With only 8 bikes (on a good day) in your class you should take Gary's advice instead of trying to be the last SV on the grid. Eddie is just as fast on his stock SV so it's a pointless argument unless there were enough bikes to split the class. Apart from Eddie I don't see any future world champions in the class. On that note I propose you let the older slower 600 riders join your class... everyone good with that?
Power to weight ratio class might be a good idea. I was thinking that if I had a stock sv and my class allows Superbike builds, and I felt that I couldn't compete against those, what would I do? Ride harder and take more risks? Rob a bank and build my own weapon to attack podiums? Find another class that my machine and I would be competitive? Lots of options I suppose. Maybe the answer is to create a production class (or whatever is required for this purpose) and run it within the BOTT class. That way we still have an acceptable grid size, and everyone should be happy. Thoughts?
I was thinking larger grids of similar lap time riders makes for more fun regardless of the bike type. Small grids are typically spread out racing due to different skill levels which is boring for the racers and spectators. We need to find ways to make grids bigger, not smaller which is where this thread seemed to be going.
this discussion shows where the club went wrong all those years ago, when the rules changed to suit a few ( remember the "link" to name one incident) and alienated a lot of people that just went home and didn't say why. the point of my rant is that supersport classes exist so guys and girls that want to race each other without having to rob banks to win can do so. we can go back any time we want. i propose that next year supersport rules be strictly enforced. leave the superbikes to outspend each other to the podium. and to those who are going to say our bikes are too modded to go back. there are plenty of bikes to salvage at the wreckers . And we might just coax a few people back out that have older stock bikes sitting in a basement somewhere ....lets make racing fun again with classes you don't need an engineering degree to understand
last I counted there are 5 supersport or production classes for people who don't want to modify their bikes.
I have no idea what the "link" issue was Andre and I don't think it's worth dragging up the past at this point. I joined the club in 2011 and thought I had boarded the Titanic after attending a club meeting and things were much better then. The only sign of improvement was last season when the club took over the race school and track days. This provided the finances to subsidize the racing for those who chose to show up. The school and track days are a lot of work for the volunteers to keep the club going when many racers don't show up on beautiful sunny days, not to mention wet days. There seems to be more forum bench racing than actual racing which doesn't help the club.
Middleweight Superbike is probably the closest racing we have, along with the new lightweight classes. Between me and my son, we'll running 3 bikes this season in 5 different classes. If everyone would commit to that we would have full grids, lol. :dance:
Actually longer than that. John Mortimer won SVCup running a big bore bike with a throttle stop. That was back in 2007 or 2008. FWIW, the most recent change to MWT and MWSBK was to allow Ducati 748 in to the class. While we're at it, why not disallow aftermarket master cylinders in supersport classes? No slicks allowed in supersport classes? No double bubble screens in supersport?
Just my 2 cents worth, I use a race tech cartridge emulator and aftermarket springs in my FC bike. Could not the SV650s run these instead of a gixxer front end? You have to pop the caps off to adjust but they do work very well. Keeps the stock suspension externals.
Gixxer front end gives you not only better suspension, but better brakes as well. Even without changing the valving (which you should) you can get a complete front end, including triples, wheel and brakes for about $500 US. Cheap upgrade with huge upside.
This rule if imposed would remove 5-6 riders from the grid in order to "create more competition" for those who are standing of the periphery. Is there anyone viewing this thread who currently isn't racing in this class who would race it if it was a supersport class a'la stock bikes/limited modifications? Let it be known I'm in favour of building grids not reducing them. Please speak now.
When I was racing my supersport SV, it was disheartening when I could lead a lap or two then get motored on the straightaway by the 3 built SV's (yeah, yeah, get 'em on the brakes into turn 1, but that's difficult as they also have better brakes lol). There's currently an SV sitting in my garage that I could race, but I won't because it would cost around $3000 to race prep it and end up uncompetitive anyways. I will not race WM Twins class with WMRC in the future with the rules the way they are (unlimited HP, mods etc.) Supersport classes are the only affordable way to race, but I understand the Catch 22 with small grids. It's a shit sandwich and we all gotta take a bite. ;-)
I usually enter mw superbike because mw twins is full of modded newer bikes and its not safe for me or the other racers to have such a difference in speed between our machines. so aside from formula classic, middleweight superbike is the only other class i can ride in and have fun in so i would be out if more modified (faster) bikes were allowed Besides why cant the modded sv's enter other classes that allow more modification ?
I think this has been mentioned but it sounds to me like the answer is not changing it to supersport but the creation of a BOTT supersport race. I imagine it could be run such as FC heavy/middle. Run at that same time and scored separately.
I'm not quite sure of the logic behind running MWSBK over MWBOTT. In MWSBK you are running against the duc 748 and 99-01 R6's that are capable of doing 1:13 to 1:15. The fastest SV last year was Eddie (on a stock bike) and he did 17s.
