Track Day - Budget Build

[Artie]

Hi everyone,

This will be my budget track build… for the most part, a learners bike to get my feet wet, and see if I want to pursue it any further.
I’ve been riding for a few years, but only on streets.

I do not have a trailer, and even if I did, I don’t have a car capable of pulling one, so I need the bike to be street legal… which means title, plates, and lights …all of which it has, and will keep.
I recently picked up a very neglected ’06 EX250F, which needs almost everything. The only things it had going for it was a straight frame, and a clean title.

I’ll post a few things I’ve already done to it, and if anyone has any suggestions, they’ll be greatly appreciated.

I want to try and keep my budged under BBK value… somewhere around 1000-1500.
I figure this way if I do enjoy track days and decide to go bigger, I won’t have any regrets selling it.

[Artie]

The bike looks like a steel at $200… until you start taking it apart and find more and more busted pieces.







I know some of the pictures are blurry, but that's camera phone for you

[jkv45]

For the track - tires, suspension, and brakes are the most important items IMO.

Engine just needs to be tuned properly and all other components need to be in good order (chain, sprockets, fluids, etc).

No trailer or car that could pull it? Almost any car can pull a small cycle trailer with the 250 on it.

Are you planning to ride it to the trackday? I'd never suggest doing that.

[Galaxieman]

Got a friend who wants to go along to the track? Do they have a tow-worthy car? Pretty much anything with a bumper hitch is capable of pulling a small trailer with a 250 on/in it. With a couple years of street riding under your belt I'm fairly certain that you're not going to have any 'new rider' issues at the track . That said, Murphy is indeed a bastard, and will capitalize on any opening you leave him. Ride to the track with no way home other than your bike? Pretty much a recipe for something breaking and you needing a ride.

The other things a car can carry to the track for you: Extra water / gatorade, camping chairs (believe me, you want somewhere other than the ground to sit down), shade (even if it's just sitting in the seat inside the car), lunch (not all trackday orgs provide it), and last but not least: You, at the end of a hard day of riding.

Oh, and for $200, you scored. Keep us posted on the build.

[Artie]

Yeah, all I have is a Mini Cooper.
I looked at the hitches for it, and where they mount… aside from really low towing capacity, a couple of days of pulling, and I’ll be taking the car in for frame damage repair.

I travel a lot for work, so that took a big toll on my friendships… not to mention, people got married, had kids, and now have hardly anything in common with them.

My brother has a new WRX, but I have a feeling hell will freeze before he puts a hitch on that thing.

There are a few tracks within reasonable distance of me, and in worst case scenario, if it can’t make it home on its own power, I do have tow service. Not to mention, someone could follow me in pretty much any car with a few supplies on board.

I guess I’m just a little hesitant to go all in, and then find out that maybe it’s not for me.
I enjoy building bikes, so that alone is a very gratifying experience, and if I get to track it, it’ll be the icing on the cake.


Anyway, the tires were dry rotted, and I just so happened to have a set of EX500 wheels with like new Dunlop tires just sitting in the garage from a previous project.

[adouglas]

Originally Posted by jkv45

No trailer or car that could pull it? Almost any car can pull a small cycle trailer with the 250 on it.

This.

For Christmas I got a bolt-on hitch for my Honda Fit, which is a typical econobox. Not expensive. U-Haul rents motorcycle trailers that can be towed by my car (Class 1 trailer) for $15/day.

As I see it, there are two big issues with riding to the track:

1) If you wad your bike up, you have no way of getting home, and
2) The stuff you should have handy at the track is a lot to carry on the bike. Not saying you CAN'T do it, but would you WANT to do it?

Re the original question:

- Every track day organization is different in terms of rules. You should think about safety wiring... at least the oil filter bolt and drain plugs. Some orgs require it, some don't. Good practice anyway.

- Your tires need to be in excellent shape... like 85% of new from what I understand. Assume you need new shoes.

- Personal gear. The track day orgs I've looked into require full leather gear.

- Every track day org I've looked into publishes details on tech inspection expectations. Use those as your guide. Ratty bikes get extra scrutiny....

[Artie]

After a few weeks of prowling through craigslist, I found a guy selling a set of EX500 forks for $60
After a few quick searches online, I found out that the stems and stem bearings are exactly the same, so swapping the whole front end is a breeze.

I also measured the swing arms, and they have identical gaps between the axle bolts, as well as length. The axle bolt is the same diameter too, so the only things that had to be modified were the caliper bracket (I used the EX250, and had to mill it down a bit on both sides), and the caliper support bar (which had to be bent into a "Z"). Other than that, I just used the EX250 sprocket carrier and bushing, and it all bolted in.

[adouglas]

Originally Posted by Artie

Yeah, all I have is a Mini Cooper.
I looked at the hitches for it, and where they mount… aside from really low towing capacity, a couple of days of pulling, and I’ll be taking the car in for frame damage repair.

If your owner's manual says you can tow, you can tow without fear of damage provided you stay within the limits.

People in Europe use small cars to tow stuff all the time. Here we just assume that you need a ginormous pickup truck to tow anything, no matter how small.

[Artie]

Originally Posted by adouglas

This.

For Christmas I got a bolt-on hitch for my Honda Fit, which is a typical econobox. Not expensive. U-Haul rents motorcycle trailers that can be towed by my car (Class 1 trailer) for $15/day.

As I see it, there are two big issues with riding to the track:

1) If you wad your bike up, you have no way of getting home, and
2) The stuff you should have handy at the track is a lot to carry on the bike. Not saying you CAN'T do it, but would you WANT to do it?

Re the original question:

- Every track day organization is different in terms of rules. You should think about safety wiring... at least the oil filter bolt and drain plugs. Some orgs require it, some don't. Good practice anyway.

- Your tires need to be in excellent shape... like 85% of new from what I understand. Assume you need new shoes.

- Personal gear. The track day orgs I've looked into require full leather gear.

- Every track day org I've looked into publishes details on tech inspection expectations. Use those as your guide. Ratty bikes get extra scrutiny....

Thanks, I'll definitely look into it

[jkv45]

Originally Posted by Artie

Yeah, all I have is a Mini Cooper.
I looked at the hitches for it, and where they mount… aside from really low towing capacity, a couple of days of pulling, and I’ll be taking the car in for frame damage repair.

I travel a lot for work, so that took a big toll on my friendships… not to mention, people got married, had kids, and now have hardly anything in common with them.

There are a few tracks within reasonable distance of me, and in worst case scenario, if it can’t make it home on its own power, I do have tow service. Not to mention, someone could follow me in pretty much any car with a few supplies on board.

As adouglas mentioned, the Mini will do fine. Any decent hitch designed for that vehicle will have a tow rating that is safe for the car and the hitch. You aren't going to damage the vehicle in normal conditions towing a small trailer and cycle.

At the track you need tools and supplies, as well as someone to help you. Don't go to the track by yourself! In case of a crash you need to be able to get home! It's not just an issue of the bike being damaged.

I crashed during a race and ended-up in the local hospital with a broken collarbone and a few other injuries. Luckily a friend loaded my equipment for me and came to pick me up at the hospital (getting you back to the track isn't their problem) and drove my truck home - as I couldn't shift the manual trans (much less load up my stuff - and the track was closed by the time I was ready to leave the hospital).

You need to have someone there, just in case...

[Artie]

Originally Posted by jkv45

As adouglas mentioned, the Mini will do fine. Any decent hitch designed for that vehicle will have a tow rating that is safe for the car and the hitch. You aren't going to damage the vehicle in normal conditions towing a small trailer and cycle.

At the track you need tools and supplies, as well as someone to help you. Don't go to the track by yourself! In case of a crash you need to be able to get home! It's not just an issue of the bike being damaged.

I crashed during a race and ended-up in the local hospital with a broken collarbone and a few other injuries. Luckily a friend loaded my equipment for me and came to pick me up at the hospital (getting you back to the track isn't their problem) and drove my truck home - as I couldn't shift the manual trans (much less load up my stuff - and the track was closed by the time I was ready to leave the hospital).

You need to have someone there, just in case...

I might check out the hitches again then, or maybe just get a pick-up. I was thinking about getting a different vehicle this summer anyway.

[Artie]

On with the build :P

Here are some more crude pictures of what had to be modified to fit the rear wheel…


The lines show how much each side had to be trimmed for the EX250 caliper to properly sit on the EX500 whee/rotor.



And then the how the caliper support bar had to be repositioned.



After mocking up the brakes, I realized that if I grind off the old bracket from the swing arm, and weld on a new one a little further to the right, I can use the original straight bar, and it would also give me an extra 1/8” clearance, allowing me to safely run a 140 rear tire.
That’s not something I’m planning at the moment, but good info to have for someone that might want to do this.

[Artie]

And here it is with the new wheels in place.
Wheels are centered, sturdy, rolls around just fine, brakes work, chain lines up… not sure what else to check for.
(the picture was taken before the chain and the brakes were reassembled)



The only downside to this is that I’ve read that EX500 wheels are heavier, which is a big no no, but like I’ve said, it’s a budget build…
The way I’m looking at it, I could have spent $300 on new tires for the 16” wheels, or $60 to reuse the 17” I’ve already had, and upgrade to a slightly sturdier suspension.

I had the adjustable EX500 rear shock with some 4K miles on it sitting in the bin, so I changed that out, too.



The EX500 forks are a little longer, so I decided to run clip-ons in order to pull the forks up a little through the triple,
and since the original controls were busted up/bent, I decided to use ex500 brackets, and get adjustable handles… virtually the same price as buying ex250 replacements.

[Artie]

I might regret this later, but I was playing around with my welder, and made a 2-1 header.
I partly did it because buying one muffler is cheaper than buying two… and partly because I was bored and wanted something to weld.
Not sure what muffler to throw on it, maybe a stock dirt bike muffler, or a reverse cone?
I’m keeping the stock intake box and filter, so hopefully I won’t have to re-jet, but I guess I’ll find out once I get it on the road.

[Artie]

The gauge cluster and the front fairing support were busted up, so that took some work putting it back together and realigning…

[Artie]

Picked up a plastic welder to fix up the fairings



It seems sturdy enough



Looks like most of the fairings are salvageable. The only one that is not is the side panel, because it’s missing the tabs that broke off, but I found a replacement on eBay for a fair price.

Initially I was thinking about repainting the whole bike, but then I came across PLASTIDIP, and that got me pretty intrigued.
For those who don’t know about it, it’s like rubberized spray paint. Easy to apply, durable, can be pealed off if desired, and easy to refinish if dropped. Kind of like truck bed-liner, but more durable. Originally was used to dip tool handles in, but lately is becoming a fad to spray whole cars in, to easily change the color.
I picked up a few cans of Blaze Orange (neon orange), so we’ll see how that goes.

[Artie]

Picked up a replacement seat from eBay, and some wheel reflective tape… I hear that doubles the power :P



Jokes aside, this is as it sits right now.
It’ll probably be a while before any other updates since its way too cold to do anything outside.

I’ll probably make some crude extension plates for the rearsets to extend them back and a little higher up.

Also considering flipping the shift patter to 1 up, 2-3-4-5-6 down, but a little hesitant since it might trip me up going from this bike to my other ones.

I still appreciate any and all input, and I’ll definitely look into the suggestions that were already posted,
Thanks.

[Mike K]

How did you get on with this project? Any updates?

[rwp]

Originally Posted by Artie

I might check out the hitches again then, or maybe just get a pick-up. I was thinking about getting a different vehicle this summer anyway.

If you are just looking at 2 or 3 track days to see if you like it, consider renting a basic van for a day or two. A 250 is easy to load and the van would serve all of the other functions as well.

I don't have recent track day experience, but raced sports cars and short track for 8 years and rode multi-day dual sport events for a lot of years. Even if it were practical to ride to the track, at the end of the day you will be drained and probably shouldn't be riding home.

Regarding trailers, when I first started with off road bikes, I had one of the very light (40x48?) utility trailers with an extended cycle rail on it. 25 years later, a friend is still using it. Critical variable......buy good tie downs.

Oops, didn't pay attention to date...oh well.

[InvisiBill]

Originally Posted by Artie

I had the adjustable EX500 rear shock with some 4K miles on it sitting in the bin, so I changed that out, too.

I realize OP hasn't been around here in quite a while, but for anyone else reading this thread, the 500 has a much softer spring than the PreGen, only about 2/3 as stiff. You can see the extra coils in the spring, which equates to a longer lever, so less force is needed to move it the same distance.

You can put the slightly-shorter PreGen spring on the 500 shock without any mods. You'll be pretty close to bottoming out the preload adjuster to get it in the right range, but it will work. This will let you tweak the preload/sag without unintentionally making the rear way too soft.

Depending on your weight, a NewGen shock/spring might be a good upgrade too. The extra length will raise the rear a bit and make the steering a bit quicker.