welcome Samurai.

your minibike is very very nice.:asd:

Welcome :bye:

ciao!!

thankyou for your replies :D and yes ,sks28, I do like this forum its great, thanks for inviting me!!!


aggressive rider :lol: lol

grazie, ciao

James :bye:

what can you tell us about minibike world in uk?

hello

(I've posted this on the minimotoracing.it forum but here it is again!)

I would just like to say hello and just give a little information about myself, tracks etc. Even though my italian is very weak in comparison, i still enjoy this site very much.

I am Very sorry for my lack of knowledge in the italian language, i am trying to learn.. Sorry any Italian none english speakers.

As you can tell I am English.
I very much enjoy mnimoto racing like all of you i gather, I ride a ZPF 205m (pg) production bike [and a Jawa (gearbox bike)], I am 15 years old.

i would be very interested to know how you run your racedays in italy, as in how many races for one class do you do in one day? in england we varie from 3 to 4! Is there an Age limit for classes? do you have qualifing? (we do in one of our championships)

I have noticed by watching some of your videos (awesome) that you all feature very different styles to the way the english ride. It obviously works for you!!!!!! as in your opposite foot sticks out, is that for balance??

Tracks

Ive noticed that you tracks are very tight in comparison to ours which makes some good racing by the looks!! I notice you dont often have grass to the side of the asphlat/circuit. where as the tracks over here do, (we do tend to crash alot though thats maybe why :lol: )

heres a picture of a couple circuits that we have in england!!

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a3...1/stretton.jpg
^ a picture of STRETTON a brilliant little circuit.(and has now been extended)

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a3.../wardenlaw.jpg
^Wardenlaw, another super circuit (sorry about it being black and white)

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a3...21/rowrah1.jpg
^Rowrah, probably the best track in the U.K. this picture is only showing a small part of the track, the bikes obviously aren't minimotos on the track!

Racing

we have different championships in the U.K, as you do in italy zona A zona B etc. Well over here we have Phoenix wwho now run minimoto championships in the south of england, but they use to do north as well but now they have stopped!! :no: (i came 4 th in the northern last year :si: ) they run classes like this :-

Junior A
Junior B
Junior novice (for the beginners!)
production A (<60kg)
Production B (60-75)
Production C (75-90)
Production D (90>)
Supers (over 16 years of age)

there is the british MMRA
they run all over britain. they do qualifing on saturday and racing on sunday, they race 4 races

Junior Production (<16 years of age)
Production Lights (<75kg I THINK)
Production Heavys (>75)
Supers (over 16 years)

and the junior classes (but i cant remember sorry!!)

we also have other championships but that isnt reallt that important.

well thats about it i think, please feel free to tell me about your tracks, styles, organising etc. ill just leave you with a couple pics of me racing!!

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a3...1/fab572db.jpg
^ at newark (im #21 ZPF)

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a3.../Copy2of11.jpg
^me on the polini 911R proddy, a fun day/mini race day (crashing, its when i was quite new to the sport though,and my first ever race meeting!! you may of seen me on a video called tockwith on one of the sites)

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a3...1/RWP_1886.jpg
^ me at whilton mill, a very coldddddd day , my bike has tape on because i had just recently crashed and smashed it.

Thankyou very much for your time, and any information will be greatly appreciated.

Grazie, Ciao!!
James

welcome samurai

hi james, welcome in our site

in Italy the championship isn't very diffrent from the english one (if I understand what you write :D ): our bikers are divided into classes by the age:
from 7 to 9 is JUNIOR A
from 10 to 11 is JUNIOR B
from 12 to 13 is JUNIOR C
over 13 jears is SENIOR MINI
over 13 jears too is SENIOR MIDI (with a little bit bigger bikes)
then there's the SENIOR OPEN where you can race with more powerful bikes without partcular limitation that the other classes have

there are some diffrent championships: there are the "local" campionships where there are the bikers of the same country and the Italian championship that is composed by the "selective races" and the "final races"
the selective races ar divided in 5 races as a little championship and there is a selective race for every zone: the A,B,C (and even D) zone, that comprehend respectivly nord, center and south Italy; the winners of the selective races of every zone then races in the final races that is divided in 5 races too, as a little chapionship: the winner is the Italian championship

I've seen that you drive in very large circuit: we have only small circuits where is very important the "agility" of the bike, because there are a lot of curves and short straight (usually 50-60 meters). we usually use a 6 or 7 teeth front sprocket and a 68-72 rear sprocket: with this parts we are able to race a big part of our tracks; what kind of sprocket do you usually use in your tracks?
and at the end: what do you think about Italian bikes and bikers?

p.s. as you have seen my English is not so good, please be patient :D

p.s.2 let's have a look to our "multimedia" section to see some pictures and videos of our tracks

Your english was perfectly fine mate, in some cases better than mine :si: :si: :1st:

Yes, the classes seem very similar BUT we run it slightly different. We dont do an overall British champion, dont know why, we should do! we have the seperate championships and thats it. I prefer the way you run it by the sounds of things!!

because in england as you all know we have beautiful weather (not) we have indoor circuits as well as out door. Indoor is very dangerous! and often slippery. they're the tracks we would tend to use 6- 70's.

oh by the way
Rules-

production class:

SHA 14/14 carb ONLY
must not exceed 40cc
production exhausts (not homemade)
no machining, dremmeling etc.
no dual reeds
must be 3 PORT BARRELL

The outdoor tracks are wierd, and with the different engines we have out it gets confusing,
i have 2 bikes, my older one, polini 911r, has a series 2 engine and my zpf has ZPF crank, cases etc. but BZM barrell, piston, head. because the zpf ones arent legal (stupid!).. so on my polini say if i run 7/70 on the zpf i would run 7/63!!! big difference!

the outdoor tracks tend to varie in size,the odd track will be 6/70's, but they are not on the calender. The tracks we run are usually on a ZPF 7- low 60's
or sometimes 8-low 70's.
Some times though, the track may be varied. Like have a complex section with tight turns then a long fast section with sweeping turns, so it is quite a challenge to get gearing right in some cases.

Italian bikes.

Both you can not fault one bit! the bikes are what we race over here ;)
ZPF, GRC (lots of GRCs) GEM (not many) Polini (alot of GP3s) STAMAS (rare(are they italian?) and Pasini etc. obviously the bikes are superb!

and riders

they scare me! Your riders do things ive never seen before! i dont understand the flicked out foot? please may you explain? because it looks impressive. the lean angles you get are incredible!!! maybe its due to a different climate as well though!

anymore questions and ill be more than happy to answer!!!

grazie
ciao

James:si:

p.s. who was the italian champion this year?

the foot is a very personal thing, onestly I've seen some kids using this tecnique and usually that kids had an absurd angle with the ground :O
I've never tried to use this tecnique because it makes me lose balance but the one that does it says that is a very valid tecnique and makes you gain speed... I don't know...

the tecnical features of your bikes are about the same that our rules obliges, but if I'm right we can use also 5-6 port barrel engines

I've seen some videos of indoor circuits (we have none...) and I think they are very dangerous (a lot of walls); the groud too isn't very good: it seems so slippery as you say (I've seen supermotards too racing in that kind of tracks :O )

I read you know about stamas: I'm very surprise that you know it because it is a little producer that is not very popular also in Italy but it does very goods bikes with a convinient price

I wanna ask you a question: how much does it cost usually a minibike in england? for example: here a grc rr ready-to-race costs about 2600€, what about england?
and also: what kind of tyres do you use?

Yes, I totally agree with you about the indoor tracks they are very dangerous, and painful, slippery etc.

hmm... Prices, GRC RR with BZM engine (ready to race) about £2000 ... so i think we are on about a par with €2600.
Tyres depend on conditions, track grip, weight etc. but the little ones tend to ride on, junior Rs...i tend to shred those tyres. the bigger riders tend to ride on T41s. We do get the odd track that EATS tyres, where you may have to use T4s.
Oh and on the Indoor tracks people tend to use B compound tyres.

What Tyres do you use and at what cost?? over here its is quite expensive...i think its about £45 or something like that for a junior R possible even more!!

also how many races do you do in one round at a circuit, we do 3/4

Any questions people and im here to help !!!!

grazie
ciao

james