Bucket options?

[wbks]

so I've been looking through buckets and when I find a cheap, tidy one it's a fourspeed which from what I hear is a big dis advantage. Then, when I find a five speed it is nearly a thousand bucks, which isn't really cheap for a bucket, is it? so what options are there for a bucket that is atleast front disk brake'd, and is a five speed? I noticed that pit bikes are legal in the class but are they competitive? Cheap, disk brakes all around 110cc fourstroke (cheap chinese kind) although 3 speed they must be light.

[TZ350]

They may be Buckets and the safest way to go road racing.

But it would be a mistake to think there is something inferior about them. They are expertly ridden and pushed to the limits.

They are ridden much harder (albeit slower) than you see in other club racing and there is a remarkably high degree of technical development that go's into them.

$1000, Depends on whether your a rider or a constructor.

To build your own to a half decent standard will cost you much more than $1000 in my experience.

If your a rider first, then a $1000 for someone else's well developed bike and all the hard work put into it, is a bargain I reckon.

If you can't build/maintain your own I suspect you will always be at a disadvantage and should think about an easier option like a road bike and track days.

[wbks]

I have no problem maintaining bikes but I don't want to have to make too many modifications or spend much money on a bucket to have a reasonably fast bike if ridden right. I just rode a mates 150 at mt wellington which he bought for $800 and it was clearly competitive as I could easily pass all the other buckets there just on the straits and corner exits and the only guy there that ever passed me was another buy on a 150 which looked pretty stock version of the one I was riding apart from mx bars conversion. The 1000 bike I see isnt a well developed bucket, its just a road bike at the moment.

[TZ350]

Yes a standard FXR150 is a pretty good option. It does not take to much effort to make them into something worth while. Your right, if you look around you should find something, maybe a road bike thats a little scuffed/bent (damaged bike auctions, possibly) that you can easily straighten out.

But if you recently rode a mates 150 at Mt Wellington and were not overtaken by anything else bar another 150 during the day, then you might find buckets are to easy for you.

[wbks]

lol im sure there are quite a few bucket racers who will give me the learn quite easily. You werent being sarky were you? cause the guy was r6 kid who seemed like a good rider and was passing the guy who's bike I was borrowing just as easily. So long as I have them to keep up with it should be fine. So cb twins are an option? 150 I take it? What kind of price could I expect to pay for one? whats their technical name?

[TZ350]

Not tooo sarky, just over the seasons I've seen gifted young guys have a tryout on borrowed bikes, go real well and then disappear, pity because they could have been good and fun to chase around.

Maybe they just found it to easy, better that they had fallen off or something so the challenge of Bucketracing could capture their imagination. R6 is a real smooth clean rider who is fun.

Hope you get the Bucketracing bug, it would be good to have you around.

CB125T's are a good option to, one came 2nd in the GP at Taupo.

[speedpro]

CB125T's are a good option to, one came 2nd in the GP at Taupo.

FXR150 first and second I think followed by some wobbly 2-stroke thing.

[Skunk]

FXR150 first and second I think followed by some wobbly 2-stroke thing.

You mean someone wobbly on a two stroke thing?

[bucketracer]

Isn't there some kids poem about a blind donkey called Wibbly-Wobbly?

[TZ350]

I'll bash you with my Zimmer Frame, if I can catch you that is!

[wbks]

Can you replace the 18" wheels off a cb125 with a smaller set of wheels to fit race slicks without modification?

[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.

[speedpro]

The guys on here may be at the more dedicated end of the bucket fraternity. There are plenty running AX100s etc with hardly any mods. At Mt Welly there is a "B" grade which does have a mix of buckets. Some have been developed and some not. Just get something and give it a go. If you ask nicely it shouldn't be too hard to bludge a ride at a Saturday practice day. It's up to you where you go with it. For me it is impossible not to put effort into making the bike as good as possible, and I enjoy that aspect.

[piston broke]

ixion,your first two paragraphs sum up,what i've been doing,and what i've done.
scored my a100 for $112.50.
i won't be winning any races but i will be out there trying to better myself,oh and hopefully havin a load of fun.
gotta start somewhere eh.

[Trudes]

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.

To a large extent you are right.
However, like a lot of things I guess it depends how seriously you want to take it. For instance, I am quite happy to putter about on my 100CC 2 stroke, never win anything except for "token" prizes (even though I got third place in our B grade buckets here in Welly, but that was more due to turning up and finishing all but one race and having a bike that was reliable all season), but I am having a crap load of fun (probably because I don't take it too seriously and am not all about winning) and learning heaps about bikes and riding in general.
Half the fun for me is turning an old piece of shit into something that will make it around the track all day, take it home, change some things and then bring it back next time to see what difference it makes (making a new one at the moment, can't wait to see how it goes!!)
I think it'd be sad if everyone started racing FXRs, sure there'd be some different modifications that would come through, but I like the variety that buckets offers at the moment with 2 strokes and 4s, 6 speeds and 4 speeds, 50, 100, 125, 150cc etc, it's all fun.... which should be the point.