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Hands-On Riding Sessions
 The key to the Gearing Up program
is the hands-on riding instruction
and practice. The sessions consist of carefully designed and
progressively more advanced techniques, starting with basic balancing
and leading up to sophisticated control techniques. You will be amazed
at the progress you make.
You will be grouped with a small number of other students at your riding level. Groups normally consist of five students per instructor, often as groups of ten students with two instructors. (Extra instructors will roam the course site and assist as needed.) You'll be with your assigned group and your assigned instructor for the whole weekend. Teaching Format  Our teaching format is designed to maximise the time you spend riding. Your instructor will demonstrate a technique, explain, and demonstrate again. Then you will practice with individual coaching and feedback while you build up the skill being studied. We will point out examples where the specific skill you have just practised would be used in real situations, and your instructor will explain how this technique would apply to your own bikes, if you have a style and model in mind. Once you have learned a skill, it will be used again and again in subsequent lessons, so you are constantly practising and improving what you have learned.
The specific timing and order of each session is determined by the students' progress and, in some cases, by the allocation among groups of specialised teaching space at the course site. The skills test is always at the end of Sunday afternoon.  Saturday and Sunday you will have mid-morning and mid-afternoon coffee breaks and an hour for lunch. Food and refreshments are not provided, but there are several fast-food restaurants adjacent to the teaching site suitable for lunch. Please plan to remain on-site except for lunch. For the coffee breaks, bring your own refreshments to allow us to keep the breaks short and manage your riding and teaching schedule.The lessons are broken into the following themes. They will not necessarily be taught in this order (adjusting to available site resources and time), but you will never work on an advanced technique before you have practiced the prerequisites. Balance & Braking  Riding begins with basic handling. You will learn to properly push a motorcycle, and will practice the basics of balancing, steering, and braking while coasting. We will also begin to emphasise safety habits such as shoulder checking right away.
Starting the Engine Next you will review the control systems of a motorcycle, and learn to give a motorcycle a quick mechanical safety check. Then you will learn a standard sequence with which to start and stop a motorcycle engine, to ensure you always do all the right steps and in the right order. Basic Riding and Slow Speed Control Once you can reliably start and stop your engine, you will start driving under power. You'll practice straight-line starts and stops, circles, weaving, and combination circuits, all at a comfortable low speed. You'll stay with first gear for now - balancing and steering is enough to think about. Your balance will improve, you will start to use the clutch smoothly, and you'll start to sense how the motorcycle leans while turning. Then you will learn to shift gears smoothly, accelerating and decelerating to and from working speeds. Once you have the basics of riding in straight lines and curves, we will make things more challenging - by slowing down. You will practice very-slow-speed riding, using a clutch-slipping technique, to go through straight lines, curves, and weaving exercises, at a crawling pace. This is excellent balance practice, and will prepare you for riding your motorcycle under control when you are forced to move slowly - for example, in heavy traffic or in a parking lot. Traffic Behaviour
Higher Speed Manoeuvres  Most students find this section on higher-speed techniques and curves the most enjoyable. You will learn a specific technique for rapid and precise control of the motorcycle's lean and direction. Using this technique you will be able to execute precise curves and slaloms at higher speeds. Then you will work on a complex curve layout reminiscent of country roads, where you will practice advanced curve techniques: lane position, path picking, accelerating and decelerating while turning, and combinations.
Emergency Techniques
Other techniques There are a number of other optional techniques in the course repertoire. Depending on the students' levels and needs, various of these will be used to fill small gaps in the weekend's schedule. Final Words The hands-on riding sessions are tiring. Please be rested for both Saturday and Sunday and bring refreshments. Remember that you must have your approved riding apparel with you each day. We think you'll thoroughly enjoy these sessions as much as our former students have, and we know you'll be amazed at what you can learn to do. |
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Once you can get up to, and down from, traffic speeds, you will practise traffic behaviour: signals, shoulder checking, lane changes, stop signs, and intersections. Later in the weekend you will get a taste of a more realistic level of traffic when we simulate city streets with the entire weekend's student group together.
The final section (often spread out through the weekend to avoid tiring you) is on emergency techniques. You will learn your options when an emergency situation, such as an obstacle in your path, occurs. You will practice rapid stops and swerving, both in a straight line and in a curve. Some of these techniques will be in reaction to a signal from your instructor, simulating an emergency situation that you didn't see coming.
