
Originally Posted by
Ixion
Hm. I am following this with interest. I am still walking suspiciously around this bucket thing poking it with a sharp stick.
Originally my impression of bucket racing was it was a cheap fun thing. Buy some old banger for five hundred bucks and have a bit of fun with it, no-one caring too much who won or lost. That sounded remarkably similar to what we used to do when I was a young fellow (allowing for an extra zero on the price, it was many years ago). Cheap harmless fun, and a wee bit of an engineering challenge (as in "Why the f**k won't you start you bastard")
I am begining to suspect that the reality is a lot of more serious and a lot more pricey than I envisaged. The "not really caring who won or lost" certainly doesn't seem to be true. And some of the setups I've been reading about would run to a good many thousands of bucks, even without counting ones own labour.
So , like the OP, I'm sort of thinking "where are the options ?". Small old bikes will usually be either drum braked or four speed , or both. Drum brakes I don't so much mind (brakes are an over rated luxury I reckon); four speeds is harder to change. Front ends can be swapped : but it all starts to cost.
And it all seems very competative . Like, if you're not willing or able to spend the thousands to make or buy something "competative" it's not worth bothering.
And I also detect the classic problem of many racing classifcations. Where the class gets captured by a specific model of bike, and anyone who isn't riding one is just a joke. And because everyone is on the same basic machine , the whole thing descends into a world where what matters is how much each person is prepared to bend the rules ; or how big a risks they are prepared toake on the track. Happened with the Senior TT , when the Manx Norton pretty much took over. And later here in NZ when Club racing was just a whole field of Yamaha 350 cc two smokers. And it seems that bucket racing is going that way with the FXR150.,
I'd like to be told I'm wrong, but it's not what I'm reading.
I guess I'll keep poking it with that stick a bit more.
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