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Lee Parks Total Control
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May 16, 2010 at 9:36 pm #3967ranetteParticipant
Anyone here taken the class? I’m scheduled for next weekend, and will post my thoughts, but was just curious if anybody here had any personal experience.
May 17, 2010 at 3:14 am #26495Gary856Participant#9 in the thread below was my experience:
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=308894
May 28, 2010 at 2:13 pm #26785ranetteParticipantThis class was described to me by someone in my ERC as the step between the ERC and a track school. To prepare for the class I read Lee Parks’ book, Total Control, which was helpful, but not necessary, as a portion of the day is spent in a classroom and the parts of the book that you are going to work on on the range are discussed in depth before attempting them. From reading the book Mr. Parks seems to be, in somewhat equal parts, a motorcycle racer, philosopher, glove designer, comedian, and teacher. The book is well written, and exceptionally detailed. Where David Hough provides a framework to become a good rider, Parks delves into the minutia for those who want to take the next step. If anyone were to pick up the book, or take the class, without being very comfortable with the subject matter in Proficient Motorcycling, I think they’d be totally lost when attempting to absorb what Mr. Parks is attempting to teach; like trying to learn physics without a platform of basic math skills. I have a little under 2 years and about 8000 miles under my belt. There were a few riders with a little less experience than me, however, most had been riding for 5 years or more, some for decades. From my observation riding experience did not correlate precisely to competence in the exercises.
When I arrived in the morning I was surprised to see how many people were in the class, somewhere over 30. However, there were enough instructors that the drills were done in groups of 6. Every exercise we were regrouped so that we were with different students and different instructors through the day. The bikes were a wide range, though the Big 4 were a little under represented. Certainly there were some Ninjas, CBR’s etc, but BMW’s seemed to be the most prevalent, probably more than 10, with a few Ducatis, 5 or 6 Harleys and even an Aprilia Dual Sport. The smallest bike was a Honda Rebel, the largest were a Harley Road King, a beautiful new Goldwing and two BMW K1300’s.
As far as the class itself, when taking the two MSF classes I felt that by the end of the classes I was doing exactly what the coaches wanted me to do(I guess except for “The Box” which I’ve never totally mastered), and felt that I was one of the stronger riders in the group. This class was somewhat different in that I don’t think anybody could have been described as acing every exercise. The skills that you are attempting to learn are very precise and cannot be absorbed in the course of a one day class. You have to look at using the class to gain the basic knowledge to practice these skills and hopefully be able to apply them to your everyday riding. At this point, less than a week after the class I can’t say if I will be able to do that. I intend to, but we will have to see. If I am not able to make these skills part of my muscle memory it won’t be the fault of the class, it will be me taking the easy way out and not practicing what I learned.
The first exercise was trail braking. It was demonstrated to us, applying the brakes while still on the throttle. While waiting in line to perform the exercise it was the first time in quite a while that I had a lump in my throat while riding, probably the first time ever that I was scared while riding in a parking lot. This was contrary to everything I’ve learned, everything I’ve ever practiced. However when I applied the brakes, two fingers on the brakes, two holding the throttle steady, I didn’t immediately fly off, and yes the bike did slow down without the front suspension diving, it was a very cool, natural, feeling. After applying the brakes the next step was to ease off the brakes and accelerate back to our initial speed, this is where my lack of upper body coordination seemed to hinder my progress, but again, we weren’t expected to perfect every exercise that day, it is something to be integrated into your riding over the coming weeks and months.
Trail braking was the only exercise that did not deal very specifically with making a perfect turn, and in fact after the initial exercise braking was not dealt with at all. I believe in the Level 2 class you integrate trail braking into the other things you’re learning.
Whereas the MSF teaches you slow, look, lean and roll. Lee Parks takes it to the next level with ten steps to turning,
1) Reposition your foot to make sure it doesn’t hit the ground.
2) Preposition your body to where you want it to be in the middle of the turn
3) Push on the outside grip to keep the bike straight(since you’re already leaning)
4) Pick the proper turning point
5) Look through the turn
6) Release the pressure on the outside grip
7) Push on the inside grip
Accelerate through the turn
9) Push on the outside grip
10) Return to your neutral positionand that is pretty much how the rest of the class is spent, drills that enforce one or two aspects of the ten steps, then in the second to last exercise putting the skills together, the last exercise being a Figure 8 which necessitated an immediate transition from a left turn to right, and vice versa on the next try.
All in all I would absolutely recommend the class for anyone looking to take their skills to another level. However, I found it to be many steps beyond the ERC. More importantly I found the class very humbling. After the two MSF classes I realized that I wasn’t an experienced rider, but I did feel that maybe I knew more than I didn’t know, even if I didn’t yet have the saddle time to consider myself an experienced rider. This class teaches you that you only know the tip of the iceberg, and though you realize that you can take the next step, you also see that getting to that next level might take more time and practice than you might have imagined. Just before we were to do the final drill, the Figure 8’s, I felt a little discouraged and confused after not doing as well in the previous drill as I might have hoped. An instructor, maybe picking up on my body language, pointed to Christine, the owner of the school, the head instructor and an extraordinary rider. She was off in a corner of the range practicing the Figure 8’s before demoing in front of the class. He also told me that Lee Parks himself came to one of the classes last year, and before he was going to demo the Figure 8’s he went and practiced; the point being that these are very precise, very technical exercises, no matter how skilled of a rider you are, even if you designed the freakin curriculum yourself, these are skills that take continual practice to master. Hearing that was exactly what I needed to hear, to know that maybe I wasn’t perfect, but at least I didn’t suck, and I did manage to correct some errors and negotiate the Figure 8 with some basic level of competency. It ended up being probably the most challenging day I’ve ever had on two wheels, a class that I would absolutely recommend to an intermediate rider looking to upgrade his or her skills.
May 28, 2010 at 3:25 pm #26786IBA270ParticipantI understand Park’s class is really good, and it’s not surprising that you found it a challenge. Everyone does who hasn’t had any REAL advanced instruction. I’ve read Park’s book, and incorporate much of what he teaches in track schools, but also to explain a little to beginning student’s about the physics of what’s going on with the motorcycle and why they do what they do. Just a quick point; it’s Slow/Look/Press/Roll…not lean. You probably learned that you CAN have some impact by leaning, but your precise turning control comes from the press at the proper turn in point.
Trail braking is certainly a more advanced technique and while it’s not (IMO) difficult to learn, it’s key that the rider is confident and smooth in the application of the brake and it is used to scrub speed for a proper entry into a turn and not neccesarily as a quick or panic stop technique. That’s where things start to go very wrong…
Sounds like you had an awesome time! I’m jealous!
May 28, 2010 at 3:44 pm #26787eonParticipantI’ve heard nothing but good things about that class and it sounds like you learned a lot from it. I’m taking a cornering class in a couple of weeks time but it is a different one. The school offered the Lee Parks class and this other one called Advanced Street Skills. I’m not exactly sure what the differences are since they both focus on cornering but I went for ASS. I will be sure to post up my thoughts on it.
May 28, 2010 at 7:54 pm #26797ranetteParticipant“I’m not exactly sure what the differences are since they both focus on cornering but I went for ASS.”
May 28, 2010 at 9:03 pm #26799eonParticipantWell, I half suspect the course name was chosen based on the acronym. The acronym for their cornering technique is SMART and the website used to talk about becoming a SMART ASS but they have removed that now. Twas a bit cheesy.
Looked up the details of this course again. It was designed by the founder of the training company (Puget Sound Safety) and this guy has an impressive resume. He is a certified Total Control Advanced Riding Clinic Lead Instructor along with a lot of other credentials (including many offroad ones). My impression is Total Control is focused on how to take the perfect corner and this one I believe takes into account situations you face out on the streets. The techniques will be the same (I would think) but presumably more attention is paid to leaving yourself safety margins, dangers you face on the street etc.
Whatever it is, I am sure I am going to learn plenty from it and cannot wait.
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