Anybody taken police motor training courses for civilians?

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

There are facilities that provide motorcycle training for police officers.  It turns out they offer similar training for civilians.  Here are a couple of examples:

 

https://lockandlean.com/register-for-civilian-training-2019.html

 

https://www.midwestmotorcycletraining.com/civilian-trainingschedule.html

 

The second link is within reach for me, just over in Troy (N of Detroit).  But wow, the "Advanced I" course is 5 days in a row, 8 hours a day, $750.   "5 days in a row" means I'd be taking a few days off of work, so this is a substantial commitment. 

 

Has anybody taken a course like this?  Is it worthwhile?  

[dirtrider]

28 minutes ago, Joe Frickin' Friday said:

There are facilities that provide motorcycle training for police officers.  It turns out they offer similar training for civilians.  Here are a couple of examples:

 

https://lockandlean.com/register-for-civilian-training-2019.html

 

https://www.midwestmotorcycletraining.com/civilian-trainingschedule.html

 

The second link is within reach for me, just over in Troy (N of Detroit).  But wow, the "Advanced I" course is 5 days in a row, 8 hours a day, $750.   "5 days in a row" means I'd be taking a few days off of work, so this is a substantial commitment. 

 

Has anybody taken a course like this?  Is it worthwhile?  

 

 

Morning Mitch

 

Yes, & yes.

 

Is it worthwhile?--- At the time I sure thought so. 

 

I took the extended class many years ago (up in Lansing Mi)-- At  the time I though it as well worth it as I learned a lot of useful little riding/handling/evasive skills that have served me well & allowed me to build on those over the years. I also learned what I needed to work on to improve.

 

I took an actual multi-day authentic LEO training course.

 

If the class that you are looking at is 'advanced' & up to police training standards then you will drop your bike (or at least a 95% chance that you will so keep that in mind)

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

On 7/24/2019 at 8:21 AM, dirtrider said:

If the class that you are looking at is 'advanced' & up to police training standards then you will drop your bike (or at least a 95% chance that you will so keep that in mind)

 

Thanks for mentioning this.  My first thought was that I would use my own bike, but given the tuition and length of the course, it seems likely that they're going to tax my abilities - so if I do go ahead with this, it would probably make more sense to pay a bit extra so I can risk their bike instead of mine.  

[dirtrider]

7 minutes ago, Joe Frickin' Friday said:

 

Thanks for mentioning this.  My first thought was that I would use my own bike, but given the tuition and length of the course, it seems likely that they're going to tax my abilities - so if I do go ahead with this, it would probably make more sense to pay a bit extra so I can risk their bike instead of mine.  

 

Afternoon Mitch

 

I didn't have that option so I used one of my older beater bikes that I was familiar with for years.

 

The upside to using their bike is no damage to your own bike,

 

The downside to using their bike is unless it somewhat matches your present bike then you will be using an unfamiliar motorcycle on top of the intense training exercises. (unless they have BMW motorcycles available then you might end up on a Harley)

 

You probably won't drop it hard ( I only dropped my old beater bike once and that was at  about 1mph at full lock) but most that were in the class did drop the bike multiple times, even then most were at fairly low speeds, to some actually stopped.

 

Maybe some used crash bars on your bike for the class. Some in my class  (mostly Harley's) put pieces of old fire hose on the crash bars to pad & protect them)

 

 

[Surj]

I've taken several courses offered by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office out here in California. These are one-day courses, not five-day things, and I of course can't comment on the quality of the classes near you. What I will say is that I'm an accomplished rider, and the courses led to something of a reset/rethinking of various parts of my riding, especially lower-speed stuff and very tight cornering. I highly recommend the ACSO courses, and based on the type of learning, I'd say typical LEO courses are definitely worthwhile. 

 

I used a rental bike. That way, I wasn't worried about dropping my own machine, which I think increased my tolerance for going hard in the paint on the more difficult stuff. The ACSO has a bunch of KZ1000 police bikes,  which are a lot of fun to ride, but I would have been happy on a Harley cop bike as well. Dragging floorboards is a blast! 

[Danny caddyshack Noonan]

Did the two week CHP "school" in 1990.  It was really closer to a two week test.  Not a great deal of time for passing information and it wasn't for civilians.  They were, however, very vigilant about not passing marginal riders.  Poor riders would tend to fail themselves.  An important distinction they related was that CHP considered their riders on probation and not-competent for two years....of full time riding.  It might just be a difference between their roads/freeways and city work, but I noticed a big difference in my decision making within a year.  Some of what they will relay will certainly be valuable since a class like that might take more time for verbal instruction.

You can do fine without if:

1. You have dirt bike experience and, or, can slip the clutch at will throughout most of the fuzzy range.  Problem on boxers for dry clutch wear and $$.

2. You can get away from counterbalancing common with dirt as it tends to make turning with the bars on the stops a bit easier.  However, they make bikes now that slow corner a bit better with the dirt techniques.

3. You can find someplace to practice max braking and then throwing the bike over in either direction pretending you're in an avoidance maneuver.

4. You can work on slow speed turning using all of the above.

5. You can easily develop the classic technique of checking yourself out when going past large windows.