Sport-Touring.Net - April 27, 2008 Sport Touring - Advanced Rider Training (ST-ART) class

It's important to remember that this is a ST-ART class ... for Sport Touring riding, not a RACE day or a normal Track day. If you're looking for fast, if you're looking for passing and "racing" ... this isn't the class for you. Go to Miller and do an ART day and have a blast at that.

This is a class for those of us with ST type bikes (which can include cruisers) so that we can improve our ride out there in the real world. We may ride many days a year, but are we really riding well, using our bikes like they can be used? Is our posture really right? Two years ago in the class we had two K1200 something-or-others, fully faired heavy Beemers. These guys toured, solo and two up. Plenty of miles on their bikes ... yet they found out their riding form wasn't as good as they thought and by the end of the class they had learned just how far they could lean their big bike over, just how fast they could go around a curve using good form. THAT is what this class is about, not just speed or racing.

THe class gives you an opportunity to really learn how to turn your head, to look through a turn. Sure sure, you do taht now, all the time. But really ... do you? Here, with no debris or animals or traffic you can really get the feel for cranking the head around. In the class you can safely work on shifting your posture and weight to see how it affects the bike in the curves. Much better to work on this on a track than out in the real world.

Mind you, although we're not at race speeds, this isn't a grandpa class either. We take the straightaway slow ... 40-ish mph ... so the race guards think we're behaving, but once in the turns the speeds pick up depending on the riders. The last track session tends to be more open and speeds can increase if the rider so choose. Me, I tended to be in the 55-ish mph range and that was fine for me. Remember, this class is for you to improve your form and riding techniques. If you can't do that being "slow" then you have more problems to address.

Last April we had three riders per Instructor. In each lap, one of the students would lead followed by the Instructor and then the other two students. In this way the instructor could watch each of us and give us feedback when the session was over. Often times the instructor would pass us and motion us to follow him/her in the next lap to better understand whatever it was we were working on. Basically something like "follow my line" type of thing.

For those of us who don't do track days, don't have a track bike, just have our ST type bike, this is a great class. We get to be on a track in a nice safe environment and spend a day learning, on our own bikes. How cool is that? :-)

Topic: April 27, 2008 Sport Touring - Advanced Rider Training (ST-ART) class - Utah (Read 3751 times)