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Yes, I did it! On turn nine of the Arizona Firebird Raceway, the plastic blob on my knee made contact with asphalt to leave me with my-greatest-ever-moment-on-a-motorcycle-so-far. I actually got my knee down.
On the next lap, I did it again. Only this time, the reaction was more ‘Nailed it!’ rather than the earlier ‘What was that?’ And just as I was ready to make yet another mark on the slider, a chequered flag at course control beckoned a single file entry into the pits. That was that.
But my disappointment was short-lived and as I thumbed the kill switch on my number 14 Kawasaki ZX-6R for the last time, the rented KBC gave way to the widest grin man has ever seen. At that moment, nothing seemed to matter. Not the fact that I had flown halfway around the world for a rider training program, or that I had positively emptied most of my career earnings, or the fact that I was paying a hundred dollars a day (a day!) to drive around in a rented 1.6 Focus (renting is not that expensive, but under-25 insurance is). At that moment I could’ve easily claimed to be the happiest man alive and I certainly had the widest chest in the northern hemisphere.
Those of you who aren’t aware, (not reading Powerband, eh?) California Superbike School is an institution for motorcyclists and Keith Code, the founder, an institution by himself. Over the past 25 years, he has trained over 150,000 students. Actually, trained is too small a word. Kept them alive is more like it. And he hasn’t just gone about teaching Joe Average how to keep the rubber-side down. This guy has worked with the best of them and his protegés include Doug Chandler and Scott Russel. Haven’t heard of them? Maybe you’ve heard of Wayne Rainey then. No? Dude, you need to get a life.
In all seriousness, Code has been analysing riding for a quarter of a century now and needless to say, his findings are profound. Keith believes that riding is a complex challenge that has simple answers. And the California Superbike School is the place where you point all your questions at. Over the years, Keith has ‘created’ the science of riding a motorcycle and the CSS is his lab. And he had the sense of humour not to call it motorcyclology or something equally ghastly.
In my two-day programme, the first day had begun with me turning up at daybreak and signing a form with a clause that sent me home if I had a crash. Home was ten thousand miles away and the fact that I had ridden a 600cc motorcycle just once before didn’t really boost my confidence. To make matters worse, I just had my credit card swiped for a 750 dollar deposit for the bike and a 200 dollar deposit for leathers. Anyway, I had a job on hand, so I strolled off to the nearby bunch of leather-men, to chat up with them and to try and behave like a journo. Job one: listen in.
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