Skills Day – LazyModernTraveler

At the start of March with the route out of lockdown having been announce a friend and fellow TVAM member gave me a heads up… “A skills day at Castle Combe has gone up on the web shop for the 25/5”, I immediately went online and got myself booked in, I was desperate after all to start planning biking activities for post lock down and this is a perfect activity to have in the calendar lined up.

It’s called a Skills Day because this isn’t a generic track day, in the words of the TVAM…

Due to our size, TVAM is able to hire the Castle Combe track for the day to enable members to develop their road riding skills in the safety and security of a track environment. These are not track days but an opportunity to hone your road riding skills.
taken from https://www.tvam.org/training/

it’s a private event for club members only, where we are split into groups based on experience. With experienced instructors for each group. The aim of the day is to improve your overall riding and get to know your machine better.

Last year I had one booked on the 5th May but we were in lockdown so it got moved and ended up being the 9th September. I was originally down to be in one of the novice groups, having not done a one before, but when I got there, the organiser of the event having seen my riding elsewhere before suggested that I moved up to the Intermediate group. He had someone in the intermediate group that also wanted to move down into novice so it worked out well.

I have always considered myself a quick rider, and I enjoy using my physical size to throw the large Versys into a corner whole heartedly. However it is some much fun to have the space and the safety to really start to push it, to find where the ground clearance really runs out when you lean over and when the braking is at it’s limit. It gives you an upper marker for your’s and the bikes ability, when you are riding on the road you have so many more variable to take in that finding the upper limit tends to only happen by mistake. That corner you went into a little hot and somehow made it out of or that distance that you got wrong and are now having to stop in… in those situations although you learn it is difficult to take in all the additional information and know how close you really were and whether actually you tensing up made it worse. On a track you can take variables out and focus on feeling the bike and yourself.

With this in mind I think the one in May is perfectly timed, by the time I sit back on my bike it will be April. I won’t of ridden since the start of December the best part 4 months, one of the things in advanced riding is about knowing yourself. I know it won’t take me long to start getting comfortable on my bike again and get back into the advanced flow or mindset, but I also know that not having ridden at all in that time period has sent me backwards in skill.

My feel for the bike won’t be there like it was before and although I will have got some of it back before May this Skills Day will be a perfect oppertunity to recalibrate and get back into the swing of things. It will also be a lot of fun, regardless of the weather, back in September we were lucky it was the perfect day sunny and dry but not too warm. In the end I did 100 miles on Castle Combe in I think what was 5 roughly 15 minute sessions, and I was knackered, by the time we got back to High Wycombe I was ready for bed!

One thing that is different for this one is that I am now booked into Intermediate group from the off, meaning that they would prefer I were wearing leather instead of textiles. Cue the laughter…

Back in 2013 I was displaying my Imp at the 50th anniversary display at the Beaulieu July auto jumble for a weekend, whilst taking a wander round and a look at the stalls on the last day for any closing bargains I got accosted. This man looked at me and he said I have the perfect thing for you… He had ordered it a few years before from a custom leathers company and being a portly fellow himself needed large leathers, however he was not tall and for some reason they had not done the adjustments for his height. Before he could send it back the company went bust and closed down and he was stuck with leathers that were way to big for him, they then sat in the cupboard for a while…

This worked out to be my gain as I bought the set which is heavy good leather and well stitched as far as I can tell for £85, I have worn it a couple of times before but never more than a couple of short rides. So I thought I best try it on again especially with lockdown weight gains…

It fits me relatively well however the sleeves and legs are two long, meaning that whilst I can do the sleeves fully up it bunches on my forearms a bit. The legs because of my fat calfs can only do up just down to the above the ankle there I end up with about 2 inches unzipped. I think I will be able to tuck the legs into my boots and get my gloves on possibly under the sleeves, I may try and get it adjusted and also to get some leather gloves and sports style boots before May so that I don’t scrape my nice suede finished Daytona waterproof boots. But we will see…