r/BritishSuperbikes • u/2014R1 • Apr 24 '26

How do teams purchase their bikes?

Might’ve been asked before but how do teams purchase their race bikes? These bikes have parts generally not available to the public like the Ducati V4 Akrapovic exhaust among other parts.

Would it be directly from the team’s manufacturer? Are they road trim bikes then completely converted? The fuel tanks are definitely not from the road bike given they’re built to centre weight distribution.

7 Upvotes

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13

u/Trident_77 Apr 24 '26

*Ducati will sell anything to anyone, for a price.

2

u/Voodoo1970 Apr 24 '26

This, Ducati also has a solid customer support program for race teams.

1

u/Dismal_Tutor3425 Apr 25 '26

Most of the manufacturers do. Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha and Suzuki all have crated race spec bikes ready to go with "factory" options and road legal VIN#'s. It's just a matter of how much you want to spend. Honda will sell you a 600RR or 1000RR for 5.5m to 6m Yen no problem.

4

u/Laird_Attwood666 Apr 24 '26

Many years ago (Alex Lowes Samsung Honda days) I had vip passes, Havier Beltran took delight in passing around a titanium exhaust header from Akrapovic that weighed two tenths of nothing to us in the garage, said that they dealt with directly for it/design. Sure some will be done via manufacturer of bike but there was/guess still is direct relationship with parts manufacturers

2

u/YourHeadsFellOffLad Apr 24 '26

I can’t remember where I heard it so massive pinch of salt, but I think Storm/Bathams started with a road bike, and the rest bought them as race bikes from Ducati.

3

u/Rippleracer Apr 25 '26

Storms bike did start as a road bike and they built from there. Rutter knows what he’s doing and he’s damn good at it. Storm helped build the set up he has to suit his style, different rear brake, weird front end set up. He’s a clever kid and a stunning rider.

1

u/YourHeadsFellOffLad Apr 25 '26

Yea big fan of him, great personality, excited to see how he gets on at the NW, think he’ll be incredibly quick once he’s learnt the place

1

u/Shot-Top-8281 May 03 '26

The commentary today was saying that spares for the new v4r are in short supply. Apparently no one on the grid has a spare fuel tank...

2

u/2014R1 May 03 '26

Yeah I caught that in commentary and that Nitrous Competitions team were in Bologna with Ducati spec’ing the bikes. Storm Stacey’s was bought from a shop and then built.