California Superbike School - Level 3

[dave#3]

In less than ideal weather conditions I did the 3rd level of the California Superbike School on Friday. Here's a bit of a review for those considering doing it. The format is the same as levels 1 and 2; 5 on-track sessions with classroom sessions between each session and a single drill to practice in each on-track session. The drills/skills are as follows:

Prior Knowledge/Assumed Skills
- Lock on position - this is where you create a triangle between your toes on the peg, your knee jammed into the tank and your arse pressed against the ductail. This is how you hang on to the bike (not using your arms as some may believe!!!)

- Knee out - stick it out as close to perpendicular to the bike as possible, don't twist your torso, keep your weight low and forward and your arms bent.

1. Hook Turn
This is pretty much the school of Tinnie with a twist. Lock on and stick your knee out, lean forward then, when you need to tighten up your line simply breathe out and lean forward a little further. Doing so reduces the centre of gravity of your bike and shortens the wheelbase (nominally) by adding load to the front suspension, essentially making the bike take a tighter line without you adding any additional steering input. This is useful where you feel you're running wide and want to get back on line without turning the bike again.

2. Pivot-steering or power-steering
We discussed Newton's third law - every action has an equal and opposite reaction - and looked at how this applied to riding a motorcycle. In brief the idea was to weight the outside peg as you applied a steering input so that rather than making the input from just your arm that you made the input across your body. This gives extra power and control to the steering action and is very helpful when making a quick turn into a fast corner.

3. Knee to knee
This drill focuses on keeping one knee in contact with the tank to maintain the lock-on position during changes of direction. As you start to slide across the bike bring what was the inside knee up into the lock-on position before you drop the inside knee out. Worked well and felt natural.

4. Hip flip
This drill focused on the actual muscle action for achieving the knee-to-knee . It's done using the abductor muscle on the inside of the thigh of the locked-on leg. Ensure you don't life your arse off the seat and move quickly and smooth;y from one side to the other.

5. Attack Angles
This drill just focused on the different lines taken through a corner when the turn-in point is approached on different angles. At turn 4 we tried approaching the turn-point from parallel to the edge of the track, angled slightly to the left (away from the corner) and slightly to the right (into the corner). The resulting line through turn 4 was as you'd expect, but interestingly the line through turn 5 was also noticeably impacted too. No great revelations here, but an interesting drill nonetheless.

In summary I feel the level 3 superbike school provides reasonable value for money (although I'd say it's on a decreasing scale from levels 1 to 2 to 3). It's pretty tough doing these drills in the wet, and I was disappointed that the on-track coaches were unable to keep up with me because they were out on Dungflop Qualifiers in the wet while I was on Pirelli full wets (which I might add give heaps of traction in the wet!) Given the number of wet days these guys do I'd have expected them to have tyres and/or bikes set up for the conditions.

[Six Addict]

It's pretty tough doing these drills in the wet, and I was disappointed that the on-track coaches were unable to keep up with me because they were out on Dungflop Qualifiers in the wet while I was on Pirelli full wets (which I might add give heaps of traction in the wet!) Given the number of wet days these guys do I'd have expected them to have tyres and/or bikes set up for the conditions.

i agree dave, my level 1 coach didnt come out for the final two sessions when my day turned to rain... just told me to go out and do my best...

[dave#3]

It's pretty tough doing these drills in the wet, and I was disappointed that the on-track coaches were unable to keep up with me because they were out on Dungflop Qualifiers in the wet while I was on Pirelli full wets (which I might add give heaps of traction in the wet!) Given the number of wet days these guys do I'd have expected them to have tyres and/or bikes set up for the conditions.

i agree dave, my level 1 coach didnt come out for the final two sessions when my day turned to rain... just told me to go out and do my best...

That's absolute bollocks. To his credit Darren (my coach) did a bloody good job of riding on a wet slippery circuit on tyres that simply aren't designed for that sort of work, and I was just disappointed that around the back of the circuit he couldn't keep up - not going out is unacceptable IMO.

[Six Addict]

specially as they have a tyre fitting service there... but i guess dunlop don't make a decent tyre for the wet roads...

[Blurr]

will be interesting to see if it affects your times at all Dave#3.

[SoundGuy]

Good write up Dave,

Thanks for the info

[triway]

i agree dave, my level 1 coach didnt come out for the final two sessions when my day turned to rain... just told me to go out and do my best...

Was that this last week or a different day? Did he say why he didn't go out with you? Isn't the last session usually a bit of a "go put it all together and have fun" session?

[Six Addict]

this was in july... the final two sessions he spent in the pits, as it was raining outside and had been for a good two hours... the quick steering drill was a wet session and he basically said to me as i was in pit lane "try and steer as quick as u can but obviously not as quick as you would in the dry" no shit sherlock...

i believe one of the instructors went out and kind of just rode around behind whoever he felt he needed to, but my instructor just sat out the final two sessions...

[Tinman]

Great write up Dave!

It's a shame the course had to be in the rain

[triway]

It's a shame the course had to be in the rain

It's funny, I look at it the other way, if I can learn and master this stuff in the wet, then I know I really must have nailed it.

[Jeebz10R]

Tend to agree. If you do have full wets the trackie, would be a great learning curve experience. A bit hairy but a valuable one imo though I do rather a a dry track

Great write up Dave

[Cath]

Zombie Thread!

I'm bumping this because I did Level 3 yesterday. It got up to 43 degrees yesterday and it was very hard work. The wind was hot and gusty in the afternoon too, so no relief there. One of the instructors nearly blacked out on the bike and had to sit out a session or two, and mine jumped under a cold shower in full leathers to cool down after the last two sessions as soon as he jumped off the bike. So it was really stinking hot, especially in leathers! I'm amazed at how bike-fit the instructors are, as they didn't get rest breaks like we did. I was drinking huge amounts of water, but I still had a headache all day and got light-headed in the last session and headed in early.

Apart from the weather aspect, the day was amazing. I won't go through each of the sessions, since Dave#3 covered that, but I will say that I learned heaps. I have had a problem with body positioning for ages, as trying to get off the bike just felt uncomfortable, unsmooth or unsettled... and most of the time all 3 of them. My instructor was awesome - he really helped with plenty of feedback that showed he was really watching what I was doing, and took the time to get me on his bike in the pits to make sure I understood his explanations. I was very impressed with the huge amount of attention and feedback he gave.

Keith Code was there, with a few of his Californian instructors, and actually took 1.5 of our classroom/garage sessions. Was a little odd having him there, but cool at the same time. I nearly swooned at being in the presence of such bike talent, but it was probably just the heat

So, in my opinion (and you know what they say about opinions) I think Level 3 was *great* value for money. I got heaps out of it. Now I just need to practice and practice and practice until I'm doing it right and it feels more natural.
The more I ride and the more I learn, the more that spending on rider training represents real value to me. After you have good protective gear, what better investment in keeping you safer and increasing your enjoyment is there? Yeah, having a sexy bike is up there, I admit - but $400 for a bling aftermarket part for your bike (that you'll probably leave on there when you sell it) or $400 on learning more about riding... No contest.

[Blurr]

glad to hear you had a top day Cath as I knew how you felt about level 2!!!! thats an awesome result.

so did you get your knee down when going around the outside of the instructor. we need to make sure tyffany lived up to her name

[Cath]

No knee down yet, and the instructor said not to worry about it, given my shorter legs and the body position I should maintain on my bike. Apparently I should worry less about touching the knee down and more about going faster and improving my skills!

But given that this pic from jpm shows me going around turn 9 in only 3rd gear (doing relaxed pace drills), and my knee is as close or closer than it ever has been when I've carried more speed and heaps more lean angle, I'd say it won't suprise me if it happens soon-ish, once I get comfortable with this new riding position

[Blurr]

hey your knee is sticking out and from this angle you can almost see your butt off the seat slightly woohoo!!!