Ridefast July 2021

An Adventure
bike on a racetrack
… WTF???
Words: Sean Hendley
Photo’s: Kerry Hughes
Sean didnt get the brief. He arrived on the
Honda Africa Twin Adventure sport DCT
Our good mates Andy Biram, (Adventure Academy), and Clinton
Pienaar, (S.A. Biking Academy), run a Private Rider Training program
at some of the local race tracks. They invited us to join one of these
schools that focusses on cornering. We figured that Sean was the
biggest, fattest, oldest and second least accomplished rider in the
office and could definitely use a bit of guidance in how to corner a
bike properly. Foley is the slowest, but he gets seasick on the track.
No seriously!
But not to make it too easy for him, we wanted to know if an adventure
bike could be ridden with enthusiasm around a superbike track and still
be an enjoyable experience. So, we kicked him out of bed very early on
a wintery Monday morning, shoehorned him into some leathers using a
bit of Vaseline here and there and sent him along on a borrowed Honda
CRF1100 Africa Twin Adventure Sport DCT.
This is what he had to say:
Wow! What an informative and fun day that we all should do at least every
two years or so. We forget stuff if we don’t do it every day, learn bad
habits out of laziness, fear, nervousness after a spill and etc, all of which
comes out in the wash when you go to one of these schools. I had to
unlearn a whole bunch of these bad habits as well as awaken my muscle
memory training from when I used to do a track day at least once a month
about 20 years ago.
Andy and Clint have a ‘Cornering Course’ that aims to coach all riders in
the art of cornering effectively, thereby making them safer, more confident
and therefore better riders through a set of bends.
This is not a track day but rather an opportunity for riders to learn the
correct skills in a controlled environment with repetitive opportunities to
practice corners of varying difficulty. Riders of any experience level are
catered for on any road going motorcycle from 250cc commuters to large
adventure bikes on off-road tyres and even Harley Davidson style cruisers.
Andy, Clinton and their friendly and supportive instructors build the riders
up with a foundation of correct foot placement leading into the corner, hip
position, arm technique and head position to ensure a bike that is ridden
correctly and remains in total control.
On arrival you are greeted by the instructors who check tyre pressures and
adjust them accordingly and just give your bike and kit a quick once over
followed by a brief welcoming and chat about the first session and some
basic rules and courtesies towards the other riders on the day. Things
like, take it easy and don’t ‘dive bomb’ each other. They then place their
photographer strategically at the most challenging corners to get some
reference pics to get an idea of your skill level and where you need some
corrections and guidance.
Then it’s into a classroom session where everybody has an opportunity
to introduce themselves and what their riding concerns are and what
they would like to achieve from the course. Then the theory starts and
is discussed by all before each riders photo’s are studied intensely and
individual instruction and guidance is given before heading back out on to
the track to practice the theory. And so the day proceeds alternating from
track to classroom to track to classroom and etc. Each time with photo’s
to monitor each riders progress and iron out any issues the instructors
pick up. As the day progressed we each got significantly faster and much
better and lower in the corners.