I’ve bought a stone kart stand for this reason. Not cheap but cheaper than chiropractic appointments
A 20-year-old kart with an aircooled direct drive 100 will weigh 160 lbs. My Arrow/TM K9ES shifter, on the other hand, was 228 lbs.
Modern fitness and nutrition advice tends to build heavier athletes than they used to; even cross-country racers pack on the muscle these days. 5’8" male soccer & basketball players were usually 140 to 155 lbs, and now they’re 160 to 180. Part of it is athletes wanting better sprinting ability, another is that your joints are better stabilized and protected if you’re stronger.
Ideally we’d all have enough people of our size and kart preference to race against in our own class, but failing that we could embrace mixed classes and powertrain diversity. TJ and Giessen could battle it out at 305 lbs on Yamaha 100s, the smaller guys could run EasyKarts and old Leopards, I’ll drive my Rotax, and a good 6’2"/220 lb driver could make it fair in a shifter - just as long as we accepted that it’s not a National and that we’ll have a weekend where one of the weights is wrong and the best driver doesn’t win.
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Curious, I know less weight is better but how much of a disadvantage is lets say 10lbs over?
That is impossible to answer. On a big enduro track it virtually does not manner. On a little sprint track it manners most. Last week I ran two classes at a small sprint track. They were LO206. One was at 360lbs and one was 370lbs and the track is 10 turn 37 second track. I ran both right at legal weight and was about 0.250 seconds apart. Maybe with clearer laps and optimal gearing I may have been .3 to 0.4 different. Or maybe I would have been closer than I was
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Figure .1 or less per 10 lbs.
Are those the one person kart stands? I can’t morally use one because I don’t wanna scrape my bumper. I know, it’s dumb
Our 206 Senior is 375 lbs, so that’s pretty much in line with everyone else. That seems about right for most of us older kart people (30-65 yrs), and that is what most of those classes are composed of.
Easy to say, hard to do. With the Wuhan flu at the end of last year I gained 20 lbs since I could not work out for two months. Then in January I went back to my swimming and lost about 5 of that before everything was shut down. I tried biking but it just does not give you the workout that swimming does, plus sitting around I put the weight back on. Since things opened back up, I’ve managed to take those 5 pounds back off swimming a mile three times a week, but still have a long road ahead to lose the other 15. At 53 it takes much longer than when I was younger.
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Yes, and it’s not dumb as I had the same concerns myself. You can buy bumper protectors, that have a hub that bolts to the number bolts then you have 2 removable rubber legs that you can slide in when you are ready to lower or lift the kart.
Ooh that’s smart. I might get one of those if I race by myself
Certainly worth it in my opinion. Not the cheapest thing out there but as I say cheaper than a chiropractor. I actually got mine direct from the company (they are based in Europe) so if you want one let me know and hopefully by association you can get a discount. I got the bumper extensions thrown in for free ($80 value) doing it that way.
Awfully kind but right now I race with a team so I don’t need a one person stand. I just don’t like lifting my kart
Weights in karting have been one of the biggest things holding the sport back for years. Weight does make a difference and heavier is slower, sometimes a lot! Problem is people come in all different sizes and weights. Yes there is an “average” weight for humans but even that number changes as we age. Most people don’t weigh the same at 20 as they do at 45. Five foot five compared to six foot five, young vs. old, male vs. female. It’s a wide range. The only weights in karting that don’t have a big range is the weight of the karts. Most people run Italian karts with the same engine (LO206 for example). The karts are all within five pounds and different clutches and mounts will only vary by a pound or two. Maybe we should look at having different weight classes based on driver weight, not the combined weight of driver and kart. Drivers under (for example) 160 pounds have to run the Light class, 161 to 195 run Medium, 196 and up run Heavy. It would be necessary to have the amount of ballast needed to make a minimum driver weight checked and mounted/sealed on the kart safely, but it’s a procedure that racers could easily get used to. Sure would be easier than figuring out how to put fifty pounds of lead on a kart.
In kart racing, I have always been of the opinion that minimum weight for 2 strokes has been lower then 4 strokes.
However, I can tell you that in 206 the minimum weight between senior and masters from (365 to 390lbs) on some tracks its 1 seconds and others 1.5 seconds depending on the amount of acceleration zones.