There are a lot of schools out there dedicated to making you into a faster track rider, but I really don't spend all that much time on a track. 
Like most, I spend most of my two-wheeled time on the street. Knowledge of how to get the best line through turn three or the ability to drag my knee does me very little good when I find myself somewhere in the deep recesses of a Canadian canyon, entering the corner a bit faster than I probably should have.
I've taken a handful of “track” schools and the most feedback I ever got from any of them was “hey, you're lookin' good,” a thumbs up and a blue sticker on my helmet so they know they'd already talked to me. Only riders with glaring problems got any attention.
When I learned of StreetMasters I was immediately intrigued! The course promised to be dedicated to the sport touring rider who wants to take their riding to the next level of proficiency. Who wouldn't want that? And since I'm an MSF instructor, it's really hard to get people to critique my riding. Have I developed any bad habits? Is my body position all wonky?
So I be-bopped my way over to the StreetMasters.info website and was immediately discouraged. Right there on the front page is a GoldWing meandering through a downhill corner. I really believe myself 
to be realistic about my riding skills; I don't see myself as the next Mick Doohan. In fact, I have very little interest in proving to the world how great a rider I am, but I feel pretty confident that a GoldWing would slow me down on any course I could imagine.
I clicked around a bit more and saw very few “sporty” bikes and feared that I was far and above the typical Streetmasters student. What's more, riders could attend in open-face helmets and are allowed to simply wear long pants and sturdy, over-the-ankle footwear, as opposed to full-circumference zipper leathers that I'm used to seeing on tracks.
But fellow CanyonChaser Dale and I had already committed to attend and my Benjamin's were on their way to StreetMasters corporate. We were signed up for the last class of the year in November. So leaving the cold, grey skies of northern Utah behind, we trailered the bikes to Lancaster, California and Willow Springs raceway.
We showed up first thing Saturday morning in the crisp air and I learned that the course was being led by two motorcycle legends; Bob Reichenberg and Walt Fulton III. For those who are not familiar, Reichenberg is the former Chief Instructor Trainer for MSF and serves on the State Motorcycle Safety Program Assessment Team for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. He's an astonishingly talented rider and is known in motorcycle circles for his colorful way of describing the world; known as “Bob-ism's”. You may remember Walt Fulton III from On Any Sunday; he's a long-time staff rider/writer of CanyonChasers favorite periodical, Motorcycle Consumer News.
The Streetmasters staff is like the who's who of motorcycling. If you read Rider magazine then you've no doubt read Clement Salvadori articles. Clement wife, Sue, was taking breaks from telling European motorcycle adventure stories that contained Franciscan Monks, flights of stairs and a BMW 1100R, to help out and was sad that “Clem” couldn't be there today. Dennis Pegelow of DP Safety School fame would also be one of the instructors for the day. My attitude was starting to change a bit. If nothing else, I should be able to glean something from these guys.
The class is structured unlike any track school I've ever attended. Instead of breaking the students into three groups; beginner, Intermediate and Advanced, StreetMasters breaks students into groups based on motorcycle type and experience. My fear of getting bogged down by slow moving GoldWings was immediately put to rest.
Additionally, all the groups are four students to one instructor, and we would be riding with that one instructor 
all day. He'd watch how we rode, watch how we progressed and give us real-live one-on-one instruction. After teaching MSF for five years, I know exactly how cool this is. When we teach ten students we have a hard time keeping track of everyone's riding issues, but a four-to-one ratio would ensure that the instructor would get to know me and I'd get the riding feedback I really wanted.
The Streetmasters program was being taught, not on the familiar Streets of Willow course, but on the newly constructed Horse Thief Mile, a highly technical course built into the side of the mountain. Every corner was either a challenging downhill corner or would climb to the apex and descend through the exit. Looking up at the course from the paddock area, I couldn't wait to put tire to track. It looked to be as challenging as any of my favorite canyon roads!
My four-man training group consisted of me (on Kris' Z1000), Dale on his FZ-1, Mike on a VFR750 and Steve Natt , motorcycle test guy from Speed TV's “American Thunder” riding a frame-Buell X-1. Our instructor was none other than Walt Fulton III. Walt is a three time winner at Daytona, a former team racer for both Harley-Davidson and Kawasaki. He also took part in On Any Sunday where you see a race from the rider's point of view. Walt knows a thing or two about getting around on a motorcycle and would be leading us on his frame-Buell S2.
The track was marked down the center and, just like your favorite canyon. We were not to cross the centerline. Doing so would let the instructor know that we were riding over our heads and beyond our abilities. Because it was a closed course however, crossing the centerline didn't have the potential for catastrophe like it does on the Pacific Coast Highway.
We would alternate between track time and range exercises. Normally, I don't much care for range exercises. But the range exercises were structured so that they were challenging and fun. My favorite of the range exercises was a braking drill that focused on transitioning from throttle, to brakes, back to throttle and finally a sweeping turn. We were told to strive to do this as smoothly as possible. It was a lot of fun to practice this in a controlled environment then get exceptionally accurate coaching.
The class also spends a lot of time nailing down the “delayed-apex” technique; turning the motorcycle beyond the apex or middle of the corner. The thinking is that it allows the rider to see farther into the corner before committing, thereby helping riders negotiate the tricky decreasing radius corner.
While I've heard of and understood the concept of delayed apex cornering, recognize that it is considered the safest way to get through a corner and could diagram it on a sheet of paper, I'd never truly mastered the technique. We spent a lot of time staying to the outside of the corner as long as possible then making the turn at the last moment. Because of the coaching and following Walt's lines, it wasn't long before it all came together and I felt like I finally truly understood how to delay my apex. I was surprised how much quicker and safer I felt in challenging corners.
Unlike the average track day, Streetmasters has a final exam. For the last session of the day, they reverse the direction on the course. Suddenly it was a brand new road. All the corners looked and felt significantly different. Turns that were once increasing radius turns, corners that opened up and got wider, suddenly became severe decreasing radius corners. We were also directed to ride with a different instructor, with a one-to-two instructor to student ratio. My instructor for the final exam would be none other than Dennis Pegelow.
Dennis' school, DP Safety School, was one of the very first and his program was thought of as the premier riding/racing school. (His program has 
been turned over to his instructors and rebadged as RedShift ) As a cancer survivor, Dennis now teaches only for Streetmasters and is a heinously fast and skilled rider (on his BMW 1100GS no less) and I was thrilled to be under his tutelage for the final exam. When all was said and done, we got a final debriefing, certificates of completion were passed out and we were given the chance to shake hands and chat one last time with our riding coaches. It was much more personalized than other programs I've gone through.
The only thing I really didn't like about the course is that there were no opportunities to open the bikes up and run at higher speeds. Traveling at slow speeds on a closed course was like having your boss's hot wife flirt with you. This is likely a result of the relaxed riding gear requirement that I'd imagine is in place for the average Gold Winger and sport touring rider who probably doesn't have full leathers. But I would have loved a session where I was able to just really open the throttle and carry more speed into and through the corners.
The program was conducted in an extremely safe manner; there was not a single crash the day we were out there. The Horse Thief Mile course is an absolute blast and Bob Reichenberg, and his “Bob-isms”, offers some of the best teaching techniques I've witnessed. He was able to bestow brilliant morsels of information in a clear, organized way that was presented in a down-home, country wisdom sort of way.
During the average track schools I've attended, a lot of time is spent on how to find the perfect line through a specific corner. One school in particular taught me to line up on the “S” on the Fishing billboard in the distance and another put strips of tape on the ground to teach me where my braking and turn-in points should be. I think these ideas are lame. How could that help me in a corner I've never seen before? This is where Streetmasters stands out! It taught me how to read the road better, how to negotiate corners smoother and more efficiently – not just how to master turn six at racetrack X. Streetmasters really helped me to improve my everyday real world, real road riding. How great is that?
