Safety and training; two words that tend to elicit a yawn or an eye roll from most people. Motorcycling, though definitely not the safest activity you can choose, is pretty exciting and challenging, yet for the most part, the safety training associated with our sport is quite boring.
Riding around a parking lot, MSF style, is not particularly difficult, and does a terrible job of emulating real world threats. Track days, though fun and offering the chance to push the limits of your motorcycle in a controlled environment, don’t typically present the kinds of dynamic threats we need to see in order to stay safe on the road.
So if parking lots and tracks don’t offer the training environment you want, how do you get the training you need? Well, over a recent weekend, I had the opportunity to attend Stayin’ Safe Advanced Rider Training.
Stayin’ Safe is owned and operated by Eric Trow. A motorcycle training professional with over twenty years of experience, Eric offers on-street rider training.
Part training and part tour, Stayin’ Safe offers courses from two to three days through some of the nicest riding areas in the country. I had the opportunity to take the Southern California class which lasted for three days.
I’ll just say up front, this was a great experience and I learned much more than I thought I would.
Since I live in Southern California, I used my own KTM 690 Duke for this class. For students coming from out of town, Eric can help arrange for a rental motorcycle to use for the course.
The first day started early at a restaurant in Thousand Oaks with the usual introductions, a little breakfast, and a discussion of how the course works. Since this training is conducted on the street, and in order to ensure maximum personal attention, classes are small with a typical instructor ratio of three or four students per rider coach.
This course in particular had four students, including myself, so there was only one instructor and that happened to be Eric Trow himself. Eric also has seven other rider coaches around the country who teach the various programs offered by Stayin’ Safe.
As we sat around the table and got to know each other, there were some pretty clear themes. First, all of my fellow students were experienced riders. And second, we were all on sportier machines.
Riders of all types are welcome at Stayin’ safe, but the preponderance of folks tend to come from the sport, sport-touring, and adventure-touring segments of the motorcycling world.
As we ate our breakfast, Eric discussed the upcoming day’s events and handed out our radios. Stayin’ Safe uses portable radios with earbuds that allow the coaches to talk to you, but you can’t talk back to the coaches.
As a two-way intercom user, I found this a little disconcerting at first, but as the program went on, I understood the need for concise, one way comms from the instructor to the students. We finished up breakfast, and after signing the obligatory liability release forms, we headed out to the bikes.
The first day of the course had the longest mileage with almost 200 miles. While that doesn’t sound like a lot, it actually filled the entire day. The focus of the first day was “riding with purpose.” Stayin’ Safe believes that every move you make, everything you do on the bike, should have purpose and should contribute to safer riding.
After starting our engines and filing in behind our coach, we started out with some slow speed exercises around the parking lot to loosen us up and emphasize smooth bike control.
Eric provided some tips on smoother riding as we did these exercises and this also gave him a chance to evaluate our basic riding skills. Once warmed up, we then headed out on the road.
Stayin’ Safe’s primary method of instruction is to have the coach ride in front of the students for a bit, demonstrating and describing the desired learning objectives and then riding behind each individual student to coach and critique their application of the skill.
As we headed towards Lake Hughes, we took turns riding in front of Eric while demonstrating our new skills.
The first day’s topics included reading the road, strategic lane placement, dynamic speed management, cornering strategies and techniques, and predicting the future (in other words, figuring out what the crazy dude who’s texting in his pickup truck will do next).
We rode through some amazing scenery and followed some great, twisty roads on our way to Lake Hughes. Before arriving at the lake, we stopped a couple of times for discussions of what we had learned so far and to have a “chalk talk.”
Stayin’ Safe’s chalk talks occur at strategic points throughout the course. Typically, the class will stop at a gas station for fuel and a stretch. Before departing, the group gets together and the rider coach discusses upcoming lessons and uses chalk on the pavement to illustrate the concepts the class will see next.
This method of instruction is very effective, as the coach can illustrate the learning expectations while answering questions from the students. One aspect of this training I really enjoyed was that the syllabus is not written in stone.
Eric encouraged us to challenge the concepts that were presented, allowing for fuller understanding of the material, while emphasizing the dynamic and ever changing nature of the riding classroom (i.e. the road).
As we went through the day’s lessons, I noticed that Stayin’ Safe doesn’t necessarily follow all of the concepts that are taught in the parking lot only MSF courses.
Rather, the course focuses on reasonable corner entry speeds, the importance of sight lines while in those corners, and the criticality of good lane position. These are all important street survival skills that will help keep a rider alive.
Rather than adhering to traditional racer’s lines, Eric teaches the importance of keeping a cushion between the rider and possible threats. Additionally, the importance of open sight lines and when to roll on the throttle is stressed on each day of the course.
The emphasis is on control and being able to take the appropriate actions after you come around a blind turn and a truck is stopped in the middle of the apex. Good stuff!
We had been riding since about 8:30 AM and it was time for lunch at the Historic Rock Inn in Lake Hughes. Once a store, post office, and gas station, the Rock Inn now serves as a restaurant for hungry riders who are enjoying the great roads around the Los Padres National Forrest.
Outside there were lines of bikes and inside there were lots of riders tanking up on burgers, sandwiches and salads. After a great lunch, and with our bellies full, we hit the road again to continue honing our skills.
After leaving Lake Hughes we headed west towards Frazier Park, Lockwood Valley Rd., and eventually, CA State Highway 33 – the Maricopa Highway.
Highway 33 is a beautiful mountain road that snakes its way over the Santa Ynez Mountains with everything from smooth sweepers to challenging switchbacks. This was the perfect road on which to finish our first day.
All of the students had a chance to lead the class on this magnificent road and demonstrate what they had learned. After only one day, I could already sense a change in my riding and there was still much more to come.
After a whole day of twisties, Hwy 33 dropped us off in the charming town of Ojai for a much needed dinner at a great Italian restaurant, and a night at the Casa Ojai Inn.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of Stayin’ Safe is how the course is part training and part touring. I live near many of the best roads in Southern California, yet many of the roads that were chosen for the course, I had never been on.
The course is a great mix of rider training, superb roads and scenery, excellent restaurants and comfortable accommodations. Meals with the group were lively, featuring discussions of the day’s ride, our own diverse backgrounds, and just about any other topic you could imagine.
We bonded quickly as a group and really enjoyed our opportunities to get together. It was a perfect balance of learning while having fun.
Day two cranked up with breakfast in Ojai followed by an interesting mix of roads on the way to the hills above Santa Barbara. This day’s theme was “riding with precision and smoothness,” and Eric made sure to mix in different conditions that a rider would see every day including highways, urban riding, and of course lots of twisty roads.
The second day of the course introduced concepts such as advanced braking techniques, body positioning for curves, traffic management, and multi-lane highway strategies.
As we continued through the day, it was fun to watch the change in the way the students rode. Our class became smoother and more confident and there were sections of road where our coach actually encouraged self-coaching.
During the self-coaching sessions, the rider coach reduces the amount of instruction over the radio and allows the students to work out different problems. The self-coaching sessions allowed the concepts that had been taught to be absorbed by the students and it was a good time to try to put everything together.
Stayin’ Safe provides a lot of information to the students in a short time, and occasionally, I found myself task saturated trying to make it all work seamlessly.
The self-coaching session provided a good mental break and allowed me to focus on the areas where I felt weakest. As we worked our way southeast from Montecito, we stopped for the night at the Pierpont Inn in Ventura for an ocean view dinner and a good night’s rest.
The final day of Stayin’ safe was the graduation exercise – the canyons of Malibu. Day three is simply titled “reinforcement” and provides the opportunity to truly put it all together.
The roads above Malibu are legendary for a good reason. Twisty, with lots of elevation changes and mostly decent surfaces, the roads challenge even the most seasoned riders. The third day’s curriculum included advanced cornering techniques and more self-coaching and application.
As we rode through the canyons, each of the students had an opportunity to lead for an entire canyon road. My opportunity came at Las Flores Canyon Rd, a narrow, twisty piece of asphalt with lots of tight switchbacks, bumpy pavement, and hidden driveways to boot.
When it comes to roads, I’ve always enjoyed sweeping turns marked at 25-50 mph. Roads with lots of tight switchbacks always felt like a lot of work and weren’t necessarily fun for me.
After three days of intense training, I can honestly say that this type of road was a lot more fun. My riding had become smoother, my road reading was better, and it didn’t feel like nearly as much work. I was very pleased with the results.
The other students in the class had similar experiences, with smoother, more flowing lines and an overall improvement in their riding. On the whole, it was a very successful three days (and over three thousand curves!).
As day three wound down, we stopped at Neptune’s Net, a Malibu landmark and a popular stop for riders, bicyclists, and ocean-goers traveling along Highway 1.
We were all excited about what we had learned over the past three days and shared stories of our graduation exercise in the canyons. Eric then presented us all with certificates of completion. E-mails were exchanged, handshakes were traded, and our group began to head its separate ways knowing that they were better riders for the experience.
As we got ready to depart, Eric also mentioned that should we ever have any questions in the future about any of the concepts we had learned or had any additional safety questions, Stayin’ Safe graduates were always welcome to reach out to the coaches to provide answers.
About two weeks after the Stayin’ Safe course, I finally had some time to go out for a ride on one of my favorite local roads. As I left the house, I wondered to myself whether the lessons I learned would change how I rode that day.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the tenets of Eric’s program is the importance of reasonable corner entry speed. In the past, I tended to keep higher corner entry speeds and didn’t worry as much about clear sight lines as I probably should have.
As I rode on this particular Sunday, I found that I was entering my turns a little slower, waiting for the sight lines to open up before rolling on the throttle, and kept better awareness of the big picture. This would turn out to be a good thing.
As I headed down a steep sweeping left hand turn, a white sedan came out of a hidden driveway on my right and turned in front of me. This was a driveway that I had passed a hundred times before without any traffic, and honestly, I wasn’t even sure if anyone lived back there.
In the past, the appearance of that car might have caused a bit of an “oh shit” moment on my part, but after the Stayin’ Safe course, frankly, there was little drama.
My corner speed was such that I had plenty of time to hit the brakes and easily avoid the dweeb in the car. My newly learned skills had a made a difference in my riding.
Stayin’ Safe training is thorough, enjoyable, and most importantly fun. It’s not inexpensive, but considering the food, accommodations, and most importantly, the personalized instruction; it was well worth the price and offers good value. I highly recommend it.
Photos: © 2016 Andrew Kohn / Asphalt & Rubber – All Rights Reserved
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