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ROADRACING WORLD & MOTORCYCLE TECHNOLOGY
Volume 22, Number 11 November 2012
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JOSH HAYES Was Overlooked For Years. Now He’s A ThreeTime Superbike Champion And Is Rewriting The Record Books.
How A Three-Time AMA
Superbike Champion Is Still
Teaching Riders To Survive
On The Street, After 40 Years
November 2012
Colombian
MARTIN
CARDENAS
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Came To America
After He Lost His
Grand Prix Ride, And
Became A Two-Time
American Champion.
RACER COLUMNS: JASON DISALVO • JOSH HAYES, ELENA MYERS, CHRIS ULRICH •
SHOPS: DYNOJET RESEARCH • RACING, TRACK DAY & SCHOOL CALENDAR • INSIDE INFO •
EDITOR’S SCRAPBOOK • MotoGP NUMBERS • MotoGP TRIVIA • CLUB RACER PROFILE •
ASRA/CCS NEWSLETTER • HIGH-PERFORMANCE PARTS & SERVICES DIRECTORY • CLASSIFIED ADS •
Reg Pridmore’s CLASS Motorcycle School:
“It’s not about speed,” Pridmore,
a three-time AMA Superbike Champion, told the 40-some students and
guests assembled in the classroom
at the Streets circuit on Labor Day
weekend.
Pridmore’s CLASS school emphasizes many of the fundamentals of
riding a performance motorcycle at
speed that other schools do. But
because the focus here is on the street,
one area of emphasis that is unique
is survival via your placement on the
road. “Make your own smart space,”
Pridmore says.
When it comes to cornering on
the street, Pridmore emphasizes a
line through the corner that places
the rider as far away from the center yellow line as practical. In righthand corners in countries where traffic moves on the right side of the road
(such as in the U.S.), such a line might
cost the rider some visibility up the
road. And it definitely isn’t the swoop-
(Above) Reg Pridmore on track in 2012. Photo courtesy CLASS. (Right) Pridmore in the paddock at Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California, November, 1974. (Bottom) Pridmore (163) leads BMW teammate Steve McLaughlin (83) in the
first AMA Superbike National, held at Daytona International Speedway in March, 1976. Photos by John Ulrich.
“Make Your Own
Smart Space...”
By Michael Gougis
ook at a racetrack and compare it to the street. One huge,
impossible-to-miss difference:
No yellow line down the middle. I get to use all of that pavement, edge to edge—sweet!
So it was a little disconcerting
to hear that my assignment for the
morning was to use only half the
width of the track at the 1.8-mile
Streets of Willow circuit. The drill was
to go into the corners tight, use the
inside line, and stay on the inside
half of the circuit coming out.
It’s a critical part of the curriculum at Reg Pridmore’s CLASS
Motorcycle School for street riding.
And it’s important because Pridmore’s
not there to teach you how to win
races, but how to survive on the street
while enjoying the sport.
L
64——Roadracing World, November 2012
ing racing line that the stars of
MotoGP carve as they hunt for fractions of a second through a bend.
But Pridmore argues that the
street rider can’t afford to mimic that
racing line, nor is a street rider looking to carve fractions of a second
by carrying more speed at the apex
of a corner. Selecting a line further
away from the yellow stripe places
the rider further away from oncoming traffic.
where I learned what it means when
an officer writes “T/C Fatal” on a
report.)
“The one thing that rings my
bell the most is trying to introduce
the idea of (selecting) better lines
because of the safety it projects on
the street,” Pridmore says. “It’s more
to do with—someone else has taught
them some bad lines, and it’s killing
people on the street. So that’s where
I’m really adamant.
Riding-school students, an instructor, a chalkboard and chalk—this is an
example of how learning takes place. Photos by Michael Gougis.
That provides the not-insignificant benefit of being less likely to
be hit by a vehicle coming the other
direction that crosses over the yellow line and into oncoming traffic.
(As an aside, the first two canyon
motorcycling fatalities I ever heard
of while working as a newspaper
reporter occurred in exactly this manner. The first was a bike-on-bike collision. The second was a bike-on-car
collision, and it was the incident
Instructors meet one-on-one with
students right before heading out
for a session on the racetrack.
“I’m not teaching racing. I’m
teaching people that it’s a protective
survival-type line. If you adjust it
with the right speed and the right
gear and know where your brakes
are, you don’t have to be worried too
much about what’s around the corner. And if you’re going to be stupid enough to go charging into it in
third gear, WFO, you’re looking for
death. You’re looking for trouble.”
Staying away from oncoming
traffic by selecting a line away from
the center of the road is part of a
broader concept about street safety,
in Pridmore’s view. The road is a
hairy place, made hairier by the
day by drivers who are still convinced that somehow they have
magically developed the ability to
read and type on a tiny touch screen
while hurtling down the road at a
mile a minute. Defensive riding isn’t
enough, Pridmore says. You have
to think.
“A good rider is a thinking rider.
You can tell the brilliance of (Casey)
Stoner, Mick Doohan, look at Ben
(Spies). They’re good, thinking riders—they know when to and where
to pounce, they know when to hang
back in second, third or fourth place
and go, ‘I’ll pick my point carefully’—
they’re smart guys,” Pridmore says
continued on page 66
Roadracing World, November 2012——65
CLASS Motorcycle School
continued from page 65
the deck at the apex and a big fistful of throttle coming out (the ZX6R’s brakes are amazing, and once
the revs are up, the next corner starts
to arrive very, very quickly). I accepted
the challenge of trying to do that while
going into the corner tight on the
inside and hanging tight on the exit.
And I started to get what Pridmore was talking about. I was having fun, riding a sportbike the way it
was supposed to be ridden, but with
a far larger margin for error than at
race pace. I could start to see what
Pridmore was teaching—a re-set of
the mind-set, an approach to sport
riding that actually would pay dividends in the canyons and on the
street. I wasn’t setting lap records,
but that wasn’t the point.
The reality was that I was going
into, through, and out of corners with
several feet of pavement to spare. And
on a twisty mountain road, having a
few extra feet between me and a car
hurtling toward me from the other
direction would be a nice insurance
policy to have in my back pocket. It
was nice to spend time on the track,
fun to ride the ZX-6R and good to get
in seat time, but that idea of creating and maintaining my own “smart
space” was the most valuable lesson
I learned on that day.
Pridmore conducts the CLASS
school at the Streets of Willow, The
Raceway in Sonoma (formerly Infineon Raceway or Sears Point),
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Virginia International Raceway and
Oregon Raceway Park. For more
information, contact the CLASS
Motorcycle School at 320 E. Santa
Maria St., Suite M, Santa Paula, CA
93060, (805) 933-9936, www.class
RW
rides.com.
(hey, he’s a racer, it’s no surprise
that he picks racers to illustrate his
points).
“When you’re out on the road,
that’s a thinking man’s game. You’ve
got to out-think a lot of other almost
illiterate-type people that don’t have
any time for motorcycles and they
haven’t even got a clue what a motorcycle can and will do. You have to
combat that in your own mind. I look
at every (driver) as though they are
texting.”
Gigi Pridmore (left) plays an integral role in the CLASS school’s operations and
Pridmore’s other area of emphacurriculum. Here, she appears to be unconvinced that this student’s “close
sis on better, safer street riding centers on braking. The CLASS school
your eyes and pin it” approach is productive on the Streets of Willow course!
teaches you what not to do, and offers
drills on what to do.
CLASS runs an A (experienced) and
“Grab and stab brakes,”
B (less-experienced) group in rotatPridmore says, when asked
ing 20-minute sessions, stopping only
what else he sees riders doing
for lunch. It’s a lot of track time. If
poorly. “I’ve heard people
you have questions, instructors are
say, ‘Get that rear brake
available by stopping at the oneengaged, man.’ Well, if you
on-one help desk (literally located at
happen to be riding an 1100the track entrance).
pound monster, maybe the
As the day wore on, I found that
rear brake will work a little
many riders were using more and
better for you. Most of our
more of the track, more like a typisports bikes don’t need as
cal track day than a school, particmuch brake as they’ve got,
ularly in the A group. But I stuck
and consequently people who
to the game plan, which required
have been taught bad habits
some mental re-jiggering on my part.
like ‘Get on that rear brake
I’ve raced at—and won—on the Streets
first’ are the ones that sufof Willow course, and I wanted to use
fer and some die. I think edu- Reg Pridmore, in 2012, still teaching 40 years on.
every inch of the track.
cating people towards the
But I forced myself to use the
effectiveness and the effiinner third of the track going into
Move your bum off the seat just a bit.
ciency of the front brake is where the
corners and the inner half coming
Doing just one of those at a time is
emphasis should be at.”
out. And I noticed that I was still
not intimidating. Get used to doing
To get students better at using
enjoying myself quite a bit, knee on
one, then add another. Soon enough,
the front brake, Pridmore teaches a
the rider is doing all of them. Priddrill where riders roll off the throtmore’s wife Gigi, an instructor and
tle and ease into the brake in one
rider at the school, summarizes the
fluid motion. Modern sportbike brakes
step-by-step idea in something she
are phenomenal at anything other than
says to the class: “It’s the little things
(and often up to) full-on race pace, and
that come together to make the big
Pridmore teaches that the effective use
things happen.”
of them is the best way to get the
The school’s procedures are simbike stopped quickly. Yes, some prople and laid-back. I arrived with an
fessional racers use the rear brake
absolutely stock Kawasaki ZX-6R,
to stabilize a motorcycle that they’re
removed the mirrors, unplugged the
throwing into a corner at or above
tail light, taped over the headlights
the limits of traction. You’re not going
and headed for tech. CLASS requires
to be doing that on the street.
fresh tires, mirrors removed or taped
One other technique that Pridover and the brake light covered or
more teaches effectively is body posiunplugged. I kind of taped over the
tion. The basic idea is the same that
headlights out of habit, and as an
everyone else teaches; moving your
excuse to use some cool digital-print
body to the inside of the corner and
camouflage duct tape on the bike.
lower on the bike stabilizes the
A full one-piece leather suit is
machine through the turn. But the
preferred, although a high-quality
rider who’s never so much as sneaked
textile suit is acceptable—mesh suits
a cheek off the saddle may struggle
A specified lunch period with a meal provided for everyone is a pretty good
are not. An undamaged full-face helto see their way to getting to the Spieslearning opportunity for students. After a morning of lecture and practice, they
met less than five years old is required,
esque elbow-on-the-deck posture.
as are gauntlet gloves and over-thePridmore teaches a step-by-step
sat together and hashed their way through ideas good and bad over a
ankle boots.
approach. Weight the inside peg. Move
spread provided by American Honda at this CLASS school. Then they went
The day starts with a classroom
your head toward the inside of the
back out and tried the new stuff after lunch. Photos by Michael Gougis.
briefing, then it’s on to the track.
turn. Slide the inside knee forward.
66——Roadracing World, November 2012