Can you imagine starting 2020 any better than this? Early January lapping Sepang International. – BHH Collection
We hopped out of the vans in the Petronas gas station and stared across the highway at the Sepang International Circuit sign outside the Grand Prix racetrack in Malaysia. The sun was just rising and we had some significant setup work to do before the school started at 9 a.m., but our excitement was palpable.
The night before we’d gathered in my room at the Sama-Sama Hotel and reviewed last year’s MotoGP race so we could get a handle on the track layout. Chris Peris, our lead instructor, had lapped Sepang two months previous during a vacation to Asia with his wife Jenn—a terrific advantage for the rest of our instructor crew (myself, Ben Walters, Eziah Davis, Michael Henao, and MotoAmerica racer Cody Wyman) who had watched Sepang GP races for years but never dreamed of riding there. Ten minutes after entering the hallowed grounds, Chris was lapping with us in the diesel van with a five-speed manual and right-hand drive. That was pretty hilarious.
This dream school came about because of one man: Rex Tan, owner of Singapore motorcycle dealership Ban Hock Hin. Rex had attended Yamaha Champions Riding School and jumped at the chance to become a certified coach when we announced the 3C (Champions Certified Coach) program two years ago. Rex and his wife Stephanie had been working on getting Sepang Champ School rolling for more than a year and here we were with a sold-out school of 24 students. Thanks, Rex and Stephanie, and kudos to Chris Peris for the US coordination; these three made it happen.
As always in this column, I think pics tell the story best.
The day before the (very long) flight to Sepang I discovered that the travel agent had put my name as Mr. Ienatsch Nicholas! Could that be a problem? Yes, as it turns out. The United Airlines agents scrambled and made it right, allowing me to get from Colorado to California to catch the All Nippon Airways flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, via Tokyo. – Nick Ienatsch After 25 hours in airplanes and 45 minutes in a car from the airport, we checked into our first hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Chris Peris is at the desk, Michael Henao in the MotoAmerica shirt, and Cody Wyman in the black shirt. Our plan was to stay two days seeing the sights in KL… – Nick Ienatsch …and then the transition to the Sama-Sama Hotel near the track for three more days, two of which were school days. The first two days were to accustom ourselves to the time change (an almost 12-hour difference) and, as I found out, visit as many bars as possible! Chris is obviously a great tour guide! – Nick Ienatsch One secret of defeating jet lag is to get on the local time and stay awake all day, so off we went to the Batu Caves, protected by Lord Murugan (the Hindu god of war), whose legs are visible. Left to right: Michael with a fresh coconut drink, Chris and Eziah Davis showing their matching shorts, Ben Walters and Cody. Behind us are 272 steps to the caves and Hindu temples. – Nick Ienatsch How do all the items get to the gift shop at the top of those 272 steps? The enterprising owner spies young, fit men and then cajoles them into carrying cases of water and other sundries! Jet lag plus a case of water equals a great pre-ride workout. Their payment was a free bottle of water. – Nick Ienatsch The climb is worth it: Hindu temples and intricate dioramas—plus some not-bashful monkeys—hidden inside the cool and majestic caves are a welcome respite from the equatorial humidity. KL is one of the fastest-evolving cities in Asia, and the Batu Caves’ mystery was a great juxtaposition to the Petronas Towers—next on our tourist list. – Nick Ienatsch Scooters far outnumber motorcycles on the streets of KL, and the driving/riding has a beautiful and almost always calm flow as bikes and cars fit together in the space allotted. In our walking and riding we saw no road rage and heard very little horn honking despite the crowded roads. We also enjoyed watching the occasional supercar flash by. – Nick Ienatsch On the street of KL: Nicky love—forever and everywhere. – Nick Ienatsch We signed up for the Petronas Towers tour, eager to see KL from 1,400 feet and doing our part to support the Petronas Yamaha MotoGP effort. The architects wanted to represent the Islamic principles of unity, harmony, and rationality in these structures. Total height is 1,483 feet (Nick has more than 88 stories—Editor). – Nick Ienatsch This is the view of KL from the suspended walkway, a walkway that is not firmly attached to either tower so that it can adjust for wind and perhaps even earthquakes. After stopping here, we were shuttled even higher in the structure where we noticed that the gift shop has seriously underrepresented the MotoGP team significantly! We all hoped to get Fabio Quartararo’s autograph; maybe next time. – Nick Ienatsch This was just half of our allotted garage space at the Sepang International Circuit… – Nick Ienatsch …and this was just one of our three classrooms, used here to get everybody up to speed on body position and body timing (Eziah lecturing from Rex’s amazing and well-setup R1—a bike Cody dragged his elbow on in turn 15). Just before this we had the students working on stops in the paddock, and just after this we rolled onto the amazing smooth, wide, and consistent Sepang pavement. – Nick Ienatsch Are we dreaming—or actually rolling out onto the Sepang MotoGP circuit? Turn 1 is a long-radius, tightening right-hander followed immediately by an amazingly slow left turn. This fires you into an accelerating, downhill turn 3 that gets you tickling fifth gear by the time you shut it down for the right-hand turn 4. – Nick Ienatsch Yes, the YCRS staff is packed with riding talent (Pikes Peak 750cc record holder Michael Henao seen here), but there are processes to learning a new track quickly. We must jump our eyes out and back to feed our brain, roll off the throttle to the brakes because we aren’t hurt if we enter the corner too slowly, adjust our entry speed and position to maximize the exit, continue to up our entry speeds until our knees are dragging, and then make minor and major adjustments between sessions. By the second time out, my team was rolling quickly with a high level of safety. It isn’t the number of laps, it’s the quality of the lapping. – BHH Collection Motorcycle passion is alive and well in Malaysia, as student Raniel Resuello illustrates (Philippine Superbike champion) on his tricked-out Aprilia RSV4. The 24-student school had some very quick racers, advanced and new trackday riders, and a handful of street riders that included some low-hour beginners. – BHH Collection How about we start the film lap in one of the most iconic corners in the world? Sepang’s turn 15 was a great location to launch students for each day’s filming. Ben (without helmet) launched the students and encouraged me (center, yellow helmet) to “just run laps.” Okay! Meanwhile, our two fastest instructors Chris (#8) and Eziah (left) filmed. – BHH Collection The Sepang Gang starting 2020 with two amazing days in Malaysia. – BHH Collection Here are two hard-working motorcycle enthusiasts: Rex and Stephanie Tan, who brought this whole crew together with professionalism and a strong sense of enjoyment. Their BHH family-owned dealership is celebrating its 80th year in business. If you get to Singapore, stop in and say hello; great peeps. – Nick Ienatsch On the day of Chris Carr’s life celebration in Atlanta, I was in Sepang…with these terrific and fast instructor friends. So much of the joy of two wheels is connected to the people involved; these guys, plus the Tans and our enthusiastic students, made this trip especially amazing. I thought of Chris Carr a lot, especially in the downhill, tightening-radius turn 5—a corner he would have loved. Lifelong memories were created on and off the track in Malaysia, especially karaoke on the last night when Rex taught us, “Yam seng!” – Nick Ienatsch
New riders are often surprised by the amount of mental concentration necessary to survive and thrive on two wheels, and not just on the racetrack. Street riding requires as much or more focus and our first core Champions Habit asks everyone who decides to ride a motorcycle to be “all in” mentally. In fact, we encourage every rider to increase their mental focus in every aspect of their life so that their “focus muscle” will be ready when it really counts: on two wheels. The mental approach of champions instructs riders to get focused pre-ride, refocus during the ride and immediately get over any mistakes with a mantra and a “what’s next” attitude.
Umbrella of Direction Description
The first three Champions Habits focus each rider on the priorities of safe and fun motorcycle riding, and these three core approaches reside under an Umbrella of Direction. In other words, everything we do on our bikes serves to get the motorcycle pointed in the right direction prior to accelerating, whether we are leaving our neighborhoods on the way to work, enjoying a Rocky Mountain canyon, or competing on the track. The skills and approaches taught at ChampU will make life-long street riders and championship-winning roadracers, but all those mental and physical tips and lessons reside under this single main goal of every great rider: motorcycle direction.
100 Points of Grip Description
It’s easy to spin off into theoretic studies of tire hysteresis and asphalt compounding in an effort to understand traction, but before your eyes glaze over let us tell you that grip is much simpler to understand and manage while onboard your bike: welcome to our second core Champions Habit. Our tires have a finite amount of traction, a scale that slides based on understandable factors like pavement condition, tire temperature and wear, and rubber compound. We, the onboard engineers, manage traction by how we load and unload each tire via the bike’s controls. We are constantly trading throttle percentage points, brake points, and lean-angle points to retain traction during every ride on any bike.
R=MPH Description
Our third core Champions Habit examines the direct effect that our bike’s speed has on our cornering radius, and how each rider can exactly control speed during every inch of every corner with accessible techniques like trail-braking awesomeness and neutral throttle mastery. R=MPH examines the main safety issue that plagues our sport, running wide in corners, and draws a clear and understandable approach to any corner, from intersection left turns to backroad sweepers to racetrack hairpins. Understanding how speed affects radius plus learning how to apply these bike-control techniques in every corner is key to safe and enjoyable motorcycle riding.
Pointy End of the Cone Description
Crashes don’t happen on perfect days, riding slowly on roads we know on a bike we’ve owned for years, they happen when we are surprised by circumstances and don’t have the skills to adapt. Welcome to “Pointy End of the Cone Drill”, another of ChampSchool’s ever-changing real-world drills. In this challenging drill, instructors lay cones on the track and riders must place their bike to the pointy end of the cones. And they change every lap! We struggle in this drill when one (or more) of three failures arise: 1-We quit scanning out and back and out and back with our eyes 2-We quit using our brakes effectively, especially at lean angle 3-We quit moving our bodies to help direct the motorcycle. Eyes, Brakes, Body: The secret to thriving in challenging real-world circumstances…and our pointy-end drill.
100mm of Travel Description
“I just love this corner!” Some turns just feel right and this class provides solid science to help riders love every corner by creating “great” steering geometry. Yes, we are in charge of our steering geometry with brake or throttle use, so examining where our fork travel shoud be at the corner’s turn-in puts additional trail-braking information into our riding tool box. We rely on data acquisition for this class but riders don’t need a data system, they need to realize how a motorcycle turns best.
Rear Brake Description
We hear and read crazy things about a motorcycle’s rear brake, but since motorcycle designers attach them to every bike from MotoGP machines to scooters, it makes sense to learn to operate them effectively. This class looks at proper use of the rear brake and how that use differs depending upon bike wheelbase, front-brake use, bike load, and pavement conditions. It’s easy to think that “brakes slow me down”, and while that’s true, the rear brake is used by experts to slow the bike…and the weight transfer. Let us show you how and why.
Braking Practice Description
Want to ride really well for a long, long time? Master the brakes. “Sure,” you say, “that’s a great idea. But how and what do I practice?” We include this Braking Practice class for several reasons: 1-Poor braking practice can be painful and we’ve seen riders crash with poor technique 2-Our motorcycles stop really well when properly operated, better than most riders can believe 3-“Practice makes permanent” and following this braking-practice regimen will set you up for a life of confident and consistent brake use.
Downshifting Description
The primary reason to downshift is to put the bike in the gear we need for the future. That could be for a corner exit, to pass a car, to climb a hill or to get the bike back to first gear before leaving a stop. A secondary benefit of downshifting is to increase engine braking during deceleration, but for significant slowing the brakes are a much more efficient, repeatable, and affordable option. We are often downshifting while braking and this class walks you through the timing and process of this operation, an operation that includes a rev-match to smooth the clutch engagement in the lower gear. This “blip” of throttle prior to clutch-lever release is the mark of an expert rider and ChampU gives you the steps to expert downshifting.
Car Practice Description
Our car, truck, van? That’s a four-wheeled practice motorcycle that provides a relatively safe place to practice riding. Think of steering-wheel angle as lean angle and use every drive to focus on the blending of brakes, throttle and steering. We can practice great vision habits of scanning out and back, practice placing our “bike” safely in traffic, practice the smoothness of initial acceleration, braking and steering. Who would have thought that driving those silly cars could be so enlightening?
Body Position Description
We watch our racing heroes hanging radically off their bikes, but how does that pertain to us? What should we do on the street, on the track, and why? What’s more important, lower body or upper body? Where should our feet be? We’ve got questions! As we delve into the how and why, we also examine the when. When do we move our weight onto the footpeg, when do track riders sit up or tuck in, when should our heads be the lowest during track riding? Bring us your questions, we’ve got solid body position answers.
Ergonomics Description
Spend a few minutes in this class to learn how to fit our bikes to our bodies. Motorcycles come off the assembly line or out of the dealership with settings that could get in the way of our riding enjoyment; let’s take advantage of all these adjustments! That used bike we saved for and finally brought home might not “fit” us, but with a few tips from our Crew Chief Keith Culver, we’ll make it our own. We included this lesson because we adjust ergonomics for students at almost every school, making them more comfortable in just a few short minutes with basic hand tools.
