If I was you Lily I'd consider hiring one of Louigi's bikes and having a go at one round and see how you get on.

Worth a thought?

why hire one though Tony?

Not certain on the conditions of hire, but presumably its bin it pay for it or pay for insurance? So same situation as if i binned mine.

So I would end up paying to hire when i have a bike anyway?

Better the devil you know I reckon :devil:

I would say that there are two sides to Hiring.

A lot does depend on the conditions of hire, especially how much you are liable for if the thing ends up on the floor. It is possible to hire rally cars worth hundreds of thousands and you can get insurance to cover if need be. You could equally get insurance to cover your own bike from a specialist broker??

Plus points for hiring.
No risk to yer road bike depending on the above.
No bike prep needed, just turn up and ride. Believe me a full focus on yer riding rather than have I fully tightened those calipers thoughts is a good thing.
It can be cheaper when you take all the costs into consideration.
No re prep needed to return the road bike to spec.
You have the experience and expertise of the hirer to call upon on setup and generally what happens next at a race meet.
You can walk away at the end of the day with the t shirt been there done that.

minus points for hiring.
You might not be as confident on the bike as you "don't know it as well" (a test on the bike just before the meet can help)
Can be more expensive if you take all the costs into account especially if you get get bitten by the bug.

Thats all I can think of for now.

Just because the list for plus is longer doesn't mean it's the best choice.

It's your call.

If you do go the hire route make sure you know exactly where you stand on what they are going to provide, i.e. Bike, tyres, fuel, costs, support, damage, refunds if there is a mechanical failure etc preferably in writing before you proceed.

Ray.

[Edited on 15-4-2005 by Ray]

Well there's a lot of assumptions here, a phone call to Louigi would clarify exactly what risk you would carry by doing this.

I took the view that it would only be for one round just to get a taste tester and see if you wanted to do it more seriously. In that case, Ray points out a lot of benefits in terms of prep to your bike etc. There's a not inconsiderable amount of work in prepping your bike and then returning it to road spec. A 996 from Louigi won't be too far remote from your 998 so ride position etc would be very similar. If you crash with your bike on the track then it's been crashed and all the associated drama's that come with that. At least with the hire bike if you crash I would assume (this is where clarification is required) that your liability would be limited to a certain extent depending on the arrangement and insurance.

Does that make sense?

Louigi does the full support mechanically for the day - in GP style you ride into the garage or wherever, hand him the bike and he takes care of the rest pretty much. I saw him do this with Weeksy at Donny. He had the tyre warmers etc, ran the spanner over everything and was very conscientous - all you have to do is sort your head out and remember which way you're going!

If you then decide that you dig this racing groove baby, then you can prep the Bostrom and go full swing! If you decide it's wack baby WACK! Then you walk away, richer for the experience :D

I can see what everyone is saying about hiring, but for the amount of work involved in prepping my bike (not much by the sounds of it) the fact that i have everything to hand and have people to support me if required I really struggle to see the benefit of using another bike.

It may work out financially better should i bin it, but i feel this is only a possibility and the other cost may out weigh this.

It is a hard one, but if i did get round to it the probable outcome would be me riding my own bike.

Fair enough, whichever way you decide to go good luck.

I hope you enjoy :D

L,

If you really want to do it you will.

At the AGM the MT said thay would discuss coughing up some entry fees like last year at the next MT meeting after the AGM but don't I wouldn't count on it with all the effort going into DD.

If you do choose the DP meet at Oulton good luck.
If the cat races and I turn up to watch rain is gauranteed!!

Ray

Ray make a very good point about where you want your focus to be on race day, i.e. on racing not bike prep. Hiring does help here, especially with Luigi. I've seen him work when Weeksy hired his bike at Donny last year, and he is very good.

But Lily already has the "spanner man" sorted. So, just get Jon to make sure your bike is fully sorted. That way, it's almost like hiring but without the costs.;)

Oh, and Ray, when are starting your hiring business? Will you have the my 620 big bore ready for the first round of DD? I am sure it will rain.;):D

Felix,

I saw an ideal donor bike just about xmas time, sense prevailed and DDTY stayed where it belongs, on the drawing board.:D

To be serious for once the thought of someone getting hurt on a bike I owned would always be at the back of my mind.

I still like to help out in a small way where I can with a one or two DSC related racers.

Ray