March 2009 Ride Recap
Our ride for March was our “NOW FAMOUS” safety ride training, instructed by our own Vince Greva. If you happen to be reading last year’s ride recaps you will notice that we had a training day that we didn’t get to finish. So I think Vinnie was more determined to show us some things that we might have missed last year.
We previously marked the course off the week before, so setting up was real quick and simple. New and regular members were greeted with a course that would test the skills of the most experienced riders out there.
This year’s course consisted of – a 12ft weave cone pattern, a 10ft weave cone pattern, a 20 & 24ft square for a full lock u-turn, a 4ft wide slow speed straight, a high speed stop area and my favorite an “S” shape turn that started on a hard left then an immediate full lock right turn that is only 4ft wide. The purpose of this last one was so we can get used to making a quick right turn after a slow left turn. No big deal you say? Well Vinnie talked a lot about muscle memory and how we get used to doing things that don’t take any thinking because our muscle memory
takes over for us. During this exercise we found out while turning left
slowly is not hard and then to have to turn suddenly in a full lock right
hand turn, well let’s just say most of our muscle memory was just that a
memory.Earlier I referred to this safety training course a “NOW FAMOUS”, I say this because chapters all over hear about what Vinnie puts us through every year. And because of this we put on a safety training course for Chapter 422. Just like us 109’rs they realized just how much they needed this.
At first the sight of safety cones spread 10ft apart started to make them nervous. They were relieved
when
we separated the cones apart to help them get started. I must say by the end
of the day they had this course licked. Weaving in and out of the cones was
not a problem. Finding and using the friction zone was much easier by the
end of the day. High speed stops was something else. It seems for both
chapters that some of the simplest things are the hardest to do. Don’t get
me wrong, high speed stops are not simple, they just look simple. We can say
that 422 hold the record for the longest skid during a safety course. No
names here just look for a Royal Star that is Blue with a big flat spot on
his rear Avon tire.
Thanks again Vinnie for reminding us just how important skilled riding is in today’s world of hurry, hurry, cell phones and basically people not paying attention.
The phrase of the day was “RIDE LIKE YOUR INVISIBLE”, very good.