Track Riders Who Quit Street | GTAMotorcycle.com

Track Riders Who Quit Street

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bastak

Well-known member
Hi All,

I'm curious to know what proportion of track riders out there ride track exclusively and how that came to be?

For example: Did you stop riding street after a specific incident? Were you riding way too fast on the street and decide that the track was the best environment for you? Were you concerned about the uncontrollable risks associated with street riding vs. controlled closed course? Or was it just a matter of preference and finding track to be more enjoyable overall as a hobby or sport?

Interested in hearing your stories. Cheers.
 
The more I go on the track the less you ride on the street. I have not quit street riding though


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When I started riding track I was trying to decide whether or not to get another street bike. At the time, Turn2 was still doing rental bikes and their track school so I thought why not try it out. I chose to do a day at Calabogie, after the day I immediately began looking for a decent used prepped track bike.

There were many reasons I chose track over street:

Negatives for street riding
1. High insurance costs for not much enjoyment.(Live in the city, so mostly boring roads with tons of traffic)
2. Too many distracted drivers(i.e. cell phones, eating/drinking/applying makeup etc. even worse nowadays)
3. Street Racing Laws(too easy to go 50 over on a bike without really realizing it)
4. Too much traffic in the city(see point one)
5. Most of my friends had quit riding at that point so was mostly riding solo
6. Too tired to ride after work most of the time

Positives for Street
1. Can go out for a rip any time I want
2. Can commute on bike, maybe saving some commuting costs

Negatives for Track
1. Relatively high initial costs
2. Tires are expensive

Positives for track
1. No insurance
2. No distracted riders(hopefully)
3. Can go as fast as I wanted or my ability allowed me to go
4. Lots of corners(my reason to ride really)
5. Full day of fun riding
6. Able to learn something and hopefully improve every time out
7. Can meet lots of like minded people
8. Have the full day to just concentrate on riding, no other distractions

Track won out, I rode track for 8-9 seasons. Then a multitude of things made me decide to quit that as well a couple years back(mostly financial at the time.)
 
Ould said:
Negatives for street riding
1. High insurance costs for not much enjoyment.(Live in the city, so mostly boring roads with tons of traffic)
2. Too many distracted drivers(i.e. cell phones, eating/drinking/applying makeup etc. even worse nowadays)
3. Street Racing Laws(too easy to go 50 over on a bike without really realizing it)
4. Too much traffic in the city(see point one)
5. Most of my friends had quit riding at that point so was mostly riding solo
6. Too tired to ride after work most of the time

Positives for Street
1. Can go out for a rip any time I want
2. Can commute on bike, maybe saving some commuting costs

Negatives for Track
1. Relatively high initial costs
2. Tires are expensive

Positives for track
1. No insurance
2. No distracted riders(hopefully)
3. Can go as fast as I wanted or my ability allowed me to go
4. Lots of corners(my reason to ride really)
5. Full day of fun riding
6. Able to learn something and hopefully improve every time out
7. Can meet lots of like minded people
8. Have the full day to just concentrate on riding, no other distractions
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply and the summary of positives and negatives. I agree that the #1 positive of street riding is that you can go out for a ride whenever you have the itch to do so. Traffic, bad drivers, boring roads, debris, potholes, high insurance, laws etc... many negatives.

I suppose once you stop paying for insurance (about $2k in total for me), then that would free up some cash for tires and other parts/consumables.

Regarding high initial costs of track, one thing that I'm struggling to find a good solution for is transportation to/from track. I live in the city as well and have one parking spot which fits my small hatchback and 2 bikes. A small van and one bike would likely fit as well and I'm currently considering that. How did you deal with it while living in the city?
 
I do both, but my time and enjoyment on the street have really gone down over the past 10 years. Now I'm mostly down to the occasional ride and my yearly trek down to the Smokies.
 
I pursue both vigorously and can't imagine a riding season without one or the other.

Street riding makes the daily commute bearable and is ALWAYS preferrable to sitting in a car/truck or public transit, in my opinion, even if you get stuck in a bit of traffic. Plan your routes, be flexible, and get creative with where and when you ride and street riding becomes a great way to get around the city and lower your carbon footprint.
It's also something you can take pleasure in doing on a regular basis, when the weather cooperates. The ability to go for a ride when ever the feeling spontaneously hits justifies the cost of paying insurance.

But ask me this same question 10 years from now when our roads are predicted to be flooded with autonomous self-driving vehicles and I might be inclined to consider riding track exclusively.
Track days are lots of fun, riding at pace that's simply not feasible on public streets. Though I couldn't imagine eliminating street riding altogether at this point. The notion of riding once a week -- if that -- would drive me absolutely bonkers.
Aside from that, If you have the urge to really lean your bike over in corners and drag a knee there's nowhere that I know of on city streets (and country roads for that matter) you can do that safely outside a track. Particularly if you own a sport/SS bike, a closed course environment is the only logical place to truly explore your riding and your bike's capabilities.

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I would echo Ould's points.

I stopped riding street for the 3rd time a few years ago. The kind of riding I enjoy isn't safe on the street. I found myself always pushing more on the street which wasn't cool. Combined with the fact that, in the year I stopped, I heard a stat that motorcycle related accidents where the rider was NOT at fault had risen 70% from the previous year, due to distracted cage drivers. Unbelievable... and it has gotten worse since then.

I don't miss street riding. I do enough dirt biking and track riding that almost every weekend of the riding season I'm on a bike, so it's good. If I lived up north, like around Haliburton, where there is far less traffic and much more enjoyable roads I might still street ride, but then I would still end up riding too fast...
 
I can say that since I started riding track, over the past 3 years I have ridden less and less street.

I find the lack of locally available exciting roads, and the ever increasing stupidity of other drivers makes my interest in street riding decrease.

My work commute is only 4km one way as well so I don't even bother to ride.
 
Quit riding track for two reasons.Money and constantly having to deal with wankers that can't hold a line or park their bike mid turn causing faster riders to run off line.Inexperienced riders put in the wrong class are deadly on a track.
Went back to competition dirt a few years ago.Sooo much more bang for the buck.A weekend at Mosport is about $800.A weekend on my trialer is $60 on average.
 
^^^
The issues then would be not with the noob riders, but the organizers for not monitoring the sessions and moving faster/slower riders around.

Can't argue with the $$$ aspect. It's not a cheap hobby, but like most things, gotta pay to play...
 
riding street just stopped being fun at a certain point I put on maybe 2000km last year so I just sold my street bike a week ago, it'll be the first summer without a street bike in a long time, so we'll see how it goes
 
miggs said:
^^^
The issues then would be not with the noob riders, but the organizers for not monitoring the sessions and moving faster/slower riders around.

Can't argue with the $$$ aspect. It's not a cheap hobby, but like most things, gotta pay to play...
Click to expand...

Yes the organizers are the problem for sure.Keeping husband and wife happy by letting them out in the same group is just stupid.Husband is riding 1:50 laps and wife is doing 2:10.Or the riders with the allout superbikes passing 10 riders on the back straight at mosport only to take t8 in 2nd gear.Don't miss it at all.
 
That's why the next step from track should be racing. Way more enjoyable, less stressful as you share the track with riders that have a clue.

As for me i would never give up the street, i love to commute with the bike. Maybe this week i'll take a day off work and go riding solo around Muskoka(can't beat that freedom on two).

The track/racing really makes a dent in the wallet, and so much preparation. Street bike, fill with gas and go anytime you want.Season is short also.
 
Street bike is just a luxury for me now that I can't ride for work and bill hours doing it :D
amateur trials* competition is now my #1 hobby my exercise and motivation to travel to neat places.
*disclaimer: trials riding is highly addictive challenging and tends to render all other motorsports slightly boring, you should never try it.

I have a friend who is an expert trials* rider and he didn't even bother following up on the full M license :| found street riding too expensive and slightly boring, decided to spend his disposable income on dirt bikes <- Very wise friend, awesome rider, highly addicted*.

I think the problem with track time and track racing is there are not enough tracks!
that and you can't just wander down to the local Yamaha dealership and buy a reasonably priced race ready TZ like you could in the 1970's.
 
D-J said:
Street riding makes the daily commute bearable and is ALWAYS preferrable to sitting in a car/truck or public transit, in my opinion, even if you get stuck in a bit of traffic.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I really enjoy commuting on the bike. I arrive at work pumped up and when I get back home, I usually wish that the commute was a bit longer! I pass on it on some days though because a long work day means fatigue and less sharpness in the evening.

D-J said:
Though I couldn't imagine eliminating street riding altogether at this point. The notion of riding once a week -- if that -- would drive me absolutely bonkers.
Click to expand...

True, plus it's a short season here. In my case, I don't really store the bikes for winter either so whenever there is a day around 0 degress in Jan/Feb, I'm out riding.
 
Dedicated track bike wouldn't need much prep each time. Swapping over a street bike back and forth would though....that's why many end up getting a track bike.
 
Trials said:
...

I think the problem with track time and track racing is there are not enough tracks!
that and you can't just wander down to the local Yamaha dealership and buy a reasonably priced race ready TZ like you could in the 1970's.
Click to expand...

Not enough tracks? The GTA is a couple of hours away from 5 tracks. I cannot think of anywhere else that has as many tracks so close.
Try living in Vancouver. You get to ride the Chilliwack airport or drive 10-14 hrs to Seattle or Calgary.
I'll sell you a '70s TZ for '70s prices... corrected for inflation of course.
 
bitzz said:
Not enough tracks? The GTA is a couple of hours away from 5 tracks. I cannot think of anywhere else that has as many tracks so close.
Try living in Vancouver. You get to ride the Chilliwack airport or drive 10-14 hrs to Seattle or Calgary.
I'll sell you a '70s TZ for '70s prices... corrected for inflation of course.
Click to expand...

Europe has tracks within 5 hours of each other quite easily.
Vancouver? Area27 is 4.5 hours.
Vancouver Island Motorsport Park...
 
bastak said:
Agreed. I really enjoy commuting on the bike. I arrive at work pumped up and when I get back home, I usually wish that the commute was a bit longer! I pass on it on some days though because a long work day means fatigue and less sharpness in the evening.

And sometimes it's fun to take the long way home.

True, plus it's a short season here. In my case, I don't really store the bikes for winter either so whenever there is a day around 0 degress in Jan/Feb, I'm out riding.
Click to expand...

LOL, I do the same thing.
 
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