I have finally booked up the Ron Haslam Race School Premier session! Wednesday 24th September. Interestingly I asked if I could get any discount as Ive just bought a fireblade and got 10% instantly without having to prove anything. Nice! Hopefully I will get the Elite session booked before the MotoGp at Donny next year
Premier is on the 600's and the elite is on the 1000's. You get 121 instruction and I think data logging with the elite. But you have to do the 600's first and do the elite within 2 years of the premier.
Its a shame you got to do the 600cc first but to be honest its probably a good thing, less chance of high siding I suppose!!! It says in the bumpf that came with the ticket that you got up to three years after to book the elite course. I have only seen positive excellent feedback from all courses
I really enjoyed myself, I thought it was very well organised and the weather was good which made for a great day. Our instructor was Taylor Mackenzie who came 10th in the BSB race on Saturday, I had no idea who he was on the day though!
What are the differences between Don Haslam and California S S I know big difference in price firstly and also u get your own bike or rent one from them I am novice never even done track day yet
You'd be far better off with the Ron Haslam School then mate. The Califoria bike school is more for aspiring racers. I did the Ron Haslam school and came away far more confident.
Lots of places out there for novices. British Superbike School at Blyton is who I use, Jamie Whitham has a school as well as Chris Walker. You can also do Novice Only days on normal tracks as well.
Having done both, here's my take: Ron Haslam is like a 1/2 day TD (3 x 15 mins), with 2:1 instruction and bike hire thrown in. It will get you accustomed to riding on a track and some basic pointers but no theory thrown at you other than what the instructor may or may not mention to you during the brief chats between sessions. It serves as a good taster for trackdays in a controlled environment without jumping straight into Novices of a proper TD company, which has its own risks. If you've done <2-3 TDs and want to get some basic track training in before trying one then this would be useful to do. CSS is about bike control & cornering theory as well as the practicalities of riding more to the bike and track & road limits. Learning what a bike can do and how to corner quickly and safely, along with the theory of things like weight transfer and the physical side of bike riding is extremely valuable, imo. It's less like a real TD than Haslam but it will prepare you a lot better for riding well on TDs and also on the road. For me, I learnt so much more from CSS than RH but that was because I did CSS shortly after getting the Blade and had only done 1 TD before then whereas I'd done a fair few more by the time I did Haslam. Of course, the Elite course with open pit and datalogging is now available at Haslam and something I'll look to do early next year.
i started riding with a 125cc and rode it for 7.000 miles daily commute than went and got myself a 2013 brand new deauville 700 cc abs rode it for daily commute and touring in europe covering 16.000 miles from 0 miles in 15 months now got myself a 2004 fireblade never done track day or anyother training before i will be commuting on fireblade to get used to bike as i only now after owning fireblade i feel like i ride a bike deauville was 2 cyclinder and did not turn me on at all. some say i should start with a 600 not 1000 but i am thinking you can twist the throttle both ways )) what are your opinions i want to be a bettter rider have better control of the bike overall and i want to do trackdays whenever possible i live close to Brands Hatch what would you recomend ?? my instructer advised not to do CSS before putting at least 5000 miles
For bike control I'd say go with CSS. You'll learn so much throughout the day and be able to put it into practice as you go. Forget the 5K miles bollocks, you can do CSS any time if you can ride a bike. You only go as fast or slow as you want, it's the techniques of riding (or rather, cornering) that you concentrate on. If you were comfortable with the Blade and just wanted to get into TDs, then I'd say go for Haslam. But as someone new to a litre bike and keen on learning control and technique then I'd say you'd get a lot more out of CSS at this stage. Then when the skills learnt on that are second nature, go for Haslam.
Oh and if doing CSS, do it on your own bike! No point getting used to a Minigale and then having to go back and trying it on the Blade.
thnaks for the reply i really want to go for CSS i will probably go and do some TD myself as well just to see how it is all as we are coming to winter and rainy days what happens if i book a day and that day it rains will it be cancelled ?? is it worth going out even it is raining i do commute all year round but was wondering what kind of bad affect will it have on the day.
Not sure about CSS/Haslam as I was fortunate enough to do them on dry days. Trackdays still go ahead in rain, no cancellation/refund. There was one TD company that introduced some sort of 'rain insurance' last year but after reading the T&C's it was just a gimmick. Some stick wet tyres on and get out there, some road bikes tootle around on road tyres, some sit out part of a session/full session/several sessions depending on weather but it's up to you what you do on the day.
I found Ron Haslam fantastic fun but you can see the Elite session is where it really comes into its own. I will be booking the Elite up in 2015 without a doubt. They even completely stripped down my helmet, cleaned it all and replaced faulty vents where required, all free!
