First ride with Doc Wong
A short trip in the Santa Cruz mountains today made my day. Part of Doc Wong’s riding clinic, the ride was literally a hands-on application of the instructions given by doc. Today’s topic was smooth riding that included proper cornering techniques. I badly needed some good skills in cornering for I discovered my riding to be very slow and full of “bad habits” in the twisties. Back in India, the speed in the mountain (ghat) roads were way less than what we have here, so it was never a problem then. Here, I lost count of how many times I clenched my grips, stiffened my face and started to hate the slippery downhill twists. My bad habits would always make me aware of the road curve and the steep drop-offs on either side. Today with help of Doc’s instructions and a fellow rider, I started to look up along my path of travel which is what Hough’s book preaches.
A warmup classroom instruction at Doc’s therapy clinic at Redwood City started our day. We had a variety of bikes in the group. Other than 3 connies (Jim-Jeff-Joy), we had a VStrom650, SV650, R6, Ninja EX500 and Doc’s R1100GS. Riding in a staggered formation or a single file in the narrow twisties brought back the memories of my trip to Ooty in south india, where we rode in a file of 10 royal enfields.
Some part of our route was narrow, uneven, without a yellow line and with steep drop-offs. Not to mention sunlight hardly reached there. Sometimes it was wet thanks to yesterday’s rain and it scared the daylight out of me. And yes, I came across some snow too. It was funny because I came all across the country to avoid snow and there it was again !
Hitting CA-1 after those mind bending roads was like getting a reward after a lot of hard work. And the Whale city bakery at Davenport was the perfect lunch stop by the Pacific.
We hit CA-9 as the last leg and I suddenly found myself cornering a lot better than before. The pavement was much better than the previous ones and it made me comfortable. Doc gave some final instructions at a vista point few miles before Saratoga before everyone split up.
Hats off to Doc and his efforts. More about his clinic: here.
Pics: Doc Wong Rides - 06
February 20th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
Thanks for the ride report and photos. I did not participate because of the very cold and rainy conditions forcast. I do look forward to a future clinic, maybe the March one.
February 21st, 2006 at 1:05 am
Great report and pictures, Joy. I wish I could have made it also but logistics and crappy weather ganged up on me. I’m too much of a fair weather rider (even though Doc Wong highly recommends clinics in the wet).
I am signed up for the March 19th clinic, can’t wait, wish it was sooner. Jim, plan on that one…
Dan
February 22nd, 2006 at 3:09 am
Wow, I wish there were similar classes here too. No roads.. thaz another issue
February 26th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
Great to know you are improving your conrnering skills with Dr. Wong’s help!! I felt I had improved a lot after taking the MSF’s experienced rider course, althought we did not do any actual riding in the twisties for the class.
March 17th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Joy da..saw that u no longer check ur orkut messages..so thot of leaving a message here…got a cyclone after all in dallas will get it in the april..just wanted to let u know…that i will have 2 bikes for the summer…after that one….:(