Last Sunday was the "Best Of The West", a drag race, bike show and skills course over at the Speedway out in Irwindale, California. From the parking lot we were able to see flames from the SoCal fires as well as smell the smoke. Combined with the 110 degree heat, it made for a macabre setting.
Anyway attendees could enter their bike in a show, drag race, or run the skills course. For the skills course they had myself from Ride Like A Pro West Coast and Dominic Schreiber and Dave Fuller from Shiney Side Up Expert Motorcycle Training. Both Dom and Dave are motorcops with the LA Sheriffs office. It was basically the "Eliminator" course from motor school. It's a slow speed course with an ideal finishing time between 2 to 2:30. The slowest rider wins. The three of us ran riders through it and gave them tips and instructions. Some did GREAT, others not so. The course was designed for police bikes, so it was always entertaining when a sport bike tried it. One guy on a GSX 600 tried it and could not make the full lock tight turns. Now I know the bars on GSX 600 don't turn much anyway and the frame geometry is not designed for those tight turns, but I jumped on the bike anyway to "show him how it's done". Well I couldn't do it either. So Dominic says to me, "Mark you didn't take the correct angle on the turns, let me show you how it's done". Well he couldn't do it either. So Dave says, "Guys, I ride sport bikes, let ME show you how it's done". Well he couldn't do it either. Everyone was laughing at the "3 experts". Finally a rider who owns no car and is on a bike 100% of the time tried it. He made it. It was ugly looking but he made it. He won the trophy for the sport bike category. The winner for cruisers did it in 5:38 seconds on a Harley Softail. He will need a new clutch.
Well the crowds were smaller than expected, probably due to the fires, so we didn't sell any DVDs. I may get a few sign ups for up coming classes though. But all was not a loss. We had a fun time playing with the course. Most of the time I rode my Ultra and Dom was on his Dyna. But by far the most popular bike was one of my KZ1000 police bikes. Everyone had a ball riding that thing. We even caught a "Chippie" riding his BMW through the course. He snuck in when we weren't looking, So I let him ride by then I knocked a cone down behind him. As he made his way to the end I yelled "Hey, what happend here?". He turned his head to look at the "fallen" cone......and knocked over two of the exit cones. His partner busted out laughing along with the rest of the crowd.
By 1:30 the heat was getting to most folks and the small crowd made the vendors start leaving early. But it wasn't a total loss. There should be a picture of me on my Ultra riding the course in an upcoming Thunder Press.
Mark
Real learning begins after you know everything.
