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MANX MAG GOES TRAINING!
(reproduced with permission from Manx MAG newsletter)
Recently a few of our local members decided to take advantage of a visiting Advanced Motorcycle Trainer by the name of Kevin from Survival Skills Rider Training in Kent.
As I'm sure most of you know, I have been riding bikes a good few years and I've never taken any further training since the old two-part test. (No, I'm not going
to give my age away!) Since treating myself to a new 'little' bike, (VTR 250 i.e. a baby Firestorm) last year, I decided to give the training 'lark' a go.
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Empty roads, beautiful scenery... can you think of anywhere better to do an advanced riding course?
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We met on a lovely sunny Saturday morning at The Grandstand; there was Julie-Anne, Andy, and myself in the morning session and Bod, Dennis and Vic in the afternoon. Kevin arrived and gave us
an introduction to the mornings' session, covering the theories behind the subjects we were to cover and how to work the intercom system. We headed off to B & Q's car park, with
Andy leading. (The 'girlies' decided he should go first).
First off was a lesson on counter-balancing. If you think you can balance your bike well at slow speeds, try riding in ever decreasing circles until you have got the full steering-lock on while
remaining mobile. Not an easy task I can tell you! I think I had an advantage in this exercise due to my bike being the smallest and lightest. The figure of eight I found easier than the
continuous circle.
Then it was time to try counter-steering, it took a while for me to understand it just meant
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Yvonne on her gorgeous little Honda 250!
Andy countersteering round the cones
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that you put weight on the opposite handle bar from the direction you want to go. The fact that we all do this without thinking didn't help my mental process's accepting the theory, to me "it
just happens that way"!! We managed to get up some speed through Kevin's chicane and soon were weaving and whizzing round the car park like nobodies business.
Brilliant, I thought, "I can do all this". Then came the part of introducing braking techniques and then entering a very sharp hairpin bend. Well, lets just say
it caused me some hilarity to 'balls it up' a few times and miss the turns.
Now it was time for the open road. We all took turns in the lead, with Kevin following the first
bike and giving ongoing instructions as we headed out by Foxdale, up over the top, and came in the coast road to Peel. We also had a little detour via
Glennhellen for some petrol. Needless to say I was the one stuck behind the bloody car driver
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And when you've finished riding, you can the scenery... Peel Castle
The coast, south of Peel
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while the rest of my class enjoyed our beautiful corners at enjoyable speed. (Yes, officer, of course we kept to the speed limit!)
Each time we took a turn leading, Kevin would debrief us on our progress before handing over. I would say that Kevin's feedback was always positive, constructive and
never very critical. He does not pull your riding skills to bits and encourages you to try new techniques, which may improve your riding enjoyment.
Some have said that they "didn't learn anything new", I would say you should already know most things but do we practice what we preach?
Me? I'm now turning my bike like a peery (Scot's word for spinning top) and I'm cornering a lot quicker, hence an
even bigger smile on my face when I'm scooting about our beautiful island.
Well they do say practice makes perfect!
Your Regional Rep.
Yvonne Brown.
April 15 1999
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