After such a long break from motorcycling it is my intention to do a Rider Training Course to brush up on my skills and learn to ride the cruiser style bike properly. There are some differences riding it and I thought I should learn best practices from people who know rather than muddle through it.
I also wanted to put the bike through its paces a bit, learn how to stop it and turn it quickly in an controlled environment rather than having to learn the hard way in traffic. Most of the insurance companies asked the question about these types of courses during the application phase, so there must be some value to it.
Stay Upright is probably the best known of these courses in Australia. I knew of them in my prior years as a motorcyclist but back then I was bulletproof and didn't need any lessons :-). I was thinking the intermediate course but after some questions put to them, answered very quickly by the Managing Director, Wayne Carter, I decided on the Advanced Course and booked in for a course to be run in a couple of weeks. $385.00 for the day at Oran Park Raceway and an optional 3 hour theory session the night before. Can't wait!
Warning: Don't book online with your credit card on their web site. Currently it seems to email your credit card details to them which is absolutely not secure despite the form itself being secure. If you want to book print the form out and fax it to them or try to do it over the phone. I'll check back from time to time to amend this post if it th web site gets sorted.
