CSS level 2 - So much to learn!

Well it was a few weeks ago now but figured I would write about it anyway, I had such a great time!

After completing level 1 I thought that must be the bulk of it and now it’s just honing those skills. No way! Suddenly I realised level 1 is just the start, there is so much to learn and understand. We were taught how to make the track appear wider, slow down our perception of speed using peripheral vision (amazing!) and hang off using their lean bike, amongst other things.

I could ramble on for ages about all the things we learnt but one I real simple thing that helped me no end with hanging off was this:

Before - I was getting my arse right off the bike and trying to push my knee down. The result: Body upright, bike LEANT OVER!
After - They taught not to get the arse so far off the seat so you can still grip the tank! Then point around the corner you are travelling, with your outside shoulder. Result: Body leant over, bike UPRIGHT (which is the whole point of hanging off)!

Getting the knee down then happened almost as a by-product because of biomechanics (I guess it’s called). You turn your shoulders into the turn, that means your hips fall into the turn too, which then means you leg naturally falls away from the bike and bingo! :cool:

Level 1 was amazing - learnt so much I didn’t think there could be much more. Level 2 was yet another eye opener! Gagging to get back on the track and try this stuff out. Then roll on level 3! :slight_smile:

Sounds good. I did probably a more basic version of that at Snetterton last week, basically what they teach is:

Keep spine parallel to the bike

Look where you want to go and twist head and shoulders only into the bend

Get one cheek off the seat and lock in with the outside leg

Push the bike down to turn in then power round and accelerate towards the apex and out

Doesn’t sound much and I’d heard or read all that before but when you try to put it into practice it’s quite difficult, but after a few hours it did start to come together and given it was raining all day, we were going pretty fast by the end of the session.

Yeah thats it, keep the spine parallel to the bike.

Who did you train with at Snetterton? Was that the Performance Bike Mag day? I seem to remember seeing something like that on the MotorSportVision website. How was it?

It was with MSV, they call it ‘Ride In Control’, half day was £200 which is a bit steep but if it had been dry I think we might have got more from it. They ought to change the way it’s marketed and bring the pace up a little bit, would have been better to be able to go in to corners faster which I guess the CSS probably do. I think it was taught by the CSS instructors as their bikes were all CSS.