Lee Parks Total Control Training

[justride]

I am interested to know of people's experience with Lee Parks advanced rider courses.


The MSF BRC gave me so many tools to improve my riding that I feel compelled to continue working to improve my skills. While not necessarily interested in doing track days, I've been looking for some type of more advanced rider training and see that this class is offered by Lee himself in the SF Bay Area next spring.


Any information or personal experiences worth sharing is appreciated.

 

[samsam]

I have taken three of his offered courses and found them quite helpful and worth the price.  All are parking lot exercises. 

 

[dgold]

My son and I took the class in San Diego and learned a fair amount. Most of the parking lot excersises were to learn how to drop your knee. My son had his knee down within his first couple of tries on a c10 but my  approaching 60 body is just not limber enough. He will help you set up your suspension also.

 

[slybonesjesse]

Done Level 1 and Level 2. Some parts were pretty good. Other parts could have been better. IMO level 1 has a number of different parking lot exercises with slightly different focus, but all oriented to firmly planting Lee's 10 steps to proper cornering. Which are:

1. Reposition Foot
2. Pre-Position Body
3. Push on the outside grip ( #2 should cause the bike to want to turn some, #3 offsets this and keeps you going straight )
4. Locate Turn Point
5. Look Through the turn ( you are turning your head advance )
6. Relax the outside grip
7. Push on the inside grip
8. Roll on the Throttle
9. Push on the outside grip
10. Move back to Neutral

Level 2 for the most part was mostly about Trail braking. Again my take on it. Were not trail braking like the racers do. However we still are using some overlap of front brake while you turn and apply throttle, then completely release front brake. The idea is that you can be better prepared for what if scenario's after you have flicked the bike over.  After just practicing some straight trail braking, we then transitioned to using the technique to compensate for a reduced radius turn, and to compensate for crap in the road. On the last one the parking lot corner was setup with a turn point you have to make, then a 2 cones that represent a clean spot in the turn, followed by the remainder of the turn of course. The idea was you came into the turn with a nice delay apex line, flicked the bike over, see some crap in the road and where the clean patch is, apply more front brake ( remember they are still on some at this point ) to scrub speed and get the bike to dive in tight, then stand it up and ride through the clean patch down on the inside, then flick it back over and complete the turn.

The idea was that if the road was full of crap or oil, etc and you have to ride over it, you want to take it straight up so you have a chance, and on the inside where you have the remaining part of the lane to try and complete the turn when done. Where if you stand it up and go to the outside you might make it across the sand or oil or whatever, but then you have no no where to go after that. No room to complete the turn. Where if you take it to the inside you have some lane left over to try and complete the turn. -- This was hard and I don't think I did a single good one all the way through. I think out on the road you might have more time and room for forgiveness. In the small parking lot corner you pretty much have to get the technique and timing right or any little mistake get very obvious.

There were other areas to the courses. For me these were the main take-aways. Other items like quick stops I thought were way better in the Motor Officer Course. 

 

[skiee]

Luckily here in Orange County Cali, we have some private skills classes. You need to already own a bike but is well worth the 6 hour class for $80. I've taken the class a couple times just to refresh my survivor skills!

 

[S Smith]

Go for it if you can get into a course Lee instructing.  He is a great guy and has a very dynamic presentation style. Many of the concepts and skills he presents in the parking lot exercises are described in his book Total Control. 

Like anything in life, continuous improvement is important. Rider education & training are good things. No one course or style is the best, and there is benefit from taking even the same riding course from different instructors to gain different perspectives.