Did Step 1-2-3 Back To Back Last Weekend...

[Hansi]

Phew!

 

I went ahead and booked 4 days of cornering school on the swedish track "Gelleråsen".

 

First day was the swedish motorcycle association (SMC) (which is very similar but the staff/coaches are doing all the work without getting paid!) at level 4 (individual training)

 

Second to fourth day was California Superbike School (UK coaches) level 1 to 3.

 

We had super nice weather all days, maybe a bit on the hot side (30+ degrees C i think!), ending with a crazy thunderstorm right after the last session of the last day. Talk about timing, our bikes would probable have blown of the track if we were still on it, or we would have had to stop right on the track as the rain was unbelieavable. I actually had to stop my car on the road for a couple of minutes on my way home as I could not see the road ahead. Luckily i was towing the bike on a trailer, not riding home...

 

I got a lot of work done on my visual skills, at one time i just had to scream "yahoooo!!!" in my helmet after a few amazing laps. Got to work some more to get rid of my habit of going back on gas just a bit too early, must get better on getting the counter steer finished before i start to roll on. I got that habit 1-2 years ago before I adjusted my throttle, it had so much slack that i started to roll on the throttle a little even before the turn just to avoid upsetting the bike as the throttle rollon would be to abrupt otherwise.

 

 

Level 1 was going very well, coach pretty much gave me thumbs up on each drill, no need to go to pit for instructions. On level 2 and 3 i got pulled in to the pits maybe 1-2 times per day. And a bit of frustration from my coach on the 3-step drill, he did not know i got a big bug that hit me right where my left eye would have been....luckily i was wearing glasses! I was just about to pull down the visor after going on the track from the pits...pooof just blurred vision on one eye...

 

The new skills that I did not have at all (at least not in any form of consciuos form, maybe i was doing it a bit without thinking about it) was the hip flick and hook turns.

 

Skills that I had started to use a bit but finally got to practice more was the pickup and pivot steering.

 

Well when i got back home first of all I had muscle pains and walked like a zeb macahan without his horse - just like Andy promised we would have after level 3.

 

But most funny was that i woke up in the middle of the night actually hanging off of my bed!

 

 

Cant wait until you come back next year so I can do a couple of days at level 4!!

 

 

I had TWO cameras on my bike, one forward and one behind.

 

The unedited footage is available on the piratebay bittorrent tracker

 

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5687456/SMC_och_California_Superbike_School_kurser_Gellerasen_2010-07-08

 

Please dont try to download all the files at once, i have bad upload bandwith so it would take weeks. Change priority or disable all but a few files.

 

Front camera is the MP4 files, back camera is the .avi files.

 

 

I will probably edit and upload some 10-minute clips to youtube in the future, with priority on when other riders are close to my bike and doing the drills.

 

 

Thanks to all the staff and instructors, especially Andy (doing the theory stuff), Matthew (my level 1 coach), JET (my level 2 coach) and Hollywood (my level 3 coach). Sorry if I got any of the levels/coaches mixed up or mispelled, my brain was near overload att times...)

[Hansi]

[Cobie Fair]

Waking up and hanging off the bed, that is brilliant, I love it!!!!!

 

CF

[khp]

Hi Hansi,

 

Yeah, it was really hot over the weekend at Gelleråsen. I was doing two days of Level 4 on Friday & Saturday.

Great photos by Gary "picman" as usual.

 

Regards,

 

Kai (the tall dane on a blue R1)

[Hansi]

I will probably edit and upload some 10-minute clips to youtube in the future, with priority on when other riders are close to my bike and doing the drills.

 

 

OK here is the first youtube clip uploaded

 

Level 2, drill 5 "pickup", first 10 minutes of the session

 

[Crash106]

Hansi,

 

It looks like you had a GREAT time! Man, those "X" marks come up fast!

[Hansi]

I will probably edit and upload some 10-minute clips to youtube in the future, with priority on when other riders are close to my bike and doing the drills.

 

 

OK here is the first youtube clip uploaded

 

Level 2, drill 5 "pickup", first 10 minutes of the session

 

 

The last 10 minutes of Level 2, drill 5 "pickup"

 

 

Thanks for the thumbs up from the instructor :-)

[Bullet]

"But most funny was that i woke up in the middle of the night actually hanging off of my bed!"

 

That's awesome, even I've never done that, and I've done some odd stuff in the night.

 

Bullet

[Hansi]

Video of me some weeks before the CSS training:

 

 

 

Video of me on my first track day efter the CSS training:

 

 

Comments?

[Bullet]

Video of me some weeks before the CSS training:

 

 

 

Video of me on my first track day efter the CSS training:

 

 

Comments?

 

Hi Hansi,

 

Had a quick chance to look at the videos. I guess the questions, that's most important is how much better do you feel on the bike? How much more comfortable, confident and accurate do you feel? Do you think it's enabled you to ride better?

 

Now, my observation, is it's very clear you're visual are in an entirely different league. You're consistency in the first video wasn't very good, you didn't really get very close to the white lines, nor get yourselves very good apexs, nor drive of the turns. In the second video, all of things are massively improved to my eye, really shows how good the drills are doesn't it?

 

Great job. Keep practising.

 

Bullet

[Hansi]

 

 

Hi Hansi,

 

Had a quick chance to look at the videos. I guess the questions, that's most important is how much better do you feel on the bike? How much more comfortable, confident and accurate do you feel? Do you think it's enabled you to ride better?

 

Now, my observation, is it's very clear you're visual are in an entirely different league. You're consistency in the first video wasn't very good, you didn't really get very close to the white lines, nor get yourselves very good apexs, nor drive of the turns. In the second video, all of things are massively improved to my eye, really shows how good the drills are doesn't it?

 

Great job. Keep practising.

 

Bullet

 

Yes, have done a lot of work on the visual skills. Also starting to get the hip-flick working which make things a lot less busy in the esses. The CSS drills have helped a LOT. Three days of "no brake/light brake" sessions have really worked "as advertised", I have a much better sense of speed when entering the corners, can go in faster and get better drive out (still room for improvement on the drive out, can probably start the drive a lot earlier and harder, maybe it is time to get one of those quick-throttle thingies instead of the standard throttle)

 

Best of all, now it is FUN to ride on the track. It all feels so easy, and when I come home and watch the videos I beat myself "Aaargh i can go FASTER in this or that section" :-) Before, it felt like a lot of work and frustration to get around the track.