24/09/2026
Winner of The Swedish Superbike Cup in 2026!
I did my first RC car race back in 2003 and have loved it ever since. I also raced with FPV Drones and competed at the highest level with 3D helicopters. What I enjoy the most is the learning process. And earlier this year I felt like a new challenge would be fun so I got myself an RC Bike – something completely new and nothing like cars.
Let me summarize my experience from the first season racing Rc Bikes with all its pros and cons.
The driving
Driving an RC Bike is really fun. Smooth stick inputs is the key to going fast. The biggest difference to a car, besides the fact the you control the lean angle to turn and not the wheel, is that you can’t brake very hard. The stopping distance is twice as long. And it’s the same with acceleration – too fast with too much power makes the bike wheelie and flip over. The upside with this is that the bikes goes with great flow around the tracks and this creates great racing. No one brakes in front of you; no one turns in on you or smashes into your rear end. Of course, there is race incidents – but nowhere close to car racing.
The Cost
The initial cost is quite high due to the non-existing secondhand market. There is also no entry level bikes – two big brands which both are premium. And since you can run cheap electronics, and rarely break any parts, the running cost is very low. A set of new tires for each race is all you need – the tires then last for the practice days until next race.
The weather
One of the biggest upsides with bikes is that the weather is not a factor. Warm, cold, windy or rain – we drive not matter what. And the bikes works just fine. Running a nitro buggy in a rain race is stressful and requires loads of hours for cleaning afterwards. And on-road classes are not very fun due to the total lack of grip. When running rc bikes you don’t really care to check the weather forecast ahead of a race – of course there can be more or less challenging weather but the race will always be run to the end and you will be able to drive and have fun.
The complexity
This is the biggest downside of Rc Bikes. And I don’t mean the actual design of the bikes – it’s the total lack of available information. There is no reviews, build videos or set up tips on YouTube. No guides how to trouble shoot a problematic bike. The only written information I have been able to find regarding setups is 10-year-old pdf document. Which was translated from German to English. I have also studied some old post in forums trying to get a better understanding of how to maximize the setup. Of course, you can ask your fellow friends but the answers are often of big variety so the best way is to test, learn and draw your own conclusions.
Race format and run time
If you want a lot of track time, bikes is a perfect choice. 10 minutes heats in practice and qualification and 3 x 15 minutes finals. And during practice days you can go 15-20 minutes each stint and if you bring 2-3 batteries you can basically drive nonstop. And the race format is really relaxed (at least in Sweden). We run 4 qualification heats with your top 3 laps counted each time. So, this gives you room to try setups, different tires and ways to drive. At some point I even walked down from the rostrum to do some adjustments to the bike and then went back up again and continued the qualification heat. It’s also a great challenge to first aim for pure speed in qualification and the bring out consistency in the finals.
The wrenching time
Since 1:8 nitro offroad been my main class the past years I am getting slightly out of motivation when it comes to all the hours needed to prepare, clean and maintain the car. It is at least 6-8 hours before each race for maintenance work of the car, gluing tires, clutch work etc. With the bikes you rebuild and put new oil in one shock, one steering damper and the forks. Maybe you will replace a couple of bearings, a belt and the steering shaft. The tires comes pre-glued. Maximum 30 minutes of work ahead of each race. So, the time required between the track days is very low.
The community
The number of bike drives is low compared to participants in rc car races. But the small group of enthusiasts is very helpful and friendly. I specially want to give Mikael Bredberg a shout out – without all his help in the beginning I am not sure I would have the energy to push thru the initial learning phase. And also, a big thanks to Karl Helgen who has been my partner in crime the entire season!
