Colorado Motorcycle Training on Closed Track

[Fried Chicken Blowout]

Hello all! As part of getting back into riding after 20 years of not riding, my plan has been to get more training than most. In those last 20 years I've worked as a paramedic in major cities as well as rural and suburban areas in southern and central California, in both ground and flight operations. Nine years ago I became an ER nurse. So clearly I've seen the results when things go bad on motorcycles and ATVs. As a result of this knowledge I didn't want to cut any corners on training. And even more importantly my wife, also an ER nurse, is joining me and has learned to ride. She's never ride before so I wanted to set her up for success.

Even with still having my endorsement, we both took the basic riders course last year with Thunder Mountain Harley Davidson (TMHD). The class was very well done and much needed for me to get back up to speed riding. TMHD was chosen to give my wife the feel of a larger bike during her training. They use the HD Street 500 bikes which weigh in at a hair under 500 pounds. Their instructors were great and they run a nice program. It's not a "pay and pass" situation, they failed a few people during the class that weren't picking things up as well as they should. These folks then got some private lessons between then and the next class so they could rejoin the next class at no additional cost. My wife had no issues passing and we were up and running.

After that I got a Triumph America and my wive got a Honda Shadow 600 to start off. This year I made to jump to the Vaquero and my wife took over the Triumph. Wanting to get us both some more training to assist with the jumps in bike size and weight I stated looking at classes. There is of course the opportunity to take the BRC2 class from about a dozen places in Colorado, but I was hoping for something a little different. What I found was a class offered by the Ricky Orlando Motorcycle School in Dacono, Colorado.

Ricky is highly active in Motorcycle Roadracing Association (MRA) here in Colorado as well as AMA Superbike, holding the record for the most laps ever completed by a single rider at the Daytona 200 in his 26 times competing in the race. Ricky offers a wide range of classes from basic to full race prep classes for those that want to or already road race. After talking with Ricky over the phone we identified what I was really after was his Real World Riding Course, rather than the regular BRC2 at this point.

Ricky's website is a little light in information about this class so here's what he told me over the phone that helped me decide this was exactly what I was looking for... The class is taught over 5 hours on a closed race track at the IMI Motorsports Complex on their 1 mile road course. Your own bikes and gear are required for this course. The class can be setup by one student, but Ricky reserves the right to add 1-2 more students to your date if he can. If you sign up for two people he indicated that he would leave it private which is what we did. Course times are 7:30am to 12:30p to avoid as much of the other users as you can. The track does open at 10am but during the week there's very limited use and we didn't see anyone else on the track till about noon. Registration is done through his website and we worked together to pick a day that worked for everyone. Ricky was flexible with dates and had to push us twice due to weather issues but was good with communication when that occurred.

On the day of our course we arrived in all the safety gear required that we use anyways. We started the classroom with he typical waivers and then talked about gear choices as well as the overview of the class. Then we discussed what we believe is our own weak points in riding. The class is built around what we feel we need to work on as well as information that riders need to improve their riding safety. What I identified that I wanted to work on was my confidence in tighter corners with the bigger bike, proper head position while cornering and emergency maneuvering to include braking. My wife felt that she needed as much information as she could get so was open to anything that could increase her confidence as well as identifying her need for emergency braking practice.

On the first time out on the track he led the way pointing out the lay of the land and any safety issues that we needed to be aware of on the track. We did a couple laps that way getting a feel of how the pavement was and how the track was laid out. Then he signaled for us to follow his line exactly as he was demonstrating the proper line for the entire course. We did this for a few laps, picking up speed with each lap and then came back into the classroom.

He then talked about proper use of counter steer, body position and of course head position throughout the turns. At this point body position was limited to some shoulder movement and exaggerated head position with your nose being pulled into the corner. We then headed back out on the track for more laps with him in the lead, again picking up some speed. Each time we went out my wife and I would swap positions as to who rode directly behind Ricky. After several laps working on what he'd talked about in the class last time, it was time to head back and get more information.

This time it was more about body position, proper braking, lean angle and more information on entry, apex and exits of corners. Ricky was breaking ground on shifting the entire body around off to the side of the seat to the inboard side as a way to increase control in orders similar to what they do in road racing, but clearly not as dramatic on a 835# bagger with footboards... But back out on the track we went, increasing some speed again and with me dragging my foot boards on several corners as we went, tightening up the corners. In the 1000 miles I'd ridden the new-to-me Vaquero, I'd not touched down the footboards, so that was a significant change in lean angle.

After getting back in the classroom and talking more about some other concepts we headed back on the track for more laps but this time, he had all the corner entries, apexes and exits marked with cones for reminders and we were on our own to run some laps at our comfort level as he watched from the center of the track and gave input after every three or so laps. This was where I realized that an 835 pound bike with my 200 pounds on it really feels heavy when you head into a corner off the back straightaway and have to hall that much weight down to a proper entry speed. Now keep in mind, I'm no road racer and I'm pretty conservative, so I'm sure it felt like warp speed to me and likely looked like I was crawling around to Ricky. But after three laps I had my wife asking how I was almost able to lap her and there was smoke coming off my front brakes. And for those that are interested, I wasn't ever aware of any brake fade during the laps. I'm sure Ricky could have hopped on a 250cc training bike and lapped me without breaking a sweat...

Most of the mistakes I was making, I was aware of in real time and then compared my feelings with Ricky during the feed back sessions and got pointers and then went back out for a few more 3 lap rounds. Since we were on our own we could go at our own comfort level which worked out well for my wife who was breaking new ground, dragging the kick stand on the Triumph in corners.

After this session on the track it was back into the classroom to talk about emergency braking and then out to the standard BRC training area for emergency braking drills to end the riding portion of the course. We concluded the course with a discussion about traffic safety and defensive riding as well as some pointers on bike setup with us making some changes to my wife's bike to better fit her.

Ricky has clearly been doing this a long time. His use of intervals on the track was just the right amount of time, each time out to avoid fatiguing. It actually turns into a lot of work to think about what you're working on and concentrate about it all while working though that many corners on a tight track. After about 3 laps you needed a little rest to stay sharp. My wife being so new didn't have any issues working on what was asked of her, but admitted it was a lot to think about. Over all the class was very well run with very little down time and we actually went over time as I came up with a bunch of question about defensive riding. We'll be back using this class as a yearly refresher and maybe mixing in a BRC2 class as well at times.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask. Thought I would cover my experience here since I've not seen any similar classes to this.