Track miles vs Street miles

Hoping a few of you racers could comment on buying a used track bike. I've done maybe 20 track days and I'm looking to get a dedicated track bike. I've been looking for past 2 months, my strategy was buy a low mileage sport bike (street) 3-6k miles and convert it to track use. Y'all all know this is $$$.

There's a guy I know who's selling his track bike. He bought the bike new 2014 and has put 2300 miles on it (primarily TWS and COTA) over last 5 years. The bike has been down a couple times from low sides but nothing major and I believe him.

He rides at L3, bike looks to be in excellent condition and well maintained. Thoughts? Other than my riding checkout (shifting, engine tics). Maybe compression test?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Sam

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Originally Posted by Sam Morgan

Hoping a few of you racers could comment on buying a used track bike. I've done maybe 20 track days and I'm looking to get a dedicated track bike. I've been looking for past 2 months, my strategy was buy a low mileage sport bike (street) 3-6k miles and convert it to track use. Y'all all know this is $$$.

There's a guy I know who's selling his track bike. He bought the bike new 2014 and has put 2300 miles on it (primarily TWS and COTA) over last 5 years. The bike has been down a couple times from low sides but nothing major and I believe him.

He rides at L3, bike looks to be in excellent condition and well maintained. Thoughts? Other than my riding checkout (shifting, engine tics). Maybe compression test?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Sam

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You never know with a race/track bike. That being said sportbike motors are pretty durable if it is not "built"and was taken care of. No real way to really test it unless you can get it on a dyno. I've never done a compression test or dynoed a bike before i bought it. If the rest of the bike looks pretty clean thats at least a decent indication it's been well taken care of. I'd at least have the valves checked after i bought it.

Thanks Jordan, great advice.

You never know with a street bike. Lots of goofballs with no idea how to maintain a bike and often getting it to operating temp before wailing on it.

I used to be wary of race bikes, but having owned the same bike since new in 2004 with a lot of miles on the street, lots of trackdays, lots of sprints, 3 years of endurance racing and back on the street again, I say if the track bike is decently maintained it’s a good option

Try to buy it at a price where that question doesn't stick in your craw.

When buying bikes, you should try to pay more attention to the owner than to the bike itself. What I mean by that is, if they took care of it, frequent oil changes, etc. I echo what Josh said. There are a lot of idiots on sport bikes that don't even know you're supposed to oil the chain. I'd be just as weary of a street bike than a race bike.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sam Morgan

Hoping a few of you racers could comment on buying a used track bike. I've done maybe 20 track days and I'm looking to get a dedicated track bike. I've been looking for past 2 months, my strategy was buy a low mileage sport bike (street) 3-6k miles and convert it to track use. Y'all all know this is $$$.

There's a guy I know who's selling his track bike. He bought the bike new 2014 and has put 2300 miles on it (primarily TWS and COTA) over last 5 years. The bike has been down a couple times from low sides but nothing major and I believe him.

He rides at L3, bike looks to be in excellent condition and well maintained. Thoughts? Other than my riding checkout (shifting, engine tics). Maybe compression test?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Sam

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What make model is this ? For the most part we are pretty lucky that a stock 4 cylinder engine is almost unbreakable nowadays. Street miles aren’t sore on the engine and, for the most part, track bikes are mostly well maintained and easy to spot if they aren’t.


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Mileage in that range wouldn't bother me if the price was reflective. On any bike (used or new) some random things may break/need replacing, but for the most part, if a bike has been well maintained, and it's a common bike, it should have a fair bit of life, track bike or not.

Depending on the crashes I may be concerned about straightness if they haven't had it checked, but otherwise, as long as they are honest about things, that wouldn't scare me off from checking it out. at only 2300 miles, I probably wouldn't even be worrying about valves or anything else along that line unless it was running a bit weird. That's pretty light use even for a track bike.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sam Morgan

Hoping a few of you racers could comment on buying a used track bike. I've done maybe 20 track days and I'm looking to get a dedicated track bike. I've been looking for past 2 months, my strategy was buy a low mileage sport bike (street) 3-6k miles and convert it to track use. Y'all all know this is $$$.

There's a guy I know who's selling his track bike. He bought the bike new 2014 and has put 2300 miles on it (primarily TWS and COTA) over last 5 years. The bike has been down a couple times from low sides but nothing major and I believe him.

He rides at L3, bike looks to be in excellent condition and well maintained. Thoughts? Other than my riding checkout (shifting, engine tics). Maybe compression test?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Sam

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Try to find their track day videos, listen to shifts, revs and how they ride, are they smooth and fast, or choppy and unpredictable?! Do they over rev, brake out of their control zone?! A lot of times, you can tell the condition of the bike by one or two track day videos. If they're smooth and predictable. buy it, if they're riding over their head or unpredictable, look elsewhere. *STILL no guarantees* BUT also find out why they're selling it? Did tranny start not shifting so they're dumping expensive bills on you, or did they already purchase next iteration of same bike?! BEST used bikes have just had every necessary repairs/upkeep JUST done before a resell.