Quit Crashing your Coffee

At NJMP during YCRS - the sun sets on a Ducati Monster.

It was my first time riding a motorcycle to school - the commute was 4-hours. Big Red was launched eastward into another 90-degree sweltering day. My commute from central Maryland to south New Jersey hugged the Maryland/Pennsylvania, thus avoiding the Baltimore Beltway and the deadliest road in America (I-95). The only interstate was crossing, along with 100,000 vehicles daily, the dreaded Delaware Memorial Bridge (I-295).

The Yamaha Champions Riding School (YCRS) had rolled into New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP) in Millville (NJ), and I was enrolled. YCRS is a two-day riding school at a racetrack. This is not a racing school, the racetrack is the safest place to practice riding skills - all 25 students are traveling in the same direction, there to learn, and the instructor ratio is 4 to 1.

Just like their bikes, the students come in all shapes and sizes and hail from all points. A retired UPS driver turned dog breeder from Vermont is attending a second time, a jewelry store owner from New York City arrives on one of her four bikes, a financial planner is from North Jersey. I was one of 4 students from Maryland and Big Red is the only Goldwing among mostly sport and naked bikes.

What did I learn? Quit crashing your coffee.

We have all knocked over a coffee and ruined our day for a minimum of 15 minutes. Due to a lack of focus (or caffeine) we reach for a pen, tool, or computer mouse and crash our coffee. We walk into a car door, a wall, or even another human and spill hot Joe all over ourselves and/or, car, wall, or human.

According to YCRS the number one reason riders crash their motorcycle is lack of focus. Riding requires constant vigilance - there is none of the complacency of driving an automobile. Riders often speak of the feeling of freedom as the reason they ride. For me, it is vigilance – the awareness of your environment - vigilance is focus.

Our coach instructed us to look ahead and scan back. Look ahead as far as you can see, scan back to the car ahead of you, and the upcoming road. Scan to the side for wildlife, driveways, intersections. Scan behind with the mirrors. Anywhere an animal or vehicle might lurk.

Scanning does not stop when the bike stops. At a red light or stop sign, scan the mirrors – is the auto behind you going to stop? What is your escape route?

If you are riding and thinking of your workday, your child’s homework, or repairing your gutter at home – you are not focused. Get back to scanning - back to being the best rider you can be.

After two days of classroom, track practice, and riding comradery, I pointed Big Red west toward home. For the return trip my route included a portion on old Route 40 from New Castle, DE to Elkton, MD. Big mistake.

Rather than finding the romantic old route 40 of my youth with full-service gas stations, drive-in restaurants, and motels, I find stop lights, strip shopping centers, and convenience stores. Seems every intersection has a Wawa with a Royal Farm sitting catty-corner. I played with the idea of counting convenient stores. But that would be a lack of focus…

My focus is maxed as I negotiate bumper to bumper 4 to 6 lane bidirectional chaos. Scanning among these cagers:

Am I in a blind spot?
Who is preparing to change lanes?
Does the person behind me see me?
What is my escape route?
What is the person in front of me going to do?
What is going on in front of the person in front of me?
What color is the traffic light?
Who is entering the highway from the innumerable strip shopping centers, fast food emporiums, and gas stations.
Where is my next turn?

Big Red is my caffeine and YCRS has me focused.

How about you? Where do you focus? Share a story!

2nd Helping

The first area of focus at YCRS is trying to get into track leathers. These are one-piece leather suits students wear on track. These leathers are designed for small European racers and not American students in all shapes and sizes.

Students can put them on by themselves. But it involves putting both legs in, then pulling the suit onto each arm somewhere between the wrist and shoulder. At this point, students do a dance involving rotating the shoulders and hips in opposite directions while hopping up and down rapidly. Think of a cat fight involving one cat…

Noting the leathers were short in the crotch, coaches tell us leathers are supposed to be that way and they will feel better sitting on the bike. Which, thank goodness, is correct.

Unlike putting on leathers, taking off hot sweaty leathers cannot be completed by one rider. Riders will get the leathers off one shoulder and try rotating the other shoulder in a suggestive manner that is ultimately unsuccessful. The rider then asks the nearest classmate to pull the leathers off the second shoulder.

The rider (and their crotch) thanks the classmate for the assistance.