I have been club racing for the past 11 years at my local track. During the first race of 2025, I had a massive crash. I was very lucky to escape with only a broken rib. Unfortunately, the bike was very badly damaged and took seven months to rebuild. When I returned to racing, I was 8 seconds per lap slower. I have since knocked off 4 seconds, but now I am stuck. Despite practicing more regularly than ever before, I cannot seem to get faster. That leaves me about 4 seconds off my previous pace, which is very frustrating and is taking away from the enjoyment of racing.

I would really appreciate any suggestions or recommendations on what I can do to get back both my confidence and my previous race pace?

Planning on planning to go professional with bike racing, I am 20 rn and I have good experience with riding bikes but not on tracks. I know that there is a program in Chennai that gives level 1 and 2 lisence, but I need to know more the cost, effort and that I would need to give up to make it to a good stage in India. Also I am based out of Bangalore!

Is there any substantial advantage to justify spending this much for use on a v-twin cruiser that's ridden on paved roads and only having about 2.5 to 3.5 inches of travel?

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Take a listen! Now that is a thumper 👌

I always had the dream of becoming a proper bike racer. But after I severely thrashed my wrist during a highside crash in 2013, the doctors told me, that probably won't happen. Ten years later, after four years of doing trackdays and club races, I thought was sure, that the doctors were wrong.

So in 2023, I bought myself an Aprilia RS660, broke it in for 1,000 km and started building my race bike in the following winter. I stripped it, changed the suspension, swapped the rearsets, triple-clamp, clip-ons, brake master cylinder, brake likes, fairings, engine mapping, exhaust, headers etc.

In 2024, I was ready to start in the German Twin Trophy, a championship for two cylinder bikes with engine capacities below 800 cc. So I face a competition of RS660s, Yamaha R7, Suzuki SV650, Suzuki Gladius, Yamaha MT07, Kawasaki Z650 etc.

And you know what? I almost accidentally ended up pretty high up in the championship! You want to see, what a racing season as a newbie looks like? Here's everything I filmed during my first year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVXI9cBTURc&list=PLBjJHIMAB_ScRfdY3gxtcLElfAg-zki7s&ab_channel=RaceKitchen

Here's how it went:

First race weekend Nurburgring GP: Never been there, viewed it as a system check or roll out, as I didn't have time or money to train before the season opener. I still managed to claim two top-10 results! What a great start to the season. I was over the moon! After nice battles with last years runner-up and third overall, I claimed to 8th places in the races.

Second race weekend Oschersleben: A track I knew pretty well. Even though I had problems with the handling of the bike, I qualified 6th and claimed another 7th in the dry and an 8th place in the wet. Fantastic!

Third race weekend Assen: New track again. Qualified 5th this time in mixed conditions. First race was soaking wet, visibility extremely poor. Riding with your elbow on the ground in the wet is quite a wild feeling, I can tell you! Being almost blind (couldn't see the road) I finished the first heat in 8th. Second race was in mixed conditions and I had to change tires five minutes before the race. So I had to start from the pits, but still managed to climb up to 14th position and got two valuable championship points.

My personal season highlight Schleiz: The German TT! My grandpa told stories about the races there in the good old two stroke days. I almost shat myself when I encountered the fearsome Seng-corner for the first time. Flicking your bike from left to right to left at around 130 mph is quite something, I can tell you! My qualifying wasn't brilliant, so I had to start from P13. In the first race I had an awesome battle for P10, which I sadly lost. But after P11 in the first heat, I found a bit of pace for the second race and finished in P8.

Season finale in Most: For the last race weekend, we went to the Czech Republic. Again, I was pretty neatly tucked in the Top 10, with a good P9 in qualifying. During the first run, I was a bit too cautious into the first corner. But after fighting my way back up front, I managed to secure a sixth place! It was probably my best race of the season on a track I really don't like, almost hate. The second race was a bit less interesting, but another seventh place meant, that I finished my first race season on P6 in the championship!

Hello, I'm wondering why the older motorcycles almost all have the gear lever on the right side. And new motorcycles only on the left?