Today started like any given Sunday. I was up long before the sun and putzing around on my computer. I don't know what made me think of it; but, I remembered that the Ride like a pro course was somewhere in Florida. I wanted to take this course, so I looked it up. I was shocked to find that the course was being taught by Jerry Paladino himself, right here in New Port Ritchie. OK, what dates are available? I know that course sometimes has a waiting list. What? Today? It's 8am, what time do they start? 9!!! It's only 6 miles away. I can easily make that.
I paid the $175, showered, got gas and made it to the site without any problems. I was early and there was only 1 other guy there, other than Jerry. I found out there were a couple cancellations due to weather. Weather!! It was 65 degrees and misting. The pavement was wet, but please, weather? Anyway. Jerry looked at my bike and said with radials on, I should be fine.
The day starts with the slow ride. Andy, my class mate, was riding a new Harley Street Glide. He went in front of me. We both rode pretty slow, so much so that Jerry said that was enough of that. Time to move on.
The second exercise is the cone weave. At the end, there is a U-turn. This was pretty easy also; although Jerry noted that I lean with the bike. He said fine at high speeds, not good at low speeds. I need to counter lean. Fair comment. After doing several of these, we moved on.
I noted as we were going that we were constantly going through the exercises. In a class of 12, there would have been a slower pace and not as much individual attention.
So far, so go. We took a break and when I took my riding jacket and helmet off, I realized I was soaking wet from sweat. Your body is working harder than you think. I couldn't stand to put the jacket on it was so wet. I turned it inside out and hung it over a chair to dry. I grabbed my Harley rain jacket and mounted up.
About this time, Donna, Jerry's wife arrived. She's a pretty fantastic rider. She can out perform probably 80% of the rider s I know at slow speeds on a big bike. She would help demonstrate many of the things we would do.
Next up, offset gates. Think of these like switch backs, only they are staggered and you have to turn nearly 270 degrees to get back far enough to get to the next gate. It is an absolute requirement that you don't pay any attention to the gate you're going through. Your eyes need to be on the next gate. Of course, as we got better, the gates became smaller. We would do gates for the rest of the class.
The next exercise is the clover leaf. We did a couple with a full circle in them. This is where things start to get tough. Andy dropped his bike twice in the clover leaf. I came close countless times. It's very hard. It's all about friction zone, and focusing on where you want to go. Some time in here, Donna started shooting video and sometime after that, Jerry started leading all 3 of us into the cloverleaf at the same time. This made me very uneasy. Oh, I forgot to mention that after the first couple rounds, Jerry made the entry gate very narrow. There was no way to swing wide. After this, we moved on to the circles. There were 3 consecutive circles - 24 feet, 22 feet, 18 feet. Andy got through all 3 without problems. I did not. The 24 foot circle was easily doable. 22 feet was where the trouble started. I almost dropped my bike several times and exited prematurely. It took many many evolutions to get comfortable with the 22 foot circle. It's very tight. It was at this time that I learned that I really needed to use the rear brake to make this circle. At some point, we stopped and took another break.
Next up, we did the emergency swerving exercise. At 20 mph, we had to emergency slow and take evasive action around a clover leaf. This was simple. I feel like I could have done it twice as fast.
Next up, the competition. The idea was to do the clover leaf as quickly as possible. Donna did it in 23 seconds, Andy 26.something and me, 26. something, with a 1 second penalty because I touched a cone. I actually did it twice because the first time, I was a full second behind Andy. Andy gets the best rider trophy. Pretty funny for a guy that dropped his bike three total times during the class.
After this, we were done. Jerry asked if we wanted to stay and work on anything and I said that I definitely wanted to go back to the circles. They were frustrating me. Finally, I was able to consistently get the 22' circle. My handlebars were at the post though. About the 10th time trying to get the 18' circle, I drove the bike into the pavement. I simply stepped off the bike as it went down. It's a horrible noise and I was wondering how much damage there would be. I had crash bars on the front and the rear. Now was the test. I uprighted the bike and had significant gouges in the crash bars and one dinged panel toward the top of the bike. Ughhh. Well, clearly, the bars just paid for themselves. The last time I dumped the bike, it cost $1500 to fix. If I want to fix the one panel, it will cost about $150 bucks. Not to be one to give up, I got back on the bike and kept trying. Finally I got it. I made it all the way around the 18' circle. Over the course of the 4 hours, I made the 18' circle maybe 3 times. It's very hard and I need more practice. I'm sure the bike can do it. It's the rider that needs work.
When we got done, Jerry said I did a great job. He said the last guy that came though on a K16 couldn't do the offset gates at all an that this bike is a handful. He said the light flywheel makes things very difficult. He said if you notice, there are no BMWs seriously competing in motorcycle rodeos. He said the LT's were much worse. He also said that Gold Wings were easier to ride in this course.
Jerry and Donna offer 50% off if you take their course a second time in a year. I definitely will and I will probably take it more than one more time. As long as I'm so close by where they train, I will keep coming back. At $175, it is well worth the investment.
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