Hopp Rider Training - a track day of sorts.

[LeeR]

I was recently invited by a police motorcycle instructor, who had conducted the BikeSafe course I'd attended last May, to take part in an Hopp Rider Training (HRT) day held at Castle Combe circuit in Wiltshire.

The course was organised by Avon & Somerset county council in conjunction with their bike initiatives, Ride to Arrive etc... and as such was subsidised by the council, so the price was £99 instead of £150

Yesterday started stupidly early at 0530, leaving the house at 0630 to make the registration time at the circuit for 0745, there was to be a briefing at 0800 detailing track: layout, etiquette, and safety in general, and a brief introduction from Mart' Hopp himself regarding the ethos of the day. He also demonstrated with a 10" bicycle wheel the science behind gyroscopics.

When enrolling for the day we had been asked to select our level of riding (novice/intermediate/experienced) and decide for ourselves which group we would feel comfortable in, the "fast" or the "slow", "A" or "B", green triangles or red?

Knowing my abilities and the fact that I'd never been on-track, nor did I have much desire to engage in a track day, I opted for the "slow" group. The two groups were divided, with the faster of the two scheduled to take to the circuit for instruction at 0900

Things were running a little over-schedule as there were 60 or so riders to process, and bikes to sound check.

Castle Combe has a very stringent noise level policy <105db(A) and even some legal OEM bike exhausts (GSXR1000 K6, '09 R1, '08 CBR1000R) are too loud. At the sound check I was asked to rev my bike to 7,500 rpm, hand on heart I'd never taken it that high in any gear until that moment. Some of the "fast" group riders were fiddling with baffles etc... and some actually went home there and then.

However, for the slower group the day took the following agenda:

Class room session

0900 - HRT instructor talking about dangers on the road, hazards, and the benefits of the right-mindset.

Garage session

1000 - Lifting a dropped bike, using a BMW R1200-RT we were instructed on the safe method for lifting the bike whether fallen on its left-hand or right-hand side.

Essentially put the bike in gear, and depending on whether the bike was on the left-hand or right-hand side deploy the side stand before or after the lift. Pointing the front wheel upwards, place the handle-bar in both hands (if lifting from the right apply the front brake) and walk the bike upright from a squatting position using your thighs to do the work.

Lo and behold everyone who attempted it did so successfully, male/female, young/old, small/large, quite impressive for a bike weighing 230Kg (36st)

Class room sessions

1030 - Kevin Williams, safety columnist with the MAG journal, "The Road".

This involved a short presentation citing various road casualty studies that "conclusively" prove that the majority of motorcycle accidents occurring in urban areas are low speed SMIDSYs and are rarely fatal.

Out of town most accidents involve bends and do result in a high number of fatalities, and this was the target message of the day. Avon & Somerset want to reduce the number of casualties on their roads, so whether you are from the area or ride in the area they wanted to hold an educational day.

We watched the "Perfect day" video (which I'd never watched in full), and engaged in a couple of paper & pen based exercises where we listed the factors in various accident scenarios.

1130 - Gary Bretherton, Avon Tyres UK motorcycle sales manager talked about tyres in general, pressures with regard to track day use, multi-compounds, OEM fitment, replacement market, and generally extolled the outstanding benefits of Avon tyres over their competitors (to be fair he did try not to make it a sales pitch).

Garage session

1200 - Rob Jones (mobile Motorcycle mechanic, BSB/MotoGP scrutineer) explained the benefits of a good maintenance routine (Roadcraft P.O.W.D.E.R principle) and added chain, brakes, and suspension checks for good measure.

1230 - Lunch

Track sessions

1330 - Slow speed control, braking, cornering, and a single lap to return to pits - the slow speed control was essentially a u-turn, well several in succession so effectively turning in a circle. The braking exercises were a little unusual in that we were required to lock up the wheels in turn, first the rear and then the front. There was also a weird exercise where we were expected to hold the front brake on and twist the throttle at the same time until the front locked.

I couldn't do the braking exercises to satisfaction and given that there was only time to try each exercise 3/4 times I had to be content with the example set by the instructor.

To my mind there's just something psychologically inept in doing something so fundamentally stupid, I can see the motivation behind the request though and that was to show those riders who might grab a fistful or stamp on the rear that it's not the end of the world. Personally I think there's no substitute for planning ahead and not being in the position in the first place, but the emphasis of the day was on riders not wiping themselves out on the bends of Avon & Somerset. For this and other reasons I don't really think I was the target demographic, likewise I don't think the IAM members in attendance from Bath and Bristol were either.

I'll give Mart' Hopp his due, he didn't give up and rode my bike locking up the rear on his 2/3 attempt and the front on his 3/4 but only momentarily as the DL has such soft fork springs and weighs so much that you can't put the front on that hard without throwing yourself over the bars. Even he couldn't do the rolling throttle lock-up and reckoned there was something wrong with the bike stating the chain might be too slack... I was confident it wasn't and after the session showed him that the chain was set as per the handbook at 25-30mm adjustment, having being serviced the week before.

We also performed an emergency stop, and because the braking had taken so long we couldn't start the cornering techniques, much to my dissatisfaction. To my mind this was the biggest mistake of the day, and personally we could have dropped one or two of the lapping sessions to accommodate the cornering instruction.

1430 - First Instructor led five laps, swapping second place after each lap for sighting of braking, turn-in, and apex points.

1510 - Second Instructor led five laps, swapping second place...

1550 - First 5 free laps, initial lap led by instructor then free lapping.

1630 - Second 5 free laps, initial lap led by instructor...

By my 20th lap I was fairly bored with going around in circles and hadn't done anything out on track I haven't already done on the road other than try different gears through the chicanes.

So that was it, a very long day with a lot to take in if you hadn't been exposed to the principles before, and as the track group was novice-intermediate not particularly intense.

If I had to recommend the course to people I would do so only if they had never had any advanced instruction, BikeSafe/IAM/RoSPA and so on because the class room sessions were in essence a repetition of the same information.

Also I would only recommend it if the person had never been on a track day or was uncertain as to whether they should go on a track day, after all 10 free laps are probably enough to let you know if you want to do it again.

I'm glad I did it in one respect because I now know for sure that I won't be interested in any further track days, and I didn't have to buy a set of leathers (as we were allowed to ride in textiles because it wasn't a track day) or pay full whack for the privilege.

A couple of nice surprises in the day were that I met the track day photographer, who happened to be the MCN and BIKE journalist Rupert Paul, and Maria Costello (fastest woman to lap the IOM TT) was on hand to add a bit of pro-racer appeal to the day.
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My claim to fame: Austin Vince nicked my pen...

[neil.]

That sounded like a pretty fantastic event.
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[LeeR]

Based on the apparent success of last year's training courses, the Somerset Road Safety Partnership is hosting Motorcycle Training Days at Castle Combe circuit in Wiltshire.

The day costs £99 and will consist of on and off track instruction, and probably a free session at the end of the track based tuition.

As I said last year £99 isn't bad for an introduction to track riding, combined with some BikeSafe/IAM principles in the safety of an off street environment. For me one of the better selling points was the ability to ride in zipped together textiles rather than investing in leathers, though I won't be attending this year.
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My claim to fame: Austin Vince nicked my pen...