DS Skilz-drill 06 - May 2008 - Recap

‘TIS THE ARC FOR YOU – 2 of 2
What . . . . . . . . . . . .Dualsport Skills Practice, short day
When . . . . . . . . . . . . .Meet Saturday, 10 May, 7:30 AM
Where . . . . . Meet @ BMW Motorcycles of Ventura County

Contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laine MacTague
Registration Fee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10.00

[DSS 06 Outline]

We had an eclectic group at the shop. There were several new riders, and bikes ranged from Rachel's Kawasaki 250 Super Sherpa to Randy Garver's R1200GS Adventure. We lined up and headed for our first drill stop.





In Somis we stopped before a seriously twisty section of road. We talked about cornering, and began the day with a simple on-road drill.






In Santa Paula, before another twisty section, we reviewed the last exercise. Laine added another element to the previous drill, which we practiced in the upcoming curves.






We stopped again in upper Ojai, and added yet another aspect to the cornering drill before the sharply curving descent into Ojai.





The Ojai fuel stop was a good opportunity to relax and mull over what we'd been practicing.







Soon we were knocking on the door of another section of curves; broad, fast sweeping turns this time. We stopped again, reviewed, and added to the drill one last element designed to help us develop comfort and confidence on using multiple methods -- other than the handlebars -- to steer the bikes.





Our next stop was in Santa Barbara. This time, before a section of extremely slow, sharp climbing turns, we discussed how to handle them at slow speed with minimal handlebar input. The Dark Arts of Cornering...




Nearly on overload already, we finally found ourselves leaving the well-groomed slabs of town and city, and climbing into the surrounding mountain range on decreasingly well-maintained roads. Or next stop brought the goal of these drills back to our attention: Controlling the bike off the pavement. Laine instructed us in applying what we had learned seated on pavement, to riding while standing. We practiced this new drill until we left the pavement entirely.


Several riders had never done the slow circle drill Laine often makes use of, so we worked on this for a while, doing slow circles on flat ground, while riders who had done this exercise before attempted something similar on undulating terrain -- which significantly increases the difficulty.








Our last drill involved weaving through cones set in line across slightly rough, loose terrain. Laine modeled the drill for us, weaving through the cones by leaning the bike with very little handlebar movement. We attempted to follow suit, with varying success.







The day gave everyone a lot to absorb; we needed a little recess. Tony & Danny saw just the ticket; a mounded section of ground begging to be jumped off. Both of them seemed to have done this before... although Danny landed a couple of funny ones. Frederic gave it a shot as well, with stellar results. I think this was the first time Fredo ever jumped his bike.










Laine put all rumours of unlimited riding ability to rest with his first landing -







- or he might have just been practicing his crashes; his next try was textbook.







The last lesson of the day was how to get to a great spot for lunch. It turned out to be a considerable challenge; we back-tracked on more than one winding Santa Barbara rural road, looking for a way past multiple road closures. We finally found our way to Peabody's in Montecito. We were so hungry, we forgot the group photo; this is as close as we came:

Thanks for a great day's riding, all! Next time, even more on cornering without the handlebars; we'll cover "backing" in and out of turns...