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My Third Time Training with Jimmy Lewis


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Really excited to be going back for training at Jimmy Lewis Riding School this weekend.  I did this Instagram live broadcast talking about it you're welcome to watch here:

As much as I ride I really need to devote more time to training and I'd recommend you not only drill for a few minutes before each time you ride off road but do a class like this at least every two years.

I'll be posting up more photos of the class once it starts this Saturday but here are some videos and photos from the last two times I went.

This was my first time way back in Nov of 2011 with my shiny new Starbucks bike the GSA

Jimmy Lewis 022.JPG

Most of his classes happen on a dry lake bed that skirts the CA/NV border in Pahrump, NV which is about a 4 hour ride from SoCal where I live.  Many people also fly into Vegas with Pahrump about an hour away and Jimmy has bikes you can rent as well.

Video from my first time in 2011

 

This is Jimmy doing a log crossing demo at Horizons Unlimited up in Yosemite in 2014

 

Here's my last time there in 2014 when I first met Ken Mooty who unfortunately passed away two months later :(.  This is when I finally "got" what he means by riding sand in the neutral position, not with your butt on the back of the bike.

 

 

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A few images/videos from Day 1:

This third training session was really amazing!  I just want to get a few notes down here quickly before I forget because I want to expand on many of them later when I have more time.

As always, Jimmy and his team really delivered.  I have to hand it to him that even though he's a phenomenal rider, so are other famous riders.  Jimmy's not only also a fantastic teacher but it's something he appears not to have grown tired of.  I'm sure it must get old teaching us noobs the same drills but he is such an incredible professional about it and it's obvious he gets a kick out of it.  He was 100% engaged the entire time and was very hands on with every rider.

Okay so a few quick observations... 

  • I was bummed to hear they've dropped a drill or two simply because someone got hurt doing it.  I have news for the lawyers: motorcycling (insert any other sporting activity) has its hazards.  Would not the education of riders on how to do it properly lead to SAFER riders though and LESS injuries?  This is sad and will only lead to more injuries not less.
  • I took my own personal notes detailing each and every drill we did and its purpose but I will NOT be sharing more than one or two of those out of respect for what is essentially his intellectual property as well as it being 100% useless unless you also happen to attend his class in the future.
  • I will be making practice a bigger part of my riding in the future.
  • Due to a dead battery the day I was leaving, Jimmy said I could use one of their bikes and doing the course on a small bike was very valuable as the bigger bikes not only hide more feedback but tend to amplify other types of feedback.  Everything you learn on a small bike will transfer though.
  • I must have forgotten this part before but want to commit it to memory... there are basically only four things you're ever able to do on a motorcycle which are accelerating, decelerating, initiating a turn and controlling a turn.
  • The most fun I had was riding in the sand!  We did this little quarter mile loop and it was a total blast.
  • Jimmy is a wealth of experience and has some great stories from his career and I always love hearing those.
    • His thoughts on social media influencers brought a unique and relevant perspective I hadn't considered before
    • His comments on "map men" of Dakar, the history of this, his Dakar navigation experience and the reasons why it's done and implications for changing the rules
    • His take on the latest 2019 Dakar focussing mostly on who made the least navigation errors
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Hmm, can i guess what drill was removed?  
I will anyways.  I guess the front wheel lock up drill was nixed.  

That was a fun one! Really gets you in an “unconventional & uncomfortable place”. After a few time it gets really fun to do. But at times it feel strange because it is not at all “natural” for most to do. If In fact this was the drill that got nixed.
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On 1/21/2019 at 7:57 AM, Jason R said:

Hmm, can i guess what drill was removed?  

I will anyways.  I guess the front wheel lock up drill was nixed.  

Nah he still does that drill.  He "previewed" for us the wheel lofting and power band drills.  My first time in 2011 two of my friends ran into each other doing the power band drill and the insurance co of the one who was injured went after all parties.  I was there another time for TOD and while playing around in the nearby sand dunes I saw a helicopter descend and turns out it picked up another friend of mine who busted his femur doing (incorrectly I might add and after being told not to do what he was doing) the wheel lofting drill.  An important thing Jimmy notes at the start of the class is "the biggest risk to you during this training will be each other."

Another cool thing I left out was Jimmy offered up some help with this LAB2V adventure route.  Palmdale to Barstow is easy to figure out but because of Ft. Irwin and a few preserves, there's only so many ways you can get from Barstow to Vegas but Jimmy knows quite a few.

And @motochefarwi you've sort of recalled a familiar phrase Jimmy uses in his class over and over and over again which is "taking an out of control situation and putting it in a controlled exercise" or something to that effect.  It's basically creating an exercise for training purposes that puts you in an uncomfortable spot and the point is to use a particular skill to control your exit from that situation.

Some other key concepts obviously would be BALANCE!  I had said before he starts the class off with balance drills but throughout the class he's always asking "are you in balance and do you feel you could take your hands off the bars?"

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