What is Supermono?

Single cylinder racing is a interesting and unique class of motorcycle road racing. It is one of the purest forms of racing and has the simplest rules.

The basic concept is that the bike should be powered by a single cylinder 4-stroke engine (either air or water-cooled). That's it!

This allows an enormous amount of scope and flexibility with regard to bike design. It is therefore the perfect class for someone with engineering aspirations and/or tendencies, or those keen to try new and innovative technologies.

The class contains bikes from both ends of the spectrum; at one end, literally bristling with new technology, and at the other, home-built bikes that run well-tried and tested materials. Costs clearly reflect this! The bikes themselves fall into 2 broad classes: the classic Supermono which is based on 250-sized GP race bikes and the minimono that is 125-sized.

In the UK, the series is administered by the British Supermono Association (BSA) and races at various tracks around the country. This year, the British Supermono Championship is being hosted by ThundersportGB. There is also a healthy European Supermono Association (ESA) that runs a European series at some of the continents most famous circuits, including tracks such as Assen and Spa. There is usually at least one UK round as part of this series which can overlap as a British round too. Both race series are typically run over 8 to 12 rounds.

In the UK, a typical race weekend consists of a qualifying session on the Saturday morning and a race later in the day. The race is usually the first after the lunch break. On Sunday there is an un-timed warm-up followed by 2 races.

How do I get started?

The first step that needs to be taken before beginning racing is obviously to get a racing licence. This process is well covered by the ACU who are the governing body for motorcycle sport in the UK. Full details on how to do this can be found on their web-site (http://www.acu.org.uk/) or by contacting them directly on 01788 566 400.

In order to obtain your race licence from the ACU you must join the club running the class, as stated above, this year this is ThundersportGB. If you want to race in Europe, you will also need to join The European Supermono Association (ESA). For further information about the ESA contact Evert Van den Beek. (evert.vandebeek@12move.nl)

Once this is sorted out, the next step is to source a bike. This, of course, is where it gets very interesting. There are numerous choices. First of all one can buy a bike that already exists, and these can often be found on the 'For Sale' section of this website. The class is quite close-knit, and it is normally fairly easy to get a reliable history on the machine. As you would expect, prices vary considerably depending on the bike's history and specification, but bargains can be still be found or negotiated.

Another option is to build your own bike. You can either start with a standard manufacturer's racing frame and try and make an engine and running gear fit. Or, alternatively, you could simply use a road-based bike as your starting point, although this is compromised slightly towards the road and less to the race track. Please see the Supermono History link on the home page of this site for more information on building a bike and on the types of bike that can be run in The British Supermono Championship.

Good things about Supermono racing

It is probably the only class that has such a variety of racing machines. It is an incredibly friendly and tight-knit class and so there is a huge amount of help and support available, both at race meetings and in between. There is great scope for a young rider to learn about bike technology, development and set-up; not something that is so easily found in typical turn-key racing.

Conclusion

I hope this summary provides some help in deciding whether Supermono racing is for you. There is no doubt that, as in any class, the more people racing, the more fun there is to be had. Supermono racing is a lot of fun. We are always looking for new blood and hope you might think of joining.

If you want to know any more, please ask!


Andrew McCombe