There is a point where parking lot drills simply stop being relevant. Techniques that may work fine
in second gear, on a giant pancake of asphalt, can very often crumble when confined to the width
of a lane of traffic, and at real-world speeds. Many years ago I was asked to help the Utah
Highway Patrol with their high-speed cornering skills. Yeah, they had mastered cone drills with
remarkable ease, but those cone skills simply did not translate into real-world situations,
like downhill blind corners, where, despite all their training and confidence
they really struggled. They wanted help reducing risks during high-speed pursuits.
Now, I'm not saying that parking lot drills are worthless. Not at all. Parking lot drills
are a great way to get started riding, build comfort on the bike, or to learn
specific skills, like braking or whatever. But we're not dying in parking lots!
We're dying out on the open highways and mountain roads, most often from running wide in corners.
We need to be able to practice, not only in environments that mimic where we ride,
we need to be able to practice at the speeds we normally ride. If anything,
riders who have only taken parking lot riding courses tend to have a false sense of security,
as though they are qualified to ride anywhere and at any time. But remember, after graduation from
a parking lot riding course, at the end of that program we are fully qualified to ride around in a
parking lot in second gear. This is fundamentally why all of us will benefit from track time.
I've been taking track schools and riding track days for over 25 years, and quite honestly,
most track schools, despite how well they are run, and even how reputable they are;
all seem to have a couple of fundamental problems. First, a whole slew of those schools are still
teaching some pretty antiquated techniques. Dare I say, techniques that have long been
abandoned by the best riders in the world. Second, most of the ones I've attended are
so focused on racing that it's hard to relate it back to the street rider. This often reveals
itself, right from the beginning, when they teach the track. When I go into this specific corner,
line up on this specific spot. Brake until here. Turn-in here. Get back on the gas here.
By the end of the day, sure, I've gotten a whole hell of a lot faster,
and I feel great about my progress. While this can be effective at helping us become more comfortable
at speed and understanding what our bike is capable of, and all of that; which has its value.
It can be really hard to translate those track and corner specific points back to our street riding.
This is why most of the time I recommend street riders just do a couple of track days.
A lot of the track schools I’ve attended, didn't really relate to the street rider in me.
However, after going through the Champ U online courses I had the suspicion that Yamaha
Champions Riding School might be a little bit different. So we loaded up the truck,
and made our way across the full throttle desolation of the American Southwest to find out.
Cue 13 hours of driving montage…
Just kidding. Nobody wants to watch that. Now, listen. I'm gonna let you street riders in on a
pretty guarded secret. Are you ready? A racetrack… all it really is… It's just a road like any other
only it loops back on itself. That's it. The laws of physics don't suddenly change when you are on
a track. Techniques that work on a track don't suddenly stop working in your favorite canyon,
and your motorcycle certainly can't tell the difference between a decreasing radius
downhill left hand band on a track, versus a decreasing radius downhill left hand bend in
your local canyon. Think of a racetrack as your 10 most favorite corners placed back-to-back,
over and over and over again. Only without any oncoming traffic, and no police, and no trees
or guardrails to run into. A track is just an environment that allows us to practice real-world
riding with a drastic and significant reduction of risk. And this is why, no matter the kind
of bike you ride, and no matter how quickly or conservative you like to ride, if you enjoy twisty
roads, you will benefit, a lot, from track time. The track provides learning opportunities that
a parking lot never can, at significantly less risk than road riding because of the
controlled nature of the track, and the safe runoff zones the tracks have built into them.
What made Yamaha Champions Riding School so different? Well, a few things really stood out to
me. Their entire approach is unlike anything I've seen. At their core, everything they teach is data
driven. The assumption is that motorcycles are designed by expert riders, and so they
teach the techniques expert riders use, to ride the bike the way it was designed to be ridden.
They use racers and test riders as the benchmark. Why? Because it's the pointy
end of the stick, and it's measurable. Looking at someone who only rides on warm,
dry, Sunday mornings, doesn't tell us as much about not crashing as
professional riders who are pushing the limits. Additionally, they teach for the rider you will
become, not the rider you are today. Let me explain.
Most programs have levels, or tiers, to teaching. Yamaha Champs doesn't. They stick
to a handful of fundamental skills that none of us will probably ever be able to master, but
can be implemented with higher levels of precision. I absolutely love this!
If we look at the entire field of MotoGP and World SuperBike racers;
all the riders who are winning, and not crashing, all look about the same. They all sit on the bike
basically the same. Top-tier racers don't care how they look on the bike, or any of that. They want
to win titles, and the best way to win titles is to finish all their races on the podium.
There isn't any room for individual style or any technique that slows them down or increases the
chances of falling down. Their title-winning techniques are the ones we need to be learning
and using, which is where Yamaha Champions Riding School builds their curriculum from.
One of the things that really stood out to me about Yamaha Champions Riding School,
aside from the really long name, is that all of the coaches are also street riders.
On the street we're interested a lot less in outright speed, and much more concerned about
reducing risk and enhancing visibility. YCRS understands this, and talks about it a lot.
They'll explain how entering corners late is an awesome street technique because it
gives us more visibility, but on the track, in some types of corners, entering late may not be
the fastest way through that kind of corner. The beauty of this is that it teaches us, the riders,
the difference. And gives us the ability to make those decisions in our own riding,
based on our situation. Teaching how to read corners, not just teaching the track,
is far more helpful than teaching a specific track corner by corner. It teaches us how to
ride any corner. I'm sorry I get a little excited here, because this is the way, man.
What I loved about this program is that it it's objective based. Like, the objective is to get the
bike turned. Stay in our lane and get a fast and safe exit. In 25 years of different kinds of track
schools, I've never seen anything quite like this. So, I want to talk about what I learned because
I'm pretty excited about it, and this is the awesomeness of getting face-to-face coaching.
Someone is looking at us. Seeing exactly what we are doing. In my case, I wanted to find
more precision in my riding. I wasn't always getting the bike exactly where I wanted it,
all the time. This is what I went in looking for, and exactly what I came away with. You see,
when I was at pace carrying a lot of lean angle, I would get nervous and I would give up on the brake
too soon, because, for a lifetime I was taught to be afraid of my brakes in corners. I knew I needed
to stay on the brakes, and I knew that when I gave up on them, the bike stopped turning and
maintained its radius. And as a result, the bike wouldn't end up exactly where I wanted.
The coaches worked with me on this. Made me focus a lot more on how long I was braking and
how I was releasing my brake lever. They made me focus a lot on that last five percent of
braking. They really worked with me on the concept that I shouldn't be afraid of my controls,
but to be afraid of abruptness. It was awesome! For someone like me, who has been doing this for
so long, to get such personalized help that was so specific to my situation… Man, I'm telling you
guys. This has not normally been my experience. And when you go, they will have that pearl that
is specific to you and what you are looking for. I'll tell you this. As someone who has coached for
well over 20 years now, I tried to be the student that I like to see. I'm not overly impressed with
a fast student, but I am impressed with an honest one. So, yeah, I could have ridden a little slower
than I normally like to ride, and given them a closer-to-perfect lap so that I'd get lots
of “good job” and “nicely done.” But I wanted to be honest. I rode at the pace I like to ride
so I would make the same mistakes I tend to make. I wanted the flaws in my riding to be visible,
especially flaws that I may not be aware of. I thought I was pretty good at releasing the
brake gently, but that turned out to be one of the biggest flaws we've worked on. How cool is that?
Yes, the program isn't exactly cheap. It's an investment in yourself to be sure. But you can
also reduce the cost of the program by riding your own bike. You don't have to rent one of theirs,
and you don't have to ride a super bike seriously just looking at the bikes and
the school i attended you can ride your bike in their program no matter what kind of bike
it is. I love that because I love all kinds of bikes, not just the ones wrapped in plastic.
Listen, I’m not affiliated with anyone. I’m not compelled to say nice things about anybody or
anything and typically, my approach has been that if I don't like something, I just don’t bring it
up. I don’t have to support a curriculum I don't agree with it just to maintain my certification,
in fact I’ve not hidden the fact that I believe that motorcycle education, across the board,
is lacking. Some really great programs are teaching some really questionable techniques.
But I will openly sing the praises of the stuff that I think is great. And, no holds barred,
the Yamaha Champions Riding School is great. Yes, I was able to pass through one of my own
personal plateaus and got a fair bit quicker. But getting quicker was a byproduct of implementing
a very specific plan into every corner that prioritized reducing risk, or staying upright,
over everything else. Yes, we may be slower in some places, but the YCRS plan of attack focused
those slow parts where the risk is greatest so that we could be faster in places where the
risk is lower. It’s a genius perspective. It’s the perspective of championship winning racers,
because crashing costs championships. On the street, crashing costs a helluva lot more.
Guys, I really hope you consider taking this school if at all possible.
If you have taken the course, let me know what you thought of it.
What didn’t you like and what did you like? Thanks so much for watching and ride well.