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Premier Training Events

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Not sure if this is where to post this, but I wanted to give a shoutout to the MOA Foundation. I attended the event this weekend 10/26/19 at the BMW Performance Center in South Carolina. I rode from my home in East Tennessee ( Tail of The Dragon area ) in the chilly fall air on my R850R. While I would not have chosen the elements we got, it was a great learning experience. It rained all day, was cold and windy too. We did a half day of off road and a half day on road. I've been riding for many years, but have had very little training other than my own misfortunes ( sky, ground, sky, ground...helicopter ) Anyway, the instructors were very good about showing us the right and wrong way to do things. The group was split in half, and my group headed to the off road section first. We did slow maneuvers in the gravel lot.. slalom cones after the follow-the-leader,do what I do in an oval pattern . Which was a challenge in itself ( riding side saddle on both sides all while riding in a circle ) We then moved on to riding between two logs in wet mud, then to the big gravel pit. All very challenging if you have never done that stuff ( eyes up, don't look down which was the hardest part for me ) You go where your eyes go. Then we did follow the leader through some of the endure course in the woods and around some obstacles, bridges and holders. Yes, I fell down on the slow slalom stuff, but nothing terrible...it was learning. After lunch, we moved over to the road stuff ( which technically is in Germany ) Again, starting out with a slalom course through the cones...agin, don't look down. Ouch! Then we moved on to counter steering and avoidance maneuvers. That led into emergency braking with, then without ABS. Then we had to put it all together sand keep upping our speed! Yikes, that was tough to relay to my brain, but I know it's about muscle memory. Practice makes perfect... Did I mention that it was cold and raining all day? Sometimes it was had to concentrate with all that going on and the cars in the background bouncing off the rev limiters while sliding off course...did I mention it was cold and raining? Anyway, the instructors, and the facilities were top notch. The MOA did a fantastic job with the whole event. Great accommodations and food, along with great folks. I met cool people and rode a new BMW GS that I treated much worse than I would ever treat my own bike, but that is part of the learning process. You don't have to worry about the bike or pay extra for the privilege of riding someone else's bike. If you break it, they will fix it or give you another bike...it's that simple. I hope I get the chance to go back and I would recommend for anyone and everyone to sigh up for a class at the Performance Center. They offer a lot of programs for bikes and cars too. The only downside...now I want a new GS! LOL
 
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