Suzuki Germany Rider Training

[inspiron]

As a Suzuki owner, I was offered a special discount for a Suzuki rider training course that was being held near Tuttlingen, Germany. (Tuttlingen is about halfway between the Black Forest and Lake Constance, about 90 miles from where I live).

I rode up yesterday (Saturday), and stayed in a hotel in the area, so that I would be "fresh" for the training this morning.

The training was held on an airfield, so we had plenty of pavement to work with.

Arriving shortly before 9:00am, we registered and were offered some breakfast (pastries, fruits, coffee, etc.). There were about 50 riders there, and 7 instructors, so after the initial briefing and discussions, we were split into groups of 6 - 7 riders.

In my group, there was an interesting mixture of bikes – my GSX 1400, then a Hayabusa, a Yamaha R1, a GSX-R 1000, a Bandit 1200 and a Bandit 650. The instructor was also riding a Bandit 650. And for anyone who's counting, the Bandit 650 and the GSX-R 1000 were ridden by women. (The Bandit was only rented, though. She has a Triumph Tiger 1050 on order!)

My group started out with the evasion maneuver – accelerate to 50 kmh (35 mph) towards 2 cones, pull the clutch, and push the bar to avoid a row of cones, and then push the bar again to roll between the final 2 cones. At first, we were free to pick which side we wanted to go to, later the instructor stood there, and when we passed the first set of cones, he would signal which side he wanted us to roll to.

Next, we practiced leaning a bike around a circle. They had 2 specially prepared Suzuki SV650s with "training wheels" set at a 45 degree angle. We had to ride the SV around in a circle, in 2nd gear, and keep the bike leaned close to 45°. This involved a lot of "look where you want to go" along with some knee-dragging.

After these two sessions, we stopped for the lunch break.

After lunch, we started on the "track" that had been set up. This track has no straightaways, but included about a dozen hairpin turns and a fast slalom. We had to ride this as fast as possible, using everything we had learned so far – "turn as late as possible" and "hang a bit off the bike to reduce the lean angle". In this first couple of rounds, I didn't hang off at all, and was scraping my pegs around several of the turns. After the instructor suggested that I try a bit more "aggressive" riding style, I didn't scrape any pegs anymore. But I was totally exhausted after about 15 minutes – swinging my butt left and right across the seat takes a lot of upper leg strength and a lot of stamina. (Which I don’t have at the moment!)

After a short break, we then headed over to the "slow lane" training. We were supposed to ride as slow as possible – riding where the bike is inherently unstable. Once we had "mastered" this, the next step was to ride a slalom at this speed. This is difficult. Then, just when we thought it couldn't get any harder, the instructor asked us to ride the slalom again, this time STANDING UP! For most of us, this was not too hard, but the lady on the GSX-R 1000 was having some problems since it isn't easy to ride a GSX-R while standing on the pegs!

Our last "post" for the day was the emergency stop. We started out at 30kmh (20mph), just using the rear brake. Then, the instructor told us to accelerate to 50kmh (35mph), and to use just the front brake – but we should try to come to a stop next to him (he was standing 15 meters (about 50 feet) behind the "braking" line. We did this several times, until he was happy with everyone’s braking. Then we did the "full" emergency stop – 50kmh to 0 as quickly as possible (without locking up the front wheel and crashing). After several runs, he was happy, and we were finished.

Each of us then had a chance to practice a couple of emergency stops on a Bandit 650 ABS. What a difference! I wound it up to 50kmh, and when I hit the line, I pulled the clutch and slammed both the front and rear brakes. It was like hitting a wall! I went from 50kmh to 0 in 8 meters (25 feet)! Then he told me to do it again, a bit faster … I hit the braking point doing around 70kmh (45 mph), and came to a stop in about 12 meters (38 feet).

This was very convincing – my next bike will definitely have ABS brakes.

My ride home was a blast! I took a detour into the Black Forest, heading from Tuttlingen to Donaueschingen, then on to Titisee. From there, I headed for Schluchtsee, then down towards Wehr before crossing the Swiss border at Rheinfelden. I felt MUCH more comfortable riding these twisties – I was much more confident about what my bike can do, and my line was much smoother around the curves.

The weekend cost me about $250 (not counting the $200 I spent for new riding boots!) for the hotel, the class, and the tank of gas to get there and back. But it was most definitely worth it!

[palanon]

Cool beans man !! That's a bargain weekend at twice the price.

[blackie1491]

Good value for the course.

[ChicsterMG]

Sounds like a great experience. Glad you enjoyed it.

[inspiron]

I should mention that I woke up yesterday morning with some SERIOUS muscle aches in my thigh muscles. I didn't know riding a motorcycle could be such hard work!

[palanon]

That's because you've gone soft in Europe, you need to come home.








j/k good weekend, good time. That's a good burn.

[Apertureguy]

Originally Posted by inspiron

I should mention that I woke up yesterday morning with some SERIOUS muscle aches in my thigh muscles. I didn't know riding a motorcycle could be such hard work!

Maybe its time for you to stop wearing those lace panties.

[Ext1jdh]

Very good writeup

[SVZuki]

Very Nice! I want to get into an advanced rider course in the fall!

[MOTOHOLIC!]

Cool! I bet that was lots of fun!