Lee Parks Total Control Advanced Rider Clinic

[k1prototype]

Well I am getting ready to take the ARC class this coming Sunday and the skills day on Monday. I have read Lee Parks Total Control book cover to cover and started incorporating what it teaches into my riding and I am already starting to feel more confident.

However, I wanted to find out from those that have taken the class, what was your experiences and possible improvements that you saw soon afterwards?

Also what should I do to prepare myself for the class psychologically, mechanically, etc, etc?

[Racer x]

Reading the books is a great way to prepare.
Also taking the 250 will be like cheating. It was so much fun to do on the 250 . I took it once with a VFR 800 very nice. But I took level one and level two with the 250 and had a great time
Good luck

[LazinCajun]

How did it go?

[ally99]

I've thought about taking one of his classes as well. I love his book (and should reread it before my next mountain trip this weekend), but I wonder if I wouldn't be good enough to fit in with the other students in his class.
Please, please report back and let us know how it was, what exercises you learned, how the teaching was, etc.

[k1prototype]

Sorry for the late reply guys. Well here's my report. Be advised this post is LONG!!!

Was the $355 worth it for the class / skills day combo? Yes Most definitely. I have already signed up for another skills day taking place in July.

However, I think it is worth breaking down why I feel spending the money on the class is justified rather then just reading the book and setting up your own

course in a large empty parking lot.

I had read Lee's book as well before taking the class and luckily live 5 minutes from where the class took place. This gave me an opportunity to practice

what the book teaches before taking the class at the actual location of where the class took place.

Although any person can setup their own course in an empty parking lot and practice what you learn in the book, the primary advantage of taking this class is

you are paying for the expertise of coaches who are semi-pro or professional instructors, track riders, etc. The second advantage is that you get practice

your riding skills legally without being chased off an empty parking lot and possibly ticketed for trespassing on private property by a cop. Remember this

course is 16 hours total. I'm sure its pretty hard to get away with doing this stuff for such a long duration without attracting unwanted attention if you

plan on doing it on your own.

The way that the class is broken down is about 3 hours of classroom instruction integrated with 5 hours of riding time in a controlled environment on the

actual day of the class. In addition you can also sign up for the skills day which I did hence the $355 rather then the $295 for just the class. The skills

day is 8 hours of just riding which takes place the following day.

Class layout
You start out by meeting the instructors and getting to know their background and experience. All three of my instructors also teach with some other track

organization such as NESBA and Sport Bike Track Time. In addition, one of my instructors also teaches the Wisconsin MSF BRC and ERC course.

The first hour basically goes over what the book does. You go over fear, emotions, light of sight, body positioning and throttle control. The rest of the

classroom time further goes into this except the last hour towards the end of the day which teaches you about suspension technology and how to setup your

suspension to match your weight and style of riding.



Riding



Lesson 1: Trail braking and Throttle control.

You learn how your suspension reacts to sloppy braking and acceleration. You learn how to trail brake with the throttle still slightly open as you slow the

bike down with the brakes to keep the suspension from diving. You also learn how to be smooth with the acceleration when getting back up to speed.

For myself, I found this really beneficial. You think you know something so basic as braking and accelerating but you come to understand how sloppy you

actually are.

Results? I went from having fairly substantial front end dive to having the fork tubes barely move as I slowed.

Subsequently, if you take the level 2 class, you learn how to trail brake in a turn and even shift gears without the clutch (speed shifting).



Lesson 2: Sight and Vision.

I felt this was by far the hardest thing for me. I'll explain why. The class teaches you look at your turn in point 10-15 feet ahead of time and then

remember that turn in point in your head without looking at it again. The reason why you don't look at it again is you want your head, upper body and torso

to be turned looking into the turn once you have figured out your turn in point. It sounds easy but to get your brain to connect the two was what I really

struggled with. The goal is to have it embedded in your mind where your turn in point is, either without looking at it or by just seeing it out of the

corner of your eye as your head is now turned looking into the turn.


A quick way to practice this is by taking a water bottle and positioning it in front you. Now close you eyes and try to grab the bottle. Then move the

bottle further and further away. Closing your eyes again try to grab the bottle by visually locating the bottle, and then using your mind, not your eyes to

figure the distance between you and the bottle. Next try to walk to the bottle and see if you can grab it. Keep repeating until you can do so at least

10-15 feet away.

You can also practice this in a car as well.


Lesson 3: Body Positioning.

In the body positioning section you learn how to properly lean your body into the turn by getting your inside butt cheek off the bike. Subsequently you

learn to move your torso, upper body, and inside arm in a such a way as to complement that stance. You also can stick your knee out at this point as a

subconscious reference to help you understand how far you are leaning.

The hardest part for me in this section was remembering to tuck my toes in and having only the front of my feet on the pegs while the rest of my foot hovered

behind in the air.



Lesson 4: The Flop.



The flop is a technique you learn in the class on how to turn quickly. It incorporates everything I have said so far. The basic point of learning this trait

is to get through the turn quickly and get back upright faster. The benefit of learning the flop is 1. That you will stay leaned over for far less of a time

period 2. You will have better vision going into the turn and coming out of the turn.

The way that the flop works is that you get into your body position early on before arriving at the turn, with your body off to the inside of the bike

(depends on how far you trust yourself to lean off). This creates what I call a pendulum effect in which gravity is going make your bike lean right away

into the turn because your body is now acting as aerodynamic drag. To counter this effect and keep the bike straight until you reach your turn in point, you

apply pressure to the outside handle bar. You will now find yourself and your bike in a V position with your body being the inside part of the V while the

bike is the outside part.



Incorporating the vision section, you visually locate your turn in point 10-15 feet before arriving there while still staying in that V position. Once you

figure out where the turn in point is you now move your head, upper body, and torso further into the turn in order to see where you will be going.

I feel as I stated earlier, this is going to be the hard part considering you are no longer looking at your turn in point and are still expected to turn at

that point.



Once you reach your turn in point, you let the pressure off instantly and completely on the outside bar. Once you let off the pressure on the outside bar,

the bike will immediately "flop" into the turn. This will happen so quickly that if you aren't used to experiencing your bike turning in so sharply, you

will experience a "oh sh** I'm going to low-slide butt pucker moment as the bike will just dive in. What makes this feeling become exemplified is the fact

that you aren't looking straight, nor at the bike, rather you are trusting the bike to stay upright in that turn."




Now that you are in the turn, you will start steering with just the inside bar. Your outside arm should be resting on the tank and your hand should be

holding the bar, but not applying pressure. Otherwise you will notice a tug of war going on between your hands and arms which prevent the bike and your

inside arm from doing its job properly. This sounds easy but when you are in the position and doing it, fear will make your outside arm tense up and want

straighten up the bike. This is something you must overcome. (In the picture above you can see my outside arm is tense.)

Also while you are in the turn, the way you prevent yourself from low-sliding is by keeping the gas open. You don't need to rev it like your planning going

somewhere fast, but just keep it open constantly. If you close the throttle, you could potentially low-slide. In addition, throughout this duration, do no

apply the brakes because they will make suspension do more than they are designed to do while in that position. Correct me if I am wrong, but hitting the

brakes could also cause a low-slide.

To get out of the turn, you start applying pressure to the outside of the handle bar again and the combine pressure and throttle will make the bike stand up

right. Please remember though,although your go from looking at the center of the turn to looking straight and forward, you do not want to get your body out

of that leaned position until the bike is straight up.


Another weird thing you will figure out is that you will be better at turning in either to the left or to the right. I remember the instructors explaining

it has something to do with how your brain thinks but I don't remember exactly what it was so I won't speculate. Right turns are different then left turns,

because in a right turn, the inside arm is doing the steering and holding the throttle, whereas in a left turn, the left arm is doing the steering and the

right arm is taking care of the throttle. When I started the class, I was better at left turns, but ironically after my two days I was much more confident

in right turns.


Practice
After you learn these methods, you will get a chance to practice them while the bike is stopped. You will hop on your bike and the instructor will take you

through the 10 steps needed to turn properly. The lean angle of the bike is initiated when your fellow classmates help lean the bike for you. This

excercise helps you experience what it is like to be in that position with the bike leaned over. This helps get over the fear of leaning.



Exercise 1 Circle

You practice Vision, body positioning and the flop in a circle.



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Exercise 2 Double Right or Left Hander

You practice the same techniques except this time you learn to hold your body position in the event you run into a double right hander or double left hander.




step 1
step 2
step 3
step 4




Exercise 3 Figure 8
You practice the same techniques except this time you learn to move your body at corner end while the bike is turned into the turn, by shifting your weight

to the opposite side of the bike so you can be prepared to flop the bike into the opposite turn.

In this exercise you first learn that while your body is leaned into the turn, your vision must change to locate the point at which you can see the opposite

turn coming. Once you can see this point and you have the ability, you learn to look into the direction of the new approaching turn and shift your body to

the opposite side of the bike by using your butt and legs NOT your arms, while the bike is leaned over still into the first turn. The reason why you don't

want to use your arms is because you will end up upsetting the suspension on the bike and it will get wobbly for that split second that you attempt to

transfer your body to the opposite side of the bike via the handlebars.

Here is my experience. In the circle and double turn, I was able to get good enough to where my knee was hovering slightly above the ground by the end of the

second day. Unfortunately the photographer had left by then so I didn't get any sweet shots to stroke my ego. However, in the figure 8 I had trouble

leaning my body that far over because I would end up missing my shift point where I would slide my butt and transition to the opposite side of the bike.

Therefore I didn't lean quite to the extreme on this section.




Exercise 4 Suspension Geometry and damping settings
The instructors show you how to adjust your forks (doesn't apply to the 250 obviously) to match your body weight. The critical component of this section is

learning how to properly set up your suspension and learning the method needed to do this.



Skills Day (Day 2)
I highly recommend you don't be cheap and take the skills day. The reason being is that in the first day, you end up taking the entire time learning these

skills. As a result you don't get time to perfect them. The skills day is basically just an open range. You arrive at 7:30am and the turns are all setup

for you. You go out and practice whatever you need to work on. The instructors are on sight to watch you and coach you like the first day.



So in conclusion I felt it was really worth it. I learned a lot and actually improved my riding skills to the point where I'm ready to go to a track school

and further enhance my skills. Like I said, you can really do this stuff on your own, but your money is paying for the feedback of the coaches, and the

legality of using a large spot for a substantial amount of practice time.


I hope this helps!


Finally, here are some pics of me in the class.










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Also here is a funny pic of one of the coaches on his Goldwing.

[k1prototype]

Originally Posted by ally99

I wonder if I wouldn't be good enough to fit in with the other students in his class.

You'll be fine. The nice thing is that there isn't any sense of competition, rather its more of a comradeship. We had a Harley guy go down in our class and everyone asked him if he was ok, and what he did wrong so we could all learn from his mistake.

[ally99]

Originally Posted by k1prototype

You'll be fine. The nice thing is that there isn't any sense of competition, rather its more of a comradeship. We had a Harley guy go down in our class and everyone asked him if he was ok, and what he did wrong so we could all learn from his mistake.

Cool. Thanks! What a GREAT summary of the class! I appreciate you taking time to write that! :-) I definitely think I could benefit. How many students were in the class with you? Allyson

[k1prototype]

Originally Posted by ally99

Cool. Thanks! What a GREAT summary of the class! I appreciate you taking time to write that! :-) I definitely think I could benefit. How many students were in the class with you? Allyson

No problem! Glad I could share my enthusiasm for the class and the great people who teach it.

I'm 110% sure, you will find something which will benefit your riding after taking the class. You learn so much that it's kind of develops an analytical ability in your mind to self diagnose your riding and implement the proper solutions you learned in the class.

I believe on the day of the class there were about 20-25. The class is broken up into cruisers, sport tourers, and sport bikes. On the skills day there were a little bit less but there were also some addition people who came that had taken the course previous to when I had taken it.

Like I said in my post, one thing I really recommend is that you also participate in the skills day. You really need that 8 hour day to just practice, practice, practice. After the 8 hours you will be surprised at not only how much more fluid you are on the bike, but ironically also be able to point out other riders mistakes on the road as a result of completely understanding what your body should be doing when braking, turning and accelerating.

Also I forgot to mention in the post about additional gear. We rode in the rain, so I would bring a Pancho or something to protect your leathers or textiles. Also you will go through water like crazy. They do bring Gatorade but it's always nice to have some water sitting in a backpack just in case.
Also if you can bring some granola bars, you'll get hungry frequently as well.


here are the pictures from the class as well for reference:

http://www.motocentral.com/trtarc2010/indexGallery.htm

[LazinCajun]

Awesome review, thanks! I'll definitely be signing up for one of these in the fall if I get a chance.

[k1prototype]

Some pictures from the skills day this past weekend on the new bike. I feel skills day really helps. You can see an improvement compared to a month ago on the Ninja. I feel like I am now ready to go out and take a track class.

ARC482.jpg

kareem1.jpg

kareem2.jpg

ARC440.jpg

ARC286.jpg

ARC353.jpg

ARC431.jpg

[LazinCajun]

Do you think it would be worth it to take a skills day the next day after taking the course?

[k1prototype]

Most definitely. The class just long enough to get you to understand the concepts but not master them.. The skills day is where you are actually provided the opportunity to practice the techniques, fine tune them, and master the techniques.

[Yasko]

Great post... Thanks...

[Too40gawlf]

Thanks for the reminder. I just signed up for the Total Control ARC on april 30th near me as a result of reading this post. I was originally scheduled to take it in November, but that class got cancelled because of too few participants. I got the last spot on this class though. Hopefully, Ill get the same out of it as you did.