Even pros need training

My wife made me agree to a deal; if she is to allow me to ride to the Red Centre, I must first take a proper riding training that will improve my riding ability and equip me with all the necesary skills I will need for the long distance travel. I thought, well, fair enough. What harm can it do and you never know - I might learn a thing or two...

So I registered myself for the Morgan & Wacker Rider Skills training. First part was the classroom training last Thursday night. I thought it was quite a good start - of course, if it was up to me, I would be jumping on my bike and head to the track right away! But really, the classroom training turned out to be suprisingly interesting and very informative and a good way to prepare us for the practical training. I was glued in my seat for 3 hours listening to Fred, the Chief Instructor, teaching us about braking (cannot imagine we actually spent the first 1 1/2 hours just talking about nothing but braking - but it turned out to be an eye opener - you'll never catch me tailing a car from behind ever again, I can tell you that!), cornering, riding tips etc. Remember 7 things in your riding:- Speed, Traction, Location, Timing, Lean Angle, Body Position & Control Operation. Frank said, none of the accident is not your fault in any way - the 7-item check lists will tell you what you did wrong and that would most certainly be the reason for the accident.

Anyway, that's done and now the fun part - the practical training at the track... yeah!

It was a 2 km closed training circuit in Mt. Cotton, southwest of Brisbane, on the way to Gold Coast. It wasn't like a race track although it has at least 12 sharp turns and hairpins but it represents more of the conditions and hazards we should expect on real road - including the wallabies, snakes, wombats and all...!

We all arrived by 8:00 am at the gate greeted by the instructors, all 4 of them. The part I envy the most about them is they seem to get to pick whichever bike they want to ride from the shop and ride 'em! And they get free riding gears too!

We were quite a mixed bag - Harleys, BMWs, Japs bikes, and a Ducati (a nice red Monster - my next bike!) and even 2 lady riders.

After a short briefing and bathroom break behind the trees, we had a good hardworking 4 hours of fun learning emergency braking (seeing in front of my eyes the actual braking distance at 120 km/h, again, I swear I will never ever tailgate anyone ever again!), cornering, crash avoidance, weight shifting, counter steering etc. To make a long story short, by the time we end the day, I was actually taking a hairpin at 60 km/h (okay, maybe it was more like 50), with one hand!!! Yup, the last drill was to go around the circuit in reverse direction, no braking permitted, only one gear allowed and only one hand on the handle bar. Crazy? Naahhh... as Fred said, "It's all in the techniques..." [Don't do this at home boys]

4 hours never flew that fast. We even got a cert after the course. In my opinion; the course is worth every penny I paid. A must for every rider no matter which level of skills (you think) you have. Actually, having been riding for a long time, make some bad habits even harder to break. Mine is looking down at braking and cornering. Now everytime I do that I can almost hear Fred shouting in my ears - chin up, look ahead!!! And oh, his other favourite line, "whack the handle bar, whack the handle bar!!!" A round of applause also to the other dedicated instructors, Kevin, Adel and Arash.

And this is Fred. He doesn't look as scary when he smiles... :-)

And to show how thankful I was, here's a free advert for Morgan & Wacker. Click link to their website: Morgan and Wacker Motorcycle Training Centre.

Aching arms and legs and sore bum, so probably no Sunday morning ride tomorrow... but you'll never know...