Upwards of 20 riders turned up on Saturday for three two-hour training sessions. A big thanks to our head coach Robyn Curtis and training coaches; Kale & Denys Reed, John Spence, Owen Norton, Richard Kent & Alex Norton. The sausage sizzle was great as usual for lunch and as it was Sarah Chivers birthday we all enjoyed a great sponge cake as well.
Richard and Alex taught us about;
Rider stance and body position to better balance the bike.
Balancing with front wheel on a log then rear wheel up on the log, hardest part was getting on the bike.
Then the Double Blip over a 900mm diameter log
Owen & John had us practice our balancing again.
Putting us through a very tight section to show us.
How to use all the section to get the best advantage
How to lean the bike in a tight corner
Transferring weigh onto to the outside peg to maintain balance
Denys and Kale re-enforced the above lessons with
Lots of tight figure of 8 turns emphasizing the transfer of weigh to the out side peg
Then putting that into practice with off camber up hill and down turns in a gulley.
Then putting the wind up all us clubman grade riders by getting us to negotiate a down hill entrance into a gully while doing a sharp left turn. I had to pull out at the first attempt but when following Kales instructions getting the weight to the outside peg an amazing thing happened. The bike was stable; balancing the bike was easy which developed the confidence to go where no clubman has gone before.
The training we received on Saturday set us up well for the following days Closed Club Trial at Robyn and Bruce Curtis’s property. A lot of thought had gone into the setup of these sections calling on all the training we had received the day before. The most technical section had four challenging turns, ranging from tight to up and down hill camber turns and three log crossings.
All in all a great day put on by the club for its members. 