I'm not sure if this has been posted before, but I came across a great review of Doug Polen's 1 on 1 Riders School, on the MV forum. The reviewer had never heard of Doug Polen before 😏 , but couldn't say enough about him and all tuition is done on a 1 on 1 basis. Here's a quote from the review:
First, he follows you around the track for a lap or so. Then he leads. This is one on one, just you and Doug.
What makes it fascinating is that he talks to you as you are following him. Via two way radios, yours is receive only, he will tell you what he is doing, tell you what to do and when to do it. You wear little earbuds, like from an Ipod, he has a mike and transmits by squeezing a switch on his bike about where the high beam switch is.
It goes like this:
"O.K Full throttle! Full throttle! Hold it, hold it, now, brake hard aaaaaand ease off the brake, a little more, a little more, turn in! Now, throttle, back on, full throttle, good! Excellent!
How does he do this? While you are hanging off the bike scraping your knee puck down to nothing, his is sitting almost upright making the turn ahead of you and WATCHING YOU IN HIS REARVIEW MIRROR.
To say the man is smooth is an understatement. It just flows.
There is a section of the South Course at VIR that I would go through at about 70mph and felt comfortable.
By the end of the third session I was riding through there at 95 and felt slower.
I was talking with one of the control riders who has a timing device on his bike. He went out with Doug for 1 30 minute session and said he knocked 2 seconds off his lap time.
Three thirty minute sessions, which is what I did, gave me 20mph everywhere on the course and knocked 20 seconds, according to Doug, off my lap time. He was comparing my best lap with him, to my warm up lap.
And how expensive is 90 minutes of one on one coaching with a World Super Bike champion (twice)?
$225.
Absolutely brilliant. I would sign up again in a heart beat.
I hope this is of interest to some of the US members. I know if I was living anywhere in proximity with my SP4 I'd be on it in a flash. What could be better than 1 on 1 tuition on your 851/888 with a living legend like Doug Polen? 😄
Here's a link if anyone's interested:
http://www.gopolen.com/doug_polen.php
