Finally getting to write about the day out with Rapid Training
www.rapidtraining.co.uk.
First off I should give you my riding history. If nothing else this should demonstrate to people it doesn?t matter how good you think you are, until it?s confirmed you should never baulk at additional training, and even then why not.
I?ve been riding for over 25 years now, on mostly sports bikes, currently on a 2017 S1KRR. In the last 10 years I have covered around 200,000 miles, mostly commuting in to central London. I have done virtually every UK track, some more than once. I also have passed my IAM and after that passed my IAM masters. So, why do a day with Rapid? I first came across Rapid when I organised track days for work colleagues, with about 30 of us going. They prefer road bikes, and didn?t allow any form of stupidity, and I only remember 1 red flag in all the days I did with them. Unfortunately Rapid stopped the UK trackdays as the markup for them was tiny. They had 4 instructors out with the novice group, and instructors need paying! They still do 1 in Folembray, but spaces are limited and they sell out quickly.
Rapid is made up of current and ex Police bike riders. Don?t let this put you off, but it should tell you that they are some of the best riders out on the road. How many of you could hussle a fully loaded Pan European at speed through twisties. In addition they see themselves as bikers first and Police second. They are not interested in a law enforcement day, it is all about rider development. Your day will be different to mine, but it will all be based on the same riding principles.
My instructor was Giles Lamb and we met at Maidstone services at 9am. At this point I?d already ridden 50 miles so a cuppa and a chat about the day ahead started things off. You can read about all their instructors on the website ahead of the day so I already knew some bits about Giles. After the briefing, and fitting an earpiece for the one way radio (you can listen, but he won?t hear you speak) we headed out to ride some of Kents roads. The rest of the day was spent with either me ahead of Giles (usually no more than 6 feet ahead), or me following.
The amount of time you lead and follow will depend on you, and where you want to watch and learn, or be evaluated from behind, ooer missus!! The first section of road covered everything from 30 limits to flowing A roads, with everything in between, and after around 10-15 miles we pulled over for the first de-brief. This is their chance to evaluate you and work out where best to target the time during the day. I was really chuffed at this point to hear that for me the day was going to be about refinement, and would later find out just how refined that would be. The rest of the day was just this. Me riding a section of road for 10-20 miles and then stopping for a chat. Some things were pointed out at the time over the radio, and others discussed when we had pulled over. When Giles led things he would do a commentary on what was happening and the things he was considering, and this was also where he could demonstrate some of the refinement. Heading into right hand bends was one of my refinements, as apparently 2 feet from the edge of the road is not enough, and by the end of the day the odd scrape of the left leg on bushes showed I was listening.
The amount of things he was calling out in his commentary was a little enlightening, but also showed how many things he was factoring in to his ride, all with a single objective, to make progress efficiently whenever appropriate, and by whenever appropriate, I mean all the time! I will attach my ride report at the end but another area we worked on was rolling off more on corner entry, rather than braking. One corner in particular I had gone into a ?little? to quickly and it just kept tightening, I had read it, but not well enough, and 80% of the way through a corner, still on the rear brake, while applying the throttle at the same time does work, but is not as smooth as it could be.
We covered around 120 miles over the course of the day, with all posted limits observed, and all nationals being deemed progress required, but safe and efficient progress. There are regularly stops for a debrief and a longer stop for lunch. A lot of focus for me was on how to get the best opportunity for an overtake, by trying to always be in the right place at the right time. The thing with doing this is there are a lot of times you might try one of the many ways, but they don?t always come off, but if there were opportunities there, you could take them. Doing this sounds like it will lead to frustration, where you move up at the right time through a bend, but find an oncoming car, or other hazard prevents it happening, but it?s the opposite, you won?t get frustrated as you know you can create another opportunity.
It?s all based on Roadcraft principles, but you get shown it on steroids! At one point I was approaching a right left right left kink at a ?making progress? speed, so with a clear view through all of it I decided to apex them all, and this was not even mentioned in the debrief, so must have been ok!
Overall the whole day was relaxed and informative and undoubtedly money well spent. I would highly recommend it to anyone.
View attachment Rapid day report.pdf
