So, thinking to myself earlier..... If someone takes out a PCP bike just for TDs and hands it back after say £5k miles...... Could you tell? Be easy enough to hide wouldn't it? What state would the engine be in? Would it need a ££££ 4 digit refresh? If you didn't know it had spent all its life on track and it had no more than a standard service, would the engine be at risk of letting go? Would it probably be ok for "normal" road ridding and only on track would it be likely to go BOOM!?? Would the Italian bikes be more likely to go BOOM than the German + Japanese bikes? Do modern ECUs store all data so you can see what it's been doing it's entire life? Does that make owning buying a 3yr old a bit of a lottery? Thoughts on a wet Saturday afternoon.......
The workshop can tell everything about how the bike has been ridden from the data recorded by the ECU. Andy
I know a few lads who get bikes on PCP to use as a track bike, put on track fairings and away they go
Interesting question. Let’s say it’s a track only 1000 cc bike, doing 15 track days a year at an average mileage per track day of 125 miles 15x125x3=5625 miles at 3 years old. Or 10 days at 100 miles per day = 3000. That range is smack bang where you would want for a nice second hand 3 year old bike to be. Caveat Emptor I guess, especially if it’s a V4!
No effect unless the contract explicitly excludes racing or track use (do they?). What dealer would tell you simply to reduce their margin??
Hence my question. New tyres and original OEM equipment back on and it would look mint. Brake discs are the only tell tale I can think of as you wouldn't expect lots of wear or new ones at that sort of miles
That would make sense BUT I wonder what they actually say? I don’t think the finance houses behind the OEs are that clever TBH. Anyone got a PCP that cares to check?
No viewable to the next potential buyer but viewed by the workshop manager. The information would be shared with the salesman and could realistically reflect on the hand back value. I only know for sure that the Ducati ECU, even in the Scrambler Icon, records a huge amount of data about how the bike is ridden. A customer complained when their Scrambler melted and the workshop were able to ascertain from the data in the ECU that the customer had left the bike ticking over for 45 minutes. The current 1260 Multistrada engine performance was developed using data downloaded off customers’s bikes. Things like throttle opening and in gear speeds. Andy
My first pani R didnt even store fault codes due to some glitch. Never had to look on the second one.
How you ride the bike is immaterial to the buy back price, unless the owner is foolish enough to think they will have some equity in the bike! As long as it’s serviced correctly and and external damage is allowed under the pre determined criteria it’s just a hand back. Remember though that discussion on here re v4 service intervals? Suspect if dealer believes it’s been track used, then a full service every 1500 miles (wasn’t it?) or it’s potentially not serviced correctly.... or find someone who can hack the eve and wipe the data
So say your standard Honda 1000SP, you can just trailer it in full track trim to the Honda garage for its yearly oil change?
You could. Which may be a bit stupid as it’s giving someone a reason to look deeper. Don’t think other brands do but ducati do have a different service schedule for track used bikes
So, if you PCP with the pure intention of track and remove all lights, plastics, etc. then once a year you need to put road tyres on and put all the original plastic, lights, etc. back on for the annual service?
There’s a stark difference between TD miles and race miles generally. the dealer can tell things like over revs for example... although most racers have spare ecu‘s for this reason. I wouldn’t have an issue buying a bike that’s been used on track after three years. I would have an issue with a race bike that had done three solid seasons without a re fresh, although most can take it! A lot of riders don’t have much mechanical sympathy. I see loads of riders who don’t even warm their bikes. Or after lunch are straight out and kicking the things head in. It takes about two laps to bring your oil up and that’s with running it up in pit lane as well!! If you don’t, you’re hammering the barrels a friend of mine won NLR last year. His gsxr has done two full race seasons and a lot of testing. Stripped the motor and it was absolutely pristine inside. Not always the case Ofcourse. But a lot of it is maintenance and making sure it’s warm before you give it a pumping and not overrrevving them, especially on down shifts
