Thread: Reviews:Stay Upright AdvI+II+Superbike School 1,2,3,4+CB Race School+Alex GobertsRRPA

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1 1 of 23 22/10/ :10 PM View Single Post Thread: Reviews:Stay Upright AdvI+II+Superbike School 1,2,3,4+CB Race School+Alex GobertsRRPA , 09:13 PM #1 jasonbw Moderator Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Balgownie, NSW. Australia Posts: 4,937 Reviews:Stay Upright AdvI+II+Superbike School 1,2,3,4+CB Race School+Alex GobertsRRPA Hi all, by request I'll write just my opinions that I've built from going to these. Why go to school? Why not, what s better, a Yoshi slip on or a rider training course... both can cost between the $250 to $400 mark but which will stay with you forever, possibly save your life and definitely make you faster on the track and at least safer on the road? First I better let you know who I am as it is relevant as to whether your riding goals are the same... ridden 15 years on the road, only track time prior to the schools was over 10 years ago at EC and scared myself stupid. Figure myself as a safe but not slow road rider, at least I thought I was fast till I got timed time out at the track. Books and Videos should rate a mention here too... I have a good collection of Superbike School books and his Twist DVD, Reg Pridmore's "Smooth Riding" and "Sport Riding techniques" that has bits from Kenny Roberts but mainly written by a well known European/USA journo plus the Dave Moss suspension setup DVD set (see catalyst link below), feel free to PM me if you d like to borrow any... happy to loan them out to make us all safer and faster! If anyone has any other books they don t mind loaning out then let me know and I'll include them here... maybe we should start a library? Useful links: Photographers: JPM Photography Tim Munro Photography Training Schools: Alex Gobert's Road Race Performance Academy California Superbike School California Superbike School Cornering Forum - U.S.A. Circuit Breakers Circuit Breakers Timing Stay Upright Motorcycle Training Insurance: Shannons Insurance Apparently cover Stay Upright and California Superbike School events but check first! Suspension: Zenodamper - Suspension Engineering Catalyst Reaction tyre tear guide (bottom of page) Alex Gobert s Road Race Performance Academy, $275 Alex has designed his school to help road and track riders (from newcomers to top grade

2 2 of 23 22/10/ :10 PM racers) who are looking to increase their performance riding skills, reduce their laptimes and become safer in the process. The day allows for riders to make changes to their style supported by some of Australia s fastest riders, at a speed slower than a normal trackday pace with classrooms between track session to provide the food for thought on what needs changing. There is a HUGE level of passion for teaching in Alex and his team, very professional, combine this with a current maximum of only 10 riders for each of the three groups (Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced) and you have a LOT of professional attention to your needs! Each session starts with the instructors guiding your group around the track in a 'line-of-ducks' formation to show the riders the lines they use around the track. The day starts with a quick morning welcome with a talk on the day s aims and a rider s briefing. The Advanced group have a classroom similar to the Class 1 described below, but tailored to racing, they then immediately head out on track for the first session. Advanced Class 1: Aims and Goals / Preparation / Relaxation / Health / Safety As below but tailored for the classroom participants goals Beginners and Intermediate Class 1: Aims and Goals / Preparation / Relaxation / Health / Safety The opening session will take you through various important points of motorcycle riding. Why do you ride? How much experience have you had? Do you prefer the road or track? What are your goals? How do you prepare? Do you relax enough on the bike? How important is health and safety? Relax! Easy to say, sometimes hard to do! So, how do we relax before an event, Alex suggests its easier if you follow a few simple rules: Prepare (physically) by packing your kit early, attending to the details such as cleaning the visor, loading the bike up, packing all the parts you ll need etc so there s no rushing around in the morning of an event, helps you get that much needed early night sleep. Prepare (mentally) by visualizing the track, use past notes where available or any other means you have to aid the visualization, i.e. playstation/notes/videos etc! Look after your own body! Alex suggests your body is much like a motorcycle, give it bad fuel (food) and you ll get bad performance! Eat right and hydrate properly before the event and you will enjoy the day much more! This is all noted in the course info booklet. Plenty of food and fluid is on hand for students throughout the program. Stretch before your event, Alex showed us some simple stretches that will assist in flexibility and prevent cramping of your muscles. Relax! Tensing up stiffens your arms which takes away from the suspension being able to work properly. Open your mind!! You shouldn t be set in your ways and you can change things that need changing! Self Critique. Ask yourself if there s anything about your riding that just doesn t feel right, like your Body position? Not looking far enough ahead? Do you feel like your leaning too far? Is your throttle control smooth? Self critique is key to letting you recognize areas to improve. (Have you ever been asked a question related to your riding and you just didn t know exactly what it is you do out there?). Analysing your riding and opening your mind will help later in the day. Slow it down today, you can t try to analyse your riding if you re riding at 100% (Makes sense, if your mentally at 100% to ride as fast as you can then you don t have extra mental capacity to remember what you re doing out there for later analysis!). Read the book!!! Alex stressed the importance of reading his book that he gave with each student bag he handed out in the morning, the information

3 3 of 23 22/10/ :10 PM in Alex s book is going to serve as a reminder for the lessons of the day when you get to your next trackday or event etc. Also in the bag was a notebook and pen, with students encouraged to make their own notes as the day progressed also. The Goal: Get a feel for the track and think about how you ride to let you get ready to self critique! Advanced Class 2: Braking / Shifting / Throttle Control Whether riders are looking to be faster or smoother on the bike, these three elements of riding are more important aspects of cornering once again especially for the advanced group where they are looking for every advantage they can get to lap faster and be more consistent. Keep it fast and smooth, concentrating on consistency. Trail braking - 90% of the braking should be done while upright, the final 10% can be achieved while entering the turn until the apex. Use your body weight to pivot into the bike this will also steer the bike into the turn Relax, especially during the transition from on-brakes to off-brakes. Rear brake, use it to tighten the line and stopping wheelstands. Shifting, who s using street shift on track - quick talk on benefits of race pattern importantly though, find time to perfect them since advanced riders are looking for every 10th of a second, this could be the 10th you re looking for! Alex says the beginner and intermediate sessions on this class are quite different to racing, with a smoother style required and more precise. Downshifting chatter has been solved in Alex s experience by using a softer rear tyre in racing, but for street bikes he does use a slower method of shifting down and feathers the clutch to counteract the engine braking. Be aware that changing down late and braking late could be asking too much of yourself and your bike, so sometimes it s better to brake harder earlier then reduce the braking until corner entry to get the corner correct. Work on your throttle control. That means specifically reducing the lag from trail braking to on-gas. The professionals do this better than anybody and this is why they are so good. Trust that front tyre! Again, the correct body position will help, but once you really get that dialled it is important to ride the bike correctly and get the balance right before really pushing the front tyre hard as an advanced racer. Beginner and Intermediate Class 2: Braking / Shifting / Throttle Control Again, I used this time to observe the on-track activities, debrief etc, so there are no notes for this Beginner/Intermediate class Advanced Class 3: Body Position The opening session will take you through various important points of motorcycle riding. Why do you ride? How much experience have you had? Do you prefer the road or track? What are your goals? How do you prepare? Do you relax enough on the bike? How important is health and safety? Alex explained the racers he has here are ready to help so be sure to ask them if you have any questions. The goal for this session is to focus on body position. How? Most riders wait for the photos to see how their style has them positioned on the bike, this is problematic since you have to wait for photos, and the camera location can be misleading as you might think your mid-corner yet the photo has you picking the bike up on exit. Alex has a solution from the time he spent training with Freddie Spencer, an immediate way of recognizing your style without having to wait for the photos. Rider size should be taken into account when moving your body on the bike,

4 4 of 23 22/10/ :10 PM taller or heavier riders (e.g. Rossi) don t have to lean off the bike as much as shorter or lighter riders (e.g. Stoner). During high speed cornering larger riders need to stay in a more neutral position on the bike or they ll act like a sail, washing off excess speed, but also upsetting the bike s balance. Get your weight forward on the bike to help it turn and tighten the line, you can tell a riders style by the scraping on their sliders, the higher the scraping, the more forward the rider is putting their weight. Alex states that weighting the front tyre will provide more feel, before corner entry get your body position set so your arms are locked on the bars to gain front end feel The Goal: Try going slower to try different body positions. Try what RRPA teaches, and if it doesn t feel correct then explain why or what felt strange in the next class room. Beginners and Intermediate Class 3: Body Position Now that you further understand your capabilities and should have a clearer idea on how you ride, let s move on to body position. If you were able to analyse yourself and pick up on a few areas where you d really like to improve then we hope to cover them today and feel free to point them out. Riders all have natural techniques, what feels comfortable on one bike won t work on another. What works for you is what you should use, but there are certain techniques that do help adapt a rider one the experience builds! Alex referred to his solution to finding your immediate body position (referred to in the advanced class above), suggesting you use this during the session to evaluate your body position changes. Pivot the upper body more forward to weight the front tyre to gain front end feel Today is for opening your mind, bring to your awareness your style. The Goal: Try different body positions to find a style that feels comfortable. Advanced Class 4: Cornering Now that we should have more of an idea on where we should be situated to be on the bike, and we should always continue to work on body position, we ll shift the attention to cornering and concentrate on how we should approach the corner entry, mid-corner and the exit Setting up is all about selecting your line and committing to it. Get off the brakes and pivot your body position forward to give the bars the little bit of weight they need to lean the bike into the turn. Alex described lines for various corners, high and low speed, the changes required for different capacity bikes, and the effects of being a late or early braker. Finer points were touched on such as using ALL the available space, getting your knee over the dirt etc. You must experiment to find lines so you can plan the corner. Mid corner, corner exit and overtaking were then discussed in detail, focus on putting the weight on the front of the bike in the mid corner, and getting the weight on the back for drive off the turns. Smooth transition is important to get a deeper turn point and getting on the throttle earlier. The Goal: Quick and smooth! Improve and get quicker is your goal, experiment with your turn points and speed to see how it impacts your lap, open your mind, question everything! The coaching days at RRPA really are designed to allow riders to go out of their comfort zone at a slower pace to get a feel and experiment with different styles. Beginners and Intermediate Class 4: Cornering

5 5 of 23 22/10/ :10 PM Now that we should have more of an idea on where we should be situated to be on the bike, and we should always continue to work on body position, we ll shift the attention to cornering and concentrate on how we should approach the corner entry, mid-corner and the exit Alex asked us for individual experiences on the body position session, using feedback to firm up the reason why it needs so much focus. Stop scraping your boots! Get the ball of your foot back on the peg, find a position that is useful. Learn the basics of the track, use anything at your disposal, track maps, YouTube videos, video games, you own past mental notes, once you have that bedded down, you can focus on other things. Prepare and commit, think and select your line! Counter steering just the simple movement of your body position to the inside of the turn is usually enough to get the bike turned. Alex explains to those who don t fully understand what counter steering is, explaining in more detail how much you use and letting it be known that body position also effects the counter steering. Lines use the track, see how you notice your lines end up focusing down. Riders also get to follow Krusty and Allerton for two laps at the beginning of the sessions. The Goal: Setup early, know the track, examine your apex. There is a lot to learn in this session so we will also touch on it again in the session after lunch. Advanced Class 5: Cornering Final and Visual Awareness I used this time to observe the on-track activities, debrief etc, so there are no notes for this Advanced class Beginners and Intermediate Class 5: Cornering Final and Visual Awareness Visual awareness when riding motorcycle is one of the most important aspects of riding, helping you ride safer, smoother and, ultimately, faster. Continuing to work on your body position and cornering methods, visual awareness will open up a whole new world to your riding. We again touch on the skills required for cornering from the session before and Alex had a look at various typical track corners on the whiteboard, mainly describing the apex, but noting still that one style may work just as well as another that is completely different. E.g. Krusty s style v s Alex v s Glenn s, all can be on a different line in the same corner yet still manage to stay together. This is more so on the faster corners, while on the slower turns it is more critical to be on the correct line. Vision look ahead, break that tunnel vision and start scanning. What s coming up? Use your peripheral vision, look at everything, even on the warm up laps and know what s on the outside of each part of the circuit. Reference points! Its key to consistency, they make you faster and generally better on a bike. But don t get stuck on the same Reference Points and Apex points after you pick them up continually evolve them as you improve and open your mind each time you ride to continue evolving those points! The Goal: Work on your visual awareness! After this session you should be able to draw a track map, then break up the track and note down things you noticed. Alex then called us up for a presentation, all the attendance certificates were handed out then Alex happily put Krusty and Glenn on the spot asking for two riders that fit a certain category (Most improved and safest rider). They both got a nice T-Shirt. Alex also awarded a shirt to best class room student of the day and we all congratulated Alex and his team for a successful start to his business.

6 6 of 23 22/10/ :10 PM Instructors and instruction level These guys are naturally fast! They re some of Australia s fastest riders! One with us is the 2008 Australian Superbike champion!!! In the Advanced group we were constantly given attention through every session with these top level racers pulling you up a notch each time you were ready, my laptimes improved DRAMATICALLY over the course of the day, at one point due to the small group number I had a series of laps where an instructor watched me for 2 laps, then had me follow for two laps, then he'd again observe to give great feedback which just gave me a great opportunity to achieve so much in one day. This was fantastic!!!! A GREAT tool for racers wanting to get some racecraft techniques from these top racers or simply to be pulled into a new laptime bracket! The end of session feedback was brilliant, the instructors remembered each of us and gave technical points on what we improved and what we need to work on. Its suggested by the instructors that you write this info down so you have a goal for your next trackday or race to continually improve. There is so much info that you cannot possible achieve it all in one day anyway so this was a top idea. Best suited to This is a very track focused performance riding course designed for track day riders and racers but a lot of these skills translate to the road rider too! The great concept behind Alex s school here is that the track time is specifically run at a slower pace to allow you to think about how you ride and give you time to make changes. You cannot out-gun these instructors anyway, Alex stated to us not to bother, just focus on the days learning at a reduced pace and use the final session to then put it all together. Group numbers were specifically very small so the day was run perfectly to time and you had plenty of time to talk to instructors and get detailed feedback! Like all schools, if all you want to do is sit back at the end of the day and say that you ve been there, done that then you won t get much from training, instead, you need to use the instructors advice of writing down any points you need to work on, so you can focus on those points at your next trackday/race etc. Types of bikes that were there Sports and Race bikes, plain and simple! Road riders and track day riders will benefit, racers will get amazing one-on-one time with the top Superbike guys Stay Upright Advanced I, $385 Two years ago I went to a Stay Upright Adv course at Oran Park, this course focused on roadcraft, roadcraft is the technique of using road positioning to give the safest lines through the corners, i.e. best visibility around corners, creating buffer zones, planning, setting position, gear selection etc. Some of the points which were drummed in were: Roadcraft Maintain maximum space at all times Scan ahead / mirrors / instruments constantly Look as far ahead as possible, form plans for corners intersections and hazard avoidance Maintain concentration via talking to yourself of your observations General Riding Braking Relaxed posture Brake setup and squeeze Stop - Start in ready position Rev engine on downshifts

7 7 of 23 22/10/ :10 PM Use of front brake vs. rear brake Emergency braking system - Front, rear, gear Set-up and squeeze Straighten up when braking Correcting and controlling the lock up of either wheel Obstacle avoidance Obstacle Avoidance Cornering Countersteer purposefully, pushing bike under you while you sit atop the bike push right (bar) to go right, vice versa Scanning ahead as far as possible Head and eyes parallel for better balance Plan and set position, speed and gear before corner Look, lean, turn Speed to be relevant to distance of clear vision, can you stop within your available vision distance? Scanning beyond your riding partners, do not focus on them Rear brake use in aiding stability during very low speed maneuvers Leaning body to outside of turn in very low speed turns (U-turns etc) Summary This was a good starter for someone getting back into riding after a few years off or the average road user who was interested in road safety as the #1 priority. However, no matter who you are this would be a good course to go to if you ride on the road. Even though you may be fast and know how to ride in a performance way, you may draw some great survival knowledge from these guys. Having said that, Stay Upright have some bugs to iron out in the way they allow riders of very different speeds onto the track at the same time, the closing speeds during the day created a few close calls with off track excursions, a great friend of mine who came up with me ended up giving up riding for the afternoon after being close passed as a rate that was very unsuitable for him. This is a recipe for disaster there, hopefully they learn from this (and the I sent to them about the problem) and make appropriate changes. Instructors and instruction level VERY HIGH, fantastic instructors who put their students first... i.e. they're not there for a free bit of lunchtime track time... they're honestly there to help as best as possible. They will approach you constantly with helpful guidance when they notice an area of improvement. They are damn fast riders and ex-racers, Wayne Clarke being one, top level Superbike racer with Gardner back in the 80 s and was still running in the national scene just a few years ago. Keep in mind they are humans following their standard operating procedures, so if you feel you disagree with their instruction then say so and find out WHY they are teaching you their way. i.e. I would not use 4 fingers to brake as my brembo setup doesn t need all that, that really pissed them off but I wouldn t budge unless they gave me good reason to, they told me just to do it as that s what they re teaching, so I didn t, since it wasn t enough of a reason. Best suited to Riders of ANY experience level who wish to expand on their survival skills, you'd be surprised how much you'll apply from this course to make you a safer rider when on the road Types of bikes that were there Every type, talking heavy tourers to scooters and everything in between. Stay Upright Advanced II (Cornering and Braking school), $395 The Stay Upright Cornering and Braking course was designed as a progression on their

8 8 of 23 22/10/ :10 PM Advanced course, to show the rider that by following a plan, corners can become friendly and fun, instead of unpredictably frightening. This type of training offers very one-on-one benefits, but you only get two of those instructor following observed laps in the entire day! So with the great, detailed feedback you get, you re then left to yourself to make the changes without any instructor checking your progress. Meet & Discuss We met in the upstairs briefing room to discuss the days objectives, there was approximately riders in total. Wayne Clarke (Clarkey) introduced the team of riders looking after us today, each of them very professional and keen to look after their students. We were told that although this is a racetrack, you can relax as we re only using it as a big, wide one-way road, your lane is the entire width of the track, feel free to use all that width! The circuit map was shown on a huge sign, the direction of the track was pointed out (this was the full GP circuit at Oran Park), we re to assemble downstairs after each session as they ll call us all over for the pre-session briefing, the classroom was an assembly point downstairs just in pit lane, since no bikes were on track during each of these classroom briefings it worked fine. The first session is a small warm-up just to get out on the track, mainly to get everyone at ease about riding on the track. Sighting Lap This is just a warm-up session, mainly to settle nerves and understand the direction the track takes us. The riding is nice and easy in a follow the leader style, which lasted approx 15 minutes. We all come back into pit lane and are told how the next session will work. You choose which group you would like to join, Clarkey slowly read the names of each group: Going from left to right there s Fast, Faster, Faster than fast and Fastest, please line up behind the group you wish to ride in, at Pit Exit? The way it works is that we all stay in a big long line (approx 12 riders in my Fastest group), the instructor will ride one lap to show the student the lines then indicate to the rider behind to overtake while going down the straight, that student will ride one lap with the instructor watching, after the lap is complete everyone pull s into pit lane so the instructor then debriefs the rider he had just followed. We are then to leave pitlane, with the rider having just been de-briefed joining onto the back of the group so a new rider is watching the instructor lead him for a lap, the process then repeats itself until all the riders have been observed by the instructor. lapping up the feedback This is the first actual session, time was approx 10:15am. Once the riders had finished their above warm up laps everyone lined up into our particular chosen group, each group was let out in succession from the fastest group to the slowest staggered by a few seconds, we were all lead for the full lap then as directed, Clarkey then had the following rider overtake him to observe his lap, then we pulled in, repeating until all students were observed, Clarkey was great, I listened into the riders around me and Clarkey was talking about braking points, body position, getting on the throttle harder, lean angle, setting up etc. It was a lot of info to take in at once but it was very detailed as he had JUST finished following you for a full lap! Naturally with around 10 to 12 riders in my group it took a long time to get around to me at the back, I was trying to observe and learn from the riders in front when the instructor was with them but this wasn t good as I just started learning their lines and speed. Occasionally our group would end up behind a slower group, so we had some trouble where our group would then overtake and leave our tail-end riders a little lost, generally though it worked okay. While all the info was fantastic and from one of the greatest guys in this industry, it was still a bunch of observations on your riding, so the training is reactive in nature, i.e. you ride then get some info to correct your mistakes, as opposed to being told what to do and then practicing it on the track.

9 9 of 23 22/10/ :10 PM 15min Practise to bed in changes This session s goal is very simple, ride for 15 minutes trying out anything you were briefed on. The groups were let out together again and now people have been building up a considerable speed there were some frighteningly close calls between cruisers braking to a near stop before turn 1 and sportsbike s that haven t even rolled off at that point. The same issues were seen in the previous Stay Upright course I went to so it s disappointing to see nothing had changed, the 15 minutes was just free time to focus, it helped as I have a couple of specific braking goals I was working on. Lunch Lunch was about now, which was a break for 40 minutes. Braking Exercises After Lunchtime we were all gathered in pit lane to hear the next sessions exercise, there are three brake stations setup around the track, each station had an instructor who will wave you towards him, you build up speed (whatever you feel comfortable with) and at his signal, you brake to come to a complete stop using the setup then squeeze technique (which they demonstrated on the main straight). We re going to get some experience braking in a straight line, a skill every rider should have and considering it changes with weather, road surface, tyre s, brakes, temperature, bike, it s a skill that can never be over practiced!!! Find an empty road and do it next time you go for a ride (warm your tyre s first!) and then keep practicing it! We start out by cruising the circuit till we get to the first brake station, once I got the wave, I headed towards the instructor and when he indicated, I hit the brakes still braking on past the guy by a good few meters!? oops, He suggests I use the taught technique of setup then squeeze. I roll onto the next brake station and try again, far better! The next one was on the straight which I nailed, really happy about that, continue to repeat for another 2 laps which gave us all a lot of practice. Sadly one friend of rats found the pitwall in a bad way during this exercise. The instructors were standing on the straight about 10m down track from a rough seam that ran across the track, meaning you really felt that seam as you were braking hard. The ZX12 rider locked the front on this seam and cartwheeled the bike right at the instructor, thankfully the instructor lept the pit wall. In all seriousness, the ZX12 slammed the ground where the instructor had lept from, no doubt it would have been very ugly had he not been on the ball. I looked at the seam after the accident and saw his front tyre skid marks, it started just after the seam and ended about 30 meters down the pit wall. This braking exercise was fantastic for what it taught though, it s a great skill!!! Trail braking demonstrations We all gathered around pit lane to hear the next exercise, Trail braking! We re all first going to ride down to just past the bridge and park the bikes at the bus-stop, we then gather at the right hand bend after going under the bridge, helmets off and listen to Clarkey talk about trail braking. The main point is that trail braking is simply washing off the last few kph of speed WHILE steering into the corner, trail braking should be complete before, or at, the apex (closes point to the inside of the corner). Wayne summoned his instructor to do a demo, this run will have all the braking being done before steering. We watched one of their instructors fly down into the right hander, complete all of his braking while upright, then steer, apex and exit the corner. Wayne then summoned his rider to demonstrate trail braking, the rider again flew in, this time steering in while washing off speed, his fingers were off the front brake by the apex. Overall the entry speed was greater and he kept a tight line on the exit. Wayne then suggested a what-if of corner entry that I believe everyone here has felt that fear, just when entering the corner, that you are going too fast, you tighten up, things get busy and you pray you make it through the corner, Clarkey then stated we have control over our entry speed, right until the apex! With this skill you can enter a turn and still be confident of getting the bike around the turn even if our speed is higher than you initially felt you could manage. The session then started, the goal was just to trail brake on a few corners to allow you to feel the benefit, it was good to know you could brake while leaned, especially at Oran Park into T2, a very worth exercise!

10 10 of 23 22/10/ :10 PM One on one Instructor feedback The final exercise for the day, it s a repeat of the first real exercise where we all stay together in single file, allowing the lead rider to get the instructors attention for 2 laps (1 lead, 1 follow and a few min debrief), again I couldn t help but feel bored circulating at the slowest of the riders pace in front (weakest link syndrome) finally I get the run and again, some great feedback from Clarkey! Summary I enjoyed the day, it s nice to break your normal pace and try new things, the braking drill was excellent, the one-on-one was very brief, but brilliant, the days skills boiled down to a lot of braking exercises and a lot of time cornering albeit at someone else s pace (or during the free session going down the straight at a pace which had fast riders planning for T1 obstacle avoidance). The great thing about Stay Upright is they're a professional organisation who care about getting the most for their students! They're a great, friendly bunch and it shows, I wouldn't hesitate to suggest to do these schools since you get a LOT of detailled feedback after a lap with such top notch people! Remember, Warwick Schuberg started this organisation back in 1981, so they've been around long enough to know how to run a school. (Warwick even published his book back then: "Stay Upright: Defensive Motorcycle Riding Techniques" Instructors and instruction level VERY HIGH, fantastic instructors who put their students first... (read my summary of these guys in the review above) Clarkey and his team have a great professional approach to training, they ALL are teaching the same consistent lessons, the enjoy their work, they work brilliantly together, and you know they re there specifically for you! Best suited to Riders of an advanced level, there are a lot of basic skills which don t get covered here, i.e. visual skills didn t get a mention in the exercises, riding skills such as getting on the throttle, relaxing on the bike, slide control, body positioning etc. Unfortunately Stay Upright didn t filter out riders who hadn t done their Advanced course even though it was listed on their site as a pre-requisite (I asked some riders, they had never attended a track based ride school before), this was part of the problem with the massive closing speeds however riders should always be given the environment to safely and comfortably cruise at whatever speed they feel comfortable at, there wasn t a person overseeing the track activities to spot arising problems such as these. I d highly recommend you attend the day with an open attitude to change, as you are provided only two opportunities to get feedback from your instructor you need to focus and work on the feedback you re given otherwise you could be repeating the same mistakes or if you mis-understood the instructor you could be teaching yourself the wrong techniques. Pay due attention to all he or she says! Types of bikes that were there Again, every type of motorcycle, talking heavy tourers (Harleys) to 125cc GP bikes and 1000cc sportsbikes + everything in between. Superbike School was the natural progression, in all honesty with my new found safety skills I was now pushing my safety boundaries, but without the smarts of having the bike control skills relevant to the task. To compound the problem since doing the Stay Upright on a Ducati Monster I had swapped to a VFR800 which I traded for a ZX12 then a CBR1000RR. This brings me to April last year when I decided I better get some serious skills in sportsbike riding technique. California Superbike School, Level 1, $399 Superbike school level 1's day is organised in a series of drills. 5 of them to be exact. 5 of them... that s all... and that s why it worked so damn well! Level 1 did more than address questions, it completely redefined my riding. One of those golden sun through the break in the cloud moments occurred each time the team taught

11 11 of 23 22/10/ :10 PM me something new. By the end of the long day I had learnt what the bike wants from the rider. Drill 1: Throttle Control "The riders basic job while cornering is operating the throttle, the motorcycles most used control. Mastering the throttle brings out the best in you AND your bike" First things first, all riders assemble upstairs and listen to Steve Brouggy describe what skills you will leave with today, he was right. We were told we are not to use brakes and you must stay in one gear (4th). You might have heard of this drill, no brakes, it is designed to have you realise you can hold a corner speed which you would have normally washed off with brakes - which normally is accompanied by the feeling that you are now too slow in the corner and try to gun it to catch up, which is where most track problems originate. After the 15 minute talk you are then put to the track gently, in a long slow train to first see the track in an unthreatening way. Eventually as people become more relaxed the faster riders make a different pace and everyone is cruising around comfortably, although all seem somewhat confused about the lines they're taking it was part of the big plan and played out with good effect. We were bought back inside to talk about what we saw Drill 2: Turn points "We make this one easy. Now it s up to you. Every corner has a turn entry position putting you in control of that turn. By setting and marking them on the course we are spoon feeding you on this drill, just to get the idea. Choosing and using a turn point is the end result of this exercise." So after a talk about lines we are told now they have put X's on the track (in non slippery tape) and they are the turn points. We are to focus on the fact we NEED turn points to become consistent.. Were we consistent when we went out? You bet... every turn the same turn point, just add the same speed for each turn and you have a very consistent lap time every time. We went to the track still not allowed to use brakes but with the added advantage of 3rd + 4th gear. Connect a few turn points and you get the drift of why they're at where they're at. You feel safer and carry more speed when hitting those turn points. We file back inside after the session and chat to Steve about it, what did we learn? We need to be very intimate with the track (not crashing intimate), need to remember each turn point by way of remembering the asphalt, then cracks, the patches, whatever you find on the track that reminds you of your location. Its important as occasionally you either get off line or you are surprised/frightened and need the security to know where you are... getting intimate with the track is the building block to relaxing your mind that your current location is fine, and relaxing your mind is important as you have enough to think of out there without distractions. Note, these turn points are not race turn points, these are what CSS believe are the fastest way around a flowing track. Whether that s a line (pardon the pun) or not I'm yet to make my mind up on as I believe the lines are more designed to be forgiving during training then being fast. Although they were flowing lines they had few similarities to the typically defensive by flowing lines used by racers Drill 3: Quick Turning "Both safety and fun are the objects of mastering the feeling and action of steering your bike quick enough - when you need or want to." Now its light braking and we headed out to the track with the knowledge that you can push HARD on the bars, if GP riders can physically bend the metal bars they use from force just by countersteering input then we can

12 12 of 23 22/10/ :10 PM jam our bars a lot harder than we think, again he was right, it felt great to jam those bars hard and finding the bike flick fast into a corner. Can you do it too quickly? Sure but you'd apparently be the first on this planet to do that! how many crashes are caused by the rider turning too quickly on dry clean pavement with warm tyres - not counting losing the front from braking or excessive corner speed. You will be amazed at how fast you can turn your bike in, why??? What s the point?? Because the quicker you can change direction the faster you can approach a corner!! Think about it this way, the longer it takes you your bike to reach maximum lean, the longer it is NOT pointing in the direction of the corner. This gives you extra KPH.. which is good.. how would you feel running deeper into a turn if you were confident you could get the bike leaned over very quickly? We filed back in and chatted about why it s good and how it worked.. I believe lunch was around this time!! 45 minutes and good sandwiches/oj/apple and a sweet. Drill 4: Rider Input. "Persuading your bike to cooperate with you is mostly a matter of technique, not the expensive suspension parts you buy for it. The less busy you are the better." This time three gears and light braking... we head out with the single point of being relaxed on the bike, why? The bike is an engineering marvel which is technically perfectly stable - if left uninterrupted. Ever seen a racer fall off their bike, yet the bike happily continues through the corner till it runs out of speed? So it makes sense that if we're giving the bars input in the turns, its not only a waste of effort, but it destabilises the bike! E.g. being buffeted around by wind we would be putting the input into the bars to make the bike weave, or you might be pushing the front tyre into sliding when weighting the bars, or lifting the front when using your bars to hang onto when accelerating etc.. the list goes on... we were to ride around with the only focus being to relax on the bike, and not put ANY input into the bike that does not have a purpose... i.e. Hit the turn point, steer the bike, be happy with the line and start the gentle roll-on of throttle then... wait for it... do NOTHING on the bars (bar roll-on of throttle). Dammed if I swear that the bike was making a tighter line then ever! Its true, Steve explained why it does so this drill makes perfect sense!.. we filed back in and chatted about it all. Drill 5: Two-step turning. "This exercise introduces you to the LEVEL 2 visual skills and drills. The process of gathering and processing visual information in cornering begins here, a moment before you enter the corner." For the last session we are warned about fatigue, and as we can use all gears and full brakes we should keep our head in... they were right, typical crashes at the end of the day just showed some don't listen. We went out knowing what the two-step is, and applied it easily... what a difference... the drill being that step 1 is to spot your turn point, step 2 is just before reaching your turn point you look into the corner to where you'd like the bike to go. The trick is allowing the bike to run ahead to the turn point while you're now looking into the corner. Your peripheral vision looks after the here and now so long as you've given it a preview... try looking at your TV then look at a picture on the wall, now that you've seen the TV your peripheral vision will track it (assuming you picked a picture on the same wall ) Why would you want to do this? You're now looking at the turn before steering, so you feel comfortable setting your entry speed correctly, same with lean angle, in fact, suddenly now that you're looking further around the track at turn-in you feel FAR more comfortable in setting your turn-in speed higher than ever before.

13 13 of 23 22/10/ :10 PM We finished off the day on a great note, with a fantastic Q&A with Steve. Summary This was brilliantly organised and executed. Coach's are on the track the entire time, and as you have duct tape markings on your bike your coach can pick you out and follow you, then lead you, and often use hand signals to direct you... here s the impressive bit, the coach's have your name and the names of his other students written on his tank and room on the tank notes space to write markings to aid in the after session debrief, so your coach 'remembers' everything he thought of when on the track (my coach had 3 to look after during my session - great number) Instructors and instruction level Same VERY good level as the Stay Upright crew, but as they're performance riding instructors then they are skilled accordingly, they offer a huge amount of info for you to process and will not let up until you understand their points. Remember they also are teaching to a rule book, the Keith Code books, so get yourself those and see if it sits okay with you... it sure does with me and since its a bestseller then I'm sure a fair few will agree. Also keep in mind Steve Brouggy himself had very limited riding success as far as I'm aware... I could be wrong but I believe his claim to fame was 1st place in the hartman GP series a few years back, he was riding a 125 and as such turned out to be the only on in B group, so he came 1st by default? Conversely though results of the coach aren t all that important... ask yourself, would you prefer to be trained to play golf by Tiger Woods, or Tiger Woods' coach? Best suited to Riders wishing to go to the track or ride with a MUCH greater safety buffer on the road! simple, if you want to learn how to ride fast, get thee to a Brouggy. Types of bikes that were there 125's, 250s (4 and 2 strokes), all types of sporty JAP and BEARs bikes to the sport tourers of ZX12s, Busas, CBR1100XX's, Harleys, Full cruiser/saddlebag style etc. California Superbike School, Level 2, $399 Superbike school level 2's day is also organised in a series of 5 well thought out drills. Level 2 brought about some amazing changes in my riding that I had no idea was possible, where level 1 taught me what the bike wants, level 2 taught me what the rider wants. The day focused on training one of the most powerful tools in your riding arsenal, your eyes and brain. Drill 1: Reference Points "What are they? How do you use them? How do you create one? The target for today's exercises is to make friends with the corners. You are looking for things and areas on the track which will help you do that. Reference points help you perform the basic job of a rider." "Target fixation is your worst enemy. Your job here is to eliminate it to the best of your ability" The idea here is to familiarise yourself with every corner, were talking to an intimate level. By the end of the session you need to have picked exactly where on the surface your turn points, mid corner reference points and exit reference points are for each corner. What is it you see that makes you start your change of direction? is it a bump? a crack or patch in the surface? This time out its not important whether your point is absolutely right for your current speed, its more the point that you learn the track so well that when you reach your turn point you know it... no doubt in your mind. To do this you must have a great knowledge of the surface so go slow and note them down. When we arrived back Steve wanted to hear we all had our 12 turn in points memorised, mid turn reference and exit reference points. He looks around,

14 14 of 23 22/10/ :10 PM picks someone and asks them their favourite turn, and what point have they picked for the turn in. Could you answer that? a good example would be the first line of dirt on the far left approaching turn 4, or the exit point being as close as possible to the last red/white ripple strip on the left exiting turn 3. Its amazing how often you ride without fixed turn points. What does this do to your riding? Do you feel you could improve if you had a set of 12 turn in, 12 mid turn and 12 exit reference points that you could hit every time around Eastern Creek? Do you think the racers that lap fastest around the 'creek have an exact set of reference points? The tops guys are inch perfect every lap. Would having a set for yourself improve your lap times?? Yes, and its free! No-one could remember 12 turn in points in that one session, let alone all the mid turn and exit reference points that make for an ideal awareness. The idea was to introduce you to the effectiveness of reference points.. and it worked brilliantly!!! After a track session I recommend you open a notepad and remember maybe one or two corners from your last session and write down exactly what your reference points were... re-read after you go home to bed them in. Drill 2: Change Lines Here s where CSS say they send your eyes to school, too right. Your visual skills are crucial in cornering as riding fast is a mind game. What do I mean a mind game?? Have you entered a corner and felt that you were running out of track (usually with the dangerous survival reaction of rolling off the gas!), what this exercise focused on (pun) was to let you see the track is very wide and long, with lots of room and many options of differing lines. Why? Because speed is relative, Steve talked about how your perception of speed is fixed to your available room/distance.. i.e. can you do 100kph in the classroom? no, its suicide, can you do that on a runway? yes..very comfortably as you have room. Ever wondered why the fools driving in front of you do 100kph in a 110kph zone single lane highway, but when you get an overtaking lane they happily do 120kph? its because their available space has suddenly widened (extra lane) so they feel safe in doing a higher speed. Now, how can you make this work for you on the track? Your eyes. You need to retrain yourself to use that widescreen view talked about in Level 1, where your peripheral vision is your friend? Make sense? If you see more of the track (width and depth) would it make sense that you feel safer in going faster? Another example, if you were to download direct from Rossi's brain a lap of Phillip Island, would you see a very narrow - one line - view of the circuit? No, you would see everything, from surface imperfections, ripple strips, trees, signs and wide wide corners... if you were to replay your last lap would you see as much? probably not, by allowing yourself to 'see' all the track you are not only opening up the possibility of extra speed, but also relaxing your mind when it comes to disorientation. By disorientation I mean you may have just been overtaken or run wide, brake too late (or early) or one of many situations where you are not on the 'standard' line you take. A typical human reaction is to look down, or just in front of the bike, which compounds the speed problem as you now only see a small bit of distance and you're carrying the same speed. You are essentially disorientated. How do you fix this? By having this intimate knowledge of the full track width you will now feel in control as you have plenty more room to move. When you look down you see a part of the track that is familiar. You won't have a narrow - single track - view. Ultimately you are trying to learn the track all over again... this would be best done on a track new to you as experience can play against you here... if you are familiar with the track already then go slow and re-learn the circuits surface. We filed out and took to the track, with the instructions that the first lap will