On attending a California Superbike School 2-Day Camp at Streets of Willow Springs (May 24-25, 2008)
For those not in the know, California Superbike School is the premier rider instruction school in the US, Europe and Australia, started by Keith Code – former racer and the “best known motorcycle instructor in the world” (quoted from wikipedia). They hold one and two day rider camps on various racetracks around the world. The instruction goes from levels I through IV, with separate, dedicated camps for racers. The training is done on that year’s Kawasaki ZX-6Rs. Read more about the school here.
I signed up in early April for Levels I and II at the Streets of Willow Springs track in southern California because I wanted to do the camp early on in the year and not have to fly too far out. While I had no racing ambitions, I thought it would be a good course to take to improve my skills.
STREETS OF WILLOW SPRINGS
The Streets of Willow Springs racetrack is perfect for a school. So far it’s the only other track I have ridden outside of my home track at Pacific Raceways, in Kent, WA. Willow Springs has lots of runoff areas and no solid walls, but still very exciting with its long straights, off-camber turns, chicane and esses.
DAY 0: April 23rd, 2008
My class was scheduled for April 24th and 25th – a Thursday and Friday. I flew to Burbank, CA (as opposed to LAX as advised by the school, to avoid the traffic around Los Angeles) on the 23rd, picked up my rental car at Advantage Rent-A-Car and drove about 60 miles north to Lancaster, CA – a town I was advised to stay in by the school, as the closest town Rosamund, didn’t have much by way of food, or indeed civilization, being way out in the desert as it was. The drive up was rough and unpleasant because the freeways – both I-5 and 14 – were in shockingly bad condition. This was very surprising to me, because I assumed that the state of California would likely have much more money than Washington, but even the remotest roads in Washington that I’ve ridden on have been in much better condition than interstate I-5 was down in SoCal. About an hour’s drive later (hooray for consistent 80mph driving speeds), I reached Lancaster and checked into the Motel 6 where I had my reservation. It was dismal, spartan (no fridge/wireless) and noisy (people talking outside my room at all times of night, and walking overhead at two in the morning), but it was clean and cheap ($42/night).
I found a terrible “Japanese” restaurant that apparently served nothing but tempura, ate a crappy dinner, bought some water, and then turned in early, as we had to report to the track at 7:00AM.
DAY 1: April 24th, 2008
I had set at least three alarms, but I still kept waking up once every hour to check the time, and then fade back to sleep, until I finally got out of bed at 5:30AM, took a quick shower, and drove off to the track, which was about 11 miles away.
I arrived a little before 7:00AM. I checked in at the entrance where I was given a wristband to wear for the rest of the day. I was instructed to turn right into the track grounds, and follow a narrow road all the way to the pits.
Some students had already driven up, and the CSS guys had just begun setting up. The bikes were all lined up and ready to go. It was a bit chilly out in the desert. Most of us were in our civvies and shivering a little. And here I’d thought that California was supposed to be hot and sunny!
The track itself looked brilliant from a distance – it was all spread out on a grade so that you could see most of the turns from the pits.
Breakfast was being prepared and served, which I promptly helped myself to. One benefit of signing up to a camp is the catered breakfasts and lunches and food/snacks being provided all day long. The food was all good and healthy. For breakfast, there was toast, bagels, eggs, sausages, cereal, fruit, juice, coffee – something for everyone.
We ate and were then called in for the first technical briefing of the day, where Keith Code introduced himself and his crew – his wife, Judy Code who took care of all the rider announcements, merchandise, food etc., Dylan – his son and a riding coach, Will – the mechanic, Cobie – chief riding coach, Trevor – track control, and all the riding coaches that students would be working with that day. He talked about the format of the camp, what we could expect for the next couple of days, rules and restrictions etc. We were advised to keep drinking water throughout the day, and pop salt and potassium tablets after every session to keep from getting dehydrated and make up for depleting electrolytes from all the sweating we would do in our leathers in the hot desert sun. They explained the flag color codes, which I think most of us knew from past trackdays anyway, although I wasn’t familiar with the blue flag until then.
We were divided up into two groups – White and Yellow, which would be alternating for track time through out the day. White group would be on for 20 minutes, then get back in to talk to their coach for a few minutes, a technical briefing, then get ready to go out again. While they were off track, the yellow group would be on the track. Most of the bikes would thus be in continuous use – one bike for every two students. They put sticky tape on our boots to mark our groups – I was in Yellow.
The majority of the students were much older guys, not that surprising considering the cost of the camp. There were only about 3-4 guys who were my age or younger. I was the only woman (big shocker).
The ratio of coach to students was 1:2 in each group, ensuring that every student got plenty of time and personal instruction from their assigned coach. My coach turned out to be a guy called Steve, who turned out to be super-nice and very effective (I later found out that his day job was a lieutenant in a SWAT unit).
They handed out leathers, boots, gloves and helmet to those who hadn’t brought their own gear. I found out that all their leathers were men’s suits (but of course!) and opted to wear all my own gear. We were also assigned the bike we would be riding for the duration of the camp. I was on bike 26 – the only one with a lowered suspension and seat. The bikes were parked in the off-track training area – a large open space for practicing slow speed manuevers, and riding the special bikes like the brake and slide bikes.
The first drill was off-track and involved just riding around at slow speed and doing some turns and weaves to let the coach assess your abilities. I can confidently say that I was the absolute worst of the lot because all my fears about riding the ZX-6R came together in a blindingly panic-ridden moment.
I’d had my doubts about riding the ZX-6R for a long time seeing as it was a much taller bike than I was used to – even the lowered one I could barely tippy-toe, and the aggressive seating position with the tucked down stance was completely different from what I was used to. Not to mention that this was not my bike and I’ve always had a slight terror of riding a bike that didn’t belong to me. Also, I know that it takes me at least a few hours of practice before I get used to a new bike, and here I was, expected to just get on and go. :|
I stalled the bike at least once, got on and rode a short distance in an embarassingly wobbly way, was stiff as a board and clamping down on the handlebars, with a deer in the headlights look in my eyes, and completely mortified about all the people watching me act like a complete tool. I think my coach deserves a medal for being so patient with me during that exercise. He asked me how long I had been riding, and when I said three years, he told me to just calm down and told me I would be okay.
When we were called out, I got on again, made it to the start-finish area, got in line with the others, where Trevor- the course control guy – also asked me how long I had been riding. I glared at him and asked if he asked everybody that, and he grinned ruefully and said, “No, only people that I like.” Ha!
DAY 1: DRILL 1: THROTTLE CONTROL: The first on-track drill was Throttle Control and the format was fourth gear, no brakes. We were instructed to negotiate the entire track in fourth gear only and not use any brakes (unless it were a dire necessity) and practice constant, smooth, throttle control. Easy peasy, right? Wrong. I still found the bike completely awkward, was still stiff as a board, was completely thrown by the track (of course I hadn’t had the foresight to STUDY the track in advance) and rode painfully slow. My back hurt, as did my wrists, and I barely made it through all the laps.
DAY 1: DRILL 2: TURN POINTS: This drill was going round the track again in 3rd and 4th gear, no brakes, only this time the turnpoints that we would take were marked on the track with big yellow crosses, as guideline. So basically, ride in to the turn, lean the bike over on the turnpoints, open gas, and maintain a steady throttle throughout the turn. I have to say that the yellow crosses were a major breakthrough, and finally added a method to the madness of us just diving into a turn, turning any which way and making our way out based on our instincts. The turnpoints were placed in spots that allowed us to make the turn such that it didn’t require any further steering adjustment and we didn’t run wide in the turn.
I was a bit more organized this time as the number of unknowns had decreased drastically. I still missed a few – as did many other riders that were ahead of me. The ones I missed were mainly because they were so close to the edge of the track and out of my line of sight due to elevation changes, that I was afraid of running off. And indeed, a couple of guys did run off onto the dirt area.
DAY 1: DRILL 3: QUICK TURNING: Ride up to the turn, slow down as much as needed, push on handlebar hard to lean in for a quick turn.
I completely botched this drill because I was still overwhelmed by the bike and circuit, and I was still hanging on to the handlebars, making any kind of turn rather hard.
DAY 1: LUNCH BREAK : Lunch was good – we made out own sandwiches and there was pasta, salad, and fruit. I took my plate over to one of the tables, sat down awkwardly with my undone jacket hanging from my waist and promptly went down as the bar stool slipped under me. No damage done though. Thank heavens for leathers. :P
*general cries of alarm*
Random people: “Are you okay?”
Me: “Only my pride.”
One of the guys helped me up, as I clambered up red-faced, laughing my head off at the idiocy of the situation, and everyone grinned back. I think this was the point when more people started coming up to me talk. I am naturally reticent in bigger groups, and it takes a bit of time for the ice to break before I can bring myself to talk to anyone. It doesn’t help that a lot of people seem to find me intimidating (!) – even those that are twice my size – so overall it’s a bad combination for any initial group camaraderie. :P
The guy who helped me up – Jack – apologized to me for passing too close at some point in the track which I had no memory of. He was about twice my age – apparently he’d been riding since 1965 – and seemed nice, so I sat with him to eat lunch, and we chatted a bit about bikes and trackdays and such.
I talked with another guy who had flown in from Kuwait for Levels III and IV, and he told me to not worry about going fast and just concentrate on learning all the techniques. He said that a lot of the guys were going super-fast without really thinking, and tiring themselves out and not learning as much as they could have been. I took his advice to heart and felt a little less stressed about being so slow.
DAY 1: DRILL 4: RIDER INPUT: Three gears, light braking. Quit being stiff on the bike, because it will respond to your every movement. Easier said than done in my case. :P
DAY 1: DRILL 5: TWO STEP: In the technical briefing for this one, we were asked if we had been target fixating on the turnpoints, and we almost universally nodded. This time round we were instructed to use the turnpoint as a guideline, and as soon as we knew that we were going to make it, look away towards the next turn and lean the bike over.
This was a great drill and we all came back happy, reporting that it had been a major breakthrough.
DAY2: APRIL 25TH, 2008
DAY 2: DRILL 1: REFERENCE POINTS: In this one, Keith went over photographs of the track on a screen and pointed out how much stuff (scar on the road, house in the distance, mountain peak etc.) we could use as reference points for braking/rolling on/off etc. He said to pick reference points for each turn and keep them constant.
I had been doing this somewhat because I always keep my vision high and on the horizon in my turns, but this was an added level of clarity. I think I did well here.
Everybody agreed that this was a good run, and indeed my first session out was incredibly good. This time I was not hesitating because I knew the track well now and was more comfortable on the bike. I concentrated on practicing everything from the past day. My coach pulled me over once and pointed out a few thing – I did not have to slow down significantly as I approached the chicane at the end of the back straight. He said that I was practically parking the bike there, when I could just go at the same speed, right over the striped yellow bump and then slow down a bit for the next turn. He also said that he noticed that I kept making tiny throttle adjustments through the turn in the long sweepers, which were completely unnecessary, and I should just try to make one clean turn, rolling on the throttle gradually and holding it.
I paid attention to his advice and made some improvements, at least for some of the turns. I was also doing a lot better on the esses since we had been told the previous day that the best riders under the best conditions couldn’t make them at over 24mph, so I wasn’t stressing over being fast there anymore, just concentrating on hitting the turn points, and making all the tight turns.
DAY 2: DRILL 2: CHANGE LINES: For this drill, we were instructed to do the first lap on the left edge of the track, the second one on the right edge, and the third one down the middle, all at slow speeds, with the aim of really learning how big the track was, and how it was okay to not make your line and pick a new one because there was more room there than we thought there was.
This one was a drill that we all loved.
DAY 2: DRILL 3: VANISHING POINTS: Two gears, very light braking. Look for examples of vanishing points on the track. Try and eliminate any negative effects they may have on your riding.
In this drill, I was called upon to ride the camera bike, which is a bike set up with a video camera and films you through two laps. While I had been doing pretty good until then, I made a complete arse of myself here. First it took me about five minutes to get going on the bike because it was so tall that even though the guys had a hold of it, I didn’t trust myself enough to not put my feet down and just go. I finally took off and completely botched most of the turns in the first lap because of that feeling of Being. Watched. The second lap was a bit better, but not by very much.
DAY 2: DRILL 4: WIDE VIEW: This time we were briefed to avoid tunnel vision and have a “wide view”. Fixating in one place leads to things coming at you too quickly and not giving you enough time to react. Opening up your view to a bigger vista instead helped you realize that the track was a plenty big place and there was plenty of room to go even if you came in to a turn too hot.
This helped. A lot.
DAY 2: DRILL 5: PICK UP: This was taking the Two Step a little further – go up to the turn, qiuck turn, lean in and roll on throttle, then “pick up” the bike, to straighten it out just a little sooner than we were doing before.
I did one off-track session here with Hymey (?). Since I couldn’t ride the slide bike, we did some sessions on my regular bike. He corrected my seating position, telling me to move back from the tank, and really grip it with my knees. Then he made me do some steering exercises with really loose arms, leaning in to each turn as I did it. Oddly enough, this was my biggest breakthrough in the entire two days, and I dearly wished we had done it the previous day. Apparently I wasn’t counter steering correctly. While I was pushing the handlebar to make the bike turn, since my other hand was clamped onto the bar, I was forcing the bike to also lean the other way without realizing it.
When I went out on the track next, my arms were super loose, I wasn’t hanging on to the bike anymore, and just loosely gripping with each hand, just enough to operate the controls. Everything just came together this point onward and I flew through the laps. I wasn’t tired anymore, my back didn’t hurt, I wasn’t afraid of the turns, I leaned way over, I made all the turn points, I had near-perfect throttle control, and of course the photographers had stopped photographing for the day, and I wasn’t on the video bike. :P
DAY 2: PRACTICE SESSIONS: I went on the brake bike with Hymey instructing again. This was Kawasaki that was a near replica of my SV and I found it super easy to ride. I was told to get up to about 30mph and then snap the front brake until it locked. I tried this a few times, but was unable to lock it. In fact, I found my MSF training kicking in unconsciously, and every panic stop I made, I braked with both brakes and shifted down gears without even realizing it. Oh well…
The rest of my track time was the stuff that dreams are made of. I flew through the track and everything was right and perfect. I even shifted my weight off of the bike and hung off for some of the turns – something I have never done on the SV. Valentino Rossi once said that he riding his bike was like dancing with a beautiful woman. I know exactly what he meant because it really did feel like I were dancing with the bike, with me in the lead, while she followed and responded to my every cue. I think that for those last few sessions I was in pure motorcycling zen. All of a sudden, I was ecstatic and the tension and stress of the past few days fell away like they had never happened.
Every time I walked back into the pits, I felt like I was walking on a foot of air. Many riders came up to me to tell me that I was doing incredibly well. Jack mentioned that if they did a recap of which people improved the most in the school, I’d probably be top of the list. A back-handed compliment perhaps, but a fair one, considering my performance for the past day.
DAY 2: EPILOGUE:
The day came to a close all too quickly. All too soon, it was time for debriefing and handing out of graduation certificates. Keith said a few last words, we took some photos, got some goodie bags, said our goodbyes and it was time to go home.
*sigh*
CONCLUSION
To conclude, it was a good 2-day learning experience, if a bit on the expensive side. I found that my riding improved by miles and my confidence skyrocketed. While most of what was taught in the class could be learned by reading Keith’s books, it all made a lot more sense in conjunction with the classroom. Maybe someday when I find that all of these skills have become second nature, I’ll go back to the Advanced class.