Vicarious trip to miller and CA superbike school

[Meerkat]

I thought I'd share my trip to miller step by step. It all starts here at DCA:
Delta flight 2233 departs gate 19 at 545 pm.

[tocino]

Is that your wheelchair?

[Meerkat]

Is that your wheelchair?

Not on the way out, but you never know about the way home!

Just got in from the airport and settled into my fine Hampton Inn room. (Note to anyone that ever comes here: Hotel is fine, just far removed from what little bit of town there is. Choose Holiday Inn Express or something in that area if you don't want to drive everywhere...which you'll do anyway.)

If I was superstitious, I'd have had a good sign upon my arrival: A double rainbow! Don't know if you can see it very well in the pix.


Interesting fact about Tooele: Sister City to Kambarka, Russia.


Day starts early tomorrow (at least for the unemployed who sleep til noon on a usual day ), so I'm headed to bed. I'll try and throw some crap up by phone tomorrow, but will give you a good rundown at the end of the day as well.

[The Mad King Pepe']

Get to the important stuff, like where to drink good beer and look at nice ladies!

[tocino]

Any chance of onboard video? The WSBK guys raved about that track the first time they went. Have fun! Don't end up joining them Scientologists!

[Meerkat]

Get to the important stuff, like where to drink good beer and look at nice ladies!

In Tooele?!?! You've got to be kidding! The only thing going here is the 24 hour walmart.

And by the way it's too damn early!!

[tocino]

Breakfast beer!

[avizpls]

sorry.....maybe im just jealous. Cant wait to follow your diary.

[Meerkat]

The day starts off with breakfast in the gear truck: eggs, fruit, pastries and such. Nice little spread...but is that why we came?
This is the truck:

Registration (with Missy) is during breakfast when you sign away your right to sue if you kill yourself during this activity. Then you get your gear from Jessica. All the while, Katie is herding you around like a sheep dog. She always knows right where you supposed to be. Pretty amazing, being able to keep track of 32 students, 8 track coaches, off-track skill coaches, video coach, mechanic, corner workers and Keith Code himself. She's good!!

The technical seminars are held in the pit garages. And this is what you see out the door:

And if you stand on the blocks between the garages and the pit:

And the most beautiful sight of the day: BMW S1000RR

This is my bike, #16:

[Meerkat]

After registration, the classroom sessions begin. This was my first time here, so I was in Level I...everybody starts there!

Level I has 5 drills:
1) Throttle Control: (This session was taught by Steve Brouggy, the director of the Australian program) Learn to use your throttle effectively and it's amazing how solid your bike will feel! This is a skill that is constantly being worked on in all of the drills throughout the day. When Steve was describing the drill, several of us were looking at each other like, "Are you make the beast with two backsing kidding me?!? Fourth gear? No brakes?!?" It was better than it sounds at first though. (Plus they start you off in Rain mode, which is a little like driving miss daisy mode. )

2) Turn points: This is the whole reason I wanted to come to CSS...I sucked at choosing lines when out riding!  This is where line choice starts...with big yellow tape X's on the track that tell you where to turn. Woo-hoo! Two gears (3rd and 4th) still in rain mode. Still no brakes, so you're still expected to work extra hard on your throttle control.

3) Quick turning: You've all heard the saying, "Hit and quit it!" This was my take on steering inputs. Get it done so you can get back on the gas. (Don't mix the two, you'll get the "chop it off" hand signal...hand drawn across the neck...as in you're make the beast with two backsing up and being dangerous!)

4) Frankie goes to Hollywood: RELAX! Don't fight the bike; it can do it. This drill focuses on minimizing bad rider inputs. Choose the line, put the bike on it and let it do its job! 3 gears and light BRAKES!

5) Two-step turning: Putting the physical skills from the earlier drills with the visual skills of apex choice and exiting the corner. Interesting concept here that differs from MSF and Total Control (look through the corner's exit)...In the 2-step, you choose your turn in point, visually locate your apex, turn-in, then look through the exit. This drill cleaned up my lines an incredible amount! I felt good after this one and worked on this and the other drills throughout the remaining 2 track sessions. (One day schools only get the 5 track sessions and have one coach for every 3 students instead of 2...bonus sessions for 2-day folks!)

At the end of every track session, Eric (my on-track coach) provided feedback and suggestions covering each of the drill skills and I found him immensely helpful with all of this comments. The on-track coaches observe you doing the skills from the front and the rear, so they see all your nasty habits...and will help beat them out of you! I thought it was really cool how much could be communicated as your traveling around the track just by hand signals and pointing...and even a thumbs-up every now and then for a skill improved!

Speaking of nasty habits...the camera bike doesn't lie and you can't hide either! James was in charge of reviewing video with each student who got on the bike and pointed out some helpful ways to improve. I wish I had been on this after drill #5 instead of drill #2!

The other off-track bike I rode today was the lean bike. This has the outriggers on it to keep you from falling over while you work on body positioning. Gerry was running this bike and suggested some improvements to my positioning, but said I had pretty good positioning going in already...Thanks Ben, Lars and Total Control!

I should mention that Drill #5 and the remaining two track session were done with the S1000RR in sport mode...hold onto your hats ladies and gentlemen, you just got 50 extra HP and 8 extra degrees of lean angle! It was truly a beautiful thing! A phenomenal bike with amazing capabilities!

I'm off to dinner, but will be back later if I don't fall asleep!

[Meerkat]

I forgot to mention that I, slow Jim, passed people. Successfully and, more importantly, safely.

[tocino]

I forgot to mention that I, slow Jim, passed people. Successfully and, more importantly, safely.

[Meerkat]

sorry.....maybe im just jealous. Cant wait to follow your diary.

[ducati culture]

THank you for the giggle!

[Meerkat]

THank you for the Jiggle!

fixed that for ya!