When I first started riding street-legal motorcycles, “driver education” was in its infancy. I wanted to be as confident and competent as I could be (so I could live into my 20s), so I read authentic books on driving strategy and intensely watched top racers compete on the circuit, that is, when I can actually watch a race. on television, which was then rare in the United States. This was way before YouTube (heck, it was before the internet), so I had to look everywhere I could for recommendations. Some recommendation from other brokers was higher than others, because as we all know, everyone is an expert in their own mind, and some of the “experts” gave some rather poor recommendation. I got through it, but not without some bumps, bruises and bumps.
In the end, after thousands of miles of driving, I felt like I had a competent driver, but I was still looking to receive more information from the professionals. At the turn of the millennium, I bought a high-performance sports motorcycle and rode it A real race track in an authentic riding school. It was an exciting experience that replaced my life and also completely replaced the way I ride a motorcycle on the street.
My track school experiences starkly illuminated how much more dangerous street riding is compared to riding on a racetrack, which thankfully doesn’t include idiot car drivers, telephone poles, potholes, traffic lights (and traffic laws) and speed limits.
There is a wonderful purity in riding on a race track that allows you to enjoy a laser in driving technique, and the glow of my sessions on the track strongly influences my ride on the street to this day. If you ride on the street, regardless of the bike, a day on the track is worth your time and money. It’s also a lot of fun.
Recently, I invited through motorcycle and scooter manufacturer Piaggio to a track day for Aprilia motorcycle owners at Ridge Motorsports Park on the Washington state coast, just a few hours from my home. To be clear, I personally don’t own an Aprilia motorcycle, however, I do have a Vespa (or two), some other logo under the Piaggio umbrella, along with Moto Guzzi and others.
The Ridge Circuit near Seattle (above) is the same track that MotoAmerica racers race on, and it’s a longer and more complex track than Portland International Raceway, where I once took lessons. Also, you could model some of the newer ones. Aprilia street bikes on the track. I arrived at The Ridge after several days of off-road adventures at the Touratech ADV Rally in Plain, Washington, and enjoyed a scenic alpine ride in my BMW R1100RS from the center of the state through the Cascading Volcanoes to The Ridge peak facility.
While track day assistance introduces and hones the skills needed on the track, those skills also translate into safer driving on public roads. Many drivers wonder how they survived driving on the streets with their “old” skills after attending a track day, and add themselves. That’s the most important thing.
Between riding sessions, experts gave us tips on both better techniques to use and bad habits we … [+] needed to fix that they spotted in videos of our laps.
While it’s a lot of fun to take high-end motorcycles to a race track without worrying about speed limits, the main point that riders will (hopefully) be informed about is that driving fast and safely is largely about being informed about control. adding bike control, frame position control, as well as control of your behavior and feelings while riding. Believe me, the categories of the day on the track like Yamaha Champions Riding School, CLASS School and many others are not about being informed about how to see how fast the motorcycle can ride. It’s much less about racing and more about being informed about how to drive accurately, the physics of movement, and how to develop effective behavior.
The Aprilia Tuono 660 Factory is a wonderful all-around motorcycle that adapts to the track or the street. It’s comfortable, flexible, and fast if needed.
The first bike I saddled up was the $10,999 Aprilia Tuono 660 Factory (above), a spunky parallel-twin cylinder “naked” style sports machine that combines usable power with a standard-style seating position, a brief fairing and much tech including a triplet of ABS brakes, traction control, quick shifter, throttle by wire and hey: cruise control! I wouldn’t be making much use of that convenience but I did plan on taking full advantage of the 95 horsepower and nearly 50 pound-feet of torque from the proven engine, and putting the adjustable KYB suspension through its paces. The “Factory” trim for the Tuono 660 adds in better suspension and trims a bit of weight as well.
The riders were in teams according to their talents and since it had been a few years since my last day of serious tracking, I went with the “slower” group, most of whom were probably much faster than me. We were accompanied by talented instructors observing and recorded our efforts with action cameras for a report and classroom video consultation between track runs.
On the track you participate in an organization and while it’s not a “race”, it can get a little competitive as you push your limits.
After a lap to familiarise ourselves with the track layout, we opened the throttle and started taking the corners seriously to warm up the tyres and get a feel for the bikes. The Tuono 660 is similar to a sports bike but with less radical ergonomics. ; That is the only genuine difference. The wider handlebars and more popular stance are better suited to my current riding style; My years as a MotoGP aspirant are now long for me. The wide bar provides more leverage than shorter clip-on bars for sport motorcycles, and the popular seating position allows for more movement while riding. Riding a motorcycle “on the track” isn’t simply about getting around the circuit as fast as possible. Riding motorcycles, especially high-performance machines, is perhaps one of the most cunning and active bureaucracies in motorized transportation. In other words: it’s an exercise.
After a dozen laps that made me push myself a little harder and harder on my talents, we met again in a classroom at The Ridge and our flaws and successes were diagnosed through the instructors, who were or are active runners. My weak point? Sitting too neutral in the seat and abrupt throttle control. We gave up and I tried to straighten my right wrist while moving my glutes off the seat and shifting my weight and posture more before each turn. By the end of the session, sweat was running down my back despite temperatures in the 50s. After another review session, we took a break for lunch (and to recover).
The Aprilia Tuono V4 Factory would possibly resemble the 660 Factory, but it offers twice the power, more suspension and plenty of speed.
For the next outing, I won a $19,599 Aprilia Tuono V4 Factory 1100, arguably his toughest motorcycle outside of his $25,999 RSV4 Factory 1100 superbike. While the RSV4 makes a staggering 217 horsepower, the Tuono V4 1100 produces a still-very healthy 175 horsepower, along with 89 pound-feet of torque, all in a package that weighs just 460 pounds, in rolling position. It features Aprilia’s Performance Ride Control generation and includes aids such as traction control, cornering ABS, wheel control, immediate gear shifting and a clever semi-active suspension system. I switched the V4 Factory to one of the 3 driving modes committed to the track and won the race marshal’s green flag.
With 175 horsepower available, it’s all about your limits rather than the bike. Here, they make me. . . [ ] Comfortably overtake me by means of another, more experienced driver.
I rolled on the throttle and the Tuono 1100 shot forward at what seemed like light speed, the first corner approaching far faster than it did on the Tuono 660 as the V4 engine howled in my helmet, the revs rising quickly. The course was laid out with a chicane marked by cones, and even hard on the brakes I overshot the 90-degree left-hander. I reconvened with the other riders a bit farther down the track at Turn 3, careful to be much more judicious with the throttle. It wasn’t easy.
The view from the bars is directed towards a narrow S-section, with the rider in front with one knee on the other.
The V4’s mix of torque and enormous power catapulted it out of corners into what would be an embarrassment for supercars on the street, however, on the open beaches of the track, thankfully it was like bouncing from corner to corner in a video game. The trio of big Brembo ABS brakes kept my grease out of the fire, except in one example where I accelerated too much on a wide sweeper and raced into the gravel area. But that’s the good thing about a circuit: On the street, this kind of mistake can put you in front of oncoming traffic or a false impediment like a telephone pole. A racetrack is a much safer position to be informed of how to avoid a mistake.
I’m waiting for him to apply the enormous force of the V4 Factory coming out of a corner.
Suddenly off the track and in the gravel, my off-road adventure riding muscle memory activated and I was able to rejoin the session without a tipover. I own and enjoy very high-powered motorcycles, but usually at a street pace rather than on a track, where adrenaline, competing riders and perhaps a bit of ego can send you off the pitch. All that V4 power doesn’t help much either, but it was still huge fun to dip deeply into the vast well of acceleration. Running on an adrenaline high, I returned the V4 Factory 1100 and headed back to class.
The Aprilia RS660 is the 660 Factory, but with sleek lower bars and fairing, it’s much more track-oriented.
For my last session, I switched to a relatively new $11,499 Aprilia machine, the RS 660 (above), which is similar to the Tuono 660 mechanically but is more of a committed sport bike, with low clip-on bars and a more complex frame stance. . The Ridge is a very technical track in places, and the shorter bars mean that the turns require more movement from the frame than on the straighter Tuono, and several laps after the last session, my instructor walked behind me with a thumbs up to say he liked what I was doing. Saw. I picked up speed and felt like I was actually wearing chainmail, but then another rider passed me on the inside of a corner, his disc skimming the pavement. There’s someone faster.
Setting up for a turn on the RS660 involves moving your buns off the seat and lowering your torso, … [+] hopefully in one smooth motion. Hopefully.
Spent, I returned the RS 660 to the paddock and thanked the instructors, then saddled up my faithful BMW and pointed it south for home. I had forgotten how much work having so much fun is, but if you have the chance to attend a track day, I highly recommend it, especially if you’ve never done it before. The skills you learn will make every ride you go on in the future that much better.
Instructors control throttle control during classroom consultation between walkthroughs. A little bit of behaviour and new techniques can make a big difference to lap times and safety.
And now, thanks to the internet, athletics schools are also operating online, such as Yamaha’s new Champ U school, which shows cyclists in wonderful detail the many tips and tricks used by professional cyclists on the track and on the street. It’s not the same as riding on a genuine track with a genuine motorcycle (always highly recommended), but it’s more wonderful than being informed of all the bad techniques of your “expert” friends. I wish this existed a few years ago (OK, decades). Forty years of riding later, I feel like I still have a lot to learn on the track and on the road.
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