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Z2 RoadRider 2.0 :Seeking advice/opinion/ experience of people who have done this

RickM

RickM

Active member
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Location
Tracy, CA
Moto(s)
KTM SDGT,
F800GSA,
Bunch ‘O’ Hondas
Name
Ricky
I am taking this class on friday and am planning to ride in for it. I am staying at my brother's place in Davis tomorrow and its only an hour ride to Sonoma.

I know its a bad idea to ride in for a trackday due the possibility of binning the bike etc. The one trackday I have done by the end of the day I was super tired that I wouldn't have been able to ride back home if I planned to do that.

So I want know how exhausting the Roadrider class is. It will be great if someone can outline the general format of the day like how often you are riding , how much classroom time, and if you sit around at the pit a lot like on trackdays etc.

I am able to bring enough water, snacks and my lunch in the saddlebags of my bike.

Should I absolutely consider trailering the bike there?

Thanks in advance for your time.
 
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You will be fine riding your bike. A bunch of us did it for the sponsored class back in July. We drove 50-60 miles from the east bay to Sonoma.

RR2.0 is a lot less exhausting than a trackday (and I say this for our RR2.0 day on which the temps at Sonoma reached 113 degrees).
 
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You are mostly doing parking lot practice drills all day with some "class" time in between. At end of day you get a few slow laps around track. So. Sound be good driving up and bike. Track days is definitely more exhausting and if you bin your bike doing parking lot practice, well maybe you should reconsider riding! Kidding!

See ya out there.
 
I rode hour and half to get there. You'll be fine. Mostly MSF kindda parking lot course with slow track at the end. Good tips and trainers are super cool. Have fun!
 
Maygoddess said:
You are mostly doing parking lot practice drills all day with some "class" time in between. At end of day you get a few slow laps around track. So. Sound be good driving up and bike. Track days is definitely more exhausting and if you bin your bike doing parking lot practice, well maybe you should reconsider riding! Kidding!

See ya out there.
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Like how slow is slow? Hell, if they keep you under 60 what's the point? :p
 
Thanks everyone for the replies.

To clear any confusion, this course is not a trackday. The laps around the track is basically a tour
I don't see much value to the laps on the track other as a sneak peak before a real trackday.

Maygoddess said:
You are mostly doing parking lot practice drills all day with some "class" time in between. At end of day you get a few slow laps around track. So. Sound be good driving up and bike. Track days is definitely more exhausting and if you bin your bike doing parking lot practice, well maybe you should reconsider riding! Kidding!

See ya out there.
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I though most of the drops happen at parking lot speed. Look at all the craigslist ads. There is very few bikes that were crashed. Almost everyone of them were dropped from a standstill or under 10 mph :laughing

On a side note, a buddy of mine dropped his first bike a quite few times at zero speed when we started riding because the bike was pretty tall for him to put both feet down. It was an early 80's Honda nighthawk and hardly anything broke on it from those drops( except me breaking the clutch lever trying to unbend it). He now rides much taller sport bikes and the height is no longer an issue. It's a matter of getting used to a tall bike and remembering to not try putting both feet down.
 
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RaptorFA said:
Like how slow is slow? Hell, if they keep you under 60 what's the point? :p
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When I did it, I was paired with only guy in group. We went the fastest and we probably were avg 60ish. I just call it a quick hit on the track crack pipe. Enough to get you signed up for more. If you already have done track this wont be that exciting but typically you would do this first. But parking lot practice is always beneficial.
 
Maygoddess said:
When I did it, I was paired with only guy in group. We went the fastest and we probably were avg 60ish. I just call it a quick hit on the track crack pipe. Enough to get you signed up for more. If you already have done track this wont be that exciting but typically you would do this first. But parking lot practice is always beneficial.
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i was in the first group (fast group) for the class and i don't think we broke 40..maybe 45...you were lucky :)
 
Maygoddess said:
When I did it, I was paired with only guy in group. We went the fastest and we probably were avg 60ish. I just call it a quick hit on the track crack pipe. Enough to get you signed up for more. If you already have done track this wont be that exciting but typically you would do this first. But parking lot practice is always beneficial.
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:laughing I was just being facetious! I think you are right on about that. They give you a taste to get you hooked. It's probably quite effective, too!

@RickM and SFSV650, enjoy the day. I would love to hear about your experience there. I have been toying with doing this also, but wonder if it's too basic. Somehow I thought more higher-speed maneuvering techniques were going to be taught, not parking lot drills. Not knocking those, of course.
 
Maygoddess said:
When I did it, I was paired with only guy in group. We went the fastest and we probably were avg 60ish. I just call it a quick hit on the track crack pipe. Enough to get you signed up for more.
Click to expand...

And I can attest that it works. I just did my first TD on the bike with Z2 last weekend and am longing for more. :laughing
 
The wife and I had a lot of fun yesterday.
I came into the class with the expectation that it would be pretty fundamental. It was.
The drills are simple, the classes also pretty simple.

Personally, I wanted to iron out some bugs that I've developed after 24 years of riding. Sight line practice and looking through turns was what I wanted to work on. The slower pace on-track time was a perfect scenario to work on that skill after the drills.

The course also exposed a major flaw in my throttle and brake control.
It turns out that I tend to be a lot more "right side ham-fisted" than I should be (an attribute that a LOT of us have). As I smoothed out the braking into, and throttle out of corners, the ancient bike was a lot easier to maneuver.

For my wife's part, she has a newer sport bike that she is a little bit nervous on because it is a completely different animal than her '93 Gixxer and '08 Dizzer. The drills got her a lot more comfortable with the new bike, especially its braking capability.

It was, without a doubt, the smartest motorcycle related investment I have made in a long time. Not only did we get a chance to go back to the basics, we had a great time as a couple.

A huge thank you to Scranton Law for sponsoring the class, I would not have been able to put myself and my wife through it without the discount.
 
I thought I'd share my experience here and do an outline of what we did.

The class size was pretty big and that meant we were waiting around a little longer. This class will be hugely beneficial for some one who just got their license or to build on after the MSF. One major difference between MSF and RR 2.0 is the focus here is more on accident avoidance. We did not do any slow speed maneuvers at all.

This course will help you get used to your bike and practice aggressive breaking ( emergency braking drill) and aggressive steering input( swerving drill) on your bike. I can see too groups of people who benefit from that: New riders and if you just got a vastly different type of bike( e.g. Cruisers to Sportbike etc).

I was able to break the habit of putting too much weight on the bar and not gripping the tank with my knees all the time. I knew I should be doing this and always did it riding in the hills; But wasn't doing it always when riding around town or commuting.

We also got some pointers on body position, transferring weight to the front wheel before getting aggressive on the brakes, using throttle as we enter the turn, group riding, lane position etc.

I believe most street riders will benefit from this program.




The first drill was sight line. Went went around a circle and practiced looking through where we are going.

The second one was two circles side by side and we practiced doing figure 8s and looking through the turn and transitioning the eyes/head left to right turns.

We practiced a slalom/swerving drill. Good one to get comfortable with the bike and helps go around an obstacle.

Sight line practice through a left turn. Helped with scanning though the turn before you enter it and looking through the turn.

Emergency braking exercise. The first go they made us use the rear brake only. Then we used both brakes and practiced getting on the brakes smoothly and squeezing to full power. ( I should practice this more often.)

Swerving: We did a swerving drill where the instructor points which way to swerve just before the cone.

Sight-line practice through an S curve: Helps with looking through the curve before entering and keeping the eyes moving to the next curve.

During the lunch brake for the track riders we went on the track in two groups going in different directions and did more sight line practice like you would do on a road.

And the end of the day after the track went cold we went to tour the track led one on one by an instructor on the racing line.
 
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