RideSmart MMXV check-in thread...

[Huzband]

Dick & I rolled off the hill at 7:45 this morning, & 460 miles later we're home safe. Hot, but safe. A great weekend & class, & I'm so proud of everyone! Pictures to come, I'm sure.

 

Oops, wrong place. Mods, move please. Sorry, it's been a long, hot day.

[terryofperry]

Home safely after taking the loooong way to practice more. A big thank you to Danny, Craig (drawing a tough assignent), Shannon, Alan, and Bernie. Really great group of instructors passing on their knowledge, exhibiting patience, leading the way and working so well together as a team. Excellent, excellent class.

 

Terry

[TN_R_Girl]

Hey All! Thanks again for all your hard work this weekend!

 

Hot, tired, and sweaty! But home safely with right at 400 miles on the trip odometer for today.

 

Hope to see many of you again in September!

[Foot]

Home at 4:50pm CST. Thanks everyone for coming, what a great class.

 

Question for the class, whats wrong with this!

 

 

Alan

[terryofperry]

Pretty sure we know Alan, I am just glad that is not me.

 

Terry

[toddfjc]

Back home safely after putting new RideSmart skills to work riding up and over Roan Mtn. Thank you Bernie for your coaching! Danny thank you for putting the show together - very well done. Looking forward to seeing the gang soon during the next FART.

[marcopolo]

I bugged out of Little Switzerland at 7:30 a.m. and arrived home in Alexandria at about 4:00 p.m. Thanks again to Danny and his band of merry men (and women), Craig, Shannon, Bernie and Alan for the time and effort they put in this weekend. It was well worth it -- for the students, that is.

[Bernie]

In Snellville around 3 pm at my sisters place for the night. Heading home tomorrow.

Thank you very much to all the students and other instructors.

[TyTass]

Terri and I are back home ... been home a while actually.

 

I had a fantastic time this weekend due to both the camaraderie and the rewarding experience of the course itself. As I hoped and predicted, I benefitted immensely from the lessons and demonstration of the instructor team as well as the students I worked with and/or filmed. In fact, I re-learned and reinforced more than I'd like to admit by assisting this weekend. To teach truly is to learn.

 

Thank you all, and a shout out to Matt who set us up in the lap of luxury!

 

BTW: I'm going through the video and it'll probably take a little while to cobble together a montage ... for the purpose of illustrating the lessons. Please be patient.

 

 

[OoPEZoO]

Home at 4:50pm CST. Thanks everyone for coming, what a great class.

 

Question for the class, whats wrong with this!

 

 

Alan

 

Not enough smoke coming off of the rear tire to properly swing the rear into position

[TyTass]

I was thinking he was just a bit confused and thought he was on dirt.

[Foot]

Nope they hired the wrong dang model!

[Blind Squirrel]

Left at 7:30 this morning. 407 miles later I rolled into the garage at 2:26 this afternoon.

 

Thanks to all the instructors for everything you all did to help make us smarter riders!

[mneblett]

Also in, in northern VA. Also thankful for the time/effort/expertise of the cadre!

 

Left the hill in the opposite direction from home so I could run route 80, and then ran a backroad line to the NE back into Virginia to get to Rt. 29 -- in other words, about 1/2 of the ~465 mi. home practicing Ride Smart!

 

Good group of folks, instructors and students -- everyone had a great sense of humor and great patience.

 

Highlights of the weekend: the stunning vistas on the first run up toward the overlook to the south, figuring out why I used to always be on the double yellow in left turns, and following Danny back to the Inn.

 

Thanks all!

[cyclingkk]

Home at 4:50pm CST. Thanks everyone for coming, what a great class.

 

Question for the class, whats wrong with this!

 

 

Alan

 

Alan, how'd you get that pic of me before RideSmart!

 

Todd, Frank, Bud, Dan, and I had an awesome ride practicing RideSmart the whole way on 226a, 80 up and over the mountain, 143, 181, and old 18. What a difference! I was going through several corners with decreasing radius and I almost played my initial instincts to tighten up but said aloud to myself RideSmart! WOW, I pulled the bike closer to me and I just trusted the KTM1290SA to carry me thru the corner. RideSmart works and works well!

 

Again, I sincerely thank and appreciate Danny for keeping RideSmart alive and well, Matt for working in the background to secure the awesome Little Switzerland venue, Alan for helping me with all my pointed questions, Shanon for her useful animations, Craig for keeping it fun, and Bernie for his wisdom (I'm dropping my inside shoulder and elbow now!).

 

I look forward to many more good times ahead with this most awesome group of people. Thank you to all the students for an absolutely wonderful time...

 

Regards,

Keith (no rubber chicken here... lol)

[Lone_RT_rider]

Question for the class, whats wrong with this!

 

Alan

 

The rider dropped waaaaaay too much cash at Touratech?

[Highway41]

 

"Question for the class, whats wrong with this!"

 

 

Novel way of keeping his eyes level.

 

Home after one day of practice in western NC and into SC and then one day of SC and GA back roads.

Really enjoyed the course and many thanks to Danny, Craig, Bernie, Shannon and Alan.

Photos later.

Bill

[Fathom]

 

 

Not much I can add, other than to echo all the gratitude & appreciation for all of our instructors' / organizers' efforts on our behalf that's been posted up here so far. Just an amazing experience, and yeah, I was practicing on the (long) way home, for sure!

[Foot]

Question for the class, whats wrong with this!

 

Alan

 

The rider dropped waaaaaay too much cash at Touratech?

 

Touratech don't make crap for that bike it's too new! Ask Whip!!

[Huzband]

Question for the class, whats wrong with this!

 

Alan

 

The rider dropped waaaaaay too much cash at Touratech?

 

Touratech don't make crap for that bike it's too new! Ask Whip!!

 

[Highway41]

 

A lot of the morning lessons and practice was in the clouds, at times I couldn't see the guy just in front of me.

 

 

 

 

Cleared up later in the day. This is the Mt Mitchell overlook.

 

 

 

The end of the day when we were deciding between gas for the bike or beer for the night.

 

[Bernie]

Back in Jax around 4 PM today, 1900+ (s)miles on the week.

Great week/weekend vacation and class. Got some quality riding in this week, found some great places to eat and had also a great time with everyone that attended RideSmart. This being my first time helping with the instructing, really gave me the opportunity to reinforce the lessons for myself and let me refine my own technique.

Thank you all again for making this weekend a huge success.

See you on the road or at FART or START.

 

[Huzband]

Thanks for the pics, Bill. And a huge thanks again to everyone for their patients with the weather. It was of course completely unexpected, & nobody complained. We just went with it, & in the end it may have made the class better. No doubt everyone, & I mean everyone, had to concentrate when we couldn't see the yellow line for more than 100 feet.

[Huzband]

Glad y'all are back home safe. Thanks again for your help, Bernie. I received lots of great feedback & compliments on your instructions.

[TyTass]

Ok, it took less time than I thought it would to upload. However, expect long download times for both. They are over 300MB each.

 

NOTICE: This video is for your training purposes, not for anything else. RidingSmart is copywritten by David Baker and the music clips in this video are copyrighted as well. DO NOT POST TO YouTube! Do not send all over the world. Please just use it as it was intended ... to further your training ... and as a memory of a great time. Thanks.

 

The comments in the video are not criticisms. They are simply there for you to contrast yours and others better techniques against the poor techniques. The goal of course is to eliminate all the poor techniques and unsafe habits, but we all slip up now and again, as I did the day before the class, not being in proper position on a sharp right-hander, and being bounced upright as Terri and I bottomed out ... just missing a car.

 

(Admin Edit)

Video Links Removed by request of the poster.

 

[Bernie]

Thank you Craig for all the hard work in making the videos.

[marcopolo]

Thank you Craig for all the hard work in making the videos.

 

Yeah, no kidding Bernie. I thought this would just be a RAM dump, not an edited effort with comments etc. Well done, Craig.

[TEWKS]

Awesome job!

 

Pat

[lawnchairboy]

Great Craig, per usual.

[cyclingkk]

Craig! Dude! Complete awesomeness...

The comments, freeze frames, and tunes are super cool. What software did you use to break it all up?

[Indy Dave]

Thanks so much for the videos. I really wanted to do this event this year. Not doing it however, means I can FART. In the meantime, I can review these and hope to pick up pointers and put them to use before FARTING.

 

[Huzband]

Craig...outstanding!

 

For those that don't know, & you wouldn't, Craig has been working on this for the last two weeks with many PM's to me. I tried to tell him to just do it, but he wouldn't listen. In the end, this is the draft he sent me last night. So if you see him in Asheville, buy him a beer, at least. His time & talents are priceless.

[Bernie]

Craig...outstanding!

 

For those that don't know, & you wouldn't, Craig has been working on this for the last two weeks with many PM's to me. I tried to tell him to just do it, but he wouldn't listen. In the end, this is the draft he sent me last night. So if you see him in Asheville, buy him a beer, at least. His time & talents are priceless.

 

Agree 110% with you. Hell he even made my RT sound better.

[TyTass]

Craig...outstanding!

 

For those that don't know, & you wouldn't, Craig has been working on this for the last two weeks with many PM's to me. I tried to tell him to just do it, but he wouldn't listen. In the end, this is the draft he sent me last night. So if you see him in Asheville, buy him a beer, at least. His time & talents are priceless.

 

Agree 110% with you. Hell he even made my RT sound better.

 

Thank you all for the very kind words.

 

A few corrections:

 

I did nothing to make your RT sound better, though I could have. That's just what your camera picked up. My camera on the helmet mount sounds like wind ... that's it.

 

I've only been working on this on and off since last Sunday, Danny (we just got home from RS last Sunday night, right? (Or did I lose a week?)

 

I truly enjoy making riding videos, especially since I barely ever play music anymore. Darned school made me give up some hobbies ... and it wasn't about to be motorcycling, so ... making videos is not too dissimilar to recording music (not that I have much material).

 

But thanks again! You guys are all worth it. Just wanna help in the best way I can.

[TyTass]

Craig! Dude! Complete awesomeness...

The comments, freeze frames, and tunes are super cool. What software did you use to break it all up?

 

I use AVID Pinnacle Studio 14. I think they are up to like 18 but I don't know if it's worth it for me to upgrade given my system. However, I did have a miserable crash on Thursday night, just as I was feeling pretty close to being finished. For a 2 hour period I lost everything except the name of the file. It was a very unpleasant 2 hours until I read how to recover a lost file after a Google search.

 

Even then, I had some realignment to do. So perhaps an upgrade is on the list for next winter.

 

AVID now own Pro Tools which pretty much is the high-end PC music recording software (but not the one I use). I have quite a few video processing tool, transitions, effects, etc. from other companies that plug-in to Pinnacle. I didn't use too much of those here, though I have before. That's where you can really end up spending money ... the tools. Very much like in music software and photo editing software (like Photoshop).

 

I just get the cheaper versions of the main software package so I can buy a few tools/FX. It's fun!

 

PS. Other than a few bugs/crashes now and then, it's really intuitive software.

[Indy Dave]

Awesome! Well done! Of many best practices covered, some of the 'take homes' for me are:

 

Ensure dive in is delayed until exit is in sight.

 

Handrests, not handgrips

 

And for one with bad hips, I struggle with

 

anchoring lower body

 

Seems obvious sitting here, but in practice I know I've been guilty of diving in too early. More often than not, I think when I make that mistake, it's at speed and on tighter,longer curves - kind of a bad combination.

 

The head vertical to the road is new to me. Could anyone unpack that practice for me?

 

Thanks again. The end titles are awesome with the changing font sizing!

[TyTass]

Awesome! Well done! Of many best practices covered, some of the 'take homes' for me are:

 

Ensure dive in is delayed until exit is in sight.

 

Handrests, not handgrips

 

And for one with bad hips, I struggle with

 

anchoring lower body

 

Seems obvious sitting here, but in practice I know I've been guilty of diving in too early. More often than not, I think when I make that mistake, it's at speed and on tighter,longer curves - kind of a bad combination.

 

The head vertical to the road is new to me. Could anyone unpack that practice for me?

 

Thanks again. The end titles are awesome with the changing font sizing!

 

Dave, many thanks.

 

Although I'm happy may find the video helpful, the video is mainly a reminder for folks who have been through the course. These comments will hopefully spark memories of the lessons and exercises from the class.

 

I hope you get to take the course before too long because the lessons WAAAAAAY outdo the video, I assure you. It is the techniques and how to perform them that are so important to be practiced ... and practiced correctly. The whole bending at the hips is something that takes a fair amount of getting used to for most people, add the forward lean, and head perpendicular to the road that tends to present a challenge for most, but it is so easy to forget the first lessons of proper anchoring of the feet and legs. It is crucial that one do it all, and properly. (As I admitted earlier, I get caught being lazy now and again, and did so the day before the class.)

 

All that said, some help is better than none., but do plan to drop what you must the next time the class is given.

[Indy Dave]

Awesome! Well done! Of many best practices covered, some of the 'take homes' for me are:

 

Ensure dive in is delayed until exit is in sight.

 

Handrests, not handgrips

 

And for one with bad hips, I struggle with

 

anchoring lower body

 

Seems obvious sitting here, but in practice I know I've been guilty of diving in too early. More often than not, I think when I make that mistake, it's at speed and on tighter,longer curves - kind of a bad combination.

 

The head vertical to the road is new to me. Could anyone unpack that practice for me?

 

Thanks again. The end titles are awesome with the changing font sizing!

 

Dave, many thanks.

 

Although I'm happy may find the video helpful, the video is mainly a reminder for folks who have been through the course. These comments will hopefully spark memories of the lessons and exercises from the class.

 

I hope you get to take the course before too long because the lessons WAAAAAAY outdo the video, I assure you. It is the techniques and how to perform them that are so important to be practiced ... and practiced correctly. The whole bending at the hips is something that takes a fair amount of getting used to for most people, add the forward lean, and head perpendicular to the road that tends to present a challenge for most, but it is so easy to forget the first lessons of proper anchoring of the feet and legs. It is crucial that one do it all, and properly. (As I admitted earlier, I get caught being lazy now and again, and did so the day before the class.)

 

All that said, some help is better than none., but do plan to drop what you must the next time the class is given.

 

I kept my calendar clear this year. A technical glitch kept me at home.

 

I know that there is no way the video even touches what all was covered. I probably just should have said that I found value in observing the riders and riding positions and the correlation of the line/smoothness/bike position to the suggested correction. Someone recently asked about photos of MYRP and intentional or not, I think this video helps toward that end.

 

I look forward to meeting you and learning more about your adventure the day before the class.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

Thanks to the entire instructor staff for everything you did for us. I now have the tools to correct the lines.

[Foot]

Craig Awesome videos as always!

[TyTass]

Yes ... sorry. I'm sure it does. I just don't want people thinking the class isn't 10,000 times better.

 

Looking forward to meeting a fellow Rush-geek!

[Highway41]

Thanks again to all the instructors and especially Craig and Bernie for the videos. Will come back to them as a reference.

Really enjoyed the experience.

Bill

[TyTass]

To all students of RS 2015:

 

I think most of you will find that what Alan kept saying about the video is true: what it will show you that although you felt like you're really bending a lot at the hips and leaning far more forward, the video will show your movement was fairly slight.

 

It's good to look at those who were leaning much further ... and to look how smooth their lines were at the same time.

 

And you'll find that what Danny and Shannon said is also true ... that many of these curves were barely sweepers and we were asking your all to lean far more than would be necessary to take those same curves at 45 mph, but you'll discover just how much lean you'll find appropriate as you continue to practice after the class.

 

However, that does not mean that it is better to conserve your upper body movement because you can make a curve without much lean or any. Keep in mind, the reason for keeping your bike more upright is to maximize contact patch, shock travel, and to lower cg. You don't want to be saying this after a mishap, "I should have been using more of my RS lessons."(Do those words sound familiar?)

[S.O.B.]

Many thanks to Danny and the Ride Smart Instructor Team! The class really helped me get some foundations for improving my riding. It also helped me understand the "why" behind the movements and body positions. I came away with a much better understanding of how my body and weight can improve my lean angle and give me more confidence in the curves.

I also realized that I have a long way to go, and that I am absolutely going to enjoy getting there!

 

Thanks!

Dan (S.O.B.)

[Huzband]

Okay folks, glad most everyone enjoyed the videos. I'm thinking the ones that haven't responded are like, meh, I did that. Whatever.

 

Here's the thing. This is the first time a RideSmart video has been posted on the forum. Thus the first time AlGores web has had such free access to it. This worries me.

 

I'm afraid some hot dog is going to think that he or she watched sixteen minutes of RS video, and suddenly they know what it's all about. Big bag of nope! Don't even try it. There is so much going on with the riders in the video that you can't possibly see, nor understand. I even heard over the course of the weekend one student had previously ridden behind a couple of highly experienced RideSmarters for a day & thought he got it. He sang a different tune Saturday night.

 

All this to say...please, PLEASE, PLEASE, don't try to emulate what you saw in the videos. While it may look & read in the subtitles as easy as body position, there is so much more to it than that. You might have just enough information to get yourself in trouble.

 

As such, if you try to follow the videos & end up hurting yourself, none nor any of the RideSmart instructors, nor their families, are responsible in any way.

 

I'm sorry to have to post this, but it's necessary.

[Lone_RT_rider]

Well put Danny! Definitely a warning to heed.

 

Shawn

[Huzband]

Thank you, my instructor. I related the story of when I failed to heed your advice after a long day of RS. It took. Everyone stayed on the mountain.

[terryofperry]

Due to circumstances beyond my control I was only able to view the videos for the first time about an hour ago. The subtitles really helped me a lot, especially during the 2nd and 3rd viewing. I really appreciate the pointers Craig. It was also good to see Danny demonstrate some things at the end, great idea Craig & Danny, very helpful.

 

Thanks again to all instructors, when you see us in a few weeks at FART please give us another friendly reminder, it will be an ongoing process fir me.

 

Terry

[TyTass]

As a result of the previous discussion regarding posting of the video, the links to the RS 2015 video have been removed from this thread. This isn't a slam on anyone in particular, but RS is not a series of teaching points, it is guided instruction through a series of exercises. Without being guided through those exercises, it is not RidingSmart. For that reason and several others, we shouldn't have posted it where all and sundry could view.

My apologies to all. Lesson learned.

 

I thank the mods for their prompt attention.

 

Students: If you did not get to download the videos, please PM me and I will provide links to you in reply.

 

Cheers to All!

[Endobob]

I am sorry I missed the video! I do understand why it is best not to post it, however, as a past student of RideSmart, I think I might have benefited from studing the video.