Back to School

by Gary Klinker

I have just returned from a riding class that I was registered to participate in. Let me tell you it was an awesome experience. As we have always said at Safe Rider, you will always learn something. Stick with me and I will explain.

The class was sponsored by Riding Solutions, LLC (www.ridingsolutions.com). The company is operated by Jason Herheim. Safe Rider has partnered with him in the past for our Can-Am 3 Wheel courses. The class was titled Real World Speed-Street Skills, and was held at Blackhawk Farms Raceway, South Beloit, Illinois. The “classroom” is a 1.95-mile, seven turn road course that regularly hosts track days and races. It is a beautifully maintained and expertly operated facility. If you ever get a chance to visit, don’t miss it.

Our class ran from 7 am to 5 pm and involved seven classroom sessions divided by two parking lot drills and five on-track riding sessions. As you may have guessed, the track sessions were the highlight of the day for me. The classroom content included head turns and overall control, braking, reading corners, understanding of all the flags used on the track, approach and entry speed, body position, and throttle to braking transitions. The track time started with following instructors to get familiar with the track then being followed by them and getting coaching and critique following the session. Each track session added skills to focus on and increased real world speed. To be able to focus on these skills with no worry about oncoming traffic, poor road conditions, or critters was a huge advantage to learning these techniques.

Of course, full gear is a safety requirement, but I had never had to tape my bike. All lights, reflectors, mirrors, and speedometers are covered with painter tape to prevent any broken glass on the track if you fall down. I did not understand the speedometer part until Jason explained to me that too many people can tell you exactly how fast they were going when they ran off the track-focus on the curves! I was glad I had the forethought to set a trip meter for the class. I ended the day with 52 miles of track time-and I loved every mile of it!

We had a good mix of bikes in the class. A couple BMWs, a Harley, a Suzuki V-Strom, a Triumph Speed Triple, and a Yamaha R3 300cc to mention a few.

As for the other parts of the day, there was a regular track day taking place. With hundreds of bikes present, riders are divided by experience levels. Each group is sent onto the track for their riding time. There were maybe thirty to fifty bikes on track at a time. As one group exits, the next enters the track. It was fun just being a spectator, but there was not much time for that.

With almost half of the motorcycle fatalities being single vehicle and rider error crashes, a class like this could save a lot of lives. If only riders could get over their ego and admit they can always learn something. This was not an inexpensive class, either for the tuition or the cost to Riding Solutions to sponsor, but it was worth every penny. What is your life worth? Taking a Safe Rider BRC2 would be a great first step to investing in your own safety and learning. I would like to thank Jason for doing this class and hope he would do another one in the future. After fifty years of riding and thirty-two years as an Instructor/Rider Coach I learned a lot, and just as importantly, was able to practice it in a safe, controlled environment.

Ride Safe (and learn!)

Gary