Elevate Your Motorcycle Safety Skills by Taking on a Race Track Course with Your Own Bike

Have you ever wanted to ride your own motorcycle on the race track?! I did it last week and it was awesome and exhilarating!

Peaches (my Triumph Street Triple 675) and I were invited by David Grummett and his team at Expert Riders Academy for the inaugural full day training course. Location is Shannonville Motorsport Park, near Belleville, Ontario. If you don't know it, the track is well-known and respected in the motorsports community. The 2024 season of the Bridgestone Canadian Superbike Championship started on May 18th at Shannonville Motorsport Park, with Ben Young winning the first race.

A few special things about Shannonville to note is that it offers multiple track configurations that range from the full 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) long track to shorter layouts making it a versatile track so the team had it configured for our course. It was fun to be on a real racetrack with my peaches! We both did great BTW.

Our lead instructor was David Grummett, supported by a good size group of instructors and coaches. Dave's life and career in the motorcycle industry spans a number of decades. He raced across Canada and the U.S. in the 80's and won the Canadian RZ Cup Championship. During his racing career, he was also involved in the FAST Riding School, spending almost 20 years there helping people become better riders. Starting in 1992 he ran Parker Bros Powersports, the prominent off-road dealership for almost 22 years. David has also worked with the Ontario Federation of Trail Riders, Suzuki Canada, and Piaggio Group, now he working with My Insurance Broker to offer up this motorcycle safety training course and to sell motorcycle insurance.

This is me and Peaches getting ready for our track session! I'm not looking too sure about this. 🤔

We got started at 9:00 am with some class room instruction which included tips and tricks all of which I can't remember now, but they've all been embedded in my riding. Riders with all skill levels were welcomed and the instructors were awesome providing a short chat and tips at each instructional station on the track. Riders were well grouped and spread out so we could we could relax and practice our safety skills like cornering, emergency braking and more cornering, push steering and precision riding.

A few stand out skills and drills I had the opportunity to practice on the track

1. Cornering - Using the whole track on my corners and maintaining speed as I enter and exit the corners always needs work. Dave's "woah and go" hack really helped me remember to break before my corner and roll on to the throttle on the way out smoothly. Who doesn't need to practice that?! Check.

2. Down Shifting - Dave reminded me that a motorcycle is only good at doing one thing at a time. That means when I'm cornering I'm not braking! But when I'm braking I do need to be practicing downshifting at the same time and that does take practice. Not only does downshifting help you slow down the motorbike, it makes sure you're at the appropriate gear for the speed you're traveling at. This is important for maintaining control and being able to accelerate out of the turn or maneuver if needed. Essentially, downshifting during braking is a critical skill for motorcycle riders, as it helps maintain control, stability, and efficiency on the road or track. A track is a great place to practice downshifting at all speeds. Check.

3. Emergency braking - Practicing emergency braking is crucial for motorcycle riders because it helps us develop the skills and muscle memory needed to react quickly and effectively in unexpected situations, thereby increasing our safety on the road. We want to apply brake firmly but gradually 70% or 80% to the front brake. But as we all know, when we panic we can "grab a handful of brake". This happens when we brake abruptly and forcefully apply a large amount of pressure on the brake lever, causing the motorcycle to slow down rapidly which could bring on a "rear wheel skid." This situation can be quite dangerous, as it leads to a loss of control over the motorcycle's direction and stability. Gotta practice the front and rear braking! Check.

I've always wanted to do a track day so this was my first step to racing motorcycles on the track. Overall a great experience. Riding back to Toronto on the 401 in rush hour was the opposite, but I made it thanks to my improved confidence and practice gained at the course.

Here is Dan Lim, one of favourite moto-photogs, on his Harley (his corners are tight!)

I loved this guy's ingenuity with his pool noodle, scratch protection (he didn't need it!)

And yes that is Neil Graham, writer, filmmaker, racer, etc. on this 1990s Duke. Neil is also working on the show El Camino all about motorcycles that appears on the Outdoor Life Network and YouTube. He says it's good. I believe him. 🤟

Taking a course is a stellar thing to do every season to warm up the mind and prepare for the riding season. Thanks again to the team at the Expert Riders Academy https://expertriders.ca and My Insurance Broker https://myinsurancebroker.com/ who sponsored the event.

ESR app for tracking my track ride!