Tonight my favourite pillion and I went to a 3 hour seminar on defensive riding techinques that was the optional precursor to the Advanced Riding Course that is on tomorrow at Oran Park. It was only a couple of clicks to the venue from our campsite at the Mecure Rosehill so we took the Harley.
The venue was Martha Street Clyde at the RTA Training Centre. It was really unusual. It was squirrelled away right under the M4. When we arrived there were three classes for learners in progress and we watched them for a while doing U turns in an area I'd never be able to get the Harley around in!
There were about 15 bods there for the seminar, a range of ages and experience and each had their own reasons for attending although lack of confidence and being encouraged as a result of mishaps seemed to be the most common. The presenter seemed like a good guy although we heard a little too much about his redundancy and ex wife (according to my son).
The principles were common sense and it was good to think about what you are actually doing when you are riding along. They described systems for getting on the bike, starting it, moving off, cornering, planning, buffering, stopping and turning the bike off. All fairly rudimentary but important all the same. There were some things I took away that I am definitely going to use.
The last bit of the night was spend discussing what was in store the next day and the instructor stressed that the course at Oran Park is only ever called off when the cones float off the straight.
