Donfords Training Day @ Killarney
Training day 8 July arranged by Donfords.
About 50 bikers attended an enjoyable training session at Killarney race track on Sunday. Thanks Donfords, for arranging the meeting.
The GS fraternity was very well represented: ~8 650GS, ~22 boxer GS, ~20 other. The other were two LT's, number of RT's, many S boxers and the odd other-brands)
Anticipation....
My enthusiasm for the day suffered a huge knock when I woke up early morning midst a heavy downpour. I decided now or never and donned my rain gear.
No rain when I set off to Killarney and patches of blue sky when I arrived at Killarney. The sky continued to clear and by lunchtime we had an ideal cool yet sunny day.
Coffee & snacks was served from 08h00, while the riders did the greet-and-chat things.
The proceedings was opened by Niel Berry, introducing his Team and Mr James McClelland, Chief Instructor BMW Rider Academy
James was on the floor for about an hour, presenting a slideshow on biking principles and safety.
He detailed the program for the day.
* Emergency stops
* Controlled stops
* Left to right weaving through cones
* High speed obstacle avoiding
* High speed stop and go
* Slow race
* Circles and figure of 8’
* One handed weaving
By 10h00 we all moved to the track for a series of training excercises. We were devided into three groups: Green (for novices and those who felt they wanted to keep it cool), Red for experienced riders and Yellow for the inbetweeners.
Red group attracted about ten bikes and Yellow about 14. Green was the largest group, made up of the balance. It was interesting to note that most bikers tended to be very conservative when choosing a competency group. Some bikers I know to be very proficient (better than me) actually chose to be Green.
After the first few excercises, some of the Greens moved to Yellow. This improved the balance of numbers and subsequent duration of the excercises.
All three groups did the same basic excercises, the only difference (from what I could see) is that the entry speed was higher for the more advanced group.
First excercise was emergency stopping. The rider would ride (green @ 50 kph, yellow @80 and red @ 100) towards the instructor who then signals him to stop. Full brakes, gear down and there you are. ABS guys wonder what the fuss is and non-ABS smoke tyres here and there....
Interesting was the fact that one Harley Davidson was present (and very welcome!). It was a very nice Streetrod. This bike required significantly more distance to stop because of the small footprint of the narrow front tyre. AND it was a nice lady who was brave enough to bring her HD to the track!
Theresa se baie mooi HD
Second excercise was weaving through a line of cones. Principle objective was obstacle avoidance. The instructor stressed the fact that countersteering is the basic technique that should be used.
Third excercise was weaving through an array of cones that was staggered. Own speed, concentrating on tight turning and countersteering.
Weaving through cones
Obstacle avoidance in a corner followed. Charge into the corner, near the inside, swerve out past the cone and return to the inside of the corner. More fun than demanding, the way we did it!
High speed stop and go was a highlight. The idea was that you may find your path suddenly blocked when pulling away from a standstill. Then you have to stop quickly, let the obstacle (eg car) move clear and then you must get clear quickly before you are hit from behind.
Quite demanding, great fun and very interesting excercise. Having ABS on my bike, stopping quickly is a breeze. I decided to switch it off ..... tail dragging, smoke & long stopping distance....Instructor had very few words: "Switch ABS back on"
Note on this - I am uncomfortable to know that ABS makes it so easy to stop quickly. Yes, very safe, very good. But it takes a lot of skill away from the rider. I fear the day that I find myself stopping hard on a non-ABS bike. So, I should make a point of training myself in hard stopping with AND without ABS.
Before lunch we did a slow-speed race (3 riders at a time) and tight circles and figure 8
Very tasty lunch was followed by on-track training. Each group did four stints of (only) five laps each.
First stint line astern, following the instructor, familiarising yourself with the track.
Second stint also line astern, quicker and follow the lines of the instructor (this did not work out at all - from bike nr 3 to 12+, instructor was out of sight).
Third stint was in a tight group, learning to look ahead ("where you want to go") instead of looking at the bike in front of you. Very interesting feeling, doing this correctly. Not so simple! It places highspeed bike racing into a whole new perspective, believe me!
Last stint was reducing speed by weaving before entering a corner. This excercise was done in 4th gear, no braking, no gearchanging allowed. Not much for me in this one - boring and not convincing. This should be done over short distance, one tight corner and mandatory entry speed.
Some general comments (note, these are my personal views):
* Real race track, good safe riding and cornering
* Covered by Insurance
* Well informed instructors
* Happy bunch of dedicated enthusiastic people
* Enjoyment factor is High
* First time I see real tyre wear up to the edge of my rear wheel!
* Worth doing? Yes. Every serious biker should do such a session. Two Green riders I met actually raved about countersteering - first time they heard of it & tried it
* Worth the money? Paying nearly R600 for what we got? Hmmm, dont think so - reasons are
## lack of take-home notes
## too little theory before the practical work (eg tyre pressures, choosing lines, weight distribution, limits of cornering/swerving, group riding, ...)
## too many bikes for too few instructors (following the line of the instructor is impossible if he is 500m ahead)
## excercises too disorganised and slow moving (too few instructors...)
## actual excercises were not that well defined nor tightly controlled
* As for myself, I realised that I am very spoilt by good traction on tar roads. On dirt I am very traction concious, but on tar ry-ek-maar-net. Not good.
* I had a few frights entering corners. I tended to gear down right into the corner. Often the rear wheel started to drag a bit, causing tail wagging....nie lekker nie! I once thought to myself "oooo vrek - this is a highside!!"
* I already mentioned braking with and without ABS. Very important, I reckon.
* Similar to the offroad Introductory Course - here we learn the basic technique/skill. This is great, but of very little use if the rider does not follow it up with self-training. Lots of selftraining. (and I speak for myself - ek is netso skuldig!!!)
* Tip to the organising company: thanks for the pen and note-pad, but please include the schedule of the day and relevant vital information. And do not use your price-list as a cover page :)
'''Motto:'''
Never consider yourself fully trained - daar is altyd iets meer wat jy leer, en daarna volg die ondervinding - iets waarvan 'n rider net nooit genoeg kan kry nie!
Anticipation....
My enthusiasm for the day suffered a huge knock when I woke up early morning midst a heavy downpour. I decided now or never and donned my rain gear.
No rain when I set off to Killarney and patches of blue sky when I arrived at Killarney. The sky continued to clear and by lunchtime we had an ideal cool yet sunny day.
Coffee & snacks was served from 08h00, while the riders did the greet-and-chat things.
The proceedings was opened by Niel Berry, introducing his Team and Mr James McClelland, Chief Instructor BMW Rider Academy
James was on the floor for about an hour, presenting a slideshow on biking principles and safety.
He detailed the program for the day.
* Emergency stops
* Controlled stops
* Left to right weaving through cones
* High speed obstacle avoiding
* High speed stop and go
* Slow race
* Circles and figure of 8’
* One handed weaving
By 10h00 we all moved to the track for a series of training excercises. We were devided into three groups: Green (for novices and those who felt they wanted to keep it cool), Red for experienced riders and Yellow for the inbetweeners.
Red group attracted about ten bikes and Yellow about 14. Green was the largest group, made up of the balance. It was interesting to note that most bikers tended to be very conservative when choosing a competency group. Some bikers I know to be very proficient (better than me) actually chose to be Green.
After the first few excercises, some of the Greens moved to Yellow. This improved the balance of numbers and subsequent duration of the excercises.
All three groups did the same basic excercises, the only difference (from what I could see) is that the entry speed was higher for the more advanced group.
First excercise was emergency stopping. The rider would ride (green @ 50 kph, yellow @80 and red @ 100) towards the instructor who then signals him to stop. Full brakes, gear down and there you are. ABS guys wonder what the fuss is and non-ABS smoke tyres here and there....
Interesting was the fact that one Harley Davidson was present (and very welcome!). It was a very nice Streetrod. This bike required significantly more distance to stop because of the small footprint of the narrow front tyre. AND it was a nice lady who was brave enough to bring her HD to the track!
Theresa se baie mooi HD
Second excercise was weaving through a line of cones. Principle objective was obstacle avoidance. The instructor stressed the fact that countersteering is the basic technique that should be used.
Third excercise was weaving through an array of cones that was staggered. Own speed, concentrating on tight turning and countersteering.
Weaving through cones
Obstacle avoidance in a corner followed. Charge into the corner, near the inside, swerve out past the cone and return to the inside of the corner. More fun than demanding, the way we did it!
High speed stop and go was a highlight. The idea was that you may find your path suddenly blocked when pulling away from a standstill. Then you have to stop quickly, let the obstacle (eg car) move clear and then you must get clear quickly before you are hit from behind.
Quite demanding, great fun and very interesting excercise. Having ABS on my bike, stopping quickly is a breeze. I decided to switch it off ..... tail dragging, smoke & long stopping distance....Instructor had very few words: "Switch ABS back on"
Note on this - I am uncomfortable to know that ABS makes it so easy to stop quickly. Yes, very safe, very good. But it takes a lot of skill away from the rider. I fear the day that I find myself stopping hard on a non-ABS bike. So, I should make a point of training myself in hard stopping with AND without ABS.
Before lunch we did a slow-speed race (3 riders at a time) and tight circles and figure 8
Very tasty lunch was followed by on-track training. Each group did four stints of (only) five laps each.
First stint line astern, following the instructor, familiarising yourself with the track.
Second stint also line astern, quicker and follow the lines of the instructor (this did not work out at all - from bike nr 3 to 12+, instructor was out of sight).
Third stint was in a tight group, learning to look ahead ("where you want to go") instead of looking at the bike in front of you. Very interesting feeling, doing this correctly. Not so simple! It places highspeed bike racing into a whole new perspective, believe me!
Last stint was reducing speed by weaving before entering a corner. This excercise was done in 4th gear, no braking, no gearchanging allowed. Not much for me in this one - boring and not convincing. This should be done over short distance, one tight corner and mandatory entry speed.
Some general comments (note, these are my personal views):
* Real race track, good safe riding and cornering
* Covered by Insurance
* Well informed instructors
* Happy bunch of dedicated enthusiastic people
* Enjoyment factor is High
* First time I see real tyre wear up to the edge of my rear wheel!
* Worth doing? Yes. Every serious biker should do such a session. Two Green riders I met actually raved about countersteering - first time they heard of it & tried it
* Worth the money? Paying nearly R600 for what we got? Hmmm, dont think so - reasons are
## lack of take-home notes
## too little theory before the practical work (eg tyre pressures, choosing lines, weight distribution, limits of cornering/swerving, group riding, ...)
## too many bikes for too few instructors (following the line of the instructor is impossible if he is 500m ahead)
## excercises too disorganised and slow moving (too few instructors...)
## actual excercises were not that well defined nor tightly controlled
* As for myself, I realised that I am very spoilt by good traction on tar roads. On dirt I am very traction concious, but on tar ry-ek-maar-net. Not good.
* I had a few frights entering corners. I tended to gear down right into the corner. Often the rear wheel started to drag a bit, causing tail wagging....nie lekker nie! I once thought to myself "oooo vrek - this is a highside!!"
* I already mentioned braking with and without ABS. Very important, I reckon.
* Similar to the offroad Introductory Course - here we learn the basic technique/skill. This is great, but of very little use if the rider does not follow it up with self-training. Lots of selftraining. (and I speak for myself - ek is netso skuldig!!!)
* Tip to the organising company: thanks for the pen and note-pad, but please include the schedule of the day and relevant vital information. And do not use your price-list as a cover page :)
'''Motto:'''
Never consider yourself fully trained - daar is altyd iets meer wat jy leer, en daarna volg die ondervinding - iets waarvan 'n rider net nooit genoeg kan kry nie!
- 1983 reads
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