Well, in a fit of enthusiasm (and in a bid to slay the private dragon that was the Gooseneck) I signed up the other week for the Rider Skills course today at Cadwell. While Sue did the Rider Skills Basic, I was heading out onto the club circuit at Cadwell with a group of 3 others plus an instructor. Last time I was there I ended up in the tyre wall at the bottom of the run-off area down the hill from the Gooseneck, so I was certainly suffering from some trepidation.

The actual machine control skills syllabus was stuff I was already familiar with from many other sources (not least in here) - all stuff I already make use of on the road. It included everything from good throttle control through posture on the bike via braking drills, counter-steering and looking in the correct place right through corners. However, the day was well structured, and the exercises on the track were absolutely invaluable. My group consisted of me on the ST, a newish sunny-Sunday biker on a CBR600 who happened to be an ex cart-racer, a young lary bloke on a new Thundercat who had had a couple of big (big!) accidents already and was there to see if he could avoid any more hospital food, and a 60+ geezer who had only just passed his test on a Yam Fazer. The last of these started out as a danger to himself and others, and finished up the day no less dangerous, since he still didn't seem to have much idea about cornering lines, or machine control and was still weaving all over the shop, albeit at very low speeds¹. The young lad apparently improved a lot over the day (I never got to ride behind him) but was heard to exclaim to me and the CBR600 riding bloke collectively that we were 'f-ing fast', after he failed to keep up with our brisk but not ballistic pace during the various drills, and he seemed to be suffering from a severe lack of confidence everywhere. Me? I got to intensively practice a lot of useful stuff in a safe environment, learn the correct way round Cadwell club circuit in the sunshine, more importantly learnt something about how to learn the correct way round a circuit next time I need to, slay my demon (the Gooseneck), gorilla-snot my rear BT57 on both sides right up to & beyond the edge (though I'm not Nigel so I can't claim to have done the same to the front) and generally had a lot of fun.

Initially we familiarised ourselves with the circuit slowly, in one gear of our choice, without using brakes (except into the hairpin). In subsequent drills, each one focussing on a single aspect of our riding, we picked the pace up gradually. Then we added a second gear, and finally put in braking. I found the circuit flowed much more when I rode it without braking, to the extent that I think I was probably faster riding it without brakes than I would have been if I'd gone straight out and done my usual trick of hammering up to unknown corners on a track, dropping anchor way too hard as a precaution, then going round the corner realising I could have gone much faster. By the time I added brakes into the mix not long before the close of play, I found that the circuit still flowed, I maintained my corner speeds, and I got (even) faster overall rather than slower as a consequence. Judging by the enthusiastic thumbs up signs from the instructor after each of my two-lap spells in front of him, I was doing OK. His help was invaluable on the Gooseneck, though - after I'd consistently drifted wide on the second apex, when I wanted to up the pace there any further I was in danger of running out of track. He had me follow him right up close on a fast pass through that section and together we nailed it! There's a lovely positive camber right on the apex of the left hander which if you hit it holds you on a tight line, but if you are a couple of feet wide a negative camber drags you towards the grass. Once he'd towed me through it correctly, I hit it right every time! Most satisfying!

The sunny Sunday bloke, meanwhile, turned out to have a hidden talent. He was quick all day, both to learn and on the track. Towards the end, when he could run at nearer his own pace, I'd just finished my two laps out front and it was his turn, so I dropped behind the instructor just after the hairpin and he took over. I'd been using first and second gear, for the hairpin and the rest of the track respectively (At 10mph per 1,000 RPM, that gave me a top whack of over a ton so quite rapid enough for the bendy bits. Anyway, into his second lap I was suddenly running out of revs, so I assumed I was still in first, changed up and resumed following him and the instructor. I was a lot more cranked over, the back of the bike was moving about like I was right on the edge of the tyre (which it later appeared that I was) and I was having to boss it about to stop it drifting wide all over the shop, yet I was at the same revs roughly as I'd been on previous laps. I had to heave like buggery to get the bike through the Gooseneck, and the back end shuffled sideways a tad on the way round Mansfield as I followed this guy who had never ridden a bike on the track before, never rode in the winter and had probably done less bike miles in total than I do in 6 months... it was when I got back to the hairpin that I realised I was in third not second... one up for the ex cart racers!

Half a day of this sort of stuff was just right, in my opinion - enough time to achieve, not enough to start to fade. The certificate that comes with passing the course might even get me a discount on my insurance! A highly recommended course, both for learning machine control skills and practising them in a safe environment. I’d commend it to anyone—just look in the back of a copy of Ride Magazine² for details.

Ken Haylock [Sprint ST]