I'm thinking about maybe going for a ride around the area here locally on Sunday. Not too long and not too far (have been gone a lot for work lately so maybe just a couple of hours). Am thinking maybe around the Clifton area and, heres the BIG THING...I think I may hit a big parking lot and practice getting the bike down low. There's also a light industial area near here that is closed on Sunday that has these really neat ovalish parking areas. Would be good for practicing throttle, brake, trailbrake, corner, throttle stuff.

If you google map 10430 Furnace Rd, Lorton, VA you'll see the area. It's been empty on Sundays and looks like it could easily be a little road course kind of setup.

The other is the lot right off of 95 at 123. Google map Route 123 Commuter Lot, Woodbridge, VA to see it. It's really big and almost always empty on Sundays as well.

I'm in.

Meet at a Starbucks nearby at what time?

Looking at that Husqvarna might be in order afterwards as well.

Does anyone know where to buy the little cones that Total Control used to set up their courses. (Wouldn't that be a great Amazon link to include here?)

LOL, awesome. I'll know the time in the next hour or so. Because I know my friends also think alike, this is how I've used the Lorton location in the past:

I'm a little concerned about some of the blind corners around those buildings. Some many years ago, Ian was passing the end of a building when some idiot on a bike jumped out in front of him and they collided. If memory serves, Ian broke his thumb in the ensuing crash.

It's the beauty of closed buildings and only one entrance/exit to the area. Very low odds on surprises. They aren't as blind in person either which is not reflected well in the satellite shot. These are offices, without any entrance or access of any kind other than the access road entrance.

Here is my "big", or "nordschleife" layout with numbered corners:

And, of course, the other parking lot is just a big parking lot.

Ah, I was looking at it backwards. Counter clockwise it seems like there are much better site lines.

I'm not going to want to go fast here. Ever see much enforcement?

No enforcement, ever. If you look at the scale you'll see that it doesn't encourage going all that fast. You'd be able to scrape knees and never go above 30mph.

Here is the other lot, which is 1,000ft away from this one




Here are their relative positions:

Very cool.

I'm definitely game. Looking forward to it.

Get's even better...we have lots of options to work with if one or the other is either full of cars or doesn't look good.

Here are the other two lots (not as big/open":



And here is where they all are in relation ot Starbucks and each other:

<must get maps support done ... must get maps support done ... ugh.>

10am Sunday?

Can we make it 10:30?

10:30 it is

Cool. See you at Starbucks @ 10:30 on Sunday.

Perfect. I'll drive by the "GP" area and the lots on my way there and see how they look. I'm really looking forward to spending some focused time in a safe area, scrubbing down the tires

For our riding friends this would be a great opportunity to practice things they'd like to work on, at any riding level (beginners to experts). I know I have some specific things I'd like to work on.

For any new riders, I'll be happy to offer some coaching tips and run some one on one exercises to work on problem areas.

With 150 views of this thread I KNOW there are some riders out there who must just be a little shy about jumping in...DON'T BE! And for the newer riders out there, you would be foolish not to take Yermo up on his offer. He is a fabulous teacher and can really make a difference in your riding.

I've been looking at my reports and I find myself wondering if I don't have a bug in my code somewhere. I suspect some of the counts represent bots crawling the site as I increment the counter on each page load instead of doing the fancier javascript callback to do the counting. (most bots do not parse and execute any javascript on the page).

The new code will most definitely use the javascript callback approach for the view counters and will include a few other improvements.

thanks for the kind words.

I'll jump in. I've been given the blessing from my wonderful wife to leave her in front of the TV watching football while I head out for a ride.

Yermo, we met you last Saturday, in line at the Starbucks. I was on my way up to pick up my Diavel.

See you at 10:30

Scott

Scott, you have my card so you have my #. Text me if you run late.

See you at 10:30 tomorrow.

Just making sure everyone knows that it's 10:30 at the Starbucks in Woodbridge, AKA this one:
Starbucks Parkway Crossings Eastmore info?
2447 Prince William Parkway
Woodbridge, VA 22192
Crossing East Shopping Center?

Good think I looked this morning. I would have been in College Park.

See you in a bit.

Scott

I'm up and getting ready to head out.