| Author | Message | ||
     Lemonchili_x1 |
I've been thinking about doing a track day or a riding course for a while, and recently bought a few riding technique books, to try and improve my riding, get a little quicker (for my own satisfaction) as well as brush up on the safety side of things. I did a beginners course when I first started riding (20 years ago!), but haven't done any rider training since. I finally did a course this week - 4 hours theory/discussion on Tuesday afternoon, 4-5 hours solid practical yesterday morning at Mt Cotton. Wow, what a difference it makes having someone show you a cornering "technique"! While the technique they showed us may not be the fastest way through a turn, it gives me a plan to follow for any corner and has taken a whole heap of mystery out of turn-in points and corner apex, invaluable for riding roads I'm not familiar with. I guess it's also taken away a lot of fear of getting it wrong. We also practiced emergency stops again and again, and again, and again! We did object avoidance and a few other things too. I wish I'd done this a few years ago. It has improved my confidence a bit, and made me a *lot* more comfortable in knowing what the bike can do and what I can do. Towards the end of the day I just scraped my boot on one corner, which is the first time in years I've been able to do that comfortably rather than it freaking me out, and that let me know I was getting over further than I had been  . At the end of the course they got us to go around the course (2.7km, 11 turns) backwards... in one gear of our choice... without using the brakes! That was a real eye opener, and a lot easier than I thought it would be. I'm now itching to get out on some of my favourite roads!  cheers, chili Ps It was also very cool that the chief instructor used to own an X1 | ||
| Babired |
Lemon, can you tell me more about your training what do you mean "by at the end of the class they got you to go backwards, gear of your choice, in the 11 turns with no brakes." I have studied the MC training from the UK over here in the States, specifcally the police pursuit and I would like to know more about the type of training you did. K | ||
| Rainman |
Backwards? Did you guys ride Gold Wings?  | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
Maybe I should have said opposite direction  . The main "track" is about 2.7km long, and is painted up like a public road, one lane each way, there are even speed limit signs. It is also used for Police driver and rider training.  We spent all day working in the anti-clockwise direction, and staying in our lane (or trying too!) as if it were a public road.  For the last exercise we went in the clockwise direction which made all the turns appear totally different. We were told to select a gear we thought would be suitable for the whole circuit, and to not use the brakes (unless absolutely necessary). Part of the exercise was to show that when you are turning the bike will scrub off speed. We had one of the trainers in front of us to demonstrate, but he disappeared after a couple of turns and left me alone to practice. My first lap was a little shakey, and it took a bit of faith to not go for the brakes, but I had upped the pace a bit by the second time around . They then got us to do the same exercise with only one hand on the bars, which really makes you think about counter-steering. The head trainer is a former police rider training instructor and I think a few of the techniques are taken from police training. Does that help? (Message edited by lemonchili_x1 on October 17, 2008) | ||
| Littlebuggles |
Sounds like great experienced rider training, was it expensive? | ||
| Lemonchili_x1 |
I thought it was very reasonably priced. It should have been $256au, but they gave us Ulysses club pricing at $170au. Well worth the money. Other courses here are closer to $400. | ||
| Babired |
This is not in the US is it? You are sooso lucky! If I ever hit the LOTTO over here in the States I'm setting something up like that! I do understand the speed in corners because when you are leaned over on the side, extreme lean over you are riding on a smaller, side, circumference of the tire and can be equaled as a lower gear. So the bike does slow down. Were is this training? Do they rent bikes? K |
