CLASS Motorcycle Schools

A good letter that's too long for the regular feedback page...

Reg, Gigi, and all the CLASS Instructors:

Even though I have only attended a grand total of three CLASS events, I would like to say thank you for providing such a wonderful atmosphere to learn, and most importantly providing a TECHNIQUE format instead of just an all out racing format.

As someone who has been a professional motorcycle technician I can speak first hand of what it’s like to rebuild wrecked bikes. The bike tells a forensic story of the crash, and it is pretty amazing what it reveals. More times than not, I could observe conditions on the bike that told me the rear wheel locked, the front wheel locked and tucked, grabbed too much throttle, tire was underinflated and rolled over, or what have you. It is these observations that began my thinking “boy if this guy had just not grabbed a handful, this bike wouldn’t be wrecked” and it made me change my riding style to experiment with being smooth and progressive, rather than point and shoot, more than two decades ago. You have taken that thinking to championship levels, and it was very gratifying to see that I was not the only one that noticed this type of riding practice works REALLY well in a very broad spectrum of conditions.

Amazingly, all the things I have told my wife for more than a decade about how I noticed how smooth inputs instead of ham fisted yank and twist methods make riding so much more enjoyable (and much less eventful) is exactly what you spoke about in my very first classroom session. I grinned to myself and thought, this is going to be good because we are thinking the same way, lets see where this goes. Little did I know how much putting those skills to practice on the track, with the guidance of the instructors, would make for such an amazing improvement in my day to day riding skills. Admittedly, it took my first painful “get off” to finally push me to the point of attending, and in retrospect, probably something that could have been avoided had I attended sooner.

One thing that you pointed out, and I can’t agree more, is understanding how YOUR motorcycle communicates with YOU. You must have a symbiotic relationship with your bike if you are going to push the edge and do so in a controlled manner. Knowing how to interpret the information your bike is giving you is vital to surviving, and more importantly knowing it’s warning you things are getting out of shape and you are too close to the point of no return. As my speed picked up through the day, my bike gave me a little wiggle where it hadn’t earlier in the day, and it was clearly not a happy wiggle. I slowed my pace just a fraction, and all was in sync again. I knew this little wiggle meant my suspension needed a tweak, so I took that follow through lap a little slower, pulled off, added a couple clicks in the right spots, re-checked tire pressures and went on my way for the rest of the day to great success. Had I not been paying attention, or not been practicing the level of control you drill in the classroom, I could have easily dismissed that situation as nothing, and ended up in a nasty situation.

I would really like to thank both the Phil’s, the big one for scolding me at my very first class session for not letting my tires warm up enough, and chasing me relentlessly during the last session at Willow this time. The Phil from across the pond for making me chuckle in my helmet as I chased him on that commuter bike at ballistic missile speeds around the track, but at the same time showing me the “tight line” at race pace.

Every CLASS event has improved my skills exponentially, but I still have more work ahead. So see you soon, but next time I will be in my new ZOONI Leathers!

Marcus D.

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