How much does a motorcycling track day really cost?
How much does a motorcycling track day cost? Really? It is all a bit of an estimate, since there are lots of determining factors. But we will try to give you an overview of the average cost of a motorcycling track day.
If you want to make a real hobby out of it, then riding on track can become a quite expensive one. The more track days you do, the more things and upgrades you want. Especially if you talk to all those cool, fast guys who give you their advice of what to get. And those things never seem to be cheap. But let’s get down to business.
HOW MUCH DOES A MOTORCYCLING TRACK DAY COST?
TWO SIDES OF THE MEDAL
In the track day world, there are two sides to the medal. On one side, the shiny side if you will, you find the guys and girls who’ve got tens of thousands to spend. There you will find the track only bikes that look fast, probably are fast, wear race slicks with fancy tyre warmers and go out to play, dressed in the best leather.
And on the other side of that medal, the bit more rusty side, you find the riders who turn up on their road bike, drop their tyre pressures a bit, fold in their mirrors and off they go. It just costs them a few tanks of fuel and probably a set of tyres. They often keep an extra margin while riding their bikes on track, since they rode it to the circuit and need to get it home too. Because they probably have to ride it to work the next day.
THE BUDGET RIDERS
THE BEST KIND?
Of course, there are a lot of different riders in between these two stereotypes. So let’s add one more to it. The Budget Riders (I count myself among them).
The Budget Riders are the ones who have bought a track bike for a reasonable and fair price. One that’s not too rare, so there is little worry about damage or replacing parts that are hard to come by. Think of 20 year old GSXR’s and CBR600’s, that just never seem to stop running, no matter how many times you’ve crashed it. Nothing too fancy. Just reliable, decent and often older bikes.
And shhh.. can you keep a little secret? Secretly, one of our Budget Rider’s biggest thrills is passing one of those faster and way more expensive bikes of that shiny side of the medal.
TRACK DAY COST BREAKDOWN
FOR NOVICE TRACK RIDERS
If you want to book your first track day, and want to know what it would cost you, we’ve got your back. Let’s give you an overview of what a track day costs for a novice track rider.
– Track access, often with instruction: €150 – €300
(depends on the organisation and circuit)
– Gas to get to the track: €50
(depending on car / bike of course, as well as distance to the circuit)
In case you take your bike with you on a trailer:
– Rental trailer for a day: €40
(carries 2 bikes. Budget Rider’s advice; share it with a buddy)
– Food and drinks: €20
– Fuel for your bike during the track day: €25
(a 600cc will use about one full tank or a bit more, depending on your riding pace. The faster you go, the more fuel you will need)
And then you are basically ready to go. So as a novice rider, a track day will cost you between 265 euros (if you took my Budget Rider advice) and 435 euros if you didn’t and took the expensive road.
Of course, this price tag goes up when you start to make a real hobby out of it. And can get a bit out of hand, even. Especially if you are a crazy person, like we are.
CONCLUSION
The answer to “how much does a motorcycling track day cost”? Well, a track day will cost you between 265 and 435 euros, if you are a novice track rider. Or one who just wants to do one sporadically.
But it gets a whole lot more expensive if you want to make a real hobby out of it. But hey.. hobby’s may cost money, right? What else would it be a hobby for?
