Bennets Corning Confidence course review

Note: to Moderators If there is a better place for this please shift it.

This course is promoted by Bennets insurance who give a discount to their customer and run at various locations by the California Superbike School. I think it cost about £120. Event joining instructions were clear and well presented. They didn’t mention lunch. There wasn’t one but some people expected one. Not for that kinda dough buddy! Additionally there were a couple of people who expected there to be some on-track riding. I don’t know why they thought that. It was fairly apparent to me. By the way, you won’t find Youtube videos of these events. Social media is strictly banned. One safety grounds, they don’t like helmet cams either.

The material taught was pretty much straight out of “twist of the wrist”. The fundamentals of 2 wheeled engine driven machines haven’t changed so it’s still relevant. To be honest this was a basic version of it. If you are the sort of rider who spent hours watching Youtube videos from the likes of MC rider, Motojitsu, Life at lean etc. you know this stuff. What you can’t do on the open road is practice it in a progressive way (do, fail, learn, repeat – plot the alert curve”). You also don’t get feedback from the open road except in the expensive way. There were about 6 instructors and safety was paramount. During the practical they were on hand to “yellow flag” riders to give them coaching tips.

Many different bike types represented. Sports, cruisers, adventure, street. Also, different skill / commitment levels represented, from very experienced to riders who recently passed their test. The course was also open to CBT riders but none attended that day. I think that this is possibly their Achilles heel.

Riders were grouped before we arrived, without this information. A learner on a cruiser behaves very differently to an experienced rider on a sports bike. Obviously these are opposite ends of the spectrum but given that there were 20 people of mixed ability in a group on a course the size of a small skid pan and the whole thing starts to resemble a pizza delivery contest on the North Circular road! Too crowed to achieve the flowing control that they are teaching. Sure, I can filter with the best but that’s not what the course is about. What do you do to create space? Back everyone up behind you and then take a run at it, or pullover and wait for a gap, or overtake until you get in front of the slow guy (takes time and put him under pressure. None of those are a substitute for space. Some people left before the end. A lot were talking about it.

What they could have done was to book less people on the course or divide the groups by similar bike type. You might get similar speeds. It really did bring home to me the differences between bikes and the kinds of people who ride them.

What else … They specify that you come with a full tank of gas. I rode 23 miles on the day.

Would I recommend it? To some people yes. Certainly new riders, since they don’t teach this stuff on the test. Cruisers who have never been concerned with getting a knee down also need this. Heavy bike need heavy skilz. For quicker riders? I think that there is a missing course to be run for people who already learned the theory:- “Advanced cornering for street bikes”. Less people, a slightly higher price tag to allow for that, and a longer circuit. Maybe Ron Haslam should pick that up.

look at IAM skills days next time .. no need to be a IAM member .

And its on track and class room based

or go the whole hog for California superbike school if you want instructional riding .

Ron haslam i found was more get on with it yourself

Ron haslam i found was more get on with it yourself

There is something to be said for that. It depends how much you are able to combine the lesson with thinking for yourself. If the money went into quality practice I wouldn't complain.