hooligan
23-02-2012, 01:19 PM
Just wondering if anyone has done one?
My brother and I went last Wednesday (him for his birthday, and me cause I've always wanted to.
When I broke my scaphoid 6 years ago, it changed the way i positioned myself on the bike. And when I had the big crash in 09 and broke femur tib and fib in my right leg, it really changed how i rode.
When i was at nfr, any corner that vaguely resembled the one I crashed on (i.e, a sheer drop on the outside of the corner) i felt the panic rising.
I wanted to feel loose and relaxed on the bike again.
Unlike a track day, where you ride for 15, then kill time for 45 until the day ends, at the CSS you are active all day.
A theory lesson for 20 or 30 mins where they teach you an aspect of riding, then kill time for about 10 mins, then on the track for 15 or 20 to practice the riding drill given to you in the theory class.
On track, they have an instructor who looks after about 3 riders. They follow each rider for a bit, then make you follow them as they walk you through the drill (using hand signals). Once you are both satisfied that you are getting it mostly right (again, hand signals), you keep doing laps until the checkered flag to end your session.
Once you pull in, you go straight over to your on track instructor, and have a debrief session, what was easy, what was hard, and get instructed on what to try next time. Then you head to the classroom for the next bit of theory, and rinse and repeat until the day ends.
A lot of what you learn is what other people have already told you before, but they explain WHY things are important, in terms of thought processes and the basic physics of riding a bike. Once I understood why certain things were important, and given a drill to practice that piece of information, things came together really easily.
By the end of the day, i was a lot faster and smoother, and with less effort.
I got what I wanted from the first level, more relaxed, like how I used to feel on a bike before breaking things. Well worth the price of admission.
My brother and I went last Wednesday (him for his birthday, and me cause I've always wanted to.
When I broke my scaphoid 6 years ago, it changed the way i positioned myself on the bike. And when I had the big crash in 09 and broke femur tib and fib in my right leg, it really changed how i rode.
When i was at nfr, any corner that vaguely resembled the one I crashed on (i.e, a sheer drop on the outside of the corner) i felt the panic rising.
I wanted to feel loose and relaxed on the bike again.
Unlike a track day, where you ride for 15, then kill time for 45 until the day ends, at the CSS you are active all day.
A theory lesson for 20 or 30 mins where they teach you an aspect of riding, then kill time for about 10 mins, then on the track for 15 or 20 to practice the riding drill given to you in the theory class.
On track, they have an instructor who looks after about 3 riders. They follow each rider for a bit, then make you follow them as they walk you through the drill (using hand signals). Once you are both satisfied that you are getting it mostly right (again, hand signals), you keep doing laps until the checkered flag to end your session.
Once you pull in, you go straight over to your on track instructor, and have a debrief session, what was easy, what was hard, and get instructed on what to try next time. Then you head to the classroom for the next bit of theory, and rinse and repeat until the day ends.
A lot of what you learn is what other people have already told you before, but they explain WHY things are important, in terms of thought processes and the basic physics of riding a bike. Once I understood why certain things were important, and given a drill to practice that piece of information, things came together really easily.
By the end of the day, i was a lot faster and smoother, and with less effort.
I got what I wanted from the first level, more relaxed, like how I used to feel on a bike before breaking things. Well worth the price of admission.