Experience Feel Like A Pro Dirt with Brian Bartlow at Northern California's premier dirt bike training track and flat track school.
Experience Feel Like A Pro Dirt
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In more ways than one, my visit to Brian and Feel Like a Pro Dirt has been unforgettable. I arrived on Friday with tons of excitement and energy, and left at the end of the 3 day camp feeling exhausted, but also really inspired. Brian is a genuine, knowledgeable, incredibly humorous host.
Day one started with my flight into Sacramento, my bags packed like any other vacation. Brian picked up all the students and myself, and we headed off to Old Town Sacramento. We ended up having dinner and poking around the shops while waiting for the rest of the students to show up. Brian proved to be a great storyteller, sharing his knowledge as a Paramedic and as a racer. After hearing some of the students flights would be delayed, Brian drove us back to his house in Kelseyville so that he could go back to the airport later at night to get the rest of the class. Most of us went to bed shortly after, tired from our travels. Brian didn’t make it back to 2am, but that surely didn’t stop him from getting up at 6am that morning to make sure all the bikes and gear were ready for the day.
Day two started off in a way I surely wasn’t expecting. We hiked in the mountains nearby, and experienced some of the hardest yoga I’ve ever done. Brian asked us to talk about what we were hoping to learn by taking the camp, and explained to us that the harder we pushed ourselves, the more we would get out of it. That sounded like a challenge to me! After we got back to Brian’s, we set our first mile time at the local running track. Brian instructed us that we would be doing a series of events that would be repeated, and each time we did those events, we would need to beat our time. After having lunch, everyone got prepared to hop on the KLX140s for the first time. Brian and his mechanic Chris did the best they could to groom the track, but the weather proved challenging. The entire track was deep mud with many puddles nearing 6 inches deep. Of course I chose the bike with the smoothest tires, because why not make the day even more interesting? And interesting it proved to be. While doing a few drills and learning the ins and outs of the new bike, I must have fell a minimum of 15 times. Losing the front, losing the rear, loosing both at the same time, I’ve never been so muddy. But man was it incredible fun. Just as soon as most of us were getting the hang of it, Brian told us we had to ride with our feet on the pegs, no touching the ground. Yes, this was just as hard as it sounds, and nobody was immune from the crashes. After a few minutes of laughing and cheering us on, Brian gave us all some advice on body positioning and how to steer in low traction situations, and sent us back out. After we got done riding, everyone peeled off their sopping wet and muddy gear. We had a few more timed challenges around Brian’s before we could wrap up the day, including a 2 mile run up and down the mountain, and a sprint while pulling a motorcycle tire on rope. It was finally time to call it quits, heading back inside for dinner. Chris had his work cut out for him; clean all the motorycles we’d packed with mud, replace the brakes that had been worn down to nothing in the mud, and pack the trailer for the race track. The following day would be the day we headed to Lakeport for Round 5 of the Nor Cal short track races.
Day three had me pretty nervous in the morning. Having only done a single race weekend in the last year, I wasn’t sure how I’d stack up to the rest of the students and the local racers. We arrived at the race track at about 9 in the morning, with practice starting shortly after noon. This gave the students plenty of time to break-in and get accustomed to the track. Brian had us do some starting drills, and drills around the cones on the track to try different racing lines. As before, he did a great job watching all of us individually, providing instruction on how to push just a bit harder. Most of us had a few more crashes that morning, pushing at the limit. After practice, we all got signed up for our races and learned the order of the day. Most of us got signed up for 150 stock and 150 heads-up. Those were two of the classes made specifically for the Kawi 140s that we were riding as part of the camp. Most of the lineup for both classes ended up being the students, but it was a blast regardless. I ended up 2nd in the 150 stock class and 3rd in the 150 heads-up class. The same student beating me both times, with a local racer winning the 150 heads-up. We wrapped up the day with the coolest (and most competitive) challenge of the whole camp. Unfortunately I can’t say too much about it, as I wouldn’t want to spoil the secret. But I will say, it was quite some fun for everyone.
The last day of the riding camp was the most sore. Everyone at this point was feeling it, and I had been taking plenty of Advil since the night before just to make it through. I knew I would have to break my previous times for the mile, the tire pull, and the 2 mile run, so I sucked it up and held on for one more day. The morning was spent beating these challenges set on the first day of camp, and everyone was successful. After lunch, it was again time to ride. This time though, we finally had enough dry weather that the track was mostly dried out. Brian and Chris had groomed the track and were able to spread out the wet spots, so the track was pretty consistent all over. The tracks set up with cones were mostly tight corners, the bikes never needing to get out of 2nd gear. As soon as we all were able to get berms built up, Brian would tell us to take a break while he got the tractor out again to smooth out the track; much to the chagrin of the students. But I agreed with him, having to control the front and back brakes, and how to slide in and out of the corner, we were able to learn faster without the berms. So after a few more varied tracks for us to practice on, Mother Nature decided to end our fun with more rain. At this point, not many of us were complaining! After 3 days of riding and crashes, it hurt to ride more than 30 minutes at a time. So we all took off our gear for the last time and went back inside where it was dry. Some of the local students had been picked up by their parents, and those of us who arrived from the airport spent the last night at Brian’s.
It was difficult to say goodbye, after all the fun we had at the camp. I can easily say that I am a much more confident rider after the instruction of Brian. I learned how to better use the rear brake, load the front tire through the corner, but most importantly I learned some discipline. I think the most underrated but also most important part of the camp was that Brian never stopped teaching us accountability, and to treat yourself like an athlete. These are great life skills to have, and can be applied in not just riding motorcycles. I’m definitely hoping Brian is still offering these race schools by the time my son is old enough to participate. It would have monumental effects on his riding skills but most importantly his confidence. I would highly recommend Feel Like a Pro Dirt to anyone looking for a riding school that not only teaches riding skills, but teaches important life skills as well.
This was a great day of Flat Track Training at the Cedar Lake Arena, Wisconsin.