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/128332
THE ART OFHIGHER LEARNING, ORISTHAT LEANING? was flat OUI, my lillie Suz uki SV6S0 screaming its guts oUI. Tum I 0 at Road Atlanta approached , bUI I was hellbent on leaving my brak ing until the last possible second. I d id. The n Kevin SchwanlZ shot up the inside, his right hand yel 10 gel off the thro ttle . much le ss reach for the brake leve r. "lan ky Texan bastard," I swore under my breath, I flicked it left, then right through the ch icane, and he was righl in front of me. I swore I'd gained on him , my superior corne ring speed finally paying massive d ividends. I was rea dy 10 pounce. "W o rld Cham pion this, Mr. SchwanlZ." Then we started 10 cres t the hill, me trying to re member wha t in the hell I was supposed 10 aim for on the blind ru n toward the bridge , him fullthrottle and leaving black marIks from th e rea r of his GSX-R. And he was gone. I In a ra re moment of brilliance, the author leads the instructor, Kevin Schwantz - World Champion and the man behind the Kevin Schwanhl Suzuk i School at Rood Atlanto. Exactly how many chances are yo u going to gel in your life 10 share the race track wit h a World C hampion? How about spe nding two days with him , learning fro m him, from his staff, a co llective gro up of good 01' bo ys, all of them talented roa d racers and quality instructors in thelr own righl? Y u can . And nOI o nly do you gel all of o the above al the Kevin SchwanlZ Suzuki School, but yo u also get to do it alone of America's premier road racing facilities Road Atlan ta, an hour or so north of Atlanta, Georgia. Oh, d id I men tion you gel to ride brand-span king-new Suzu ki GSX-R600s and SV650s ? But riding w ith the likes of Kevin and his Merry Men on real ly cool bikes on a topnotch racetrack is only half of the equation. After all, yo u pay you r money and att e nd schools like Schwantz's 10 im prove you r rid - 38 JULY 14, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS ing - 10 make you go faste r; safer. Plain and sim ple, the two-day sch oo l I atte nde d he lped my riding. Schwa ntz's school is form al o nly in that you spend a 101 of lime follo w ing an instruclor. Al flrst , this seems like a bummer. BUI the mo re lime you spend behind them, the more you realize t hat yo u're learn ing. Otherwise, il wou ld be too easy 10 be lulled into a battle with another student, and then it would just be a case of the blind leading the blind. Better 10 follow an instructor. Espec ially these guys . What's nice is that they bring you up 10 speed slowly. You learn the correct racing line at slower speeds, and those speeds eve ntual ly increase until you're going as fast as you feel comfortable . PUI it this way, you 'll never be faster than !he instruct o rs. Also, the schools are broke n into two groups, street and advanced, so you can 40th Anniversary fil in w here you feel most co m fortable and ride w ith others w ho are at o r are close 10 your level. Th e track se ssio ns are 20 m inutes and are preceded by classroom sessions of roughly the same lengt h. You sit in class and learn, then you ge l to apply what yo u learn directly afte r that on th e race track. The Schwantz School features all the necessities in that classroom instruction everything fro m body positioning 10 brak ing, 10 pan ic control. The class room Sluff is taug ht moslly by lead instructor lance Holst, but Schwan lZ is always close by, and he inte rjects when needed w hile also doing onbike demonstrations at the fro nt of the class. The SchwanlZ School also uses on-bi ke vide o instruction , wh ich proves to be extremely he lpful. Someone can tell you what you 're doing correctly o r inco rr ectly,