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Motor Position Opening

Our unit trains monthly. I personally train in some sort of fashion daily. I try to find something within the city which pushes my abilities. A park, school playground, pedestrian overcrossing, the inward swinging back gate at the PD, greenbelt, American River bike trail, anything... The best was when we worked an OT gig at Sac State. I found this really cool atrium looking building with automatic glass doors. 5M6 and I rode around inside around planters, benches, etc... It was a blast,,,, until Sarge pointed out that it was the entrance to the library,,oooops--later..........

Minimum,, circles, fig 8's, a GOOD 40 decel and a 30 cone weave before I leave for work.. EVERYDAY !!!!!
 
5MARY4 said:
Our unit trains monthly. I personally train in some sort of fashion daily. I try to find something within the city which pushes my abilities. A park, school playground, pedestrian overcrossing, the inward swinging back gate at the PD, greenbelt, American River bike trail, anything... The best was when we worked an OT gig at Sac State. I found this really cool atrium looking building with automatic glass doors. 5M6 and I rode around inside around planters, benches, etc... It was a blast,,,, until Sarge pointed out that it was the entrance to the library,,oooops--later..........

Minimum,, circles, fig 8's, a GOOD 40 decel and a 30 cone weave before I leave for work.. EVERYDAY !!!!!
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I'm definitely planning on doing something everyday, if nothing else as a "warm-up," but I'd like to try to develop a training protocol for our new motor units as they come through.

We'll have another motor in about 3-6 months that I'd like to be able to prepare better than, well, I was.
 
Congrats. I saw you guys in formation S/B 680 from 80 Saturday afternoon and just had to smile because I remember my graduation ride. And if you thought you had it rainy, mine was just before the big January 2006 flood. When we hit the Benicia Bridge it started hailing on us. :thumbup
 
Definately try to set up some training with an allied agency. It's much more helpful to train while someone else watches with a critical eye. We train quite a bit with other Depts. It's always good to have your riding critiqued by an outsider. (I get tired of hearing 5M6 bitch at me,, it's nice to have a fresh voice bitch at me from time to time).

How long is the roatation in motors for your Dept.? If it's a few years, get into instructor school ASAP. Our instructor school requires you have at leat one year on a bike before you can attend. There needs to be a CMTO for the "new guy" coming into the unit. Our FNG's are requuires to ride with a CMTO for a minimum of one week once they graduate motor school. Two weeks if they are a soup sandwich. You are correct, motor school was the easy part. By no means am I selling you short. It is a hell of an accomplishment and you should be very proud of attaining your goal. Again, congratulations,, you earned it.

Take the first few weeks VERY slow. Get very comfortable with the new bike, it's handling, stopping, and CONTROLS. Lotsa stuff going on when you ride enforcement. Radio, lights, siren, PA, etc. These should all be second nature before you get out into the busy areas of the city. Dont forget surface appraisal while making your stops. Grade, blind curves, wet gutters, etc. A while back, one of our FNG's made a VS in a guys driveway and didn't do correct surface appraisal. His bike fell over when he got off. Violator got out and asked if he could help. Motorcop had already flung bike back up (Adrenaline is sooo fun). Gave motorist his cite and was on his way.

I can't stress enough to take things slow. The most dangerous time in a motor's career is the first year. You seem to have the perfect attitude regarding training. Shine like a star... It helps sell the Dept. on training.
 
JPM said:
Congrats. I saw you guys in formation S/B 680 from 80 Saturday afternoon and just had to smile because I remember my graduation ride. And if you thought you had it rainy, mine was just before the big January 2006 flood. When we hit the Benicia Bridge it started hailing on us. :thumbup
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Saturday's ride was gorgeous. We had very little (if any) rain and it was a comfy 55F or so.

Friday was the ride from hell... We more or less went around the Martinez and Oakland area and it was POURING and WINDY. No hail though!
 
antarius said:
I'm definitely planning on doing something everyday, if nothing else as a "warm-up," but I'd like to try to develop a training protocol for our new motor units as they come through.

We'll have another motor in about 3-6 months that I'd like to be able to prepare better than, well, I was.
Click to expand...

Just a thought. The CHP Academy puts on 2 day Allied agency inservice class every so often. Give them a call. I hear there are unfilled positions in every class. They also do a CMTO (Certified Motor Training Officer) class.
 
Okay hopefully you motor guys can help me out a bit.

I got on the bike a couple days last week -- it rained so I didn't get much time in -- but it felt like I was starting over. I had no confidence in it what so ever as it was completely different than the Kawi's I trained on.

I obviously spent my days doing mostly u-turns and circles and figure 8's just to help get comfortable. I got the bike fitted to me as best as I can (though I will have the bars brought back a little more to help my locking-right turns), so now I'd like some input as to what cone patterns I can easily practice in an empty parking lot.

I can have a partner bring some cones and have it -- but what, in your experience, has been good at getting your new riders up to speed with the current bike? I don't have the confidence on it that I did on the Kawi and it shows, so I'd like to spend next week (all week basically) ironing that out.

Thanks in advance.
 
JP,

Parking lot stalls are typically 9' wide, so a pair of stalls are usually 18'. You should be ableto do a u-turn inside of 18' all day long. Find a parking area with decent pavement and measure some stalls to see what the dimensions are. Then use the stalls to practice u-turns and figure 8s. No cones necessary. See quick and sloppy paint sketch below.

The eliminator gives you a lot of good turning and throttle control exercises. I fyou have a parking lot where nobody would mind layinga itle paint for the key cones you can lay out the eliminator and paint the pivot cones for easy setup and take down. Once you have practiced it enough you can run the pattern just based on the paint marks on the ground.

Same goes for the keyhole. Set it up, paint the main cones, then practice it. Once you have put it up and taken it down a few times you will be able to ride the pattern without even setting it up.

Shoot me an email if ya need the pattern dimensions.

These look familiar?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrCSpj6cqE8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSKpL8hf-SQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q0OoyueIDg&feature=user
 

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Thank you.

I have the motor school pattern packet, so no need on the measurements. I know where I can lay paint down and get a good 2 hours in, every day, before cars come and park. The best part? It's a city owned lot, so no one can bitch about the mark.

I'm doing u-turns and circles/figure 8's in that distance no problem. Just not confidently. I have to say, it was kind of a shock to be knocked back to such an early skill-level compared to where I felt like I was by the end of motor school. I did adjust my clutch lever to release closer to the bar, and that helped my right-turns a ton better. I could control the friction zone a lot better.

Depending on the weather, I will get out there Wednesday and lay down the eliminator pattern. Obviously not the whole thing, but the top of each turn, the edges of each turn and the overall width.

Thanks again....

Any idea how long it should take me to start feeling comfortable, or more importantly, confident? I really felt like I was *starting over* when I got on this Harley. At one point I was getting frustrated... I sure do look good though!
 
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antarius said:
Any idea how long it should take me to start feeling comfortable, or more importantly, confident? I really felt like I was *starting over* when I got on this Harley. At one point I was getting frustrated... I sure do look good though!
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I warned ya! :laughing

I think you'll warm up to it in a week or two. When I got my Harley, I was lanesharing like a pro in 3 days. But to be honest, I didn't feel one with the bike for quite a while longer. I'm sure you'll get to that point soon enough given that you ride for a living. :drool
 
Was Raleigh one of your instructors?

Last June when I took the civilian 1-day course, he said when he retired from his PD, he was allowed to buy his HD, he loved that bike so much.

You gotta learn to love your bike, to find and accept her good and bad points. Right now she's like a new partner and she's giving you "bad" vibes. :laughing

You have the moto skills. It's just a matter of her becoming "your" bike. "Own" her and she'll do pretty much whatever you ask her to do.

Except maybe jump high dirt fences.
 
I rode the kawi at ASCO for couple excersizes and noticed they turn easier and are more nimble than the Harley. The Harley , for me, takes a little more rear brake/friction zone to bring it back up.
Also I don't know if you fear dropping it like I did, if so, you can put pieces of heater hose ziptied to the engine guard and side bag supports for practice to gain confidence without fear of damaging the bike.

I also know a good spot in Livermore with patterns already painted. I try to get out there with my cones on dry weekends. :ride:teeth


And Raleigh was a cool instructor. He flew through those cones without even spilling his coffee!
 
Please don't let the HD know about the nimble little Husky mistress in your garage at home! In my young girl days we used to chase the cows with those things! (No not the Harleys!)
Congrats on the position and be careful, the girls dig thems motocops
 
As SLVR stated,,I use paking stalls to practice ALOT. Quick and easy. Yes it's pretty wide, BUT it's a good opportunity for you to practice your form. Early head turn, counterbalance, eyes up, smooooothness, etc.

Also find yourself an incline, I have seen the most improvement in both my skills and those of my students after an extended amount of time on the incline.

Another good practice tip is to balance the bike at stop signs, signals, etc..
 
FrigginChi said:
That looks like the technique for riding over dead bodies in the road.
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Hey I did that on 880S a few months back. I didn't lift the front wheel enough got a little slippy.
No, I'm NOT kidding! :green Still get the heebie jeebies thinking about it!
 
5MARY4 said:
As SLVR stated,,I use paking stalls to practice ALOT. Quick and easy. Yes it's pretty wide, BUT it's a good opportunity for you to practice your form. Early head turn, counterbalance, eyes up, smooooothness, etc.

Also find yourself an incline, I have seen the most improvement in both my skills and those of my students after an extended amount of time on the incline.

Another good practice tip is to balance the bike at stop signs, signals, etc..
Click to expand...

Hey I do that all the time. But my little bike is such a sweetheart any ding dong would look skilled rider on the thing.
+1 on the inclines. U turns on Marin in Berkeley-Argggg!
 
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