Track Training for Road Riders

If there is a gap in motorcycle training, it is in developing motorcycle control skills. RoSPA and IAM are excellent, but they focus more on roadcraft than they do on the skill of how to ride.

Track Training for Road Riders is gathering momentum. The IAM has been running track-based skills days for a couple of years, but dig into the subject, and it isn’t long before you’ll find a link to the British Superbike School (Mike Abbott).

It was a very damp day in the mid-twenty-teens when I did my first session with BSS at Blyton. I discovered more about riding at pace in the rain that day than at any other time.

I can still remember watching the instructor leave me behind as he accelerated out of a bend on knackered track day tyres. It was at that moment that I knew it was going to be a good day.

British Superbike School

BSS runs three different but connected sessions on their track days: Road, Track and Racing. They aren’t hierarchical – yet they refer to them as Levels 1,2 and 3 for some reason – there isn’t any form of graduation or league; the sessions focus on different things.

Logically, Road leads to Track and then to Racing, but if you have an ACU license, you can go directly to Racing. Roger – our incurable track day addict – is already looking at his diary, trying to work out which of the track dates might work for him.

Regardless of which session you sign up for, you will be on track, so there are no oncoming cars, idiots pulling out of side turnings, speed cameras or camera vans to worry about. It isn’t about how fast you are going; the sessions are about developing the ability to get the most from your motorcycle and the corner.

How you do that when racing differs from road riding. Trying out new things – and getting it wrong a few times – isn’t perhaps the smartest thing to do on the road, and that is the concept of Track Training for Road Riders. It offers a controlled environment for road riders to try different techniques and enhance their riding style.

Despite the Superbike name, the courses are open to anyone on any bike. There are ACU rules to consider when opting for the Racing sessions, but Road and Track are available to anyone.

To get the most from the day, you’ll want to be riding at least an A2 licensed bike, something that can quickly get to around 100mph is ideal. An excess of performance beyond that isn’t a problem.

Riders operate in small groups (typically two, maximum three per coach), and with no more than twelve on track at any one time, you don’t have to worry about getting stuck behind someone or getting passed by someone going 40mph faster. Mike and the BSS team have been doing this for 15 years and know how to make the day work.

And work, you will. I was knackered at the end of my day and glad I only had a few miles to ride home from Blyton Park near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire.

Where Can I Find …

Track Training for Road Riders

I’m interested in the Road Course. It has been a few years since I did the previous version of the day, and there is always something new to learn, even if it is what I’ve forgotten since the last time. It’s an unusual day as it runs backwards from how you might think it would.

First comes Corner Exit – How to pick the line from the apex to the exit point. Having got the exit line, next comes entry into the corner, where to turn in, where the “apex” is. This connects with the improved exit technique covered in the earlier section.

To make the two previous sections work, arriving at the turn-in point at the correct speed and not wasting time and energy on ineffective braking (see Demon on the Brakes) is the last part of the puzzle before the final track session arrives and being let loose to put all three together.

For those of us old enough to remember, this technique was used by three-time world champion Freddie Spencer in the 1980s. His approach was to determine the fastest way out of the corner first, which required the correct entry. Once he knew how to get into a corner, he could maximise the braking as he arrived at the turn-in point.

This approach led to Spencer often being described as having a robotic riding style. In contrast, the truth was closer to him being able to analyse and maximise a circuit faster than any of his rivals. He didn’t need a flamboyant riding style when he knew he was in the right place, at the right speed and maximising the possibilities a corner presented.

On public roads, we are limited from fully exploring corners thanks to speed limits, traffic, road surfaces, the lack of runoff areas and a bunch of other potentially unpleasant outcomes.

But knowing what I could do if conditions and the traffic laws allowed is going to feel sweet. Roll on April.