California Dreaming

Words: Kenny Pryde
Pics: Malcolm Fearon/blissimages.com

It can’t be denied, there are definite advantages to being the editor of Superbike.  Apart from the obvious one- that free Yamaha R1 – you can also pull rank on more deserving and needy staff.  So, when Mr. Shanks came up with the idea that it would be a great idea to go to California to take part in the Keith Code California Superbike School at Laguna Seca, I agreed with him.  Then I booked my ticket to San Francisco and sent him to Northern Ireland to do a feature on road racing in the rain on pot-holed roads.

Of course there was never any chance of anyone else on the magazine going on this particular road trip.  My credentials were impeccable- I’m still in need of some schooling – and there was the reporting from Laguna Seca to be done the day before.  It fell together neatly.  Or at least that’s what I told the publisher as I packed the factor 45 suntan lotion.

Needless to say, when you hold a California Superbike School the day after a World Superbike race at Laguna Seca, 90 miles south of San Francisco, you get a lot of applicants.  In fact, the school was over-subscribed but, such is the enthusiasm and desire to be taught the art of cornering, that people turn up on standby, in the hope that someone else forgot about their appointment.

So the three classes were full – 60 riders in three even groups- with five forlorn souls forced to sit and watch at trackside.  One poor swine had driven for 20 hours but turned up an hour late, by which time his slot had been passed on to a keen student who had turned up on standby.  Most of the others had come slightly less far, but a few had flown in from as far afield as Oregon and the east coast.  Special mention should go to Steve from New York, yes, New York, New York on the other side of the continent.  Still since Steve’s stable of bikes includes and R1 with full Ohlins and Dymag wheels, it’s a safe bet that he’s not short of a buck or fifty.  In comparison to the happy-clappy ascerbic and droll.  “ The cops are always stopping me and asking for my license and stuff.  Now when I see them stopping to turn around and come after me, I’m outta there.  I may be getting old, but I’m not that sociable. Whatever it is they want to tell me I sure as hell don’t want to hear,” deadpanned Noo Yawk Steve.

However, there were riders from all over California, such is the pull and renown of the Keith Code California Superbike School.  There were plenty of remedial students and repeat offenders as well as a bevy of first timers, nervously asking if anyone had been before, keen to know what to expect in the classroom.

What you should expect if you decide to go is precisely what it says on the tin – this is a school, not a track day.  Which is to say that you learn the theory in the classroom and then go out and try to put it into effect on the track under the watchful and experienced eyes of riding coaches.  There are never more than three pupils to one Riding Coach and after each session you’re given a few tips, asked what you felt, what you thought and what you experienced before being rounded up and sent into the classroom for another lesson.

The riding coaches are an impressive bunch.  Not just for their riding – obviously – but for the fact that they’re trained to instruct.  “Only one in 25 applicants makes it through to the final assessment,”  said Code,  “then from the 12 who make it through to that assessment only one will make it.  We have to make sure the guys know what they’re talking about, they understand what the school is about and they can teach.  All of them have some racing experience though, which I think is important because there are things that you learn to do as a racer which I don’t think you can pick up anywhere else.”

So, into the classroom and out again and onto the famous Laguna Seca track, loved by Ben Bostrom but hated by Carl Fogarty.  Time to put the lessons into practice, from the opening few laps in fourth gear and no brakes through to the two-step (garage?) drill passing through quick counter-steering and looking through the corner there’s enough to keep you on your toes all day.

And all day is precisely what it is.  The school bell rings at seven in the morning and you had best be there on time.  By the time school’s out around four-thirty, your brain probably couldn’t take any more information anyway.  True, you’re probably reading this wondering what the hell the fuss is all about.  Counter-steering?  Of course.  Looking through a corner?  Naturally.  Getting on the gas as soon as possible? Ideally.  Maybe it sounds screamingly obvious, but the difference at this school is that these techniques and drills are explained, put in context and put into practice, one step at a time, so that you learn what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

Often you (and I and everyone else) don’t really think about what you do or fully understand why.  The California school helps you to understand why your bike does what it does and, in that way, offers you more control.  When you feel you can control the bike, you get confident and when you get confident, well, you get quicker.  And isn’t that the point?  Of course it’s all fine and dandy buzzing round a track, putting your new-found understanding of riding techniques into practice.  But when the time comes to leave the track behind and mix with the California Highway Interstate Patrol and dumb traffic again, where does this leave your schooling?  “I would suggest  that before you go out on a ride – even if you’re just riding to work – then you should pick two things to think about and work on. Any more than that and you start to confuse yourself,”  says Code.

Oh yes and don’t be in a hurry. It may be frustrating to have other riders passing you but you’ve got to learn at your own pace.  “ There’s no point in beating yourself up about what you can and can’t do.  If you reckon that if you just blast into a corner 15mph quicker than you usually do and you’ll force yourself to get round it then, well, it might work, but your survival reactions are more likely to take over.” With not so hilarious results.  So, where were we? Oh yes, quick counter-steering…

“ You think stamping on the pegs and throwing your body weight about will get a bike round a corner? Think again…”

Keith Code started the California Superbike School in 1979 after a respectable career as a racer in the USA.  In his time he has worked with riders such as Wayne Gardner ( 1987 500GP world Champion) as well as a number of other names.  Suffice it to say that with a biography like that, Code carries enough clout to get most people to sit down and listen.

Code’s innovations include designing a patented slide and lean bike, which the school uses on levels one and two.  For those riders whose bikes feature generous ‘chicken strips’ at the edges of their tyres, the lean bike is a bit of a revelation.  Finally, nervous pupils came to appreciate just how far you can lean.

The slide machine is the same bike and outrigger with tyres inflated to around 60psi, tyres which were ready and willing to spin and slide.  The point of this bike is to demonstrate what a bike feels like when it starts to lose grip and how you cope with it.  Or not.  You can try to highside deliberately on this machine but, really, wouldn’t you want to leave that to the experts?

The newest Code innovation is the No BS bike.  Code insists that only counter-steering will make a bike change direction.  Seeing as how there are still folks out there who reckon that body weight actually effects direction change, Code developed this bike to discover what happens when you can’t move the handlebars.  So, you think stamping on the pegs and throwing your body weight about will get a bike round a corner?  Hmmm.  Think again.  Thus the No Body Steering bike – No BS.  What did you think it stood for?

So, what would you expect to learn at a school which preaches about ‘the art of cornering’?  That’s right, the good people will teach you how to go round corners quicker.  In fact the key to the thing is that you will learn what to do and , more importantly, why you should do certain things.  Rider input and understanding is central to the philosophy of the school Code and his cohorts reason that only by understanding how what you do on a bike affects the bike that you will crack cornering.  And getting on the gas.  And getting more confident.  And, inevitably, quicker.

In the first three levels of the California Superbike School there are 15 points on the curriculum, 15 lessons to be grappled with.  When the teacher asks if you understand, for the first time in your life you feel as thought you can say ‘no’.  There’s not much point in getting out of the classroom and onto the track if you don’t have a clue what you’re meant to be doing out there, is there?

Every school day starts with lesson one – fourth gear and no brakes.  Which sound scary, but means in reality that you’ll be riding really slowly, learning to judge your speed and get to grips with throttle control.  It also means that you learn the track, a plus in any situation.

You’ll also learn what to do when your bike is in a corner.  What do you do when your bike is in a corner?  Nothing.  Stay still, don’t upset the suspension and wind the throttle open nice and smoothly.  The point here is that you’re already set up, tipped in , looking where you’re going and anything else you do will just upset the bike.

Quicker counter-steering is the drill which always elicits the biggest smiles from pupils coming back after a session.  Of course we have been told that we counter-steer intuitively, that it is the only way to get a bike to turn, but when you actually concentrate doing this on a track, it still comes as a revelation to many.

And a two step drill/ nothing to do with DJ Spoony’s UK garage rhythms, no, this is a way of getting used to looking where you want to go, rather than at a space about three feet ahead of your front wheel.  Step on is to glance at the place you want to be on the track when you exit the turn.  Step two, glance at the point where you are going to.  In that sense you do two-step quickly.

And what about the remaining 11 points? I’m stuffed if I can remember them all.  Which is why I’ve already booked my place at Laguna Seca on the day after the 2002 round of the World Superbike championship.  That’s my excuse.