ART and Art ( sort of )

I taught an ART ( Advanced Rider Training ) course this week. This class was organized for a HOG chapter. Their Safety Officer also happens to be one of our instructors. She put the whole thing together and recruited students. A tip of the helmet to her. A double tip to the members who signed up. One or two had been through ART previously. Some had taken basic training when they got their endorsements. Riding time varied between a couple of years and three decades. What was really interesting is that, for some of the long time riders, this was their first formal training session.

Classroom was fun. What a great group of folks! They were obviously there to learn. Egos got put aside in the interest of skill development. As you can imagine all the bikes but one were Harleys. We had 17 Harleys and 1 Goldwing.



I had stashed a camera on the bike as I always do. For some reason I think I'm going to have time to make all these cool photos. What happens in reality is that we're so darn busy there's barely time for a snapshot. Like this one. Oh, well.

Dean W was also teaching. There were four of us on duty. While I taught classroom the other three were busy playing outside with a group of instructors participating in a cornering clinic. Since we have the track for the day we offer our instructors a chance to come brush up on skills.


Please don't tell Dean this, but I really value working with him. ( Don't want to make him have to buy a bigger helmet ) Many of us make it our goal to strive for excellence. I like to think I'm pretty sharp but Dean can sometimes out think me. I tend to make intuitive leaps while it seems to me that Dean is more methodical in his approach. It's a blessing to work with someone who can help me grow and also hold me accountable. Ok, you can tell Dean. If you value someone you should really let them know while you can.

Dean shared with me something one of our students had written about an ART class he attended. I thought it was worth sharing. Especially since some of you will know exactly what he's writing about, having been there yourself. Dean and I were both teaching this one.

Before I do, though, I wanted to make a quick mention of the other "Art" in the post title. Or temporary lack thereof. I'm playing with the backgrounds color and stuff. The goal is to find a combination that will help showcase the photos better. Since I don't seem to have time all at once to see it through, it has to be a work in progress. Bear with me. Suggestions are even welcomed.

Anyway, here is what the student wrote.

Team Oregon's Advanced Rider Training

Team Oregon's Advanced Rider Training (ART) is held on a go-kart track, with dedicated classroom sessions in the morning and riding drills in the afternoon. The ART is held at Pat’s Acres in Canby, Oregon (and a location in Medford, Southern Oregon) and is a 2nd to 3rd (touched 4th once, but only with a clear straight in front of me) gear challenging and technical little circuit. The ART’s syllabus is designed after mishap studies of Oregon motorcyclists; they found that crashes were not on the first, but the second or third corner. A training plan was formulated to link corners while giving a little bit of risk in the form of if you get the corner wrong, you get to play in the grass! With no speed limits, no left-turning cars, and a lot of really great technically challenging corners and professional instructors, this was the perfect place to learn how to link corners, and then polish those new found skills. The bike is not required to be track-prepped (tape off lights, pull fuses, remove mirrors, etc.), and the rider is required to wear armored jacket and boots.

The classroom sessions in the morning covered the basics of what motorcycle mishaps have in common: lack of cornering effectiveness. The instructors are straightforward, and relate how the material in the classroom can combat those trends. Delivery method is very professional and straightforward, with each subject clearly defined and how it impacted those in attendance. The material covered was applicable to on-street riding awareness, and the classic quote before breaking for lunch set the tone for the remainder of the day, “We want to drive the road; not the let the road, drive us.”

The track allowed different circuits for each drill, this way one could not get too comfortable with a layout, and have to really work the skills being taught to stay off the grass! The drills allowed for emergency skill polishing in a real environment, with real grass and trees, and the resulting risks associated with a real environment. Ever try maximum braking on a cambered curve staring at a three-foot diameter Douglas Fir tree? Hopefully you never will, but doing it during the ART sure makes the skill set that much more important. Throughout the day, the instructors offered ride-along’s where they’d point out when and where to look, when and where to be on and off the brakes, all while you’re sitting on the pillion!

The culminating exercise was an instructor follow-behind. An instructor would ride behind and critique you for two laps. This gives me the ultimate respect for the instructors, I’ve done this before and it is harder then you’d think, but the TO instructors handled this extreme multi-tasking job with professionalism and knowledge.

I found the ART to be everything it advertised itself to be, and more, the more being the environment of a closed-course, street-based curriculum.


You can find the website this came from here.

It's pretty cool to be involved in this kind of training. Right now, though, the sun is out and I have work to do. Get ready, Elvira, 'cause we're headed out!

Miles and smiles,

Dan

Burning up the rubber!

I'm taking a slight detour on the way to the promised running post. Yesterday I had the great privilege of being lead instructor for one of our Advanced Rider Training ( ART ) classes. I enjoy them all but this one was extra special.

Quite a number of the Corvallis area blogger gang ( and their partners in crime ) had signed up for this class. We had a great day. At least from my perspective. I'm not going to detail the day. Just wanted to share a few quick snapshots I was able to grab in between things. The bright and sunny conditions were better suited to riding than photo opportunities.

The bloggers attending were Troubadour, Bluekat, and Bolty. They brought along Rick, Eric, and Birthday Girl Stacey. Eric had previously been one of my Basic Rider students. I have deep respect and admiration for riders who take more advanced training. My hope is that my fellow instructors and I were able to help them take their skill levels up a notch or two.

As you can see, Troubadour has some serious lean going on. I'm pretty sure his bike was lighter at the end of the day!

Coincidentally, that guy on the Beemer RT in the background is one of my business customers. This is the second year in a row I have been his instructor. Helps the business relationship immensely.



Bluekat was styling on Sam, her beautiful green Ninja. I couldn't help but wonder if there were green crocs in that trunk case.

Following Bolty and the new-to-her SV650 around the track, it was obvious that the two of them have meshed well. Her riding is very fluid and graceful. Is there a huge grin under that smoked visor?

When I get new riders in my basic classes they sort of become my "kids". Eric, I'm pleased to say, has grown up and flown the nest. I'm proud of you, "Son"!

My aplogies to Rick. I thought I had a couple of good shots. One turned out blurred and in the other you had a tree growing out of the top of your helmet. I did get you in the group in the last photo. Actually, Rick's so fast that only the fastest cameras can catch him!

For a few minutes I camped out at the end of the swerve box. Bluekat threatened to run over me for being such a distraction. Sorry about that. It is interesting, now that we mention it, how the riders turned to stare at me. I figured I better quit while I was still intact.

There's Birthday Girl Stacey. She looks a little intimidating coming at me, don't you think?

This isn't one of the gang but I target fixated on that yellow helmet.

The photos are dark, as you can see. I was in the shade. Trying to get a fast shutter speed to stop the action, I made a mistake and set it TOO fast. The zoom lense wouldn't open far enough to compensate, it seems. One of these days I'll be able to get it right on the fly, I hope! It doesn't help that I forgot to take the polarizing filter off the lense. Guess I'm still a better rider than photographer. Of course, I've been riding much longer. I just hope it doesn't take me another 43 years to get proficient at making photos.

Here's the whole group giving us some written feedback on the course. This is proof you were there, Rick! Troubadour is either smoking his pen or wishing us all a peaceful day.

Thanks for taking the class, gang. From my perspective is was an immensely enjoyable day! As riders may you live long and prosper.

Miles and smiles,

Dan

Nobody told her.

Nobody told her you "couldn't" use a 150cc Vespa scooter for a track bike. Let alone a 1960 two stroke model. So here she was, sitting among a group of 16 riders. Front row and happy to be there. Nervous, but excited. Towards the back of the class were the Harley riders from ABATE. They made up about a third of the group. The rest of the riders were on bikes ranging from a Ninja to a CBR600 F4i to a scattering of sport touring bikes. Hers was the only really small ride.

You may be thinking that this is going to be one of those amazing stories. A story of how a person who shouldn't be able to do something came and conquered. That maybe this gal on her small scooter came in and blazed her way around the course, leaving the other riders in the dust. If so, you'd be on the wrong track. No pun intended. Okay, maybe a little.

On the other hand, it's not a story of how a rider came in and totally held everybody up. Of how they failed miserably. That wouldn't be accurate, either. The truth is somewhere in the middle. I'll expand more in a bit. For now, let's just say it's a story of how someone perhaps unkowingly bit off a little more than they could chew. It's about how someone naively jumped into the deep end yet came away with more than if they'd stayed on the side of the pool.


A quick word on photos. I know the last two photos look nearly the same. I'm exercising my blogger's privilege of including both. The top one shows Elvira more closely. She's sporting stickers sent to me by Krysta. First time I've ever put stickers on a bike. I just like the second photo. There's something about how the line of bikes points from the bottom right of the frame towards the corner in the distance.

I have no photos of Tracy, the rider of the Vespa. At the time I took the pictures of the Vespa simply because it was the first time I've ever had a small scooter in an ART ( Advanced Rider Training ) class. We've had a few MP-3's and a Silverwing before. Nothing this small, however. I really wasn't thinking about doing a blog post concerning the event. Six days have gone by since and I keep reflecting on the day. I finally came to the conclusion that underneath the surface was something worth sharing.

Tracy had a little experience riding to work and doing errands on the Vespa. Which made me like her already. Somewhere she'd seen some scooter racing and decided it looked like fun. Her enthusiasm was higher than her skill level, however. The ART class looked like a good way to raise the skill level. So here she was. Jumping right into the deep end, so to speak. I was teaching the classroom session. Tracy was fully engaged. She innocently asked a few questions that made some of the other students roll their eyes back in their heads. Which just made me warm to Tracy even more. There wasn't an ounce of pretension about her. Tracy was there to learn.

Interestingly, some of her questions weren't as strange as some of the other students might have thought. What they failed to take into account is that her questions were based on her experience riding the Vespa. There's definite differences between how a small scooter reacts and what one might expect on a bigger bike. Same basic concepts but each with their own nuances. Fortunately, I've become a lot more familiar with scooters and was able to answer her questions in such a way that it applied to her riding.

That's something I have a lot of you to thank for. So many of you in this blogger community of ours ride scooters. I've learned a lot from your posts and the discussions we've all had. The last few years of associating with you all has made me take scooters so much more seriously than in the past. During the same time period it seems like scooter sales have really increased. Which means we see a lot more scooter riders come through our classes. I beg rides from scooter riders both in class and otherwise. I want to be able to speak from the perspective our students are feeling. Through the sharing that you've done, you all have accomplished more to help your fellow scooterists than you're probably aware of! I offer my heartfelt thanks to you all.

Tracy has a personalized license plate. One of the things I appreciated about her is that she didn't come in as a "female" rider. Oh sure, she's well aware of her femininity as you can see by the plate. In the class Tracy just wanted to be treated like any other rider. No more, no less. It was funny that in one way she actually acted more like a man. Tracy wanted to take a couple of laps with me on the back of my bike. On the other hand, she really wasn't too wild about being a passenger. We made it work.

Maybe I should offer a quick explanation of my second sentence of the previous paragraph. On the other hand, maybe I'm doing a little jumping into the deep end of my own.

In order to avoid getting in over my head, I'm going to keep this narrowly focused. Men often come in thinking they know more than they do. It's not based on experience. It's based on the fact that, since they're guys, this riding thing should be in their chromosomes. Unfortunately, this common attitude can get in the way of their actually being able to apply themselves to really learning. Women often come in to classes showing the other side of the coin. They've been told that women don't do certain things. Or if they try it, the women will never be as good as the men. Back to the old chromosome thing. What really pisses me off is when a woman's male partner is the one telling her this. AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!

How about this? Everyone comes to class. At the door we strip off all the limiting labels. Starting with an open mind, let's see where we actually end up based on our abilities. I'm pretty sure we'll all be better off for it.

That's why I finally decided to write this post about Tracy. You see, Tracy didn't "know" that our ART class wasn't the place for an inexperienced rider on a small scooter. Nobody told her that she "can't" do this. Tracy came in with no preconceived limits. Her mind was open to whatever the day would show her. What Tracy took away from the class would be based on actual experience. She would try things she might not otherwise. Somewhere in business there's a saying going around. It's something like:

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land high."

So where did Tracy land?

Her maximum braking greatly improved. At first she continually slid the rear tire. The scooter is a three speed with a clutch lever on the left front grip. There's a brake pedal on the floorboard of the scooter. It sticks up fairly high. Properly modulating the rear brake takes some work. Now Tracy knows how to do it right.

She can swerve with the best of them. As far as cornering goes, well, that can use a bit of work still. The Vespa is a three speed. Tracy rarely hit third gear. The scooter had a bit more available than Tracy did. Partly it's experience. Partly it's due to the small scooter. She hugged the inside line a lot. It's hard to just let the scooter aggressively drift out wide on the big sweepers. Tracy would pull off on the front straight to let faster riders by then go after it again.

I believe that Tracy left with a higher skill level than when she arrived. I also feel that she attained a higher skill level than if she'd attended a parking lot based class. Most of the real world happens outside parking lots. Tracy also still has some definite limits. At the end of class she told me that she knows she still has a lot to learn. More than she thought, actually. How does she know? Real life testing.

That's the point I wanted to share. We all need to know where we are in our riding skills. The question to ask is this. Does what we "know" reflect the reality or just what we tell ourselves?

Food for thought, isn't it?

Speaking of food for thought, for the next post I'm turning the keyboard over to Dean. He's going to address a topic that most riders have pretty strong feelings about. You all come back, now, ya hear?

Miles and smiles,

Dan