Riding to Alice’s Restaurant
Aug 20th, 2009 by Leo
Here’s a nice ride video by Doc Wong, whom I’ve never met, but does helpful riding clinics over on the left coast. If it’s too hot to ride for you in NY (it is for me) then maybe this will put you in the mood. Also notice his lane positioning: how he uses all of the lane, and gets quite close to the center line and outside line, but notice when he does that in the curve… If you look further along the road notice how his lane position gives him the best view he can get of what’s coming ahead. Count how many seconds ahead you can see ahead as a result of his lane positioning: usually around 4 seconds, but at least 3 even on the tight turns – and that’s on a fixed camera that can’t turn its head! In actuality he’s probably getting 4-5 seconds of visibility even on the turns. That’s enough time to straighten up and come to a complete stop from over 60mph. How does he do that? Mainly through lane positioning. Notice where he has to begin and end his turns in order to get that view.
See you’re not just just killing time and daydreaming here, you’re helping improve your riding skill. Go figure! Cheers!
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As a past participant of one of Doc’s “classes”, I can’t heap enough praise on what this guy offers. The morning starts out his office (he’s a chiropractor) where everyone meets up and talk shop before the class begins; last time I went there were probably 35-40 people total. There’s the obligatory waiver signing and opting in for a free chiropractic evaluation–nothing wrong with drumming up a little new business–then the class starts. I use the term “class” loosely in this instance because it is really more of a discussion about whatever the topic may be: sighting in corners, wet weather riding, emergency maneuvering, etc. This last about an hour then everyone breaks up in to groups according to skill level and it’s off to the nearby Santa Cruz mountains for 6 hours of riding through 1,000+ curves like the ones in the above video.
Doc offers up a these classes for free, and you get some great lessons, a day of amazing riding and views, the opportunity to meet some really nice people. That old Honda commercial about “meeting the nicest people…” is very true in this case, though it’s not just Hondas. BMWs, Ducatis, Yamahas, Triumph’s, BSAs, and everything in between show up to these events–and not a pretentious rider on any of them.
Doc offers up not only motorcycle classes, but also dual sport days, and even car classes for those with tin/rag tops! Look up Doc Wong on the web and check out his stuff–if you don’t have a guy (or roads) like this in your area, you are truly missing out.