Saturday, 12 Jul 2014
Markus writes:
Short version
TL;DR four SMBC members had a great time acquiring new skills on and off road and got home with a great sense of accomplishment but dead tired.
Pics from Dimitry and Dave
Details
Although this wasn’t strictly an SMBC event, I think it qualifies since the majority of participants were :) When I got there at 8:00 am I was surprised to see Dave Gallegos and Jerry Grainger. Dimitry had already said he was going to come, but Dave didn’t want to go since it was going to be too hot. In addition to the SMBC contingent there was one other Bay Area rider (Andy?) and two guys who had ridden up from San Diego for this class. One of the two is a retired marine and MSF instructor. Our instructors were two retired motor officers and motor officer trainers: Herb Fuentes and Steve Schriber.
After and an hour of lectures about general riding techniques and road safety and some strong coffee we moved out to the range. Everybody had opted to fork out the additional 50 bucks to rent one of the police training Suzuki DR650 except for Dimitry who brought his own DR650 (but he has a bigger tank).
First order of business was to get familiar with the bike: We did some controlled stops and some easy turns. After that we moved to lane exercises: One lane was about 12 feet wide and we initially skipped one lane to make relatively easy U turns from lane 1 into lane 3 which is the equivalent of making U turn on a relatively normal, wide street. After everybody got comfortable there, the turning radius got tightened and we turned into the adjacent lanes. This would be the equivalent of making a U turn on a narrow two lane highway like Tunitas Creek or Redwood Gulch Rd. To mess a bit with us, at some point one of the instructors decided to park his bike right at the apex of the turn. The parked bike proved to be a big distraction and caused you to fail the turn if you looked at it at all. Only ignoring it and focusing on the exit would get you through.
Our instructors weren’t too happy with our clutch control, so they devised a quick exercise: Ride up an incline next to an instructor walking up. This required maintaining good RPMs while feathering the clutch and staying balanced. I believe although all these exercises were on pavement, they were excellent preparation for what was to come later. The type of turning you do in the dirt is very similar to what we were doing in the parking lot exercises and proper clutch control is crucial when traction is limited.
Eventually we got better at it and moved on to riding figure eights in “the box” and warming up to the “eliminator”. “The box” is essentially a rectangle about two parking spaces wide and twice as long. Squeezing in a figure eight transition into that space requires making good use of the available real estate and good front wheel placement when initiating the turn. The “eliminator” is a totally different kind of beast: Imagine four adjacent parking spaces, only a little bit longer. You have to make three consecutive U turns in that space essentially riding a big “W” and coming out the opposite direction you rode in. Not putting a foot down and maintaining speed through that while going slow enough to make these tight turns proved quite a bit of challenge. I think it is fair to say that nobody had an easy time through this. Most of us got through with putting a foot down here and there, but there were also a few dropped bikes. Dave had a really hard time with the tall DR650s since he could only tiptoe on his. He made the mistake of trying to save the bike and preventing a fall when turning too slow in the box. That cost him a sprained thumb and put him out of commission for the last bit of the morning.
After a one hour lunch break we regrouped and worked on the box and eliminator some more. Then we moved on to braking exercises. Apparently proper threshold braking is a perishable skill and needs constant practice. We started at slower speeds (20 mph) and worked our way up to about 35 mph. At target speed (we were clocked with a radar gun) at a set point, we were asked to apply a bit of rear brake while gradually increasing front brake pressure as weight shifted to the front and the forks got compressed. Safety rules: If locking up the rear brake, don’t release and ride it out. But when you feel the front end going, immediately release the brake and reapply. This sounds like a simple exercise, but to get the most stopping power out of your brakes requires quite a bit of modulation and developing a feel for the edge of traction.
Then we got to what we were waiting for all day long: We did some “follow the leader” riding out into the 200 acres of open country by the training facility. Some easy trail with rolling hills along the perimeter of the training grounds. When we got to a steep incline there were three cones set out along the trail. The first exercise was to learn how to stop properly on an incline when traction is limited. Stop at each cone and then take off again until you reach the top of the hill. Same thing down again. And then as an additional complication: Park the bike at the middle cone and get off it. This required learning proper positioning to get the ride amount of weight on the sidestand. Rule of thumb: On the uphill have the bike slightly turned left, on the downhill slightly right. That will increase the lean angle of the bike a bit making it more stable.
Next was a bit more of trail riding until we got to a concrete drainage ditch. What now? Go around? No way, we were taught how to make it through easily: Approach at an angle of about 45 degrees, get out of the saddle and let the bike roll through the ditch under you. It looked harder that it actually was and nobody had any real problems getting through.
Next problem: What do you do when you’re on a steep incline when you find out you can’t go on (obstacle, etc.) and need to turn around? The answer is called the “K” turn and is essentially like a 3 point turn with the engine turned off and leaning into the hill, then maneuvering the bike with front brake and clutch (compression braking) until it is perpendicular to the hill. The last step is to turn the front wheel downhill and start riding again.
Some more dirt riding followed including a steep oval where you had to give quite a bit of throttle to keep momentum to make the grade. While intimidating, this was also a lot of fun and nobody had real problems there. Jerry really shined here and looked like he was born a dirt biker :)
After a bit more of trail we got to another dirt exercise area where we split into two groups: One group did ovals and figure eights on an incline while the other group worked on snaking their way up the hill in serpentines (switchbacks). I got real respect for Jerry’s riding skills here. He rode some of those turns in slow motion. Almost stopped. But not falling and no feet touching the ground. Jerry, have you ridden trials before?
Towards the end Andy dropped his bike on the switchbacks. That event was used to demonstrate how to properly pick up the bike in loose stuff on a hill: You leave the bike lying down and drag it by the front or the rear until it lies perpendicular. Then you have to use a lot less force to get it upright and it won’t threaten to roll away from you either. After the demonstration the instructor dropped the bike again for Andy to pick up his bike :)
When my group, the SMBC group, got to the switchbacks, I followed other participants and dropped my bike too. I guess it was a long, exhausting day. Time wise we were close to the end anyway, so we rode back to the exercise area for a bit more rough gravel, ruts and some logs to make it over. Then we really called it a day, parked the bikes and went for the wrap up.
Great experience and good exercise. I hope I will get more of this type of riding in the future.