Academy of Speed:
RIDE CRAFT Be a better rider #7
ACADEMY OF SPEED:
Going under the asphalt tutelage of World Champion Doug Polen in his exclusive 1-on-1 Riders School
JEFF BUCHANAN
THERE I WAS, LEANING INTO the long, sweeping lefthander at speed, my gut telling me to ease up, my nerves slipping into caution mode, my right wrist threatening to roll off and put me back into a realm of velocity I was comfortable with. But the voice in my head encouraged me to go in a little deeper, to crank in more lean angle. I was torn between the gravity of reason and the challenge of the unknown.
The voice in my head was clear as day, speaking with a calm that betrayed the speed. The words came in a steady, continuous stream, with a surprisingly reassuring tone that quickly helped
to assuage my angst. The voice was very much like that of two-time World Superbike Champion Doug Polen.
That’s because it was his voice.
The consummate motorcycle racer was just ahead of me, leaning in, knee out, but watching my every move in the rearview mirrors of his Ducati 1098. His words of encouragement were being piped directly into my
head via radio transmitter earphones, delivered with a knowing brilliance born from thousands of laps at race circuits all over the world. Watching him rail the sweeper with absolute precision helped convince me to follow his lead. I turned my 1098 in, finding a little more lean angle than I was accustomed to, and followed the master, getting my tires as close to his tracks as possible. I breathed a sigh of relief as the Ducati clung to the pavement, steady and smooth-just as Polen had said it would. As we stood the Ducatis up in unison and began to make the transition for the approaching right-hander, Doug’s voice came into my ears again.
“Good job.”
This edifying private on-board lesson was unfolding at Buttonwillow Raceway in Southern California. I was taking part in Polen’s exclusive 1-on-l Rider’s School.
Polen has an impressive résumé, earning Japanese TT-F1 andTT-F3 titles in 1989, World Superbike Championships in 1991 and 1992, the AMA Superbike Championship in 1993, and two World Endurance titles. This is a man who knows his way around a racetrack, and he’s now imparting that wisdom in his 1-on-l schools through an exclusive arrangement with trackday provider The Track Club (www. thetrackclub.com). As the name infers, students get private one-on-one instruction on the track with Polen, who utilizes helmet-to-helmet communication to render a highly
effective training experience.
1-on-l (www.gopolen.com; 888/376-5361) takes place at regularly scheduled Track Club events throughout California, with students providing their own bikes. Those interested in taking the class first register with Polen and then sign up with Track Club, paying the requisite trackday fee, about $105 to $300, depending on track and day. Prices for the school are additional and range from $350 to $550 for the day, depending on location. The day begins with introductions to the professor, getting wired up with a radio pack along with a personal set of sterilized earphones, and then fitted with a lap timer to track progress.
Polen is quick to point out that the object isn’t as much about lowering lap times as it is about being consistent-although he’s confident that his pupils’ lap times will come down significantly. The 1-on-l staff also sees to it that students stay well hydrated throughout the day. A chalkboard-with names and corresponding track sessions-sits next to a large-face clock in the 1-on-l pit to keep the program running smoothly.
In the first session of the day, Polen takes students out in a group to get them warmed-up and familiar with the layout of the track. It also allows Polen to assess their ability. Afterward, the 1-on-l crew helps with suspension changes and various adjustments to controls. Polen has very specific logic about body placement, avoiding a radical style
of hanging off in favor of a more practical approach involving minimal, smooth transitions that require the least amount of effort while reducing unnecessary movement that can destabilize a bike especially at speed.
Doug’s first piece of advice to me was a very insightful, almost esoteric statement. He said, “The first thing is to remove emotion from the equation. All the emotion in the world will not stop or turn a motorcycle.
It’s a machine and requires inputs in order to function.” He suggests that the majority of people who crash do so because they get spooked and allow emotion to fog their perception, which exaggerates the predicament-often with disastrous results. It was a solid piece of wisdom that set the foundation for everything I was about to learn.
My first one-on-one session was a real awakening. After trailing me for three laps, Polen came past, the Ducati thumping, and indicated that I should tuck in behind him. When his voice came over the earphones for the first time it was a strangely surreal experience. His tone was absolutely calm, as if he were sitting at a restaurant. He had quickly and accurately assessed my motocross background, pointing out that my actions were slightly abrupt. I was snapping off the throttle and making sudden body movements that risked upsetting the bike. I tucked in behind the maestro and into my inaugural lesson.
To ride behind Polen is a study in humility. His riding unfolds with unnerving smoothness and precision. With that kind of talent leading you around a racetrack, your confidence and skill evolve at a very good clip. In relatively short order, I was following his lead, smoothing out my actions, Polen tracking my every move in the mirror, diligently keeping that instructional stream of words coming. By utilizing the technology of helmet-to-helmet communication, Polen is able to impart his suggestions, encouragement and criticisms at the moment of execution, as opposed to trying to remember everything that needs addressing after the session is over. The process reduces the risk of overloading students with too much information after the fact. Receiving input as you are riding allows the information to become ingrained.
By the time the checkered flag came out on the session, I was already settling into a faster pace than normal, on a track I thought I was familiar with.
Perhaps the most important element that needs to be dispelled here is that 1-on-l is reserved for the aspiring racer. In reality, new and beginning trackday riders-assuming they are at least of basic street-level ability-stand to learn the most. The advantage of getting proper instruction early on is that it helps a rider avoid bad habits that will be that much harder to undo once they’ve taken seed. Doug puts it into context with a reference to golf, suggesting it wouldn’t be too smart for a complete novice to just pick up some clubs, head out to a course and start hitting a ball around.
“You could whack a ball around for 10 years,” Polen says, “and not really learn anything.” He emphasizes that getting professional instruction from the get-go and acquiring the fundamentals are essential building blocks for improvement.
A typical 1-on-l day consists of three private track sessions with earphone instruction, spread out over a typical track day consisting of eight or nine sessions. In this way,
students can alternately try out what they’re learning in their free sessions. At the end of the school day, each student gets a printout of their lap times to study. It’s almost a given that even if you aren’t trying, your lap times will drop.
The classroom extends to the pits, where Doug continues teaching between track sessions. He is a virtual encyclopedia of riding knowledge. Any question put to him is answered without pause and explained thoroughly, with insight to the physics of cause and effect. Despite his impressive achievements on the world stage, Polen is surprisingly adept at accommodating a wide range of rider talent, adjusting his teaching to suit the individual needs and goals of his students. He genuinely enjoys the teaching process regardless of a student’s level of talent, speed or aspirations. This is partly due to the fact that Polen is a man in love with riding. His enthusiasm spills over with effusive talk, and he is sincerely interested that his >
students understand and grasp the full breadth of what he has to teach.
After five years of trackdays, I felt I had reached a plateau with regard to speed and finesse. But after just two private sessions with Doug leading me around, piping in his instructions and pointers over the earphones, my riding had smoothed out considerably. I could literally feel the natural, invisible flow of the circuit by following the lines Polen had mapped out. Instead of chopping the throttle and grabbing brakes in a white-knuckle affair to get the bike slowed, I was gently rolling off the gas and using a smooth, yet firm, application of brakes, which contributed to more precise turn-in and consistency of accurately hitting the apex. All these elements add up to an increased amount of control with deceptively faster lap times.
The calm that Polen is able to instill resulted in a relaxed grip on the bars; I was unaware of how the least amount of tenseness in the arms and shoulders gets transmitted directly into the front end, unintentionally influencing how the bike is responding. Riding with a loose, relaxed attitude, I was able to better feel what the bike was doing, using the slightest inputs to change direction, reducing fatigue and riding with a greater degree of focus.
It’s hard to slip anything past the teacher. I was amazed that Doug was able to spot me trying to sneak a little extra front brake in before cresting a left-handed blind rise. As my fin-
gers started to depress the lever, he offered up in that calm voice, “Stay off the brakes.” Coming over the top, he showed me how far he was able to safely run the corner out to handle the momentum. Next lap, with no brake, I confidently ran the Ducati out to the rumble strip, getting back into the throttle considerably sooner, chopping a half-second off the clock in just that one section.
The day was a continuous series of these types of revelations, some big, some small, that had me pleasantly surprised to see a steady drop in my lap times.
As the day progressed, the coaching became steadily more complex, each subsequent session loaded with volumes of information. Polen explained some basic physics (which he believes is the key to understanding how and why a motorcycle does what it does) as he led me through a chicane, demonstrating the natural binding affect of a motorcycle during the turning process, which produces increased friction between the tarmac and tires, allowing a rider to scrub off speed without using the brakes. There is also the science of loading suspension, keeping the chassis stable and more responsive with a specific combination of proper line, lean angle and throttle application. Spending time with Polen, both on and off the track, imbues you with a totally new respect for the degree science plays in going fast. It all adds up to more than just speed. Learning and practicing these formulas will thoroughly change the way you ride a motorcycle.
