Experiences

A day at the range

The first real day of the Motorcycle Rider Course

Butterflies were engaged in a battle royale, a caged wrestling match in my stomach, as I drank my first cup of coffee at 6 a.m. that Saturday. "Today, I ride!" I kept repeating myself.

Wrong.

I should have told myself "today I push!", because that is exactly what happened after we chose our bikes, a Brazilian Honda Titan ES in my case. I pushed it, along with the 9 other pupils and the two instructors for hundreds of yards until we were at the other parking lot where we would learn.

"I'm never going to run out of gas," I promised my body, getting soaked in sweat despite the fact it was not yet 8:15 a.m.

And then we pushed some more.

We pushed our partner, who was astride the little Honda, Suzuki GN125 or Kawasaki Super Sherpa, and after half a dozen powerful strides extended our arms as strongly as we could. The partner, handlebars swinging madly at first --an ultra-low speed tank slapper? -- then got the hang of balancing the silent motorcycle and stopped smoothly before the end of the run, using both brakes of course. Once our feet were off the pegs, we had to get off the bike, push it around and do it again in the other direction.

Then we pushed even more.

Same exercise but this time there was a right turn to make soon after the push.

And then, after yet another push, a left turn to make. Repeat as necessary.

It's only then that we learned about FINE-C, that we actually started the bikes (Finally!), and learned the fine art of releasing the clutch and discovering that friction zone is not what happens at home after your spouse catches you eyeing an attractive specimen of the opposite sex.

Ten bikes wide, each in a parking spot --the range is an otherwise deserted parking lot-- and four double parking rows deep, we then had to take off in first gear and stop smoothly at the end. Then came the 1-2 upshift, followed by the 1-2-1 downshift. Repeat as necessary.

Did I mention that after each stop, we had to dismount, and turn the bike around by pushing it?

The instructors then set up a course, which included 90 degree turns, left and right, a serpentine, a slalom, two circles which we had to go around one and a half times, as well as a straight section where we were free to explore the second gear and I experienced the thrill of perfectly matching the revs on the downshift. (Driving a five-speed sports car every day was a definite advantage for me.)

I felt that I truly became one with the clutch

Then, we were told to go around exactly the same course, but at slow, very slow speed, below walking pace, by feathering the clutch and keeping a steady hand on the twist grip. "Why do we have to do that?" asked one of the four women in our group. "Because, in a crowed parking lot, if you paddle with your feet, you look like an idiot!" was the meaning of the instructor's answer. His actual words were, however, that more experienced motorcyclists behind you will think that you don't know how to ride.

It was for me a Zen-like moment, where I felt that I truly became one with the clutch.

The next part was the most fun. The instructors set up what they call a "peanut course", which had a combination of tight turns, sweepers, a decreasing radius curve and one straight part where I would have put it in third gear if the middle-aged man in front of me had figured out that there is something called "brisk acceleration."

Thus ended the my first day on a motorcycle, the fine art of threading the chin strap through its D-ring in less than five minutes, and learning that all the vents of a $499 Shoei X-Tec helmet (second model from the top of the line) are useless if you're not moving. I drank three litres of water that day.

On to day three of this course.