don't do too much to the engine (the Pantah based engines aren't all that strong).  Mine had somewhere around 22,000 miles, the only engine failure I had was an outer case gasket went south and blew some oil.

If you wnat to keep up with SVs the bigger supersports would be a better choice.

-z.

[rotoboge]

What's your recommendation?  Thanks,

I started my son in CCS this summer on a SV650. It is a great bike to learn the proper lines on, as well as, it is very competitive in the LW classes.