Adult Education - Level 2

 

Well, I did say in the last line of THIS post that I would be lining up again as soon as CSS were back in Queensland. 

🫤 

So, throw a worldwide pandemic in there plus a couple of years with shakey income and I did miss their coaching days last year but I am pleased to say that I finally got around to attending California Superbike School Level 2!

I have done a couple of track days in those intervening three and a half years but didn’t feel like I rode very well at all. I was trying too hard to go fast so I didn’t get in anyone’s way and ended up getting tied in knots as a result. I definitely needed help and CSS are definitely here to help!

Same bike but new car and more bikes in the shed. Lucy doing a “Where’s Wally” working on her Z650.

 As per last time I decided to head out to Warwick the night before as it is a two and a half hour drive and the training day starts at 0700. Only thing is Warwick accomodation was completely booked out. Thinking outside the box I grabbed a pub room in Killarney, which is only 30 kilometres from Morgan Park raceway.

I was glad I came up the night before as there were many sections of roadworks where traffic was stopped. Most notably on the climb over the Scenic Rim at Cunninghams Gap. The cloud was on the hilltops here and the temperature dropped nicely as we climbed.

Once I was on the back roads to Killarney there were plenty more roadworks sections but a least it was just me and a big late afternoon sky to contend with.

The Killarney hotel is a cracker, serving great meals in a pretty location. I can’t believe I haven’t stayed here before but it will definitely be on the cards from now on. 

Good clean facilities.

And always crackingly great food!

I turned in early to try to catch up on reading Keith Code’s “A Twist Of The Wrist II” so I would know what we were aiming for tomorrow but I only managed to get a bit over half way through before fading to sleep. Oh, well. Hopefully I got far enough through to cover the Level 2 stuff.

I was up early and on the road by 0545. Despite some big patches of fog, this put me in Warwick in plenty of time to grab a coffee and head to the track. We had to wait until 0700 for the gates to open.

Once in I quickly unloaded the bike and pushed it over to scrutineering. I had pre set the tyre pressures to the 30psi that CSS ask students to run and had taped over my speedo, so it was a super quick job for the scrutineers with my bike.

I bumped into Paul and his beautiful Triumph Daytona at scrutineering. He had been at the last track day I did with my kids. He was doing Level 1 and 2 over the two days. He was already a fast rider who was about to get quicker!

That done, the bike was moved to pit lane and I attached my student number for the day. White for fear? No, but I was a little nervous about the day as I hadn’t done any motorcycling in a few months because it has been so horribly hot here in Queensland. How scratchy would I be?

Instructor bikes lined up.

First up was a briefing on the rules of the day. All pretty standard stuff. Interestingly, as I wrote in my Level 1 post, they must have spelt out the time schedule for the day back then. This time around I had no idea what the schedule was. Maybe I missed it in an email? Maybe they don’t tell us any more? Anyway, it would have been nice to know. We relied on the p.a. announcements during the day to know where we were meant to be.

First up was a classroom session. Level 2’s focus was on vision. Namely, how the eyes actually function and armed with this knowledge, the general gist of the day was on how to look, where to look and where or how NOT to look. 

After the first session on track I felt much more at ease. My new leathers weren’t a distraction (yes, I finally retired my trusty old 1993 Rivet suit!) and I felt comfortable enough on the bike to concentrate on the task at hand. Case, our on track coach, was easy going and helped highlight what was going well and what needed attention during our post ride debriefing session. Only having three students per coach gave them more time to lead then observe during each session.

 After each track session we hustled upstairs into the air conditioned classroom for the next whiteboard session. We hustled because it was HOT today! It was a 34C day and standing around in full leathers for a debrief after each track session had us melting - including the coach. Yep, as soon as they were done with us White group, the coaches were straight back out on track with their Level 1 and 3 students (Level 4 were White group as well) 

No rest for the wicked, as they say.😆

Debriefing with Case - sorry, wasn’t going to pay $20 for that photo!

I must admit it got harder to concentrate as the day wore on due to the heat. I had been guzzling plenty of water and electrolyte all morning. So much so that I really struggled to squeeze lunch in…..but I managed! Lunch was exactly the same as in 2019 - light and healthy.

I felt I was riding much better by the last session after applying the drills we were taught during the day. Actually, probably the best I have ridden for over twenty years in fact! However, I was cooked and was praying for the chequered flag those last few laps of the last session. I did actually consider coming in myself and was therefore mightily relieved when it finally went out! 

My legs were trashed from what turned out to be 170 kilometres of climbing over the bike. That is roughly 56 laps of the full Morgan Park circuit.

My tyres haven’t looked this cooked in over two decades and I felt like I was riding smoothly!

I will definitely be back for Level 3. Hopefully I can bring my kids along for Level 1. I think the Level 1 training is incredibly beneficial to help newer riders have a sound grounding in cornering skills. The higher level increase those skills but are possibly more track focussed.

Anyway, roll on to October!

Cheers.

Tassie Mountainbike Trip 2024

We had so much fun in Tasmania last March that we have decided to try and make it an annual trip. This time around we would be joined by two of our regular riding buddies - Will and Dan. Dan was coming all the way from his new home in Singapore too! That is how good Tassie is.

We had an early flight booked, so it was a pre sunrise departure from home. Checked in nice and early, Dan got us in to the Qantas business lounge for breakfast. Very swish for a pleb like me from the "other airline"!

Then it was onto the aircraft for my first ever experience with Jetstar. The flight was fine but I found the tone of all of their announcements to be quite harsh, treating us like we were children. I wonder if this is because of all the incidents they have with passengers or if this tone is what sets certain passengers off?

Anyway, we arrived in Hobart on time, picked up the hire car and wandered into town for lunch. Our first ride destination was to be Maydena Bike Park but as it was the shoulder season, it didn't open until tomorrow so there was no rush to get to Maydena.

Where else do a bunch of tourists go for lunch in Hobart but Salamanca Place! These old warehouses are now pubs, restaurants or shops and are a must do if you visit Hobart. We settled on Irish Murphys for lunch and a pint. Let the holiday begin!

After lunch we decided to check out some of Hobart's mtb trails. Now, Hobart is built at the base of Mt Wellington so any trails here are going to be steep. We pulled into the car park at the back of the Cascade brewery to reassemble our bikes and figure out where to go. 

Some guys were shuttling up the hill and their driver very kindly offered to shuttle us too. That saved a massive amount of climbing for us.

Unfortunately, we didn't really know where to go but decided "up" must be the right direction. Well, one MASSIVE climb later that led us into a boring but stupidly steep fireroad descent and we decided we needed some local advice. Stopping the next group of locals we learned that we were too far up the hill. We needed to descend, then climb the correct fire trail. We were getting a bit toasted by this stage but eventually found some pretty raw local trails. 

They had some BIG jumps on them that I...errr, eveyrone actually,  was happy to watch Shane ride.

Then it was time to pack the ute, go buy some groceries and head for our accommodation in Maydena.

We arrived in Maydena just after dark and easily found our accommodation. We were staying with a mate of Shane's, Dylan. He is another bike industry dude and his house had just hosted 21 riders for the Red Bull Hardline that had been on the weekend before we arrived. What those riders can do is MINDBLOWING!

Our house on the edge of town.

One of our fridges - pre stocked!

The next morning we were up early and made the short roll out the back gate to the shuttle pick up point at 0930am. It was going to be a cracking day, weather wise but I was a bit nervous as the shuttle takes you to the top of an 820 metre descent and the trails might be a bit above my pay grade.

Looking west at the drop off point.

The trails did turn out to be demanding, needing 110% of your (well, mine anyway) attention to navigate. Well, there were some Green rated trails which were quite easy to ride but I found the jump between Green and the next level up, Blue to be quite a steep. Of course, I rode mostly blue trails with Dan, who is a similarly skilled rider to me while Shane and Will hit the Black trails. It didn't stop me doing a fair bit of puckering though!

Shane doing what he does so well.

We bumped into a mate of Shane's (who doesn't he know in the bike industry?!) who actually built the course for Red Bull Hardline - and he gave us a guided tour of the biggest features used during the race. This photo was at the start gate and dropped off into space..

Then there was a ~6 metre drop off a ramp, into a tight right turn. This photo does NOT do the height or the difficulty any justice. You can tell from the way Dan is scrambling back how steep the ramp is!

Next we checked out the road gap. 

HOLY SHITE!

This drop off a shipping container was MASSIVE. The ramp was 18 metres long and the gap is 17 metres across the fire road, dropping about 7 metres into the catch berm, which immediately turns a hard right.

INSANE !

As we rolled away I had an even greater respect for those dirtbags who actually raced this track.

Dan and I manage to get four shuttle uplifts for the day before they ceased at 4pm (could have got one more but decided to go easy) and we finished the day with a long traversing trail - as opposed to the straight down the mountainside ripping that we had been doing. Outer Limits trail was a bit more like one of the longer trails you find in Derby but it did have some tight, twisty steep downhill shutes to keep you on your toes.

One of the more Derby-esque sections of Outer Limits. (where's Wally?)

Post ride back at Dylan's place, we partook of a cold beer or two while chilling in the "pool". And chilly it was! Dan's watch said it was 19C but it felt far colder than that! On the plus side it cooled our core temperatures down and "ice bathed" our tired legs from a hot day on the bikes. It proved to be the hottest weekend all summer for Tassie, topping out at 34C.

Yes, it is a water tank....but thats all a pool is, right?

There isn't much in Maydena - food wise -but what is there is good enough. We ate at the bike park cafe' both nights of our three day stay. The food was good, as were the beers.

And one of the bar staff was an absolute dead ringer for my son, Will! He even had the same gait as Will. (the IPA in the centre there was delicious!)

We were pretty stuffed so it was early to bed as while a 0930am first shuttle sounds late, it comes around very quickly. We hit some new to us trails today that had me removing my watch, like last year. Yep, the rockiness of the trail (Tea Trees trail) had caused my watch to chew into my wrist again. The watch would stay off for the rest of the trip!

Unfortunately on our second run of the day Dan managed to unclip a pedal on a jump and come down hard on his foot. He didn't crash but he did buckle his ankle pretty bad - putting an end to his riding for the trip.

This meant for me that Will and Shane were trying to talk me into riding with them. Unfortuantely, even if I had the risk profile to ride what they ride, I just don't have the skill to pull it off. I did get some (average) photos of them riding some pretty scary stuff. Shame the photos don't do it justice.

Retiring to the pool/cafe'/beers saw us doing some bench racing by the fire on the deck,which must have been torture for poor Dan. 

Yep, we were blessed with weather this trip. It can be pretty fickle here in southern Tassie.

Our last day in Maydena dawned overcast and thankfully, cool. We were in cloud at the top of the mountain but it was still about 14C, so quite comfortable on the bike. Once rolling down the track we dropped out of the cloud very quickly. Pleasingly, the trail was nice and dry.

We only did a couple of runs this morning as we needed to pack up and hit the road to Derby. Shame, as I was finally getting to grips with the trails here and starting to really have fun and ride better. Derby has much tamer trails so I was looking forward to being able to ride more stuff. I was surprised by the fact that I enjoyed Maydena much more than I expected. Like Arnie says - I'll be back!

Packing two bikes down allowed us to leave two assembled and fit it all in our little mining truck. We got on the road at about 3pm for the 350 kilometre drive.

We arrived in Derby just after dark and quickly found our new Air BNB. Next morning we were out early and Mark, the shuttle-driver-mate-of-Shane's from last year came out from Launceston to join us. After our first shuttle run we rode out to check out the rock drop on the new "Cuddles" trail that had been built last year for the EWS round.

Easier trails?! Check out that DROP!! 

Nah, not for me! 

The boys rode it and made it look easy. The rest of the "Cuddles" trail was actually quite easy and I rode it a couple of times during our stay.

We covered most of the trails on the town side of the mountain during our stay. Slogging up the "Snig" track was hard yakka but near the top it was a pleasant experience in the fern tree forest. From here the trail branched off into three different trails. The three jumpers did "Come a Gutsa" and I did "Kingswall". "Roxanne" would have to wait.

Will getting back to nature

The Kingwall/Return To Sender junction.

The Kingswall trail follows an old aquaduct/water race that was built to supply water to the towns mining operations in the early 1900s. It is a marvel of engineering as it is simply a wall that runs 48 kilometres, with a slight fall all the way to Derby! Imagine engineering that in these wild hills 120 years ago!! Most of the wall is earth or rock wall but some is concrete and rock as pictured below. Simply amazing! More info on Derby's history here.

Kingswall holding tank (?)

Our Air BNB was a cute old cottage set high on the hillside (again!) near the centre of town. Probably not quite as nice as last years cottage but still very bloody adequate! 

Dinner each night was at the Dorset Hotel of course. Bloody good tucker and refreshments!

Dan, Mark and I at The Dorset.

We originally only had two full days in Derby as the hire car needed to be returned to Hobart where the flights were also booked out of. When my roster came out (post everything being booked) I had an extra two days off which I immediately converted to more time in Derby!

"Air Ya Garn"

Checking out the shute on "Detonate"

The last day with the boys was spent squeezing in as many trails as possible.

And grabbing a few action shots.

They even talked me into riding "Shearpin" with them. Waaay above my pay grade but I did ride three quarters of it, just walking the steep, rocky, around-the-corner bits.

Then, it was just me......

Travelling solo now, it was a couple of "Air Ya Garns" to warm up, then I headed off for some Return To Sender and Kingswall action.

Lunch each day had been at the 2 Doors Down cafe' and was delicious and fresh as always.

While dinner was at my new accomodation venue, the Dorset hotel. In case I didn't mention it before....the food here is awesome and the staff very friendly. Highly recommended you check it out if in town.

On my last day I decided to check out the trails on the East side of the lake.

Derby's floating sauna.

 "Wochya Upta" started out ok but turned into a succession of very tight uphill switchbacks. Not much fun to be honest but the view across the lake to town from the top almost made it worthwhile.

The drop back to lake level was over in what felt like 2.5 minutes which was a rip after climbing for 15 minutes or so.

I managed to catch up with a couple of fellow riders, Ken and his wife Bernie, who live about 500 metres from me back in Brisbane and we shuttled the rest of the day away. Ken put together a video of our last run down the hill before I packed the bike up. It is waaay faster than what it looks and you will notice I'm not a jumper. This is the trail where I got some great shots of Shane and Will doing some low flying.....but it's not for me!

Mark had very kindly offered to drive me across to Launceston airport when none of the shuttle companies were interested in taking a solo traveller. Much appreciated mate!

So my time in Tassie had come to an end. If I'm honest, it was more than enough as I was completely buggered! Eight days straight on the bike on demanding trails meant  my legs were sore and I was tired. But I was still in one piece and had had an awesome time! Very important as I had a California Superbike School day booked at Morgan Park the following week!

Again, total ride distance wasn't huge at 192 kilometres but there was a lot of action packed into those kilometres!

The other fellas were a great bunch to travel with and I'm hoping we can do it again soon.

Cheers.