After hearing all of the glowing reviews and endless ...endless... references to the Total Control Advanced Riding Course I've gone and signed up for one. I'm taking the last class of the season being held Saturday Nov 03rd in Woodbridge, VA (At Potomac Mills). There are still 6 seats open for this class if there are any other interested riders in the area.

Here's a link to it: 1

Hopefully after this we'll have all taken it, so there will be no need to mention it again. LOL

Excellent. Please let us know how that goes. We've only taken ones taught by Tracy Martin and those have been really good but I'm very curious to know how the other venues are.

I found the course incredibly valuable. Changed me as a rider (as I've mentioned a couple of times I think. )

Then, of course, you know what you're going to start hearing next. ....

Keith Code California Superbike School
Keith Code California Superbike School
Keith Code California Superbike School
Keith Code California Superbike School
Keith Code California Superbike School
Keith Code California Superbike School
Keith Code California Superbike School
Keith Code California Superbike School

Been there/Done that (sort of).... in 1990 LOL. We went to a one day riding seminar that CSS had when I was stationed in California. Was utterly ground breaking at the time. I think it's very safe to say that I was a much more technically skilled but far more reckless rider back then. Over the middle years betwen 1992-2003ish I became a "safe and sane" street rider but also lost a ton of technical skills and managed to develop "the fear". For the last couple of years I've been working on getting rid of "the fear" and regaining technical skill. Largely because, truth be told, I really do like to go really fast but now recognize the importance of doing that in controlled circumstances.

At 20ish dragging knees (like we just watched Kenny Roberts do on TV) around blind corners, while hanging off a cafe prepped GS working the Metzler ME99s hard was awesome. Now it's mind blowingly stupid LOL. Age, damn it

Oh yeah...THIS is next :-):

My progression has pretty much been the exact opposite. Other than occasionally going fast in straight lines I was ridiculously cautious and careful rider who never pushed any envelopes (other than, possibly, seeing how far off-road I could get whatever bike I was riding.)

It's just been in the last few years that I've started focusing on the technical aspects of riding. I confess I enjoy riding so much more now than I used to.

It actually bothers me greatly that I let those skills atrophy, and bothers me even more that I somehow let that stupid fear thing happen. (For those that don't know, "the fear" is not some weird irrational fear of something specific. It is instead a loss of confidence that the machine under you will in fact successfully do what you want of it, every time. It's also the loss of the ability to override your minds perception of falling past a certain lean angle.)

When I was 17 I set a local record (didn't last long) at New England Dragway on a pro-stock Vance and Hines Suzuki (low 7's) Now THAT was straight line speed We would regularly go to New Hampshire speedway and Lime Rock though. Oh well, youth is wasted on the young

I was completely unaware that you had done so much. Now I'm feeling a bit self-conscious that Total Control I may be too basic for you. At the very least, it'll be a refresher. Have you gotten the book?

It seems that quite a few are dealing with the Fear(tm) ... getting over being afraid of the pavement as it comes up threatening to hit me in corners is still a battle.

1. The big secret is that we should always be learning
2. Big secret #2 is that there is no such thing as "too basic". A month ago I dropped my bike, in the garage, while changing the oil, onto me. It seems that particular lesson needs to be reinforced approximatley every third year LOL

The bug to go fast has bitten again so I need to clear out the cobwebs and re-learn the fundamentals of solid control of the machine and myself. I have a possible leg up on newer riders taking these courses in that I'm not freaked out by some things and I stopped caring what others thought of my speed/skill/wheelie-ing/stopie-ing/brand/make/model/etc/etc a long time ago. That last part is important actually... I feel no need whatsoever to keep up with a faster rider or to try and "prove" some level of skill. I'm mentally readyand willing to listen to what others have to say, to absorb the instruction and apply it as taught. I will go into this class not simply assuming I don't know everything but instead that if I DO know anything it's probably wrong and needs to be corrected

We can always get better, and we can always get worse. It tends to be a good idea to work to get better.

And oh yeah, I have the book on my iPad and in Kindle (along with several others on the topic)

My "applies to riding" books I keep on my iPad (some may nto seem to be an obvious tie-in to motorcycling, but I promise there's a point to it), in alphabetical order:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Motorcycles, 5th Edition

More Proficient Motorcycling: Mastering the Ride

Total Control: High Performance Street Riding Techniques

Motorcycle 201

Motorworld (Clarkson, awesome)

My Inventions (Tesla's autobiography)

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character

Messiah's Handbook: Reminders for the Advanced Soul

Strangely, that is exactly the same perspective I had when I took the course. Total Control was actually the first "class" of /any/ kind I had taken in decades so it was kind of a big moment of pride swallowing and just being open. That lesson of humility has paid off for me in other areas as well.

I hope to add to your reading collection at some point.

The Keith Code books are also very valuable although the writing style is a bit painful.

There's the book Duncan gave me that I have yet to read (there's quite a list of those actually): The Upper Half of the Motorcycle.

Wow, I never even thought to list "Twist of the wrist". I've owned it forever.

Couple of observations as I looked down this discussion:

On skills and abilities that you once had but feel you no longer do - I offer the following comment. I realized many years ago that I could do something not because I had done it before, but because I believed I could. Prior experience of something often has no bearing on your ability to do it next time. Think doing a flip off the diving board or skiing down that double black diamond. You might have done it last week but this week you are paralyzed by fear.

Secondly, strangely, since hitting the pavement, I am much less worried about doing so again...in a controlled environment like a track. The gear works and I now have confidence in that. Unfortunately I spend most or all of my time on motorcycles in the worst kind of places to fall. I need to get to a track.

Oh yeah, as far as Total Control I goes, I was basically a noob when I took it. I had about 9 months of riding and roughly 9,000 miles or less in the saddle lifetime. I had never watched a motorcycle race flag to flag in my life. I was 44 years old.

I got a tremendous amount of knowledge out of the class. I think the value to a more experienced rider is the unbiased commentary they will provide. Not that your riding buddies on this forum pull any punches but we are much more concerned about our own damn survival to objectively assess others most of the time.

LOL, thanks. Hopefully all of my friends here know what I mean by this next statement: I don't care what any of you think about my riding so not overly concerned if anyone is watching me or not. As for spills, I've never hit pavement "on the street". I HAVE had monumental crashes on the track when I used to do that in the late 80's early 90's, and have yet to ride a dirt bike without making a good effort at rearranging body parts. Never a catastrophic high-side (on pavement, definatly on dirt) thankfully, but some pretty gnarly high speed low sides. I don't have any real fear about crashing or falling. It's difficult to explain exactly what I was getting at with "the fear", suffice to say it isn't about being afraid of something, it more subtle and complex and for me includes potentially easily falling to temptation and exceeding reasonable limits on public roads. There is a hooligan just under the surface and there is justifiable trepidation in doing things that may let that genie out.

I'm not actually a dolt at the handlebars and am capable of carrying a hell of a lot more speed than we typically ride at on our trips. I'm also capable of applying sunstantially more focus to what I'm doing than typically do on our rides. I'm choosing not to on those occasions and in fact listening to music while riding is something I do to partially stop from focusing (we can talk about that over a beverage if anyone is interested). When I do choose to dial it up, it has not been (to date) with the folks I've been riding with here, and honestly it will be a while longer before I would be comfortable with it. There's really only one person in the DC area that I'm comfortable running higher than ~70% with right now. ***This is not a slight in ANY way to any of my friends here. I think you all know that I absolutely cherish our friendship, that it means more to me than you may ever know, and that I love riding with you all.*** BUT, I haven't been riding with you for a decade and I haven't gotten a SCCA license with you, or seen you catch a 100MPH slip. We'll get there and hopefully next spring we can all go to some track days together and tear it up.

Regarding belief...that works really well for lots of thing. One of the things it doesnt work for is correcting when the front or rear starts exhibiting a shear or slide just past apex. In that circumstance it's best to actually know what to do and to do it with a combination of muscle memory (from lots of practice) and a solid understanding of the proper techniques - and how they are best applied in that specific situation.

It's not that anybody thinks anyone else is a "bad" rider or is highly critical of others'. We as humans are much better at taking directions from a "certified" teacher than we are from so called laymen. Human nature I think.

As for being offended, well, if any of this group was going to be offended, that would have happened a LONG time ago!

I, for one, am interested in that conversation over a beverage.

I take advice from homeless with no issue.

I just signed up.

Excellent, I'll see you there

Excellent. Please let us know what you guys think of the course.

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest the review will be something along the lines of "Excellent class that went over practical applications of the theories behind effective motorcycling, combined with good excercises conducted in a controlled environment."

laugh. Maybe I should have requested "let us know what you /feel/ about the course" after taking it.

LOL!

The course met expectation and covered the material from the book. I'm looking forward to doing the RoadRacing school in the spring much more though, this really didn't do it for me. I was the only person in the class that was scraping feet and pegs (I was in textile pants without pucks so didn't put a knee down, just kept sufficient angle to and kept the knee up)- and was a lot faster than the others. Maybe if there had been a lot more advanced riders in the class it might have been better, but I don't think it was that as much as the curriculum. The instructors were terrific with my questions and they were very helpful with the specific things I asked them to help me address. Plus, it was def great to have a big-ass parking lot cordened off to practice with.