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British Superbike School Levels 1 & 3 At Blyton Circuit, Lincs

Discussion in 'Trackdays & Rider Skills' started by Zhed46, Sep 25, 2020.

  1. My 18 year old son and I did their course yesterday.

    He is a year into riding an L-plate 125 but only 2 months into riding a geared bike as I made him spend his first year's riding on a twist and go in order to build road sense, but he's had a few close calls recently due to what can broadly be characterised as target fixation. Hence, I signed him up for Level 1 and hired an R6 for him. As he only has a provisional licence he had to have 1 - 1 coaching while I was going to be being coached along with another Level 2 student. The track time was organised into 15 minute sessions of 4 mixed groups with riders from every level and their coaches within that group, so I happened to find myself on track at the same time as my son, although we were obviously with different coaches (hence no pics of us on track at the moment until the track photographer updates the gallery).

    There are 3 Levels: 1 for novices, 2 for more experienced track riders and 3 for riders with a lot of track experience who want individual coaching to work on specific issues. My son was booked on Level 1, while I booked Level 2, though I ended up getting moved up to Level 3.

    The weather was dreadful as it was very cold with heavy rain and blustery wind, and the course started over an hour late as a result of someone crashing on the sighting laps due to oil on the wet track. I had noticed rainbows as I was going round and I believe they'd already sent someone out to make sure the track was safe, so it was probably due to another bike dropping oil. Thankfully the rider was ok but their bike was knackered as the impact seemed to have scrambled their immobiliser/alarm and eventually it was taken away in the back of a van.

    The conditions were incredibly sketchy and tbh I was a bit worried about my boy being on track for the first time after only 2 months of riding a geared bike, never mind one with 8 times the power he is used to which has a rather peaky delivery and revs to the Moon and is also shod with tyres that were not far off cut slicks (basically the Avon version of Supercorsas). I offered him an "out", telling him (truthfully) that I would not blame him in the slightest or think any less of him if he decided he didn't fancy it. In all honesty, after the 3rd rider of the day went down in the 2 groups which went out ahead of us, I was having second thoughts as well. To his credit, though he was clearly nervous, he said he would give it a go but if he felt unsafe, he would bail.

    I got moved to another coach as the other Level 2 rider I was paired with was a fair bit slower than me so I wasn't being challenged, and I was lucky enough to find that my new coach was the BSB rider Dan Linfoot. Even better, I was getting him one on one and they were moving me up to Level 3 (individual coaching addressing specific issues), which usually costs twice as much.

    I have read on here and elsewhere that it's often better to be taught by someone with less rarefied levels of talent, but Dan (to paraphrase a famous Alan Partridge quote) was a fantastic man, or at least a fantastic teacher. He asked me if there was any particular thing I wanted to work on, but given that I probably have multiple issues that need looking at, I asked him to follow me round and to identify what he thinks I need to address most. After a few laps we came back in for a quick debrief and he had indeed spotted an issue that has bugged me and I think I have mentioned on here, which is that I am good on the brakes and I pass a lot of people at trackdays in the braking zones, but I often get caught again halfway up the next straight by riders I have out braked achieving better drive out of the exit. Some of the source of this problem has been masked recently by the fact that my track bike has a misfire which I’ve not got around to fixing yet and I'm wary of giving it a handful only for the 4th cylinder to kick in with another 25% power and spit me over the bars.

    Dan was able to diagnose that while I was very confident with my braking and I was trail braking (both good) I was doing so right up until the apex, which was delaying me getting back on the throttle (not so good). Unfortunately I had a couple of morning sessions which were severely compromised by my bike not wanting to go into gear while on the move (twice causing off track excursions, though luckily it was tarmac run off rather than gravel traps), but once I had re-tightened the lever which had about 2" of play and was only hanging on by a couple of threads I was able to get properly on it and put what I had been taught into practice. Releasing the brakes a bit earlier and starting to feed the gas on slightly before the apex made a huge difference, everything suddenly felt a lot smoother and I was belting out of corners with a huge grin on my face and a waggling rear tyre scrabbling for grip on the damp and cement dust strewn surface. Unfortunately, although the weather improved and the track dried out a bit, we only got two sessions in after lunch, but it might've been for the best as I was probably getting a bit over confident now I'd been transformed from a ragged-riding Morrisons Value Marquez to a smooth and silky Lidl Lorenzo.

    My son also had a great and very educational day with his coach and by the end of it he was catching and having to be let past by much older and more experienced riders. He couldn't stop raving about the day on the drive home, both the double whammy eye opening experiences of riding a big bike and on track both for the first time, but also the knowledge and skills he had learned.

    Minor criticisms. It's not as well organised as CSS, they don't seem to adopt the same scientific "break it down and rebuild from scratch" systemic approach to teaching and there were no classroom theory presentations or discussions (due to Covid), so instead you just had a 10 min debrief with your coach after each 15 min track session. I wasn't a big fan of mixed abilities being on track together either, as I kept getting held up and while I could have overtaken the riders, the coaches (rightly) are very protective of their charges and took up track positions that let you know that you were being discouraged from passing, so I ended up wasting a fair amount of track time following people with one hand on my lap, waiting to be waved past. The day also finished earlier than I would have liked, at around 330pm, especially given that we lost so much time in the morning due to the track issues and the crashes.

    However, it is not as expensive as CSS, so it's swings and roundabouts....

    4/5. Recommended

    Pics to follow.

    https://britishsuperbikeschool.com/
     
    #1 Zhed46, Sep 25, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2020
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  2. 2FF12D2C-DD16-4CF8-A1F2-5BEAB86711DB.jpeg

    Lovely weather for him riding a full power bike for the first time and me riding a torque-monster with a misfire and mashed up tyres.

    91B4EA0C-BAEB-4FD6-8B9D-57FBACF17552.jpeg

    Dawn viewed from a lay by just down the road from the circuit.

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    Not at all looking worried about any of the above.

    8DF2E109-9055-4043-9AB2-BA391509907E.jpeg

    Looking a bit more confident again with the return of his mojo.

    F8562675-6343-4133-80EE-9A2CF21F700A.jpeg

    At the end of the day. Oddly, the car park was dryer than the track, which was still damp even though the rain had stopped about an hour earlier. That wasn't the bike he had been riding - he'd been using the white one but the hire guy was about to load it into the van.

    2105DC34-4EA4-4F48-BB56-B2772001B289.jpeg

    I obviously had enough faith in his abilities to even let him have a go on my bike after the day had finished.
     
    #2 Zhed46, Sep 25, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2020
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  3. That’s a special thing to do with your son. Nice one. :upyeah:
     
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  4. nice.
    shame about the camper.. :D. part of racing is the pre-race psych out. well it was in moto x. yer gonna need to up yer game.
     
  5. No psych-out needed as I'd already got in his head with an overtake on a double apex left in a move reminiscent of Rossi's passing of Lorenzo at the last corner of Catalunya in 2009, albeit only at half the speed and displaying 0.000001% of the skill. I have the moment captured on GoPro and once my luddite-like self works out how to download the footage off the SD card*, I plan to play it on a recurring loop on a dedicated screen in the living room :D


    * I've only had the GoPro for 9 months since the girlf bought it for me last Xmas as she knew I was planning on getting back into track riding after a couple of years away following a big off which broke my bones, my bike and my bottle. I’m just pleased I’ve learned to switch it on and record stuff! Rome wasn't built in a day after all. I just wish the downloading of footage was a bit more intuitive. : unamused:
     
    #5 Zhed46, Sep 25, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2020
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  6. Awesome !
     
  7. Sounds like you both had a great day out despite the inclement weather. Your son looks like a pretty big guy!

    Y' know she might not have bought the camera just for you & race day riding...
     
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  8. We had a fantastic day. Tbh, I wasn't feeling it at first because, as I said, it was a bit disorganised and before the sessions started there was a lot of standing around with everyone asking each other what was happening and when, but once things got going it was all good.

    And yeah, he's a big guy. He was 6' 3" last time he was measured when he moved futsal teams a few months ago (unsurprisingly, he's a goalie), but I think he has grown even more since then. He's a gentle giant and a bit of a geek tbh. His former futsal coach tells a funny story than when they were on the minibus travelling to play Chelsea a couple of years ago, while all the rest of the lads were at the back running bantz and chatting about which fitties follow them on Instagram, he was sat on his own at the front reading about astrophysics in the New Scientist. :bucktooth:


    You know, she did sulk a bit and said something about it not being meant for recording that sort of riding :thinkingface::laughing:
     
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  9. Good little track and instructors that, was there in 2014.
     
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  10. Hey! You were near my house!

    My cousin ran and owned Blyton Park until recently. Oddly, I’ve never ridden it. He took me for a blast round in his Lotus Evora. That was fun.
     
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  11. When I saw the sign for Doncaster I did think about PM'ing you to say I'd pop in for a cuppa and a chat about politics, but then I realised I needed to ride a bike the next day and wouldn't be able to do so if I was in a police cell or A&E.:p

    The long back straight is awesome but unfortunately due to the conditions and the crashes they did an Imola and inserted a chicane half way down it. Even then, we were still hitting 110 mph before the braking point.
     
    #11 Zhed46, Sep 25, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2020
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  12. I was around too, just back from an offshore 3 weeker I’d have popped along for a butchers if I’d known... :):upyeah:
    Reminds me of a secret alien space centre when I drive in there.
    I once left there in thick fog. That was interesting :astonished:
     
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  13. Fabulous read. Well done Dad, you’ll both remember that day for years to come.
     
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  14. Funny you mention aliens as before I went to sleep I popped out of the motorhome to stretch my legs and I could hear a weird loud but low pitched rhythmic humming (sort of “whoh-whoh-whoh”) and I was waiting nervously for the beam of light and anal probe. Thankfully, or perhaps disappointingly, when I woke up in the morning I discovered it was a nearby wind turbine that I hadn't been able to see in the pitch dark.
     
    #14 Zhed46, Sep 25, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2020
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  15. Sounds brilliant - great that you and yer boy have a shared interest!
     
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  16. Thanks. He's been into motorsport generally and bikes specifically from the year dot, probably as a result of spending his childhood being dragged around race circuits, watching Rossi's glory years followed by the rise of MM93, and watching me spannering/swearing at various 2 wheeled jalopies.

    What's really sweet is that he saved every penny of his pocket money from age 14 until 17 in the hope of buying a bike when he came of age despite his mum telling him repeatedly in very clear terms that she would not allow it. When the fateful day was approaching however, I persuaded her that we could either let him learn incrementally on a series of low powered bikes and I would make sure I did what I could to ensure he was trained properly, or she could put her foot down with the result that at some point when he left home and he no longer had to obey her, he would by that time be old enough to do a 5 day DAS course and jump on a 200mph Panigale despite having had no previous riding experience. Thankfully common sense prevailed.
     
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  17. I passed my bike test at 29 years old on a 125 and bought a 900 Monster, not the best way but I reckoned by 29 I was a bit more sensible and less likely to kill myself - was a bit of a transition though - your way seems much better :upyeah:
     
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  18. I started riding at 17 in the days when you could just get your provvy from Swansea and ride a 125 with no training whatsoever. Which is exactly what I did and fairly predictably I wrote 3 bikes off in quick succession - DT125 with bent handlebars and a seat unit which kept coming loose (tbf, it only cost me £35), an unknown Honda crosser and then an AR125 - between age 17 and 19.

    Due to circumstances which in hindsight probably saved my life, I didn't ride again until I was 30 when I did my DAS and rather unwisely jumped on a 748, which in turn jumped into various hedges until I learned to ride it properly. Given the slow steering characteristics and the uncompromising riding position of old school Ducati sports bikes it probably wasn't the wisest choice of starter-moto, but where's the fun in doing things the easy way?
     
    #18 Zhed46, Sep 25, 2020
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2020
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  19. Ah, I sat my test on a DT125, borrowed from a mate, yes slow steering was an issue after a 125 - when I heard about counter steering life got so much better :D
     
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  20. Hope your lovely new MotoLug trailer is proving satisfactory Andy. Great, aren't they?
     
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