I attended Reggie Pridmore's CLASS Riding School at Streets of Willow Springs this past Friday with a friend. I had done five track days leading up to the school and I figured it was time for some real instruction to improve my riding. Regular track days with org's such as TrackDaz and TakeIt2TheTrack are a lot of fun, but are not set up with tutorials like school are. I looked around trying to find a school that would a) fit my work schedule b) fit my budget and c) help me improve my skills. The school was $295 at SOWS and it worked out, so we went.

The format of the school was different from your regular track day. There were two groups (A/B) that divided all of the riders based on track experience and riding level. My friend Steve and I joined the A group that was made up of around 12 riders, all of which had done at least a few track days. The B group was well-rounded and had everything from 999R's to HD FatBoy's to Ninja 250's. It was a much bigger group and looked like a great intro to track riding and taught skills that translated into safer street riding.

Both groups alternated every twenty minutes with one groups in the 'classroom' and the other riding with the instructors on the track. Reggie gave us mini-lectures in the classroom and spoke about bad riding habits and how to improve overall control on the track. A great deal of the points he made were ones I had heard or read before, but it is always good to hear them again. He was very open to riders having different techniques and body positions on the bike so long as they were safe, which was encouraging. Towards the middle of the day, Reggie hit the track and rode with the B group on the track. I don't remember seeing him on the track with our group, but who knows.

When Reggie went to the track with the B group, his instructors took over in the classroom. Some of them were more helpful than others, but they were all very willing to answer questions and address concerns about riding. A few of his instructors race in various classes (vintage, WERA, etc) but others are simply riding enthusiasts.

Overall, I had a good time at the school. To be honest, I was expecting more of a race-oriented program. CLASS was geared more for the beginning track rider, and I am sure it would have been great to go to CLASS as a first track experience. The next school I end up attending will likely be more geared towards performance riding, but we will just have to see.

Pixorz...



I still love the way the Bridgestone BT-002RS's run for the money



A couple pictures from the photographer's site:





My buddy Steve on his F4i

 

bump for ya, not very helpful but always insightful to see someone taking the right steps.
I wish I lived closer to a streets of willow.
You ride on the bt o16 yet?

 

Sweet! I was supposed to do a CLASS trackday earlier this year, but stuff always comes up.

When's the next trackday?

 

Yeah i hear class is more about street riding and STAR is more track oriented. I think i may do a STAR school next year--though i'm not sure if Jason's still putting it on w/ his WSBK duties?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MugenHonda &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
You ride on the bt o16 yet?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Nope, haven't ridden the BT-016 yet but apparently it has the same compound on the edge as the 002RS, with a harder compound in the middle. If I rode more street I might consider them but right now I barely wear the middle of the tires at all

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by marmaladedad &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Sweet! I was supposed to do a CLASS trackday earlier this year, but stuff always comes up.

When's the next trackday?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Next track day might be next month. I'm in if I can land some health insurance . Otherwise it'll be a while longer.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bad-monkey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yeah i hear class is more about street riding and STAR is more track oriented. I think i may do a STAR school next year--though i'm not sure if Jason's still putting it on w/ his WSBK duties?

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, I might do STAR next time pending a number of things. I think his school is still on even though he's back on the WSBK circuit...I'll check the dates for January

 

Glad to see you had fun and your bikes back in one piece. Looks like me and fe guy will be at big willow the 27th of this month.

 

I was looking through the pics from the track school and came upon this one. This guy was in his late 50's and was pretty quick, ran a faster pace than me. But he didn't like to lean over with his bike...



I couldn't see this while I was riding, but if I had I would have given myself some room