flamingemu
05-23-2008, 04:12 PM
Sorry about not getting this up sooner. More stuff happened at work than I expected while I was gone. I don't really have any stellar pics to add to this, but Chuck and Derek (my other buddy who went - he's Chuck's buddy now too) can probably add some good pics.
We drove down on Saturday with hopes of riding the mountains to Shady Valley. We left the hotel Sunday morning and got about 2/3rds of the way there before turning around after getting rained on 3 times. We hit some really nice roads on the way, but had to pack it in once we realized the weather was probably only going to get worse. We got back to the hotel (DO NOT stay at the Knight's Inn in Galax, VA by the way - real shit hole) drove the rest of the way to Danville, VA.
Monday at VIR consisted of the Level 1 class. The weather was perfect and that track is f*cking awesome. 20 turns over 2.5 miles with all kinds of elevations changes - just an all out fun track with a little bit of everything. Day 1 of the class itself consisted of finding reference points, being smooth on the throttle, turning the bike more aggressively and then ended up touching on the topic of using your eyes more effectively. Basically, it's a great refresher to start out the year and anyone could benefit from it. The in-class instruction was great and the on-track coaches are awesome. Keith Code and his son Dylan have a pretty cheesy sense of humor, but they got the point across and were very good at what they did. The on-track instructors are very knowledgeable, can spot when you are having trouble and provided plenty of tips to overcome any problems. Also, they can all ride like bats out of hell. It's impressive and annoying at the same time to struggle to get through a turn while staring at your instructor with one hand on the bars looking back at you like "c'mon, I'm bored!". California Superbike is expanding the schools to the UK and Australia, so they had exchange instructors from both countries there coaching - really nice and laid back guys.
Day 2 (Level 2) was 100% about visual skills to prevent target fixation, reducing your sense of speed, forcing you look at all aspects of a corner, etc. It consisted of a lot of exercises that personally helped me work on some bad habits I've developed of focusing on the wrong part of the turn. It had rained over night and rained again like crazy for about 45 minutes in the afternoon, but the track dried up super fast, so we all managed to get our sessions in. Only Derek had a major pucker moment where he was able to get his foot, peg and knee (first time for him) down all in one corner when he probably should've crashed based on his account of the situation. Luckily that didn't happen and we all make it through unscathed. I was one of the lucky few able to use the Lean Bike because of the rain. It's essentially a bike with outriggers which allow you get into the proper body position while spinning around in a circle with little chance of the bike falling over. They did say it was still possible to low-side it, so I took it easy. A ZX-6R is a nice machine, but way too small for someone tall. I crammed my body on that thing and took it for a whirl. Although extremely uncomfortable, it's a great tool to safely see what your body position is supposed to be like without fear of falling off.
All in all, the class was great and I would take it again (it was my second time through Level 1 actually, although at a different track this time). If any of you have an opportunity to ride that track, take it. I've only been to three (Grattan and MO being the other two), but this is by far my favorite now which sucks because it is obviously the furthest away. Hopefully I'll make it down there again sooner than later to ride the track and some of the local roads we didn't get a chance to make it to.
Those of you that are more heavily involved in the track days than I *might* not have gotten as much out of the KC school as you will at Kevin Schwantz, so you probably made the right choice. KC is all about cornering where I assume KS is about overall riding and getting around the track as quickly as possible. Obviously the speed will pick up as you get better at the corners, but they didn't really focus on going fast. They did help me to start passing people which I was reluctant to do at first. In a class like that, there are is a huge range of skill levels, so you pretty much have to pass people or you're not going to have a good time. Perhaps they oversold the event, but luckily with a track that large, there are several places where you can safely pass. There are Level 3 and Level 4 classes as well that really cater to those more experienced who are looking to get that little bit extra out of their track riding. The slide bike for example has to be a really fun bike to get on.
Again, it was a great time and I can't wait to get back to the track to work on the 80 things that apparently I'm doing completely wrong. ;)
We drove down on Saturday with hopes of riding the mountains to Shady Valley. We left the hotel Sunday morning and got about 2/3rds of the way there before turning around after getting rained on 3 times. We hit some really nice roads on the way, but had to pack it in once we realized the weather was probably only going to get worse. We got back to the hotel (DO NOT stay at the Knight's Inn in Galax, VA by the way - real shit hole) drove the rest of the way to Danville, VA.
Monday at VIR consisted of the Level 1 class. The weather was perfect and that track is f*cking awesome. 20 turns over 2.5 miles with all kinds of elevations changes - just an all out fun track with a little bit of everything. Day 1 of the class itself consisted of finding reference points, being smooth on the throttle, turning the bike more aggressively and then ended up touching on the topic of using your eyes more effectively. Basically, it's a great refresher to start out the year and anyone could benefit from it. The in-class instruction was great and the on-track coaches are awesome. Keith Code and his son Dylan have a pretty cheesy sense of humor, but they got the point across and were very good at what they did. The on-track instructors are very knowledgeable, can spot when you are having trouble and provided plenty of tips to overcome any problems. Also, they can all ride like bats out of hell. It's impressive and annoying at the same time to struggle to get through a turn while staring at your instructor with one hand on the bars looking back at you like "c'mon, I'm bored!". California Superbike is expanding the schools to the UK and Australia, so they had exchange instructors from both countries there coaching - really nice and laid back guys.
Day 2 (Level 2) was 100% about visual skills to prevent target fixation, reducing your sense of speed, forcing you look at all aspects of a corner, etc. It consisted of a lot of exercises that personally helped me work on some bad habits I've developed of focusing on the wrong part of the turn. It had rained over night and rained again like crazy for about 45 minutes in the afternoon, but the track dried up super fast, so we all managed to get our sessions in. Only Derek had a major pucker moment where he was able to get his foot, peg and knee (first time for him) down all in one corner when he probably should've crashed based on his account of the situation. Luckily that didn't happen and we all make it through unscathed. I was one of the lucky few able to use the Lean Bike because of the rain. It's essentially a bike with outriggers which allow you get into the proper body position while spinning around in a circle with little chance of the bike falling over. They did say it was still possible to low-side it, so I took it easy. A ZX-6R is a nice machine, but way too small for someone tall. I crammed my body on that thing and took it for a whirl. Although extremely uncomfortable, it's a great tool to safely see what your body position is supposed to be like without fear of falling off.
All in all, the class was great and I would take it again (it was my second time through Level 1 actually, although at a different track this time). If any of you have an opportunity to ride that track, take it. I've only been to three (Grattan and MO being the other two), but this is by far my favorite now which sucks because it is obviously the furthest away. Hopefully I'll make it down there again sooner than later to ride the track and some of the local roads we didn't get a chance to make it to.
Those of you that are more heavily involved in the track days than I *might* not have gotten as much out of the KC school as you will at Kevin Schwantz, so you probably made the right choice. KC is all about cornering where I assume KS is about overall riding and getting around the track as quickly as possible. Obviously the speed will pick up as you get better at the corners, but they didn't really focus on going fast. They did help me to start passing people which I was reluctant to do at first. In a class like that, there are is a huge range of skill levels, so you pretty much have to pass people or you're not going to have a good time. Perhaps they oversold the event, but luckily with a track that large, there are several places where you can safely pass. There are Level 3 and Level 4 classes as well that really cater to those more experienced who are looking to get that little bit extra out of their track riding. The slide bike for example has to be a really fun bike to get on.
Again, it was a great time and I can't wait to get back to the track to work on the 80 things that apparently I'm doing completely wrong. ;)