Getting into 250 racing

I'll leave it up to you to determine how much a used Ninja 250 will cost in your neck of the woods. Figure on needing new tires, a new rear shock, new fork springs, new fork oil and whatever repairs will be necessary to bring the bike up to good rideable condition. Plan to replace the coolant with water (remember to change it for coolant out when the temperature drops toward freezing).

In addition to that, a leather suit will cost $450 and up (I got the cheapest Teknic I could find for $450 on sale), plus potentially gloves, boots and helmet if you don't already have those things, or can't afford to trash them (you will crash).

You'll need at least a swingarm stand (I use the $30 one from Harbor Freight, and it's ok, but not great), a minimal set of tools, and some spare parts. We found that the front brake reservoir is a likely casualty in a right-turn crash, as are the footpeg side plates. A spare radiator would be a very good idea, but we didn't see any damaged from crashes. Clutch and brake levers, obviously, and new foot levers would also be worth having. Anything you can see easily getting ground off, snapped off or snagged on something as the bike slides on its side down the track is a good candidate. Duct tape makes for acceptable temporary fairing repairs, if you're going to race with a fairing on (I had mine off).

Plan to strip everything off the bike that doesn't hold it up, make it go faster, or make it slow down very quickly -- lights, fenders, unnecessary bodywork, gauges, stands, locks, etc. I finally got my bike to be key-free by routing the ignition wires up to the high/low-beam switch, appropriately labeled, and replacing the filler cap with a Slingshot Racing screw-on cap (had to drill a breather hole in it to go more than a couple laps, though). You can see most of what I did to the bike here:

http://obairlann.net/reaper/motorcycle/servicelog/race-ninja.html

If you know your way around a Ninja 250 pretty well, it's probably two solid weekends of work to get the bike stripped, and get everything race prepped, with safety wire in all the right places.

I paid $1150 for my bike, and you can see the money I put into the bike itself on the service page. I see that I didn't add all my maintenance to that page, so I'm updating it with what I can recall (notably tires and re-installing the airbox). That page doesn't include costs for things like the swingarm stand, spares, etc.

Being at the race track is a lot more pleasant with a pop-up shelter, some chairs, a cooler with food and beverages, and other creature comforts. Those are things you may already own, though. You'll want to have a large (5 lb+) fire extinguisher close by. You'll need some variety of fuel can (our track doesn't have a gas station at the track, it's strictly bring your own). If you don't have a truck or trailer, you'll need to get one, or rent one every time. And so on. I'm sure there's a lot I'm forgetting.

I think that overall, I had about $4000 into a racing setup by the time I stopped racing, including two bikes (CL175 and EX250), gear, spares, tools, equipment, etc. You could probably get going for $2000 with careful choices, and assuming you already owned some of the necessary stuff. Contrast this with 600 Supersport racing, where you're damned lucky to get started for less than $10k.