CB500 racing

[Lakeland]

Does anyone who read's the board know much about the cb500 racing group? I think it's called the thundersport 500 from memory?

Pie in the sky idea for now... in the future I'd like to get into racing cb500's, I've got one for a road bike and love it, even after riding big cc bikes, I come back to the cb and just love riding it What I don't like is trying to have fun on the UK's roads. The idea is to use a track to have fun... the problem being cost When I was a nipper my dad used to take me and a mx bike to a track, nothing special, all that was paid was the license and entry fee + fuel to get there and back, and I'd only do a few local races a year, meaning the cost was pretty much minimal once you had a bike, ppe was essentially helmet/gloves/boots + jeans and a thick Cotton jacket

So realistically, how much (not including a race prep'd bike which seem to go for around £1300) would it cost to take part in a few races a year?

Things I'm thinking of cost wise are license fee, entry fee, insurance? maintenance on bike per race, avg crash damage (fairing, levers, engine casing etc), tyres, safety equip such as fire extinguishers which we used to have to buy for mx, leathers, armour? I've got access to a van so transport cost would only be fuel.

Is it possible to go and race on your own? Is there a minimum requirement in terms of speed/pace before you could enter? I can crank it over on the road but I'd probably be in for a shock if I thought I could keep up with the big boys on the track!

As I said it's just pie in the sky at the moment cause there is no way I can afford to pull this off right now, some ball park figures would help set a goal which I can aim for though

 

[SKILL]

I started racing last year, on a VFR400, I've heard of the thundersport 500 series (iirc it includes bikes like the GS and GPZ etc? eg parrallel twin 500's?) anyway, not really looked hugely into it, but can answer some of your questions:

Costs:
Licence Fee - £43 this year for my ACU Licence, another £30 to join Bemsee (I think Thundersport is about the same).
Only insurance I have is accident insurance at ~£40 per quarter

Maintenence wise you've only really got oil/filter and tyres that I can think of, I change oil every other round, filter every other oil change.
Not sure on the tyre rules for that series (some use a spec, usually cheap, tyre), but for the F400's I used Dunlop GPR-10a's last year and only needed 1 front and 2 rears for the whole season, this year I'm using Pirelli Supercorsa's and I'm likely to need ~3 full sets at £250-260 a set...

Crash Damage, hard to average out, I had three accidents last year:
1st: Fairing, clip-on, upper rad, rear brake master cylinder, footpeg
2nd: some cable ties to re-attach the fairing
3rd: footpeg and an exhaust repair at £75

But for reference costs, footpegs are fairly cheap (just the peg itself), it's about a tenner at the circuit I believe, probably cheaper bought online though. Fairings are around ~£120-180 ish depending on type/availability. Then obviously various spares for your bike.

You need a 2Kg Powder fire extinguisher, and probably wise to get some cable covers as some circuits are anal about that, but that's about it.

Equipment, you obviously need an ACU approved helmet (gold sticker on the back with a twin-line border), you'll need one piece leathers (got mine from Hein Gericke own brand stuff, £220 and they've been down the track 3 times, scuffed but fine), decent boots and gloves. I got a Knox back protector, around £80-90 iirc.

Perfectly possible to go on your own, try to make friends in the paddock though as it makes it far more fun
Not sure how Thundersport do it, but Bemsee run a 'rookie training day' which seems heavily a case of getting an experienced rider to check that you're not a liability on track, speed itself isn't a requirement as long as you're safe.

Hope I've covered most of it there...

EDIT:
One last thing to add, Do It, it's utterly awesome, even if it will make you incredibly poor

Oh, and didn't mention race entries, not sure on Thundersport but Bemsee range from ~£220 (like Pembrey next weekend, with a further £130 if you want to do the test day) up to Brands GP which is £295 for the race entries alone...