- This topic has 1 reply, 2 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 12 months ago by RydRy.
My Thoughts from the ERC
-
AuthorPosts
-
April 28, 2008 at 4:52 pm #1310MattParticipant
My Thoughts from the ERC
This past weekend my Mother and I attended the Ottawa Safety Council’s (OSC, part of the Canada Safety Council, or CSC) Experienced Rider’s Course (ERC, is that enough acronyms yet?). I believe MSF (nope, one more acronym) has something similar; the OSC’s gearing up course was the foundation of the original MSF course, and the two still work closely.
The course itself normally consists of a two to three hour in class presentation on a weeknight, followed by a day of riding in a parking lot on the weekend. This time however, due to instructor availability, we only had the hands-on portion of the course (which didn’t seem to bother anyone). The course is targeted at people who have completed the Gearing Up course, or otherwise been riding for awhile now. They go through many of the same exercises that are done in the introductory course, although this time you have to ride your own bike. Many students take the course at the start of every season as a refresher, and many take the course every time they buy a new bike as a way of familiarizing themselves with how the new bike handles in emergency situations.
The Instructors
I was, once again, blown away by the quality of the instructors. They were they because they loved it, and it showed. All had been teaching for at least 8 years, and most had been riding for more than 20 years. They were exceptionally good at teaching, pointing out corrections, and ensuring everyone was being safe while having fun. I simply can’t say enough good things about the way the course was taught and the people who did so.The Students and the bikes
We had quiet the collection of riders and bikes. One guy had 48 years of riding experience. Another had ridden all through the seventies but got out for the sport after a crash and had recently gotten back into it. A number of people had 2-5 years of riding experience. And a handful of us were on our second season, and were here to refresh what we’d learned from the first course, as well as learn our new bikes.The collection of bikes was equally diverse. There was a 1975 Moto Morini 3 ½ (a 350cc Italian café racer) and a 1976 BMW GS 90 (also a café racer conversion). There were several big(ish) sports (A Ninja 750, a Katana 600, a ZX-6, an SV650, and a Ninja 650), several big huge cruisers (all driven by tiny French Canadian women!), a pair of small cruisers (my Mom’s Rebel 250, and an S40) and many smaller sporty bikes (three CBR 125s, my ZZR-250, a new Ninja 250R, and two GSF500s).
What was most interesting about this mish-mash collection of bikes was that no one looked out of place. Everyone just fit together. The differences in motorcycle and clothing styles simply made no difference. I never got the feeling that anyone was ever judging anyone else. On reflection it was a pretty cool “inclusive” feeling.Some thoughts on the CBR125 up close and personal
I made a point of chatting with the guys on the CBR125s (All were men, all of them over 6 foot, one significantly so). They all liked the bikes, but didn’t feel comfortable taking it on the freeway. The bike is perfectly happy at 90-95kph, but gets twitchy above that. One guy who commutes on his every day (no roads with a speed limit higher than 80kph) mentioned that he got something like 90mpg. He teases his buddy on the new ninja that Fuel Injection is the way to go, and the Ninja 250 drinks too much.In our first very slow speed exercise (slalom lines of cones as slow as you possibly can, with the distance between the cones getting smaller as time goes on) I followed a guy on his white CBR125 who only had 2 weeks riding experience this season and less than a month last autumn. He was following his friend on the new Ninja 250R. The ninja was setting the pace, and the CBR had absolutely no problem riding that slowly. I’m pretty good a low speed stuff, but this was definitely taxing my skills. But that little CBR was so composed. The rider was putting so little effort into keeping it up. I was more than a little envious.
At a later point in the day we were doing emergency swerving. You ride at the instructor about 40 kph, and then he signals which was you are to go around him. A very nerve-wracking thing for me. I was having issues leaning my bike hard enough to get a really good snap around the guy. I know it was all mental, and I did improve as the time went on. But I was blown away when I watched this fellow on the white CBR125 do the same exercise. He leaned that bike over past 45 degrees so fast. And he carried his speed. He came out of one run easily carrying 40 or more kph.
Swerving – Photo linked from ERC pageThis has definitely made me think more on the “learning on smaller bike”. The guys on the CBR125s never looked goofy on their little bikes like I expected, nor did they look strange sitting beside a much larger bike. And they certainly never looked slow.
I have a great deal of respect for that little bike now, and not just as a “chick bike”. I think it would make a great first season bike for anyone serious about learning how to handle a sport bike. The way those guys threw those bikes around, with so little experience, was down right impressive.The Exercises:
I’ve touched on some of the exercises we did. For the most part it was a refresher of the things done in the introductory course. For people like my mother who’d never gotten great at slow speed maneuvering, this was really helpful. But they did do a few new things, the one that struck me the most was hitting an obstacle.Sometimes you can’t stop, and you don’t have time to avoid something on the road. Sometime you just have to hit the muffler or the two-by-four that fell off the truck directly in front of you. They demoed this by having a guy in a KLR ride over a four-by-four wooden post laying across the road. Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed by seeing a dual-sport ride over a log. The thought of doing it on my ZZR, however, made me ill. I commented to someone beside me that they’d never do that with a supersport. At which point one of the instructors took his baby (a Dayton 600 painted in the union jack – an exceptionally gorgeous bike) and proceeded to run over (and in the process, Jump) the post.
Obstacles – Photo linked from ERC pageJust my luck, I was the first student to do go. I won’t go into the details on how to do this, because frankly, it isn’t a skill I think you should “learn off the internet” – doing it wrong could really hurt you and your bike. But I went first, I did it right, and it was a huge relief. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. In fact, it was kind of fun. It felt really good to know that should I ever have to do this in real life, I know how, and I know I can.
On my second attempt I got my poor little bike air born. It is weird to think I’ve jumped my little sport bike. Surprisingly, the bike was very composed through out, and was not really bothered by it. I however, was very grateful I’d visited the washroom just prior…Overall
Afterwards my mother and I chatted about the day. We both found it incredibly useful. My mother had never been comfortable pulling U turns on her bike, and now she was. For me, I am now much more comfortable leaning my bike, and I got some much needed help for looking through corners. And knowing how our bikes handle in emergency situations will undoubtedly prove its use sometime in the future.The cost for me was $80 (Cnd), and I can’t recommend it enough. I’m not sure if I’ll retake the course next year, but I’m certain I’ll take the course whenever I buy my next bike.
April 29, 2008 at 12:04 am #5873RydRyParticipantthanks that was a great and helpful read!
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.