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Heh, well it actually costs less to buy a new 125gp bike with plenty of spares than it would to buy a new 600cc sportbike and supersport prep it. A brand new 125gp bike is about $10,000 plus japan shipping+customs and includes a basic spares kit. A basic spares kit is some engine top-ends, clutches, etc... If you spend $1500-$2000 more you'll have a "complete" spares kit which will prepare you for most any mechanical failure or crash. A brand new 250gp bike is around $19,000 plus shipping+customs and since it's identical to a 125 except has two 125cc cylinders instead of one, you gotta spend twice as much on spares. You can buy new 125 or 250 bikes from Honda (RS125 or RS250) or Yamaha (TZ125 or TZ250). They are made in generations, where no major changes are made within the same generation and if you buy the engine and chassis updates your bike is identical to a new one. Honda's generations for a 125 (idunno for 250s) are 1989-1994, 1995-2000 and 2001+ and Yamahas are 1994-1997 and 1998+. I have a 1999 TZ125 with all the updates, so it's identical to a 2002. That's the nicest thing about a gp bike, you don't have to buy a new one every year. In fact, you could only buy a new one every 5 years or so whenever a new generation comes out and spend less than $500 all the other years to update your bike. In production/superbike racing, the top racers buy a new bike and prep it EVERY year. Though pretty much equal on the track, it's a big rivaly between Yamahas and Hondas for gp bikes. Yamaha has always dominated popularity the 250cc gp bikes, while Honda has with 125s. In fact, new-generation TZ125s are very very rare. I have one of 4-5 in America. Most people think the Honda RS125 is faster because it's so much more popular, but it's actually not. The Yamaha has a more tunable, peaky engine, better suspension, lighter chassis, more advanced carburator, etc... The Honda is more popular because they're ALL fast. The 94-97 Yamaha was far behind the Honda since it was designed to compete with the 89-94 RS125, but then was redesigned for 95. The 98+ Yamahas are super friggin fast though.
As far as 500cc gp goes, the only one you can normally buy is the Honda NSR500V for $100,000 give or take. However, this bike is a twin cylinder, while a true Honda NSR500 has a 4 cylinder engine and any factory 500cc gp bike has millions of dollars in it. The nicest 500cc GP bikes I've seen for sale were the 1999 Aprilia factory bikes, for sale for $178,000 each, but that didn't include the "kit" parts. Actually, factory 125s and 250s are far distant from normal gp bikes also and are all factory "a-kit" parts which are only leased to top teams. Even though a new 125 is ten grand, a factory 125 has $125,000+ in parts, and pretty much only shares the FRAME with the production 125.
Either way though, ALL gp bikes are very very very VERY FAST. Most people don't think 125cc's is that big, I mean their R1 is 8 times bigger at 1000cc's and makes 150hp. Well, a stock 125cc bike makes 45 horsepower. If you spend another 5-10 grand tuner parts (cheaper replica versions of factory kit parts) you can make close to 50 horsepower while the factory 125s make 52+ horsepower for qualifying sessions (where the bike doesn't have to be as reliable). Doing the math, that's over 400 horsepower per liter from a naturally aspirated engine :D. Also, a 125 weighs less than half that of a 600. A stock 125 weighs around 160 pounds dry. Mine weighs 165lbs wet because I've changed a lot of stuff for magnesium and carbon fiber to reduce weight. I know a guy with a factory aprilia 125 bike (he paid $50,000 for it) and that one weighs 137 pounds dry.
There's a saying in racing which is "in order to make a small fortune racing, you must start with a large fortune," and that's true. You won't make money until you ride FOR someone and they pay the bills and give you a salary. I'm probably giving the impression that racing costs an assload to do, but I do it at a pretty high level and ride to win races and championships, because I'm trying to be a pro. Racing mid-pack in slower classes is just as fun, if not funner and costs a fraction as much. It's still expensive though, but it's so fun that it's worth every penny.
Enough info? ;)
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07-20-2002 04:49 AM
