Sorry to threadjack but how do these courses add up for people who are not necessarily say, 'experienced'? I'm not exactly sure what they mean by experienced but I have been riding for 5 years now and I don't necessarily feel 'experienced'. Motorcycling is one of those things where you are always learning but I just don't feel like I've explored my limits. Would these courses be good for someone like me?
I attended last weekend's Surviving the Streets in Cayuga and I think it's a good way to get familiar with your bike on a reasonable budget over a single day, especially if the 2 day courses would involve needing overnight accommodation. It started out slowly with a casual classroom session, light on the theory, more about what you can do that gets results and what you might already be doing that doesn't end up so well. e.g. the response that if you thought you had to "lay 'er down" you really just gave up, went in one ear and out the other of some folks, as expected. Oh well. Moving on . . .
It's late in the afternoon before you hitch up your gear and roll out to the track around 5 p.m. The track is busy with other programs and track time before that. We had 14 or 15 people, about 6 of them women. Mostly a mature group. We were divided into groups of 4 to 5 per instructor. They demonstrate the braking and avoidance/braking drill a few times and then we set out and do it. You always continue around the rest of the course so with that you are getting familiar with the layout at your own pace, just to get around to repeat the drill. Each lap you switch up as to who is directly behind the instructor. They look back to see if you are getting the hang of it and if you are lagging they will slow down to your pace. No passing. If the person in front is holding you back, you wait until you are first in line and you can coax the instructor to take a hint as to what pace you want to go, slower or faster. Before it's over you get some guidance on how to position your body, how to pick a good line for a corner and what's going to happen if you start playing up and down with your throttle while you're leaned over. Then free time on the track if you want, with passing allowed. By then it's 3 hours later and I measured 60 km of track on my odometer. It was plenty for me.
There is no testing pass or fail. The instructors are all easy going and want to see you enjoying things. You only do what you are comfortable with. If you need a break, take it. e.g. my quad muscles just died doing the hanging off and weaving exercises for so long so after a while I'd do maybe 5 and then coast down the straight sitting upright, saving my legs for the actual corners later on which was a good decision. At my own pace later through the turns I could appreciate the benefits of doing a good hang off so now I'm more inclined to practice that on the roads when suitable.
One thing I came away with is that pretty much any current motorcycle is just dogging it under the average rider. If you feel you need to explore your limits, like take things to where you pucker up to the seat, or scare yourself, this is not the course for you. I wanted to get back some confidence that when called for, I have reserves of cornering, braking and stability to move my body around that wisely shouldn't be put to the test on the road except to save my butt in an unexpected situation. i.e a little extra up my sleeve instead of freezing up like a deer in the headlights. Stuff I learned at my beginner course and has faded out of neglect. And I got all that.
Now I'm more motivated to tighten up my center stand because that kept grounding out on the left and I dragged my boot on the right a few times (bad positioning on my part)
FWIW, I ride a 1984 Yamaha FJ1100. Riding for 12 years on 2 bikes. Took RTI's M2 course the first year. Have my M.
The speedometers were taped over but the gear commander website makes me think I was doing 80 to 110 km/h on straights. So good thing it was taped over
I see Youtube videos from the same track with R1 and Gixxer speedometers indicating 170 on the two longest straights.
