True Production Racing series

**jrandom** · 3rd December 2008, 22:26

Originally Posted by Ocean1

No. It's about who's a clever bastard wot can tweak the bejeezuz out of his bike AND herd it around the track better than everyone else. HIS bike.

Meh. Nobody tweaks the bejeezuz out of their own bikes these days. They give them to the appropriate professional and say "more power, please" or "better suspension, please", and shell out plenty of cash in the process.

I mean, fuxache, we're most of us computer programmers or accountants or truckies or electricians or Mr Whippy drivers or whatever... how the hell are we supposed to have time to learn about bike spannering and get it all right before racing starts? We don't. We pay the guys who know what they're doing to get our machines working the way they need to so that we can go play on them.

Will you next suggest that we design and build our own bikes from scratch, a la John Britten (who didn't, of course, do anything of the sort, but rather used his significant family fortune to pay a bunch of engineers to make a bike work for him)?

**Ocean1** · 3rd December 2008, 22:32

Originally Posted by jrandom

Will you next suggest that we design and build our own bikes from scratch ?

Yes. At the very least it should be worth bonus points.

And if you can't at least handle the mech basics you've got no right being there, clear the grid for a real racer.

**jrandom** · 3rd December 2008, 22:34

Originally Posted by Ocean1

And if you can't at least handle the mech basics you've got no right being there, clear the grid for a real racer.

Them's fightin' words!

**Ocean1** · 3rd December 2008, 23:04

Originally Posted by jrandom

Them's fightin' words!

Doner bike of your choice, $2k budget, zero restrictions, three months, bucket track of your choice.

Love to oblige, but I don't have the time.

A completely open class is the only type of comp motorsport I'd have any chance of being vaguely competitive in.

**jrandom** · 3rd December 2008, 23:07

Originally Posted by Ocean1

Doner bike of your choice, $2k budget, zero restrictions, three months, bucket track of your choice.

That actually sounds like huge fun.

But... restricting the amount of money you can spend is kinda the antithesis of an open class, isn't it?

**Ocean1** · 3rd December 2008, 23:24

Originally Posted by jrandom

But... restricting the amount of money you can spend is kinda the antithesis of an open class, isn't it?

Yeah, it's a problem, how to prevent the inevitable "chequebook racing”. Exactly the type of approach that eventually kills an open class.

I was already planning on ignoring the “donor bike” qualification on the basis of the “no restrictions” thing. You'd have turned up with the agreed CB400, (or whatever) and I'd be there with an R6 cobbled together from wrecks.

How to allow, even encourage innovation without opening the professional cash floodgates…

**ArcherWC** · 4th December 2008, 06:29

Originally Posted by CHOPPA

Wouldnt our production superbike and sport production classes all be classed as proddie racing?? There all production bikes with a few mods, most the mods on the bikes are mods you see on any road riders bikes...

The Major engine mods in superbike go beyond that.

I still firmly believe that Superbike should more closely follow supersport in this respect

**Scoot_6R** · 4th December 2008, 06:54

Originally Posted by Mishy

Interesting you should say that, and you would have had a pretty good look at Jay's bke last year too ( if I remember correctly)

I sure did. We struggled a bit this year in British Superstock600 just lucky we had a lot of outside help. The Yamaha's are definately the bike to beat at the moment. But we shall see what the new models bring.

**Scoot_6R** · 4th December 2008, 07:22

Originally Posted by Crasherfromwayback

You might as well be mate. After all...you 'judged' me and said it was people like me that are the problem...or some such shit. Then you judged that me and the pieces of crap I'd like to see raced belong at "Track days".

My answer to you was (originally)...how come if you're so clever...? You didn't answer the question mate!? So go back...have a look at the questions I asked you about 'Production racing' (because that IS what this is all about right?).

Because if you knew ANYTHING about NZ road racing...you'd know that most of the truly successful road racers we've produced came through the ranks of PRODUCTION RACING.

The Poms might even jog your memory a bit for you if you ask your famous mates. They may've been at Donington when Simon Crafar (ex 250 proddie) beat a certain Mick Doohan by 11 seconds.

Doubt Simon would tell you they only belong at 'track days'.

Dork.

I think you need to get out more. Howcome if your the be all and end all of all things racing I have never heard of you?? Also if your that good you should enter the series and win easily. I'm all for the production series don't get me wrong I think it is an awesome idea and I wish Shaun all the best with it. Hopefully it will get people off their old ZXR400's and CBR400's and get them onto modern machines to gain some experience of how to setup a bike with modern technology.

I hear people all day long spin on about how they ride hard and that I need my bike to do this and to do that. When really they only ride on the bumpy and slippery UK roads and do a couple of track days here and there. You sound just like them to me

**jrandom** · 4th December 2008, 07:28

Gosh. Where is the love? Can't we all just be nice to each other?

Oh, the humanity.

**Crasherfromwayback** · 4th December 2008, 07:34

Originally Posted by Scoot_6R

I think you need to get out more. Howcome if your the be all and end all of all things racing I have never heard of you?? Also if your that good you should enter the series and win easily.

I hear people all day long spin on about how they ride hard and that I need my bike to do this and to do that. When really they only ride on the bumpy and slippery UK roads and do a couple of track days here and there. You sound just like them to me

Really? You've probably never heard of me because I don't claim to be a 'somebody'...and when I was road racing...you were probably still sucking your mums tit. But I will tell you this much...I used to get around a race track alright. Still can. No track days required.

**Robert Taylor** · 4th December 2008, 08:09

Originally Posted by jrandom

Meh. Nobody tweaks the bejeezuz out of their own bikes these days. They give them to the appropriate professional and say "more power, please" or "better suspension, please", and shell out plenty of cash in the process.

I mean, fuxache, we're most of us computer programmers or accountants or truckies or electricians or Mr Whippy drivers or whatever... how the hell are we supposed to have time to learn about bike spannering and get it all right before racing starts? We don't. We pay the guys who know what they're doing to get our machines working the way they need to so that we can go play on them.

Will you next suggest that we design and build our own bikes from scratch, a la John Britten (who didn't, of course, do anything of the sort, but rather used his significant family fortune to pay a bunch of engineers to make a bike work for him)?

No, if you want simplicity, fine. That can be and already is catered for, to some degree. But road racing also is very much about optimising machine setup track to track, and like most sports it has become more complex. ( As has the world in general )This is an accepted norm in first world countries around the world. There is a place for complexity and for many of us that is an ageeable challenge.
Road racing is not only about the riders!