Capt Steve
US Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2008
- Messages
- 1,674
- Reaction score
- 2,974
I just returned from a long weekend in southern California after having taken this course. I rode from home {in Tucson}, 450 miles to northern San Diego County where the course was being held. The two huge parking lots at San Marcos High School gave us all the needed real estate and we spent all day Saturday and Sunday on drills and skills {there is also a 3 hour classroom session on Friday night}.
I've only been back riding for 2 years now after 39 years off the ride. Switched to my Harley Dyna Super Glide about a year and 18,000 miles ago and can't get enough. I've wanted to take some additional training and when a very experienced bike buddy tipped me to this upcoming class I jumped at the opportunity.
I cannot recommend this course highly enough. No matter what your level off skills, they will make you better. We had 11 students {they usually limit the class to 10}, and two instructors. Watching what they could do with any bike they swung a leg over left us all speechless on Saturday morning but it wasn't long before we all began to see dramatic improvements following their excellent instruction.
The class was made up of a very eclectic group of bikes and riders. We had 7 BMW 1200's {GS and RT's}, a Yamaha 1300 and 3 Harley's. My 2010 Dyna was the oldest, second heaviest {that title going to the beautiful M8 Road king} and other than the Sportster the only only other bike without ABS.
The students were the nicest bunch of folks I've encountered in a very long time, two ladies and nine men from early 20's to the resident old guy... me at 65. As we worked through each succeeding exercise building on skills previously covered it all began to click.
If you think a 24' circle looks small {and it certainly did at first}, it is hard to imagine how it looks with 4 bikes doing simultaneous loops at the end of the first day. Slaloms, figure 8's, box and intersections drills along with the dreaded keyhole kept us focused. Watching each other kept us entertained.
Rather than just sit and await your turn for the next drill we were encouraged to ride on the rest of the course and practice/work on any of the previous exercises. Consequently we all ended up riding almost constantly for most of the day.
Sunday afternoon brought the high speed braking segment. Ryan demonstrated the efficiency of ABS by making a run without it and then turning it on for the next. We started slow and worked up to speeds of 50 to 60 before severe braking as we reached the first set of cones... and then we all did it about 6 more times. My personal favorite was "follow the leader" which we repeated multiple times a day as a real world skills refresher. The class ended with one last session that can best be described as "very spirited". Chasing Ryan around for 15 minutes was a great way to put what we had all learned into practice {not to mention a hell of a lot of fun}.
I can't say enough about the skill and professionalism of the instructors, Ryan Austin and Gus El Moussa. I got home with 989 miles on the clock and a grin so big it could open a branch face. If you would like more info just send me a PM or try our old friend Google. You gotta do this!
I've only been back riding for 2 years now after 39 years off the ride. Switched to my Harley Dyna Super Glide about a year and 18,000 miles ago and can't get enough. I've wanted to take some additional training and when a very experienced bike buddy tipped me to this upcoming class I jumped at the opportunity.
I cannot recommend this course highly enough. No matter what your level off skills, they will make you better. We had 11 students {they usually limit the class to 10}, and two instructors. Watching what they could do with any bike they swung a leg over left us all speechless on Saturday morning but it wasn't long before we all began to see dramatic improvements following their excellent instruction.
The class was made up of a very eclectic group of bikes and riders. We had 7 BMW 1200's {GS and RT's}, a Yamaha 1300 and 3 Harley's. My 2010 Dyna was the oldest, second heaviest {that title going to the beautiful M8 Road king} and other than the Sportster the only only other bike without ABS.
The students were the nicest bunch of folks I've encountered in a very long time, two ladies and nine men from early 20's to the resident old guy... me at 65. As we worked through each succeeding exercise building on skills previously covered it all began to click.
If you think a 24' circle looks small {and it certainly did at first}, it is hard to imagine how it looks with 4 bikes doing simultaneous loops at the end of the first day. Slaloms, figure 8's, box and intersections drills along with the dreaded keyhole kept us focused. Watching each other kept us entertained.
Rather than just sit and await your turn for the next drill we were encouraged to ride on the rest of the course and practice/work on any of the previous exercises. Consequently we all ended up riding almost constantly for most of the day.
Sunday afternoon brought the high speed braking segment. Ryan demonstrated the efficiency of ABS by making a run without it and then turning it on for the next. We started slow and worked up to speeds of 50 to 60 before severe braking as we reached the first set of cones... and then we all did it about 6 more times. My personal favorite was "follow the leader" which we repeated multiple times a day as a real world skills refresher. The class ended with one last session that can best be described as "very spirited". Chasing Ryan around for 15 minutes was a great way to put what we had all learned into practice {not to mention a hell of a lot of fun}.
I can't say enough about the skill and professionalism of the instructors, Ryan Austin and Gus El Moussa. I got home with 989 miles on the clock and a grin so big it could open a branch face. If you would like more info just send me a PM or try our old friend Google. You gotta do this!
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