WILL THE CSS TEACH ME THESE THINGS?
This is apropos of the the California Superbike School feature in the March 2013 issue of
which I read with great interest. I have for the last few years been thinking of enrolling myself for this renowned school to avail of the expert training offered by them. What holds me back is the fact that I am a 46-year-old bike rider with a paunch that now threatens to break through the zip of my decade-old riding jacket. I have never ridden on a racetrack and I’ve never sat astride anything bigger that a 250-cc bike. As such, though I understand that the CSS provides TVS Apache RTRs for its students, I am not very sure if a complete greenhorn like me will be able to follow those expert riders on race-prepared 600-cc rockets.
At this stage of my life, all I want to learn is to better control my bike and to be a faster and safer rider on the road. My daily commute to I encounter a multitude of threats on the road: from errant auto-rickshaws to lumbering lorries. Indeed the roads of New Delhi are a death-trap for bikers. Even the briefest inattention is likely to lead to a casualty here. Therefore, my question in this context is: does the training in track riding imparted by schools like the California Superbike School directly or indirectly translate into safer riding on the road? Will it help me better in panic braking or evading crater-like potholes that seemingly turn up form nowhere on my path?
If that be the case, I would certainly like to enrol for the next year’s CSS, even though the fee is rather steep for a salaried man like me. Isn’t there some way whereby other Indian two-wheeler manufacturers can come together and help this common cause the way TVS Racing is doing now? This, I daresay, will not only be a smart move from the marketing point of view, but will also create a lot of goodwill among the manufacturers and motorcyclists.
Gurdeep Singh, New Delhi
also seemed as if the entire event was a closed affair with all the winners and nominations decided according to the whim and fancy of