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.