Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

Two “trip reports” have been published recently on the track training days presented at Killarney during July. The first report was by Danie aka Geel Kameel, on the Donford BMW Motorrad Training Day on 8 July, and second by Charles on the Club Track day held on 15 July. Apparently the Trip Report articles cannot be commented on, hence this new topic submission. I am quite curious to see a comparison of the two events, from a rider training/education value adding aspect. The first event was presented as a more formal “training” day by Donford Motorrad, with support from the BMW SA Rider Academy in the person of James McLellan, while the second was in the form of a less formal “track” day presented by our club. I wondered (this directed at our Webmaster) whether is possible to set up a structured opinion poll on this website, to get inputs from the participants at the events in the form of a structured rating? I attended the Donford Training day myself, with the objective to improve my technique and ability for safe, high speed cornering. Given my own expectations as reference, I would rate it as follows: (rating each criterion as “Excellent/Good/Fair/Poor”, with comments if applicable) Reception at venue : Fair - Little regard for punctuality; Late start Training introduction : Good - Very promising program Training theory : Fair - James convincing; Presentation so-so Practical - Basic exercise : Fair - Very basic, too time consuming Practical - Track riding : Poor - Just about no attempt at skills transfer Direct feedback : Poor - No feedback based on individual observation Safety provisions : Good - WPMSA marshalls Training material/handouts : Poor - None Lunch/Coffee & Tea : Excellent Trainer:Trainee ratios : Poor - About 1:20; Out of control Fun factor : Good - Good company, fun activities Overall value for me : Poor Value for sponsor : Good - Lots of publicity for Donford Will I recommend it? : No - Not in this event's form I believe there is sufficient demand for these events, so the idea of doing a local version of the BMW Rider Academy is great. However, in the interest of us the riders (thus BMW clients and supporters) it must not be allowed to be hi-jacked by specific organisations, and standards must be set and monitored by a neutral body. Any other opinions? How did the Club's track day fare?