Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128178
American Supercamp !Above lettl Students take part In several drills during the typical two-day American Supercamp course, Including this cone drill, which emphasizes the Importance of shifting your weight on the seat. !Above right) AMA Grand National runner-up oIohnny Murphree makes frequent appearances as a guest Instructor at American Supercamp. After taking the courses himself, Murphree suddenly found himself on the victory podium more otten. • Extend your inside arm - push the bike down under you. • Pivot the bike under you (think: gas cap to your knee). • Elbows upl • Your head should be up - eyes looking downtrack. ning donuts in the same tire tracks and something as unfamiliar as running the ova] with your left-hand on the gas tank. "These drills emphasize certain principles of the proper upper-body position, throttle position to lean angle, and seating position that we teach," Walker says. And he's right. Even something as simple as spinning a donut can expose flaws in your riding technique. When done properly, however, you can spin a dizzying amount of revolutions without ever leaving your original wheel tracks. "We are always trying to figure out new ways to help people achieve the proper body position sooner," Carr said. "These are the ones that we feel work well." The gas cap drill is another exercise that shows just how much con· trol can be gained by using knee pressure to tum the motorcycle. Students are required to negotiate the • Your inside leg should be down, just off to the side a little and in front of the footpeg - always keep your knee bent. Your outside knee should be tight against the tank. "When that comes together, you'll be able to feel the center balance point on any motorcycle, where your body weight influences the handling of that motorcycle most dramaticalIy," Walker said. "Now, on a road race bike, you won't be on the outside of the seat like you are on a dirt tracker (as in number three), but the awareness of that center balance point will let you know exactly where you need to be for control of any bike." American Supercamp has incorporated many drills, primarily to teach the fundamentals of this body positioning. Many of them are taught on the very first day. They include spin- 32 OCTOBER 30, 2002' cue I • n e _ s oval and TT courses with the left hand on the gas cap, thus forcing them to squeeze harder on the tank to initiate the turn-in. Walker says that Nicky Hayden found it so enlightening that the reigning AMA Superbike Champion is rumored to have incorporated the rather bizarre ritual of sitting on his F4 in the garage at home and squeezing the bike with his knees for an hour at a time, just to build up strength in his legs. "So he's a weirdo," Walker jokes, "but I hear he's making quite a bit of money." Another area in which students can gain insight at an American Supercamp session is via videotape and lots of it. Walker and Carr will not only show students a considerable amount of footage of AMA National road race and dirt track events, analyzing it to show both the right and wrong techniques, but they also videotape each Supercamp riding session so that the students can get a feel of what they are doing right or doing wrong. While one group is on the track, the others will be able to analyze their previous session. "What you feel like you're doing is, 99 percent of the time, not what you are doing," Walker says. "The reason that we show footage of some of the top riders is to drive home the point that the thought process is the same, regardless of speed or skill level. "The thought process and feel is exactly the same," Walker says. "When you get it right, it will be because you're thinking exactly what Eric Bostrom, Aaron Yates or Chris Carr is. In fact, I teU people this and they look at me like I'm crazy, but on a half mile, it's actually a slower process than it is here on an XR100. Sure, the speeds are greater, but there's so much more room and more time to think about the proper technique." A lot of them get it right, some of them don't, and they retum for more, but that's why American Supercamp students, many of them repeat customers, come to visit Walker - to immerse themselves in proper technique. Les Murphy of Atlanta, Georgia, a former road racer and highperformance street rider, definitely got more than he bargained for. "I thought I might come out and improve my skills a little," Murphy said, "but it has been quite a lesson in motorcycle control. It makes me want to go out and buy an XRl 00 for a training tool, because this is awesome." During his two days at American Supercamp, Murphy definitely put Walker's "go ahead and crash it" edict to the test. It seemed like he spent as much time on the ground as he did on the bike. "Hell, I'd rather make a few mistakes here so that I don't make them on the street," Murphy said. Bob Steinbugler, 53, of Raleigh, North Carolina, another former road racer who enjoys riding sportbikes on the street nowadays, learned a lot about what to feel during his sessions. "It's all about feel, and feel is applicable on anything you ride," Steinbugler said, adding that mastering rear-brake control was the one ©D&J00 fX]&J11@0B $550 per two-day school (includes bike rental, gear rental - if necessary, catered food and beverage, Tylenol, Advil and icepacks) For more information, contact: American Supercamp 553 Lakewood Ct. Windsor, CO. 80550 Phone: 970/674-9434 Fax: 970/674-9433 Web: www.americansupercarnp.com