Karl on Cars

I spent last Thursday and Friday at the California Superbike School, riding a Kawasaki ZX-6R around the Streets of Willow racetrack. I've wanted to take this school for almost 20 years, after first seeing the advertisements for it in motorcycle magazines around 1990. The idea of getting personalized instruction in a safe environment, and from an accomplished motorcycle racer like Keith Code, sounded almost too good to be true.

But these schools aren't cheap, and as a college student in Boulder, Colorado the concept seemed pretty distant (both geographically and economically). When I moved to Los Angeles in 1994 the geographic element was solved, but the editorial assistant position at Hot Rod Magazine didn't pay much better than college (arguably worse, when you take SoCal cost-of-living into account). Over the next six years my income climbed to a sustainable level, but so did the demands on my time. I'd registered to be on the school's mailing list at a motorcycle show in 1995, and every spring I'd get the upcoming schedule of school dates. And every year I'd tell myself, "Oh yeah, I still have to do that...someday..."

But when I got the schedule in mid-February this year I realized how long I'd been saying that, and how rapidly the big 4-0 was approaching. It occurred to me that this type of intense motorcycle riding wasn't going to get easier with each passing year. These was also an impending Honda RC30 purchase to consider, which has since taken place. It was time to put up or shut up. So I put $2,250 up for the two-day program, reserved a hotel in lovely Lancaster and spent over 16 hours learning how to properly go fast on a motorcycle.

You don't have to pay that much to enjoy the school. If you can provide your own motorcycle and riding gear, and just want to take a one-day session, the cost is as low as $390. But after waiting nearly two decades I decided to do it up right, and that $2,250 got me the use of the school's bike, the school's gear and breakfast and lunch for both days. I also feel like the two-day immersion was more effective at breaking old, bad habits while developing new, correct ones.

The video above is from the camera bike that the school provides as part of the course. It's mounted on a large boom that sits a good five feet above your head, which can be a bit distracting when you're trying to lean the bike over at 70 mph. But it's a great tool for identifying improper techniques. The first of my two laps on that video was spent warming up the tires because the bike had been sitting for awhile. On the second lap I was promptly passed by two advanced students on their own race bikes, plus an instructor. And of course the sense of speed is largely lost in the two-dimensional world.

But all excuses and disclaimers aside, I found the school's instruction techniques extremely effective. My initial lap times were just over two minutes at the start of class, but by the final session on the second day I was pulling consistent 1:48s with my best being a 1:46. Over 14 seconds sliced off lap times??? If you know anything about racing you know that's an eternity.

So did I miss my calling? Did the class experience suggest I should have been dragging knees all these years? Honestly...maybe... I've been through dozens of four-wheeled track events, but never have I been inspired to consider genuine automobile racing at any level. But had I taken this class when I first considered it, nearly two decades, things might have gone differently.

Oh well. At the very least that Honda RC30's capabilites now won't go completely to waste.