CALIFORNIA SUPERBIKE SCHOOL

[Ghost]

Well I have seen Kitkat and Steev on site over the last week or so, dunno about the rest who were supposed to be going. Does no one have any comments to make? Was it a good or bad experience? Was it good or rubbish value for money?

Well?

[kitkat]

(Sorry Ghost have been overseas for the last week and forgot to logout before I went)

Well the quick anwser is yes if you want to get more confidence to corner faster and after all cornering is where it is at ;D It is a lot of dosh but it is a proper training event not just a track day.

The day starts at 7:00 am for registration and you get 5 classroon sessions and 5 track sessions of about thirty mins each. Everyone starts at level one no matter how good you think you are and L1 is all about Stability. The gist of it is that bikes can be pretty stable it is just the monkey holding onto the bars that messies things up!

There were 21 of us on L1 and we had one coach between three of us for the track sessions whose job was to give feedback and tips to make sure the classroom stuff had sunk in. The coaches were all on R6s and could ride a bit ;D The students had a real mix of bikes from Beemers to R1s

First session was on throttle control so they had us just using 3rd gear and no brakes all the way around with the purpose of the drill being smooth us of the throttle plus progressive opening of the throttle though the bends to load up the suspension and keep the bike stable.

Second session was on turn in points and showing that later turn in points are usually better as vision through the bend is better and you are upright (stable) for longer. To help us get this they put big yellow crosses on the track which you have to start your turn on. This helps overcome the situation of going where you look i.e when you start looking at a bend you are likely to start drifting into the apex too early.

Third session follows on as now we were turning later you need to turn quicker so this was all about active counter steering. I got a lot from this session as the coach spotted that whilst I was counter sterring ok to initiate the turn in I was pushing for too long which was going against what the bike wanted to do. Previously they had rigged one of their R6 with some instruments which showed that the maximum movement needed to get around the track was just 5 mm on the bars!

Forth session was about rider input i.e. trying to get us to relax and work with the bike rather than try to over control it. They tell you that your only job for cornering is to initiate the turn in through counter steering and control the throttle This one really emphasised how much better the bike felt with bent elbows so that your inputs where just push/pull rather than also carrying your weight on your wrists as well.

Final exersise was about good vision (which is what L2 is all about) and we were back to to hitting the turn in points but instead of just focussing on those big yellow crosses we were using peripheral vision to hit the crosses as we had to focus more on the apex of each bend

The best thing was that all the guys at CSS are passionate about teaching you how to corner better and it made the whole day really fun as well as giving you loads of new skills to practice.

Hope the above gives you a feel for the day and if you are thinking of spending money on the latest go faster accessory I would spend it at CSS instead as you will go faster 8-)

Dave

[Ghost]

Good report and I'm glad you found it really useful. I was intrigued what it was like as it supposed to bre good - it's a big investment to make so it's useful to have a punters view.

As you say you can put any amount of go faster accessories on to a bike but it is down to the riders skill at the end of the day how effective it all is!

[Dabz]

thanks for that review, looks like a really useful day!