23 replies to this topic

[kevinmorris22]

I went to the Coppell TX Police Motorcycle skills competition this past weekend and had a good time watching these guys ride. I was disappointed that there were not any FJRs in the competition, lots of Harleys, BMWs, a few ST1300s, and one Concours that I saw.

Does anyone on the board have local cops that ride FJRs on their Police force?

Also, is there anything like this for non-police riders? I would be interested in learning more of these skills and competing...looks like a blast.

Here is the video I shot if you are interested in watching these guys ride.

Edited by kevinmorris22, 02 April 2012 - 11:18 AM.

[Ignacio]

Does anyone on the board have local cops that ride FJRs on their Police force?

I concur with Spinny here that there don't appear to be any in the U.S.

[BwanaDik]

The guy on the Connie looks like he had his hands full

I've looked far and wide for a training class anything close to what the LEO's have as their manditory training but with no luck. There is/was an outfit in Virginia, I think, that were a bunch of LEO's but you had to ride their bikes. HD's and some 600 POS IIRC so the knowledge to an FJR was limited.

Anybody know of training like this? I'd love to take the course the El Lay County motor officers take but with my bike!

[SkooterG]

There is a class, I think in Washington? that is based on police motor training. Expensive, and only at the one location. Wish I could get some sort that type of training. It is quite incredible what those guys can do with a motorcycle.

Edit:

Here is the place I think I remember seeing before: Northwest Motorcycle School

And here is another I found quickly with Google: Midwest Police Motorcycle Training

[SkooterG]

Anybody know of training like this? I'd love to take the course the El Lay County motor officers take but with my bike!

I really don't think you would want to take this kind of training with your own bike. I personally know motor officers. I have a good idea of the training they go through. You WILL drop a bike several times going through this type of training. Why would you want to drop your own FJR? Drop somebody else's bike!

[twistedcricket]

Found this as well

Class in Minnesota

Looks like you use your own bike.

[HotRodZilla]

I know I have seen advertisements for classes like what we do in Rider magazine. Pretty sure it's in California, but I haven't paid attention.

As Skooter said. You DO NOT want to attempt a class like that on your own bike. One of the hardest things for me to accept when I went through 12 years ago was to just let the bike fall if was going to fall. "That's what the crash bars are for." After accepting that, I was able to concentrate on throttle control and getting the bike to do what I wanted. We dropped those bikes countless times, as does every class.

Even knowing how do ride that way, I still won't attempt some of that stuff on my FJR. It's not protected, so if I brain fart something, I'm gonna do damage to my nekkid bike.

If you go to one of those classes, use their bike, and use the skills to better understand how to ride your bike.

[kevinmorris22]

There were a few bikes dropped by the Cops while I was out there. Not sure if there is a reason behind it but they were all Harleys... Just sayin.

[worldbound4now]

I went to the Coppell TX Police Motorcycle skills competition this past weekend and had a good time watching these guys ride. I was disappointed that there were not any FJRs in the competition, lots of Harleys, BMWs, a few ST1300s, and one Concours that I saw.

Does anyone on the board have local cops that ride FJRs on their Police force?

Also, is there anything like this for non-police riders? I would be interested in learning more of these skills and competing...looks like a blast.

Here is the video I shot if you are interested in watching these guys ride.

I've met a couple of these guys... once on Sandy Lake and once on Bethel Rd. Both times on my FJR. Both times they were quite effective at popping out of nowhere and suddenly screaming up from my blind spot. Both times I was cautioned heavily without a citation. Once I was under 10 over and once I stopped completely but didn't put my foot down... kinda a momentary full stop, balanced for a second, then proceed forward.

I've also watched them run drills at Andy Brown park. It's more impressive to see in person. Thanks for the post.

[doug5551]

@ Mr. BwanaDik, the class you want is ride like a pro, LA. It is taught right by LAX by Mark Paz, a great instructor. Your bike or theirs. I couldnt more highly recommend it. I cant post the link because I am on my phone. But google and check it out.

[43Duc]

I am a certified instructor for motorcycle police officers. I can tell you for a fact you do not want to use your bike for this. We run ST1300's, BMWs before than and KZ1000s before that. As an instructor a large amount of time for the first few days of training a new motor cop is spent picking up motorcycles. It is amazing what you can put an ST1300 through and have it start every time. It won't look pretty but it will get you home. The skills are taught over a month long period. The first two weeks for our department is in-house training w/ basics to get through the various cone patterns. It's all clutch/throttle control w/ no braking (2 tested patterns use brakes). After the first two weeks, the rider goes through a formal POST certified class. By the end of the 3rd week he/she has to complete all the tested pattens by making 3 clean passes in a row in each pattern without touching a cone, putting a foot down, or riding out of the pattern. They only get 6 attempts for 3 consecutive passes. The final week of training is spent doing more high speed riding involving regular patrol driving and pursuits. Different states have different reqs, but that's how we do it here in SoCal.

Here I am on one of our long rides out of town on Route 66 outside San Bernardino (fear not, I was not moving when the photo was not about to pull in front of on-coming traffic):

Edited by 43Duc, 02 April 2012 - 02:07 PM.

[JT Pedersen]

There is a civilian-oriented course, Ride Like a Pro, developed by a motor officer in Florida. He has licensed the course and you can find it being taught around the country.

There is a good chunk of info, plenty of videos, that you can review to see if it's close enough to what you're looking for.

I took the course a second time, last year. I have found it a really good way to spend a half-day, working the cobwebs out early in the season, while just having fun with fellow riders.

In the two courses I've taken, totaling about 20 riders, 4 people had low-speed drops. Two Harleys, one Concours, one sportbike. So it's not specific to a particular 'type' of bike or rider. In each case, the worse damage was a broken clutch lever, scuffed tip-over bars.

I won't hesitate to take my own machine again. In part, because 'that' is the machine I ride on, so its the one I want experience on. I just might take the FJR's bags off though:). First time I did it, I used my ST1100 with bags on. Really depends on how comfortable you are with your own machine to begin with.

Cheers

Edited by JT Pedersen, 02 April 2012 - 02:18 PM.

[43Duc]

There is a civilian-oriented course, Ride Like a Pro, developed by a motor officer in Florida. He has licensed the course and you can find it being taught around the country.

After looking at the video there I can say that looks like a good intro. The concepts are similar (head/eyes, clutch throttle), but for LEO training we don't use the rear brake except on two patterns. The patterns in the video also look a little larger which allows the rider to rely a bit more on momentum to get through the turns. Once you shrink down the patterns, and put tall cones in place, the concept of clutch/throttle (friction) come into play. You can't tip a bike over as far if you're trying to avoid hitting a 24" tall cone w/ your saddlebag. This looks like a good course for civilians though.

One negative I see though is the strong emphasis on the rear brake. As you all know, braking starts at 70 / 30 (front to rear) and grows to 90-95 front to 10-5 rear as you come closer to a stop. By having the riders train to constantly be using the rear brake, they may continue to do that for normal riding out on the streets which leads to many of the "I had to lay it down" statements that follow a 50' locked-rear skid into a guard rail. After my teaching experiences I find myself always looking at other rider's hands as they come to a stop and am constantly appalled at how many riders I see coming to a stop w/ no front brake at all!

[carlson_mn]

Not to sound like a dick, but go practice yourself in a parking lot. Set crazy goals for yourself and practice hard. Keep fuel to a minimum, take off the hard bags and put sliders on your bike. Learn to balance the bike and look where you want to go and have fun.

Not saying its a replacement for police training but a lot of people have really bad low speed skills because they don't practice it.

[SkooterG]

Not saying its a replacement for police training but a lot of people have really bad low speed skills because they don't practice it.

I agree. Sort of. You're right, not enough people challenge themselves and don't practice low speed skills regularly on their own. Motorcycle riding is all about perishable skills. You don't regularly use or practice a certain skill set and you lose them.

But taking any kind of class is not just about practice, it's also about learning the proper technique with guidance from coaching. And as one who does practice my slow-speed skills, let me say that it is of huge benefit having specific exercises to work through with cones and other aids. It just isn't the same practicing on my own in a parking lot.

[carlson_mn]

that is true

[BwanaDik]

Great info here, thanks! Looks like at least one of the classes mentioned is now on my list.

I specifically want to use my bike is because it is an AE. A whole lot of the training, as mentioned numerous times above, is the correct use of throttle, brake, and clutch, a particular piece of equipment missing from my bike (and one less thing to bust off when I fall over ). Also, as we all know with some clairity, these sleds are HEAVY which definitely affect slow speed handling. I figure it's my job to interpert the instructions on what to do with the controls and adapt them to my bike's controls. I can do full lock figure eights now but want to get more advanced instruction.

I've been searching a bunch the last couple of hours, trying to find the oh-so-cool crash bars used on European police bikes. NOT the 905 sliders, they are curves units that go in front of the bags and at the front of the fairing. I wouldn't mind dropping Miss Piggy a couple of times on those, if I could only find them (he says quietly, hoping someone will help out with a link)

[PROUD LEO]

I'm with the Grand Prairie Police Dept. One of our jocks won the overall competition. Our guys all ride Harley's and if you want a real kick in the head, the maintenance is performed not by the Harley shop but by our city shop. Pray for our jocks.

[Alexi]

Not to sound like a , but go practice yourself in a parking lot. Set crazy goals for yourself and practice hard. Keep fuel to a minimum, take off the hard bags and put sliders on your bike. Learn to balance the bike and look where you want to go and have fun.

Not saying its a replacement for police training but a lot of people have really bad low speed skills because they don't practice it.

I do this at least once a month. More often as of late as my wife got a mc license and I bought her a HONDA CBR250R!!! YEA!!!

Not to brag, but I think I have very good slow-speed skills, and I attribute it to when I got my FIRST motorcycle right after I got my license. For one month straight, I went to a parking lot after work and dropped, picked up, and dropped the bike again over and over trying to get those u-turns and slow speed riding as tight and slow as possible.

As it is now, I have a Victory Vision (not a small bike by any means), and I can control that bike very well cause the parking lot drills are something I continue to do on a semi-regular basis. I schedule it with a school and invite my local riding group to join me. No one seems to join me (most I'm sure see it up on the schedule and laugh cause it's "silly"), but that just makes the gap in riding skill that much bigger between them and me!

Alexi

[SacramentoMike]

Getting a little off topic here, I noticed those bikes have the same blue lights on the back end the California LEOs do. I'm wondering if that's universal. Could some of you weigh in and tell if their state uses or doesn't use them? Thanks. (I, um, have my reasons for asking.)

If you need some of those cones to practice with, though, try following one of those highway line-painting trucks. Half a mile back or so should do it.