What is a tracker?

i know it's somewhat of a dumb question, but i've tried to look around and can't really find much. what's their history? what makes a tracker a tracker (guessing they come from dirt track bikes)? they appear to be a mix between a cafe and dual sport. is this sorta correct?


i'm somewhat interested because i have access to a free cl360 and a cb350. neither of these have titles. and i have no clue what condition they are in. i know they won't make a great dirt bike, but i was wondering if by making a "tracker" out of one and putting the right tires on if i could have something good for tooling around through flat fields. just figured it'd be a way to use a bike that doesn't have a title and fill a notch of having a dirt bike to ride while my daughter rides around on a four wheeler at my in-laws.


my other thought is to take a cx500 i have with a lien on it and turn it into somewhat of a dirt bike.


thoughts?

dean owens said:

i know it's somewhat of a dumb question, but i've tried to look around and can't really find much. what's their history? what makes a tracker a tracker (guessing they come from dirt track bikes)? they appear to be a mix between a cafe and dual sport. is this sorta correct?


i'm somewhat interested because i have access to a free cl360 and a cb350. neither of these have titles. and i have no clue what condition they are in. i know they won't make a great dirt bike, but i was wondering if by making a "tracker" out of one and putting the right tires on if i could have something good for tooling around through flat fields. just figured it'd be a way to use a bike that doesn't have a title and fill a notch of having a dirt bike to ride while my daughter rides around on a four wheeler at my in-laws.


my other thought is to take a cx500 i have with a lien on it and turn it into somewhat of a dirt bike.


thoughts?

Click to expand...

Im sure some of that is correct, but I think some of it comes from "board trackers" as in the old wooden banked oval tracks that bicycles and motorcycles used in the early part of the 1900's.

They are street based homage bikes that nod to the flat track racers of the 70s to the present. Very similar in design to a cafe but with a seating position that is conducive to the upright flat out riding of a dirt track race. The cl350 was indeed hondas idea if an enduro during that era of cycles. There wasn't much different aside from the higher pipes for ground clearance, a little skid plate, and factory dual sport tires. I've known guys that flat track raced with them. Looks to be a blast. Most of the trackers these days are built as a design nod, so think superbike bars, a tracker seat, and beebee suspension. I'm sure there are much more knowledgeable people on this subject than me here, but that'll give you an idea!

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

Still the wrong kind of tracker. See here:

http://www.vft.org/

thanks everyone for your help. i appreciate it.

btw, google only works when you know what you're looking for. adding "broad" (a word i've not seen used here) in front of "tracker" brings up a lot more than simply "tracker". i went through wiki and all on google. just couldn't find the information. i found links to people's build threads, but nothing that explained their history and such. so even though it was a bit snarcky, and assuming i hadn't looked (or that i was a little less than honest since i mentioned in my post that i had searched around), i still thank you immensely for the links. they are helpful and i do appreciate them.

I just want to add- there's a lot of builds in the "tracker" section here that aren't trackers at all (mine included). So follow the advice and info from Kanticoy and Revhead.

I was working on the bike and it really didn't fit into any other classification.......

A "board tracker" and a "flat tracker" are two COMPLETELY different bikes.

Board track racing was very popular from the 1910s through the late 20s when it was basically outlawed because so many people (riders and spectators) were killed.

Board track is the ultimate badass racing. No brakes, on 21" tires that were basically made for bicycles at upwards of 100mph in Velodromes. Very similar to what modern bicycle racers compete in, but MUCH larger and made entirely of wood. Think massive banked tracks with spectators in the infield. The bikes were the earliest forms of race bred two wheel machines to really be championed in the US. In Europe at the time, most racing was GranPrix road racing. Boardtrack racing was amazing, and truly terrifying. Its because of this sport that HD truly became what they are today. Look up the HD "wrecking crew" sometime.

Most board track bikes were early HDs, Indians, Crockers, Excelsior, and other American motorcycles.

1921 HD Board track racer:


1912 Indian board track racer:


Velodrome:


Flattrack racing grew out of offroad competitions in the 1950 in England and the US. Generally speaking its like sprint car racing, but with bikes. The racers use heavily modified factory motorcycles on 1/2 or 1 mile ovals. All flat, with no banks. In a similar vein to the board track bikes, they usually run no front brake and are at full throttle for the entirety of the race. The main difference (other than the 40-50 year spacn between the manufacturing dates of the bikes) is that due to the dirt covered, flat race surface the riders are forced to "get sideways" in the turns. These races are extremely difficult and dangerous to compete in. The pros regularly exceed 100mph WHILE SLIDING sideways in the corners. Almost any bike can be made into a "tracker" of this style, and in competition now youll see everything from the undisputed king of the track, the HD XR750, to modern Ducatis, Suzuki SV650s, Honda XL500s, Hinkley Thruxtons and really anything else someone wants to dump a ton of time and money into.

The king, the HD XR750:


Very cool Triumph tracker (championship bike):


Gettin' sideways:


Hope that helps a bit...

dean owens said:

... what makes a tracker a tracker?

Click to expand...

The fact that people agree on calling it one ...

Seriously, as there's no valid definition one could say:
"similarity to bikes being or having been ridden on whatever kind of oval track"

Best regards
Sven

Check out the movie On Any Sunday staring Steve McQueen and Malcolm Smith for some great, period flat track footage

I pushed hard for this section to be created based on the idea of 70's-present Dirt/Flat track inspired bikes, NOT board track or bratstyle or enduro or motocross (jumps). Von's post is correct.

I'd call my 07 Scram a street Tracker or city tracker. Rarely ever hits the dirt.