Has anyone thought about doing this? The Ninja Cup follows the same rules as the Superstock class for WSMC and essentially is a low-budget racing class. It's safer than most other racing classes and is very cheap to do. A friend and I are going to be running at least a few races this coming season as well as making parts for 250's.

If I haven't told you already, I was forced to start a business to be able to get health insurance (see: bone tumor) and rather than creating a ghost company, we're going to go for it and break into the scene. My biz partner is a machinist and has connections for all the manufacturing work. At any rate, we'll be making rearset riser plates, fairing stays, clip-ons/bar lowering brackets. and belly pans for the Ninja 250's and later on for more makes and models.

Back to the racing...there are somewhere between 8 and 10 race weekend for the year and the Ninja Cup is going to be a ton of fun. You have to use DOT tires (they only make a few different ones for the Ninja) and you can't touch the internals of the engine. It should make for some competitive racing with results coming to the best riders, not machines. If you want more info or want to join us, just lemme know. Also, info on our company is in the sig (shameless plug, I know).

 

Sounds like it will be a great grassroots type series, providing great level of competition and keeping budgets low, great for novices at racing, and people that want to race bikes at a competitive level, but don't have many sponsors nor the budget for a complete season racing SS or SBK.

I wish we had something similar in here.

And I wish the best of luck in the new business...if you guys ever do work for a CB400SF, let me know lol

 

There's a growing market for the Ninja 250R niche. check out http://www.kawiforums.com

Good luck w/ the business venture.

 

Hope the business picks up for you and that you have a speedy recovery. Been a lurker on what-was-formerly-known-as-/26 for some time, took the MSF over the summer, got my M1 license, and hoping to pick up a Ninja 250 soon. It'd be great to have aftermarket support for the wimpy-why-don't-you-get-a-600 bike I'm looking forward to owning.

 

Billy, I know a guy who raced 250 cup this past year and will have some input. Also know some other 250 owners who will have good input on what parts the bike needs etc. Since Advanced Kawi seems to be imploding, or at the least suffering from some PR issues, I think there's gonna be a nice niche in the 250 market.

Some interesting facts:
250 cup lap record for Big Willow is 1:40.3, set by Jeff Tigert
You can rent 250 cup race bikes from racebikerentals for about $250/day
the series sometimes features AMA pro-racer cameos

 

There is a big 250 crowd here where I am... 10+ riders here in the club. PM once you get rolling, and I'll spread the word about the parts

 

Awesome information guys, I really appreciate it. We noticed the fact that there isn't much aftermarket support for the 250's that fit the current WSMC rulebook (ie different bars have to mount in stock location...no clip ons). We're going to spend a lot of time developing the parts and fitting them to the needs of the market, eventually branching out to CBR's GSXR's and others. And not to speak too soon, but if you lend us your bike for test-fitting, you'll be getting some free goodies.

 

People have said the old ones make more peak power and this one is all midrange, but the one I got to play with responded well to mods on the topend. Newninja.com has some people fiddling with these bikes.

PM me if you need to borrow a bike. I may be able to get you one.

 

if this gets serious i may join up cuz im looking for affordable track only at this point

keep us updated!

 

I would love to jump into some type of affordable racing like this, too bad I'd have to move to expensive socal to do it.

 

Sounds like a motorcycling version of Spec Miata, nice.

 

Sounds awesome i remember reading about that series when i had thought about buying a 250. Sucks that it is all the way out west. The midwest needs something like this.

 

I'm fairly sure that WERA has a Ninja 250 class in most of their regions, though they currently allow a few other makes in as well (Ape RS125? Hyosung 250). WSMC only allows the Ninjas, which I think I will like more. Look for some racing org's in your area and see what classes they run.

 

Update: 2 weeks ago I picked up an '07 Ninja 250 for $850. It's missing a few things, but it's coming back together little by little. My biz partner also picked up an '06 Ninja 250 for $900 w/a broken bar and rearset. Pretty good deals, if you ask me.

Next step is prepping the bikes to pass race-inspection for the weekend of Jan 17-18th at Big Willow. I'm gettin excited

 

Good luck man, have fun out there and ride safe.

 

shame your not on the east coast my buddy has a wrecked 250 thats been sitting around that i'm just begging him to play with

 

E Superstock