| All motorcyclists should attend a motorbike training school. Accident studies, common sense and those that have attended tell us that this is the right thing to do. In fact those that have attended usually attend again a year or two later. Courses for beginners, intermediate and experts are offered as well as track days, off road training, superbike school and K53 licence training. (see the page on the K53 Licence).
Note that for beginner courses, a bike school that offers you a small
motorbike to train on for the day is preferable to one that expects you to
'bring your own'. The reason for this is because your own motorbike is
probably bigger and the exercises you will be expected to master are a lot
easier on a smaller bike - this same logic applies when taking your
motorbike licence test. Books. There is another option not readily available in South Africa i.e. a training course in book form. This can then be read at your leisure and the skills gradually mastered chapter by chapter on the weekends. These books should be read in conjunction with a weekend biking school course but can work equally well without. Personally I have the book called Proficient Motorcycling - The Ultimate Guide to Riding Well by David L Hough published by Bowtie Press.
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Off road, Adventure
Motorcycle Riding Academy
A 10 level, specialist off
road, adventure motorcycling academy that prepares riders to go the
distance with zero tolerance for errors. African Long Distance
graduates are riders who can bring their motorcycle home
Precision and Control through
Balance
Situated in Johannesburg, South
Africa
Click here for more info |
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| | The trainer doing his best to instil in the new rider the importance of keeping the head up and looking ahead, even when riding slowly in town | There are many excellent books that can teach the new rider a lot like this one by David Hough. |
This and many other excellent motorcycling books can be obtained from Motorbooks (011) 325-4460 Jan Smuts Ave, Johannesburg or from White Horse Press (USA) who have a huge range of books, videos, posters, gifts, accessories, tools, novelties etc. (Find links page on the Navigation Page) You can even request a printed catalogue which they will send to you via snail mail. What to take to bike school: Helmet, gloves, riding jacket, extra sweat shirt, spectacles, sun glasses and your receipt. If you are going to use your own motorcycle you must arrive with a full tank of petrol as most schools are miles from malls and shopping centres. For full day courses they usually provide lunch but you may want to take your own - this is Bike School, run by bikers, not the Hilton! Take sun cream for your face as you will spend most of the day outdoors. Also a bottle of water which you can keep with you. Pupils often return with a headache due to dehydration from being in a hot riding jacket, in the sun all day. This is dangerous especially for a high speed track days.
Below is a list of motorcycle courses, schools and race tracks that have open practice days. The list is in no particular order and I do not personally endorse any of them. If you know of more please let me know so that I can add them to the list. If you try one out and have a bad experience for whatever reason, please email me so that I can remove them from the list. |
