Fort Worth HOG skills day is something Margaret and I try very hard not to miss. As I have stated before, what you take from learning on skills day to the road is invaluable. Until you get your bike out on these different difficulty levels of courses and experience pushing your riding skills to new limits you won't understand how much it can improve your daily riding on the road.
Pushing My Abilities
I push myself every time to test my personal riding limits and the bike's performance limits based on my abilities on every skills day. September skills day was no exception to this! Actually, I pushed myself a bit too far this time and dropped my bike 4 times. Up until this skills day I had never dropped my Harley. It was good though to really find that point of no return when you lean in hard and begin driving the floorboards into the pavement. Now I know! I did hurt my wrist and elbow a bit and suffered some pain throughout the next week from the falls. No permanent harm was done though.
The Courses We Rode
This month's courses were quite varied and it was awesome. Our Road Captains always set up a general beginners course which is the bulk of the courses offered. They will also set up a couple of harder courses for more advanced riding for those interested. These can consist of circles of varying diameters, figure 8's, offset cone weaves, shamrocks, snowman, and a variety of other setups. This time they set up a short course called "The Pitchfork" which I had never done before. I liked it and after a few runs was able to manage it all right. It pushed riding techniques and combinations of maneuvers to be implemented in succession for successful navigation through the course.
Road Captains Are Coaches
As always our Road Captains are there to assist, encourage, educate, and help if you drop your bike. They will also do demonstrations to show you how to navigate a course and show you that it is possible if you're looking at those cones and wondering if it can be done.
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