I am curious, what is the actual cost in total to take your bike and go to the track for a couple of hours ?
Track riding miscoception - by street riders
- Thread starter Metastable
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I am curious, what is the actual cost in total to take your bike and go to the track for a couple of hours ?
Yes, but you share that road (Nurburgring) with trucks, buses and other cars as well. You cannot go balls out because of the unpreditability of other traffic. On a track day, you're all motorcycles, and a limited number per session.
Who quoted you $800? And why do you have to do a full weekend? Did you purposely try to find the highest priced track day to make a point?
You can spend the entire day at TMP for $125 (4 laps of Nurburgring bus/RV/car traffic). Or if you want a world-class track, for $195 (6 laps of Nurburgring bus/RV/car traffic), for a whole day at Calabogie.
I get that you don't want to go round and round the same track, but to quote a number like $800 makes you look like you didn't do any research at all, or you are just to sway the opinions of people that just don't know how much a track day really costs.
See the thing is that I am assuming you have never done track (correct me if I am wrong), I will never stop street riding as the reason I got into motorcycles is because of the freedom to ride anywhere, however once you do a track day you will understand why is so addictive.
The perfect balance is to buy a really cheap track bike
and use your street bike to still continue to do your weekend long rides
I don' think neither track/racer riders neither street riders can put down the other group
No one said riding was cheap
I'm not putting down track riders at all and you're right, I've never done a track day and I never will at the daft prices I was quoted. I'm just saying there's no option to just try a few laps here...unless the post above is correct about the $125 days at TMP where I stand corrected. $800 was what I was quoted at a bike show for a weekend (and this was a "special offer") and the cheapest I had seen before that was $300 a day. I asked at the bike show whether there would ever be the chance of just doing a lap or two and I got a negative response.
As for sharing the Nurburgring with other traffic, yes that's true, you will never get the entire circuit to yourself. But at least you still have the option to go round a track like this very inexpensively if you want and I'm guessing most people on this board would not pass up that opportunity.
Put it this way...it puts track riding for anyone at the price of a go-karting session and there's nothing wrong with that for a bit of fun.
As for sharing the Nurburgring with other traffic, yes that's true, you will never get the entire circuit to yourself. But at least you still have the option to go round a track like this very inexpensively if you want and I'm guessing most people on this board would not pass up that opportunity.
Put it this way...it puts track riding for anyone at the price of a go-karting session and there's nothing wrong with that for a bit of fun.
It's an entirely different attraction. A lap of the Nurburgring shouldn't be compared to a track day. The appeal is simply to run a lap of a legendary race track, kind of a 'touristy' thing to do.
It's like comparing say, buying 1 round in the ring (get it, the 'ring?) with George Foreman who's only going to hit you with 5% of his force versus learning how to box.
You're information is TERRIBLY inaccurate.
Toronto motorsports park and Shannonville trackdays are all under $150 per day.
If you were quoted $800, that would have included a bike rental as well.
Right...so everyone goes slow round the Nurburgring and that's why you can see your track times when you go round? For a beginner track day everyone goes balls out too on their first tries do they and speed and passing is unlimited?
All I'm saying is that in addition to expensive all-you-can-eat track days, it might be nice to have the option of a relatively cheaper pay-per-use lap or two for the people that just wouldn't mind doing something different for half an hour or an hour of their day.
All I'm saying is that in addition to expensive all-you-can-eat track days, it might be nice to have the option of a relatively cheaper pay-per-use lap or two for the people that just wouldn't mind doing something different for half an hour or an hour of their day.
So can I turn up with $50 and do a third of a day with my streetbike or does that option not exist? See where I'm going?
You're sending some mixed signals now.
Is your intent to ride around a world famous track just to say you did it? If that's what we're talking about then of course i would do it. I'd prefer to do it in a car given the mixed traffic and obvious safety concerns with riding/driving the Nordschleife at a decent pace... but yes, i would love to do a lap.
If my intent was to actually use the track as a skill development tool of some kind then the Nordschleife would be pretty far down my list of appropriate venues.
There are a few organizers that have evening track rentals that are less expensive than a normal full trackday. Most are under $100 for entry. If all you want to do is ride around the track then just use your street bike. For the cost of 4 laps around the Nordschleife you could register for an evening track event and get some good track time under your belt.
$800 sounds to me like you were talking to Turn2. $800 is for a weekend track school at Calabogie that includes instruction. If you're going to make comparisons, please compare apples to apples.
Not exactly as many laps as you want, but if you haven't done it before you'll probably be too tired to do all the laps that you could.
The day is split up into 3 groups depending on experience and it rotates through each group usually in 15 minute sessions. During that 15 minutes that your group is out, you are free to enter or leave the track as you wish. You can do the full 15 minutes until they give you the checkered flag or you can go and one lap if you wish. 15 minutes may seem short but if you do every session available to you that is a lot of riding!
I get what you are saying, pay per lap. Not sure if it's economically feasible for the organizers, but I understand the appeal.
What most people are criticizing you about is your inaccurate track fees, and comparing it to a public road like the Nurburgring. Just because you can see your lap times, doesn't mean it's a real track. Up till a few years ago, the 407 showed me my times as well... doesn't mean everybody treated it like a track. Certainly not the tour buses that take 60 people at a time around the Nurburgring. You are comparing apples to SmartCars.
Edit: Here is what you are sharing the 'ring with for your $32CDN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PigPh-JmSI
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I think everyone gets your point but you have to take into consideration the population that has access to an Ontario track is minimal, in Europe you have people coming from various countries, so like japan they are able to offer their products (in this case a track day) for a very low price because of the amount of people purchasing said product.
Track owners and organizers here in Ontario have to keep the property, pay all the taxes, pay staff, insurance and etc and with the minimal amount of people going they still have to make a profit.
If you think about it, a golf round at a decent course will run you at average 100, that is 4 hrs compared to a full day.
Also, in regards to your point about going in and doing a few laps; if you take into consideration that you have to prep your bike (if you don't have a dedicated track bike) you have to drive at least over an hr to get to the track do you really just want to do a couple of laps?
Or do you really want to share the track with a guy that is just coming in to do a couple of laps, he is probably going to try and ge tthe most out of his money and will be running high speed with cold tires and cold skills?
Maybe you have a point and track days can sale a half day package as intro to the track to attrack new riders, who knows
Yes, I think it was Turn 2 and I think that price was for my own streetbike and I found that a little nuts. It struck me as the "be a fighter pilot for a day" type things you see in the back of men's mags complete with a similar price tag.
If you can go and try riding a track for closer to $100 then that's good, that's more like what I was looking for. I'm not looking to be a racer and I'm not looking to perfect my racing technique, like 99% of the people here I'll never be a racer, I'm much more interested in riding on the street but at the same time I'd be curious to see what riding on a track is like....but not x-hundred dollars curious.
A half day or even an hour is all I'd really want as a taster and I know a fair few people who'd be happy with that too but sadly that doesn't seem to be an option.
There are evening track days that offer 4 or so hours of riding at a reduced cost.
That price was with one of their bikes, plus the rider training portion as well.
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Turn2.ca had a $50 track evening at TMP a few weeks ago. That was a special price though as it's a new program and many people aren't aware of it yet, regular pice is $75 and that will get you enough track time to make you sore for days if you want.
If you keep an eye on the Track Days forum you might come accross the same promotion again if people are slow to pick up on the deal, but there's no way it will last forever. $75 is still a great value for ~1.5 hours of actual on-track time.
Thank you. I stand corrected as I hadn't seen this info before. This is much more reasonable in my mind.
Does Calabogie or the Bellville track do anything similar?
Batavia was doing trackdays (sm) for under $40. No ambulance, no marshals, WAY less maintenance (smaller asphalt surface and not as good as TMP) and then they went under. $150ish for a track day isn't that bad for North America. Actually it's relatively negligible compared to what you'll be blowing on tires.
