Recently, many speedway media outlets have reported on the activities of the owner of the rights to the Grand Prix speeedway races, Discovery Sports Events and the International Motorcycle Federation FIM. A new children’s motorcycle for short speedway track, i.e. on small 19″ and 17″ wheels with a Daytona 190cc engine, has been as SGP4 introduced.

The plan is to hold the first race in this category this June. The main actors and promoters of this new class have high goals and their vision is to expand this class as much as possible and make speedway racing more accessible to a wider group of people.

Shupa is following these activities with interest and appreciates the Discovery Group’s efforts to expand and popularize the speedway sport. We even offered the SGP4 makers our cooperation and experience about a year ago, but they decided to go their own way.

 

European Cup 125cc with no response yet

What we regret about the approach of the International Motorcycle
Federation FIM is that in 2017 in Divišov and 2018 in Chabařovice we participated in cooperation with the Autoclub of the Czech Republic in the organization of model European short track races in 125cc: http://www.speedwaya-z.cz/?tag=2018-euro-cup-chabarovice

We even prepared technical regulations for this class for the FIM. But the effort to push this category into FIM and FIME races failed at that time. We think it might be worth renewing these efforts and trying again to find new allies for this solution.

Nevertheless, the short track and 125cc motorcycles are very intensively raced here. The same is true in Australia and especially in Poland, where there is a very wide base of young riders and a sophisticated system of their training. These riders use our motorcycles to a large extent.

 

Motorcycles SHUPA – types – dimensions

Shupa has been manufacturing motorcycles for the youngest riders for about 15 years and offers both – engines and complete motorcycles for a wide range of 125cc races. That is, motorcycles on „big wheels“ for classic tracks 300-400m, motorcycles with rear suspension for long tracks and of course motorcycles for short tracks 150-200m. You can easily find out what these machines look like by visiting www.shupa.com.

In the following, we present our production programme for short tracks and, where we know the parameters of the SGP4, we take the liberty of comparing them.

So we can see what a Shupa motorcycle comparable to the SGP4 would look like in the following pictures.

Motorcycles suitable for short track are offered in two chassis variants, BOY and JUNIOR, which differ in wheelbase (i.e. the distance between the front and rear wheels) and height. The BOY motorcycle is designed for the smallest racers, while the JUNIOR motorcycle is designed for taller boys.

SHUPA engines

It’s definitely not an engine taken from a pit bike, (like the aforementioned Daytona 190cc) but an engine that is
adapted to speedway racing. The basis of every good speedwaybike is a proper crank flywheel. Ours is forged and ground to a diameter of 110 mm. Proper balance allows the engine to rev up to 13,500/min. (For comparison, the Daytona 190cc engine has a smaller flywheel diameter of 104 mm and a max speed of 10,500/min.) The large and fast-spinning crankshaft has a major and positive effect on the stability and handling of the bike, allowing novice riders to more easily master speedway cornering. The Shupa engines have a very favourable torque curve, allowing fast starts and riding without shifting, i.e. racing like a five-hundred.

The parts that determine the performance of motorcycles are mostly manufactured by us with a clear demand for quality. In addition to our own crankshaft, we have developed forged pistons that allow the engines to get the compression needed for perfect performance. This also allows Shupa motorcycles to run not only on petrol but also on the more environmentally friendly methanol.

 

Engines – weight, performance and prices

While maintaining the 125cc displacement and even with a large crankshaft, our engines have a favourable weight of 16.5 kg. (By comparison, the Daytona 190cc engine weighs 21.5 kg). The total weight of Shupa short track motorcycles is in the range of 53-55 kg.

We consider motorcycle weight, along with sufficient engine power, to be the most important parameter for aspiring small riders. The lighter the motorcycle is, the faster a beginner will learn to handle it. (Certainly the 5 kg heavier SGP4 motorcycles have a big handicap here.)

The short track engines are available in 2 versions:
The type marked 125/9 RS has a power of 15 PS and we have been producing the same type throughout our motorcycle history. We added a TB-headed engine 4 years ago, designated 125/9 SHT with 17 PS, which can be raced on the big track in a modified version. (For comparison, the Daytona 190cc engine has 20 PS).

The 125/9 RS engine costs 1100,- Eur (excluding VAT) and the 125/9 SHT engine 1.450,- Euros (excluding VAT). (For comparison, the Daytona engine can be bought in the range of 1000-1100 Eur (excluding VAT).

You can also get more powerful and more expensive engines from us, which are mainly used on big and long tracks where maximum performance plays an important role. The most expensive and best 4-valve engine with 21PS is priced at around 1,900 Euros (excluding VAT).

The engines can be upgraded on request, but only by using a better quality ignition to increase reliability with the possibility of adjusting the rev limiter, which is also an important thing for novice racers to protect the engine from overrevving.

To the satisfaction of all racers, our engines run as we build them, with no further tuning required. Anyone who would like to know the prices of our parts in detail can visit our e-shop on the website
https://www.shupa.com/store which is available in Czech, Polish, English and German versions.

 

Shupa motorcycles – prices and riders

The complete motorcycle in 2023 prices ready for racing in BOY and JUNIOR versions costs:
3.800,- Eur with 125/9 RS engine and 4.150,- Eur with 125/9 SHT engine (these are again prices excluding VAT).
(The price of the SGP4 is not yet known).

Shupa motorcycles and engines have already found owners on 3 continents, in North America (USA), Australia and currently in 12 countries in Europe. You can’t buy them worldwide as a pit bike
engine but they can be ordered and shipped worldwide without any problems. Since we started our business we have already produced 450 engines and the number of motorcycles produced is close to 100.

Countless riders have started with speedway on our motorcycles, let’s mention at the very beginning the Englishman Ellis Perks, who started racing his Shupa in 2008 i Australia, and at the end the last World Champion (FIM Gold Trophy) from Pardubice last year, the promising Polish rider Maksymilian Pawelczak.

Since 2010, when Shupa motorcycles started to appear in European and World Championship races, riders from all over Europe have won a total of 37 medals, 11 of which have been in the most precious metal.

Shupa Engine Service

Of course, racing engines also need servicing. We also provide this and it gives us important feedback on the quality of parts and opportunities for improvement. Engines, if equipped with a motor hour counter, are seen by us after about 25-30 hours of operation. But in a lot of cases, the unit of service time is 1 year (i.e. a full season). Around 80 engines a year pass through the workshop, including servicing.

What to say in conclusion

We would like to make two more remarks about the intention of Discovery Sports Events and the International Motorcycle Federation FIM.

From the beginning, motorsport has been a race of drivers and a race of technology. The use of a prescribed single engine type stifles technical development.

At the same time, it is difficult to ensure that the engine is not tampered with, despite all precautions. As a result, this system leads to increased costs for checking the technical condition of motorcycles and to arguments and protests among riders.

Shupa engines meet the displacement size requirement for the 125cc category. In our opinion, the classic class division into 125cc, 250cc, 500cc is perfectly suitable for speedway. Increasing the displacement of the beginner category to 190cc will only introduce uncertainty into the ranks of owners of motorcycles built to the current regulations.

You can find out how to ride them e.g. in the videos on our website www.shupa.com or currently from Poland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsp5gcMYYF0 where you can see how he and Shupa are doing on the short track
right now Maksymilian Pawelczak World Champion 2022 of this category.

In conclusion, Shupa motorcycles are affordable for beginners, with sufficient performance, offer a choice of two chassis sizes BOY and JUNIOR and all while meeting the current FIM regulations for this category.

Shupa engines and motorcycles use quality parts with the expectation of longer life and meet the handling requirements of flat track motorcycles even for the smallest riders.

Our opinion, backed up by 15 years of experience, is that, especially for short tracks, the 125cc motorcycles are
perfectly adequate.

The SGP4 motorcycles in the presented design will be perhaps a bit more powerful (probably unnecessarily) but above all heavier, and so the benefit of this solution, even taking all the arguments of this comment into account, brings for the youth speedway more question marks so far.