redkow97

I realized after I posted who started the thread. <facepalm> my bad.

we may have discussed everything there is to discuss with regard to firearms But if you have a specific question, you'll definitely find someone around here with an answer, or at least lots of opinions

he edited the post. I wouldn't have overlooked that. But yes, I fully agree that "no title" explains things. I've seen those bikes do pretty well at the track, but the 16" front wheel makes finding decent rubber more difficult. Still, pretty cool bike. Just too rare to use as a track bike for too long. But for $1,000, it's pretty disposable.

hmm... I am intrigued. Someone buy my track bike so I can buy this, sell the fairings, and then be a street hooligan.

Bump. Still hoping for a trade + cash for an SV, but opening up my trade market to include F2/F3's with reasonable mileage. (i'll consider other mid-late 90's 600's as well, but the F3 was the best of that era, IMHO) Basically I want whatever I end up riding on the street to look like a naked SV650, so a crashed 90's 600 isn't off the table, especially if it runs well and comes with more cash OR, if my asking price is out of your budget, hit me with an offer, and I can pull some stuff from the deal. Removing the damper would knock off a couple hundred, or I can sweeten the deal by throwing in my transponder or XT pro lap timer or something like that if that makes $3100 more reasonable for someone. Still not ready to part the TRS until the bike is gone though.

^ beat me to it. I was just about to add that experience with a clutch seems to be the single largest asset for new riders. My brother and I both learned to ride motorcycles in a parking lot in about 10 minutes, but we'd also had manual transmission cars as our daily drivers for 4+ years by then... It's not an apples-to-apples transition, but the vocabulary and theory are all the same. My wife had very minimal experience driving a manual transmission car and struggled during the MSF course. She did eventually pass, but she also wanted to quit halfway through the day on Saturday. If you're motivated to learn though, the MSF course is a very approachable means, and you don't have to worry about dropping their bikes... After that, buy the cheapest and smallest bike your ego will allow. Anything that runs is a good candidate for your first year. After that, buy the bike you really wanted. There is always a deal to be had.

track day. motoseries. $150. unless i'm riding, you can borrow my leathers. You'll learn more in 1 day on the track than I did in 3 years on the street. That's a guarantee. You'll be comfortable at highway speeds, or roughly double highway speeds. AND you'll know how to handle hard braking from 100+ mph, as well as how to corner at speeds that you won't (legally) encounter on the streets.

Nice to see another person on track.

PM me if you don't find anyone with a more readily available option, but I'm relatively close, and have a trailer with a chock. It's folded in the back of my garage right now, but if no one else has one around, let me know and we can work something out.

the GS500 isn't THAT bad... i like the look of the naked model, and as noted, it FEELS like a great bike, just without very much power. I never rode one back-to-back with a 250, but my brother and I did an informal 3-way comparison between the EX500, GS500, and XJ600. The Yamaha is heavy, but smoother (an inline 4 will do that though). The GS feels smallest and lightest, and I liked the brake feel the best. The EX has the best mid-range power, but the XJ actually feels quicker at the top of the power band. But the GS is definitely the slowest. But for a simple, fun, reliable bike, the GS is probably the winner. As was mentioned, air cooling and carbs make it just about the lowest-maintenance ride possible. I would strongly consider one, but I want the option of having decent 2-up power, and i just want an SV more...

the GS has more torque, more horsepower, and a very good chassis... I haven't ridden a 250 in a LONG time, but my dad's old GS500 was a hoot.

market garden has gotten a lot better. I went when they first opened, and their house brews were underwhelming at best. Everything tasted too... conservative. Like they made a beer no one would hate, but very few people would love either... For what it cost, I wasn't impressed. I still think the variety and overall quality of beers is better at Great Lakes Brewery, but I was dragged back to Market Garden last month, and their house brews had doubled in number, and the offering was MUCH more worth the price. I think they're still about a dollar a glass more than GLBC, and not quite as good, but much much better. If the beer cellar is open at GLBC, that or the patio are the best places to hang out. Just decide if you want to be hot or cool. Then again, I am super biased because I went to high school with one of the bartenders who is usually in the cellar, and i pay for about half of what I drink when she's working.

both guys? spike and bruiser. I enjoy small dogs with ironically butch names. it's like a fat-guy named Tiny.

i guess my question for the OMRL guys is, "is a stock ninja 250 faster or slower than a 'formula 1' bike?" because a forumula 1 bike with their race org sounds a lot more expensive than a stock 250. Yeah, the stock CRF 100 class sounds cheap, but there is still a laundry list of mods you ARE allowed to make. That's why I like springs and brake lines-ONLY. the mods are what kill us. Mods and tires. Yes, the aftermarket vendors are what make racing possible, but I just don't see the need for a $900 shock on a 250...

holy hell! dry weight 165 lbs! I can load it on my damn luggage rack! well assuming i can get my knee-dragging kicks on a 100cc dirt bike, now I need to find a fire-breathing small-dick-compensating monster for the street... :-P (but for real, who wants to trade me a first-gen SV650 for my track bike?)

but how much does the bike cost? realistically. Did I see one here for $1300? What kind of tires do they run? Warmers? I'm not at all familiar with what upgrades those bikes "need" to be competitive. What's the top-speed on the circleville and BeaveRun kart tracks? it would be strangely nice to race at 50 mph on a 100cc bike and ride the street on a 650, and have that feel like a beast

I would entertain the notion of ballast so long as the heaviest rider pre-registered for all the rounds ;-) And we'd have to find a way to distribute that weight on the bike and rider safely. If the XR or CRF 100 route is cheaper, I'm all for it, provided they race in Ohio (or at BeaveRun and Putnam) on a regular basis. I have to admit, I do like the idea of being able to hit 100mph, and somehow that is my unqualified prerequisite for "real" racing, but if the kart tracks are indeed less expensive, let's make it happen.

P.S. - while cruising eBay to price ninja 250 engines and see what I could potentially sell fairings for, I stumbled on a $1,190 Brembo caliper for an EX250, and a $1,200 Ohlins shock for a ninja 250. Those are perfect examples for why I want to limit the mods to springs and brake lines... $2,000 worth of brakes and suspension on a bike that retails for $5k new??? unreal...

It's $90 for the first race and $70 for the second. The trackday at Nelson is also 50% off once you register for a race, so you save a ton if you do that. (i believe it's a $50 discount at tracks other than Nelson) if you're a dynamo, the third race entry is $40, and 4th is $20. All races thereafter are $0. so if you want to race every single class (which is actually almost possible with a 250), the max you can possible spend on Sunday is $220. The max you would spend for the weekend is $295 with the trackday saturday, and every race you want on Sunday. The exception might be endurance entry fees, but if memory serves, the endurance race counts as your first sprint race, so any sprint races thereafter are $70, $40, $20, $0, etc.

All i know about carbs is that I CAN work on them if I need to. Fuel injection complicates things to the point where we can't work on the bikes half-drunk saturday night before race day. Where's the fun in that?

SV's are faster enough (that sounds weird) that they are still not "cheap" to race by my standards. If you want to run a CBR250, they pay $750 for a win with MotoSeries, but good luck beating all the first-gen $800 kawasaki's on the grid... I mean, the a great rider on a Honda 250 beats a good rider on a kawasaki 250, but unless it's a really tight track, the kawasaki has a 10-15 mph top speed advantage. You'd be outside our "special" class, but still legal to run MotoSeries. Another thing I forgot: I think we could work out some kind of "vigilante justice" way of enforcing the informal rules. What I mean is: aftermarket exhaust costs the rule-breaker a case of beer. Per weekend. Those abiding by the rules decide on the brand of beer. And by case, I mean 24, not 12 ;-) consumables would be fair game, so engine oil, fork oil, and gasoline (god love you if you want to put race gas in a 250!) are all things you can change, but i promise I will make fun of you relentlessly if you run race gas in a first-gen 250... Oh, and there would be some kind of weekly (or per round?) "prize" for whoever shows up with the most-stock bike, as voted by those of us participating. This would probably be "your dinner and bar tab are covered by the rest of us on Saturday night." Full lights and stock bodywork would pretty much be an automatic win, so track-day riders who are racing for the first time would have extra incentive to participate.

Oh, I forgot about a control tire!! We would all have to have a gentlemans agreement to not run warmers, and use some kind of sport-touring tire that would last (most) all season. I'd consider a short LIST of approved tires, but being that this is meant to be a cheap class, I would think longevity is a good trait. I'm open for (some) debate on this point, but running DOT race tires and warmers would inflate costs by a lot... And who knows, maybe Ryan can get us a group buy on a spec tire or something. I just want to go have some fun for cheap, and the 600 is too fast for that. It burns more gas, tires, and generator fuel with warmers.

Would anyone be up for some cheap "IROC" style racing? I am contemplating a first gen 250. I figure I can find a crashed runner for $600. WERA and MotoSeries allow too many mods to keep things truly "cheap," but if 5 or 10 of us play by our own rules, we can ride in the same class but have our own informal championship. Sound fun? I would be thinking that the following mods would be allowed, to keep things safe and fair: - stainless brake lines (stock rotors and wheels) - belly pans to catch oil. - re-spring forks and shocks. No re-valving, no emulators, no $1200 shocks, just springs to get us all at the right sag. - stock bodywork, or XR1200 style number plates. That's it. Stock rear sets (ex500 levers allowed for GP shift), stock bars, etc. Engine case covers would be allowed so long as they don't replace the stock cover. What am I forgetting? I would also consider a $800 claiming rule, with the caveat that the seller be allowed to keep their shock and fork springs. Thoughts?

who fucking cares? i want to buy one to increase my odds of her speaking to me though!