Long but worthy:
I was lucky enough to attend Mark’s (ironhorse) Ride Like A Pro “Police motor school prep course” this Sunday and thought I would report on it. Although designed for the police motor officer candidate the course is open to those whom have taken the preliminary course and have practiced enough to become proficient at it.
I originally took the basic class a year ago , did fairly well but found it difficult to be consistent. So much practice was in order and have now reduced my practice course down from 24’, to 18’-20’ on the Harley, and 16’ – 18’ on the Suzuki.
With this said, I thought the advanced class wouldn’t be too hard. It was. Mostly because it took us all many tries to make it through each individual exercise without blowing some cones, whereas the basic exercises came quite readily. We all used Mark’s Kawasaki police bikes, including mark, as the Harleys would never make it.
Although there were breaks in the class there was very little waiting around, and other than the breaks and instructions, it was pretty much constant riding for 5 hours.
We initially started practicing on the basic course while Mark continually reduced everything down in size from 24’ to 18’. Not too difficult if you’ve’ practiced this before. Then on to some other exercises which again weren’t too difficult, but hard to do consistently and with ease. Then came the Mazes, about 3’ wide, 16’ long and in the shape of a retarded snake. These were slowww, coming to complete stops to change directions at times without droping a foot. To make matters worse, they were eventually lined with tall cones. Fun, but difficult. From there we did 45 degree curb side pull aways (kind of a u turn within 1 lane width from a 45 d. start). On to the 90 degree rear wheel lockup turns which I thought would be easy, but my instinct to counter steer consistently screwed me up.
Then down the way a few city streets on the un light, mirrored, or registered Kawi’s (renegade outlaws we were) to practice the mazes on a 35% grade hill (closed course). 2 or 3 passes and the clutch’s were gone requiring coasting the hills downside, engine off, for a cool down. THE BEST: we had to accomplish a “double full lock u-turn” from a dead stop on this 35% grade hill. I wouldn’t have thought this possible and envisioned bikes tumbling down the hill. Keep in mind that this exercise is 2 u turns within a confined space of about 10’ by 20’, from a dead stop, on a steep hill. Quite a feat!
Back to the school where we had our rodeo. Some of the exercises we had practiced were set up as a course and time trials began. Fastest time won.
Unfortunately, I have no pics or videos as there was just no time to take any. Perhaps Mark will post links to some officer’s competitions or especially the hillside u turns.
All in all this was a fantastic experience. None of us wanted it to end and were trying to talk mark into having an extension of this class for us. After 40 years of riding street and dirt, this was one of the most challenging experiences I’ve had on a bike, and this course is just a teaser compared to the official 2 week motor office course. I now have a new found respect for motor officers and Mark’s skills.
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Topic: RLAP Advanced Motor Officer Prep Course write up (Read 1149 times)