There’s something extra visceral and exciting about running at a race track on two wheels, but once you get hooked on reducing your lap times you’re likely to burn dollars in equal measure to gasoline. There’s some good news, though, because you don’t necessarily need to rush out and go buy a new $34,000 Ducati Panigale V4. If you went to the Kawasaki store and bought yourself a nice lightweight Ninja 400 for just $5,200 instead, you can still get out and rip it with the big boys. With a few quick modifications the Ninja gains around 10% more horsepower at the rear wheel for about 53 ponies, and while that’s still quite a bit shy of the Ducati’s 209, there’s something all the more fun about riding a slow bike fast, even at the track. Besides, a Panigale isn’t even as fast as a cheap old GSX-R anyway.
Especially if you’re new to track riding, you will probably want to start with a cheaper sport bike anyway. Being bigger, heavier, and more powerful means a big engine bike will go through tires and fuel at a much quicker rate, and it’s way more expensive to buy parts for your big bike if you put it on its side. A slower and smaller bike will also help you to develop your riding skills much better, instead of hiding your mistakes or glossing over your bad riding practices with more straight line speed and power. If you can be fast on a Ninja 400, you’ll be even faster when you do graduate to a liter bike.
Hit it
Jeremiah of Big Time went through all of this in the above recent video, endeavoring to make his Ninja just a little more powerful with some help from Graves Motorsports, then hit the track to see if he could keep up with the big boys. I doubt that the five horsepower that Jerry’s Ninja gained made a seriously significant difference in his lap times, or allowed him the go-fast to be able to pass some guys on liter bikes, but more power rarely hurts, right? It is more likely that Jerry has more experience and better track riding skills than some of the other folks on “faster” bikes that he passed. The Ninja 400 is also 60 pounds or so lighter than most of the big liter bikes in ready-to-ride conditions, and that’s going to be a huge advantage for the smaller, slower, and significantly cheaper machine.
Don’t be afraid of being slow. You need to be slow in order to learn how to be fast. Work with what you’ve got until your skill level outshines your bike of choice. Once you have that, you can think about upgrading to more power. Take it easy.