Lee Parks class

[No Worries]

Lee Parks, of Total Control, gave a free class last evening at a local BMW dealer. Over 30 people showed up. Three of us came on bikes. It was 50 degrees when I rode there. I parked my 30-year-old GS1000 next to my friend Dean's three-year-old GSX-R1000. When I came out it was 30 degrees, windy, and light snow. Lee and others were pointing at my bike when they came out. I hope they weren't laughing.

Lee showed slides and talked about cornering. Very appropriate for Colorado. He said to take small incremental steps when changing or learning motorcycle skills. And that's what's practiced at his Total Control course. He also said to minimize your muscle input into the bike. Your arms and hands must be relaxed.

I relax my arms and hands when I ride twisties, but I tighten my stomach and lower back muscles. Especially when I'm leaning off the bike. He covered his ten steps on proper cornering from his book. Then he had people come up and showed the steps on a demo bike.

I took the Total Control course in 2007. I've been riding since 1971 and I thought I was pretty good. But I was brought down to earth when two instructors were critiquing my every move on the bike. Lee Parks said he is going to have a part II on the Total Control course. Lee is a great speaker and had a question-and-answer period afterward. If you have a chance to listen to him or take the Total Control course, just do it. The book is real good too.

Here’s me and Lee Parks. He's on the left.
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/8393/leeparks1.jpg (http://img120.imageshack.us/my.php?image=leeparks1.jpg)

[MikeSP1]

badass, that's cool

[rogue]

That's freakin' awesome! :D

[marko138]

Rock and roll.

[Phenix_Rider]

:lol: He is a goofy lookin' guy. Cool though :dthumb:

One of these days I'll take the class. I'm sure the instructors will have a shit fit over all my bad habits.

[Mikey]

That's awesome. His book is on my list right now, actually.

Not to rain on your parade or anything, but guess what I did all day today? I spent the day (in 70 degree weather, of course), doing a FREE trackday with a bunch of the instructors from Keith Code's California Superbike School, including Keith's son Dylan. I guess military benefits really are pretty good. ;)

[PhiSig1071]

Cool post.

As an aside, you look exactly how I had you pegged mentally.

[OreoGaborio]

Very cool!

I think it's awesome when veterans like yourself show us newbies that even old dogs can learn new tricks :) It really drives home the point that Riding is a never-ending learning process. Woot! I love it!

So what were some of the new things ya learned? What did they critique you on?

[No Worries]

:lol: He is a goofy lookin' guy. Cool though :dthumb:

One of these days I'll take the class. I'm sure the instructors will have a shit fit over all my bad habits.
My bad habit was just pushing on the bars without leaning. Now I lean off the bike for every curve.

Cool post.

As an aside, you look exactly how I had you pegged mentally.

But not as goofy looking as Lee.

Very cool!

I think it's awesome when veterans like yourself show us newbies that even old dogs can learn new tricks :) It really drives home the point that Riding is a never-ending learning process. Woot! I love it!

So what were some of the new things ya learned? What did they critique you on?
I learned to lean my upper body off the bike. For me, moving my knee out didn't do crap, so I hug the tank with my knees all the time. Also learned to look ahead through each curve. Sometimes that's hard to do on mountain roads where many of the corners are blind.

We had to ride a Figure-Eight with an instructor in the center of each eight. We had to lock eyes on each instructor which kept us looking into the turn instead of looking at where the front tire was going. But I like critiquing other riders rather than being critiqued.

[Tsunami]

reading his book right now:dthumb:

I actually didn't get too far into it because i wanted to practice each skill i come across first and then move on to the next chapter/skill.

My favorite part of the book? The funny faces he makes in the first page of each chapter :lol: