Hello Everyone:
I just got back from the Yamaha Champions Riding School and wanted to share some of my experience with you!
First off, this was FUN !!! Man we had a blast out there. 2 full days of running the track, how can you NOT have fun!
Secondly, man am I tired !!, Coming into a corner at 140 MPH, you gotta slow that bike down, and between the braking and the leaning to get it over to make the turn, it takes some exercise! You WILL get a work out, especially if you are going to run an electric bike. Humping a 600 lb bike around is going to take a bit of effort, but man, the adrenaline rush, there's nothing like it !
Third, on a safety note, Ive been thru a few schools if you could call them, and NOTHING tops what I learned here on being safe and doing things the PROPER way than what I learned in this school!
There are plenty of You Tube vids out there, and many 'courses', and 'schools' out there where Billybob and Bucky are going to teach you how to show that bike and track who's Boss!!
The Yamaha group, are not going to teach you how to tell the track who own's who and kick it's ass, because at the end of the day, that may work once or twice but eventually is going to probably end up with a helicopter ride to the hospital. They will teach you to RESPECT the track, and your bike, and how to get the most out of both. You will NOT outsmart the laws of physics, and they teach you exactly what you can do, and HOW to do it SAFELY and most importantly how to tell when you are pushing your limits and are about to have a Darwin day!
There is plenty of chatter on the forums with so called 'Experts'. Well gee, that guy posts everywhere, and he has 4700 plus posts, so he MUST be an expert right? He MUST know EVERYTHING right?? Just ask him he'll tell you for sure !!! For hours on end
umm.... NO! Not with them !
This course is taught BY THE REAL EXPERTS. The actual experts, The people who HAVE the trophies, the World Cups, the CHAMPIONSHIPs. By teaching I don't mean, you sit and watch a film they did, but they actually are OUT THERE WITH YOU, on the track, teaching you first hand!
You want to know how to Win the Moto GP Championship? I can tell you how, because I have won it twice now!! type thing.
As an example, in my instance with one of my 1 on 1 instructions:
You are not shifting at the right time, and you are not using the clutch properly, here, hop up on the bike with me, let's do a lap and watch my hand, watch how I GENTLY hold / handle the clutch and WHEN I shift. Let me tell you, doing a lap 2 up, you riding the back, doing 120 MPH, hitting the brakes, leaning over to the point where your knee is about dragging, and going into the turn still doing probably 70 is an eye opening event!!
There is a LOT to learn, and a lot to assimilate and take in, especially for someone like me, who has had only 6 or so months of riding experience and on a bike that is an AUTO TRANNY essentially !! Ugh did I suck at first!! But the thing is, they teach you how to do it SAFELY, and that's the key right there.
Let's focus on SAFETY FIRST ALWAYS !!, once we got that down to muscle memory, now we can focus on technique. The best thing is, every single lesson learned, trick picked up, trade secret shared, technique mastered, you can ABSOLUTELY take onto the street with you.
NO this course is NOT just for racing bikes or Track Riders. This course applies to the street 100 % as well ! So you didn't get the bike turned in time because you did not know how to lean properly TO turn the bike. On the track, you run into the grass, or maybe into a bumper or tire stack. On a mountain road, you run off the edge of a 1500 foot cliff !
On the street you are not going to be doing all the, lets call it theatrics of the hanging off the seat, leaning way wayyyy down with a leg sticking out because first, you don't need to, second, you'll have the cops all over you like a half off sale at the donut shop if you start performing on the road like that! But you STILL will lean, you STILL will move your weight and your head, just like on the track, the same principles apply, just not so much, and this course teaches you those techniques.
What you learn on the track, will keep you safe on the streets, and lets be honest.
To be good at ANYTHING you need to PRACTICE !!!
Practice, Practice, PRACTICE !!
Now, what better place IS there to practice than on the track? With Experts there to watch you like a hawk, guide you, teach you, mentor you, and god forbid you screw up, there is an ambulance / rescue crew right on the scene. On the street, well, good luck with that, because depending on where you live, the 'experts' might be just a clown car full of 'influencers' looking for just that perfect angle to film you dying so they can get the page clicks on fakebook and PooTube.
This goes for official Moto Tracks in general. If you are going to practice stunts or new techniques, or just try to hone your existing techniques of braking / turning etc, wouldn't you rather do it on a sanctioned lot and not in traffic where danger is coming at you from every angle and doesn't care about you one bit?
In closing, I learned that I suck, a lot
BUT, did any of us watch a video how to ride a bicycle and after watching that video, KNOW how to ride a bicycle and do it expertly, if we never rode a bike before? Of course not, you n eed to do it to actually get it.
The important thing is, yah, I suck BUT I know WHY, and HOW TO FIX IT !! That is the most important thing a person can ever get no matter what they are trying to learn, is the PROPER knowledge on how to do something. Because now that I know what I need to work on, and how to do it correctly, I can now go out on my own time, and PRACTICE !! Pick the important things, get them honed in, so they are now more or less muscle memory, great job !! now pick the next thing I am weak at, and get that honed in, and move down the list, ticking it off, one by one.
Aaron, you suck at this, that, and THAT !! But, here is exactly what you are doing wrong, and exactly what you need to do to fix it! Now go practice !!
I fully plan on going back in April when they have the course again in SC, or maybe the Feb course in Homestead, not sure, and it will depend on a few factors, ie me getting my toy hauler, getting my Corsica would be helpful too, so I can run it and the Ribelle and my gear etc, but I WILL be returning to the course again. With 6 months of practice and honed knowledge.
THERE, now that I got a lot of the 'overwhelm' out of the way and I am learning and in a much better state, I can now focus on the smaller details, the nuances.
Have you ever watched a movie, and the first time it's like WOW, everything thing is brand new to you and you are trying to take the entire thing in and absorb it. Yes you were enthralled, but you missed a lot of stuff because there was just SO much flowing at you!
Now watch that movie again, 2 times, 3 times, and now you start to pick up things, see things that you missed the first time around, because now that you got the 'base load' of info out of the way and once you see those little extra things, you now like the movie even better, because you got MORE out of it !! Riding / Track racing is the same way.
I know I rambled a bit but I can not recommend this course enough to everyone really. For me, some of the stuff I learned, just taking their online 'pre track' course, literally proved to be a lifesaver!
It's a bit expensive, but you get what you pay for, and in this case, you got the worlds TOP people teaching you hand in hand!
They claim it's 4 to 1 or something like that student to teacher ratio but that's kind of off a bit. If a person has problems, they will pull you aside and talk with you, ride with you, film you, demonstrate, and do it multiple times until you start to understand it, so IMO it's really more like a 1 on 1 teacher student ratio.
If you are serious about your riding, and especially if you want to have 2 days of all out FUN on the track, you should seriously consider taking this course.
At first, they made a statement that many people have taken it multiple times. I was a bit skeptical, kind of like, umm WHY would they? Are they THAT screwed up (this would be my case) or what. But now I know why, because the learning is an ONGOING thing, and just like watching the movie, once you got the base load of the info out of the way and tucked away into muscle memory, NOW it's time to get another good look at you, now that you are riding at a better level, lets see what they can help you improve on next.
Here is a link to their site:
https://ridelikeachampion.com/Even if you do not take the full on hands on course, Id highly recommend their Champ U, the online course. It's a LOT more in depth than your basic riding course you had to take for you to get your initial license, however even as an experienced rider, I bet you'll find it refreshes you or gives you additional info on things you knew, or thought you knew, already.
https://ridelikeachampion.com/go check it out. and make sure you drink lots of water !! Fun makes you thirsty !!
Aaron
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Topic: Yamaha Champions Riding School (Read 676 times)