Training To Ride Like a Cop Was WAY Harder Than I Expected.

Name: Training To Ride Like a Cop Was WAY Harder Than I Expected. | On Two Wheels
Uploaded: 2026-06-23T16:15:25+00:00
Duration: 39 min 6 s
Channel: Motorcyclist

00:02Motor cops ride these big bikes that look like two-wheeled SUVs. They throw them around through

00:07tight corners, carving up cones in ways most riders can't even fathom. Full lock left, full

00:13lock right, dragging hard parts without ever dabbing a foot. It looks like a circus trick,

00:18but look a little closer and you'll realize that these cops are executing fundamental motorcycle

00:23techniques with perfection. Counter sit, counter steer, counter weight. These are skills that once

00:29perfected will make you a safer, more confident rider. The catch? Mastering them isn't easy.

00:35Most officers train for 200 hours before they're even admitted to motor school. So the question is,

00:41if you take an average rider like me and put them through that same training, but at a compressed

00:46rate of just two days, how hard can it be to ride like a cop? Let's go to school and

00:50find out.

00:57Turns out, this school operates out of a parking lot in Huntington Beach. Laid out across an Amazon

01:02parking lot is a full cone course built and used by the Huntington Beach Police Department. This is

01:08where motor officers come to train and sharpen their own slow speed riding skills. And the cool

01:12part is, it's also open to the public for anyone looking to practice and improve their own riding.

01:17My teacher for the next two days is Bill Turner, a retired motor officer with more than two decades

01:22of experience riding for the Redondo Beach Police Department. Bill spent nearly 33 years with the

01:27RBPD after starting as a police cadet back in 1990, with 22 of those years spent in the traffic division

01:33as a motor officer. He's also a certified motorcycle instructor and was part of the overall winning team

01:39of the 2021 Southern California Police Motor Skills Competition. Basically, Bill knows his way around

01:45a cone course. And now he's got the difficult task of trying to teach me how to ride like a

01:49motor cop

01:50in just two days. I rode in here on Honda's standard NT1100 DCT, but this training called for the real

01:56police spec version. This is the 2026 Honda NT1100 Police. It starts its life as a standard NT1100,

02:04but gets converted with all the equipment needed for law enforcement duty. Unlike the DCT model I rode in on,

02:11this one uses a full manual transmission along with police lighting, crash bars, slimmer side cases,

02:17radio equipment, and even a rifle rack. And if you're wondering where you can buy one, you can't.

02:23These are special ordered bikes built specifically for law enforcement departments, which means my first

02:28objective today is pretty simple, try not to drop it. Alright Bill, I see a lot of cones, a lot

02:34of patterns,

02:35a little bit nervous. What's the first step to getting me proficient as a motor officer?

02:41It's all fundamentals. Okay. We're gonna start at the basic fundamentals and progress from there to where we can get

02:47you

02:47through the advanced cone patterns, hopefully by the end of the day today. Okay.

02:53We'll start literally at the very basics. We'll probably start just practicing turns and the fundamentals of turning.

03:00Okay. And then we'll take that and just make it smaller. Okay. We'll move to probably a box.

03:06We'll make that box smaller once we can do turns and figure eights within that box.

03:10And then we will get to some of the more advanced patterns. The cones are gonna be very deceiving for

03:16you.

03:16Yeah. It'll make the pattern look small, even though physically it'll be the same size as the turns you just

03:23made.

03:24Okay. Without the cones around you.

03:26Number one rule, motorcycles are fun. Yeah. So you gotta have fun. Okay. Don't get frustrated.

03:32Don't forget that. Look at it as, I'm just progressively getting better. Okay.

03:35And then truly the number one rule is head and eyes. Motorcycle will go wherever your head and eyes go.

03:41Okay. If you feel like you are not going to make it through a pattern, head and eyes power to

03:48the rear wheel.

03:49Okay. And it's better to drive out of a pattern than to fall down. Okay. Yeah.

03:54Because if you fall down, you're getting hurt. You don't get to go through the pattern again.

03:57Yeah. Okay. Gotta learn to walk before you can run. So.

04:00Absolutely.

04:02Knowing we were starting with the basics made this whole thing feel a lot less intimidating.

04:06At this point, I was mostly curious to see how badly I was going to struggle.

04:10The first drill was a simple figure eight around two cones. The idea was to start wide and easy and

04:15tighten things up as I got more comfortable with the bike and started to figure out the technique.

04:20All right, Evan, we're going to do basic figure eights just around the cones. Start as wide as you have

04:26to. And then we will just bring it in and make it smaller and smaller.

04:30Again, basic fundamentals, head and eyes. Motorcycle is going to go where the head and eyes go. Once the bike

04:36starts to lean a little bit more, keep your body upright.

04:39Okay.

04:40With the road surface, counterbalance on the bike. Everything should be clutch and throttle for the power, especially as small

04:50and as close as the cones are together.

04:53So let's just start with the absolute basics. Circles are figure eights around the cone and I'll coach you through

05:00if you need any advice as you're going.

05:04Okay. Yeah. All right.

05:05I'll have to jump into it.

05:06It's got to start somewhere.

05:07All right. I'm nervous.

05:18Oh, yeah. Head and eyes. Eyes need to be up.

05:21I'm not committing enough, huh? Eyes need to be way up. You should be looking at me all the way

05:27up here.

05:27Oh, that high? Okay. Yep.

05:31Oh, my. This is really challenging. Head and eyes all the way up. You can see the cones in your

05:37peripheral vision.

05:38Okay.

05:39So keep your head and eyes up. The moment you look down on the ground, you'll go down.

05:43Yeah. The right heart. I'm bad at right handers.

05:47As I circled the figure eight more and more, I began to loosen up and feel more relaxed.

05:51There you go. Way to get your head and eyes. Nope. Gotta keep them around.

05:55Yeah.

05:56But keeping my eyes up to locate the cone markers felt unnatural. Cocking my head around to the extreme felt

06:01exaggerated at first.

06:03There you go. Much better.

06:04But once I began to find a flow, it felt natural to turn my head and eyes, locate the cone,

06:09dip the bike, and commit to applying throttle before chopping the gas and applying the brakes.

06:14Looking through the turn is key to success. The head and eyes go first and the bike and body will

06:18follow. Now I'm starting to find a flow.

06:21The reason it's important to learn these motor officer techniques is because the training isn't just about dodging cones in

06:27a parking lot.

06:28It's about mastering the motorcycle in the most challenging conditions, controlling your riding destiny in the face of any challenge

06:34you might face on the road as an officer.

06:36Shifts can be 12 hours a day and most of that time is spent in the saddle. Motor officers can

06:41easily cover 30,000 miles a year on the job with the bike burning three to four sets of tires,

06:47getting five to six oil changes, and two sets of front brake pads and three sets at the rear.

06:52Burning 750 to 1,000 gallons of fuel comes with the territory.

06:56This isn't just a fun cruise on your motorcycle. The job description is riding towards danger all day, every day.

07:02A lot of cops will tell you this is the coolest job in the department, but also one of the

07:07most challenging, which is why the training is so intense.

07:10And right when I thought, I'm starting to get the hang of this, Bill tightened up the cone pattern, increasing

07:14the difficulty, and my first major mistake happened.

07:18There you go.

07:21Officer down!

07:24I stepped on the rear brake.

07:26Yeah, just a little, uh, need a little more power.

07:28Okay.

07:29I thought you were going to save him there, Bill.

07:33First of all, out of the way.

07:35Yeah, wow.

07:36It is, it's like...

07:38What do you think went wrong?

07:40Uh, eyes, looking where I was, the eyes, and the power, I think.

07:44The power, yeah.

07:45Yeah.

07:45You had your head and eyes coming around, but unfortunately your power dipped down so much, and I was kind

07:50of looking the other direction, so I couldn't see if it was clutch or throttle.

07:53It sounded like throttle, just because I kind of had my back before I turned.

07:57Mm-hmm.

07:57Um, more power.

07:59Yeah, it's that syncing up, because there's like the commitment of, I'm looking where I want to go, but then

08:04I'm hesitating to keep the power.

08:06And then you feel the bike dip, that's when we should be applying the power.

08:09Okay.

08:09We have to have power, otherwise there's no momentum, right?

08:11Mm-hmm.

08:13Yeah, okay.

08:14Well, you got the first one out of the way.

08:15Yeah, okay.

08:17Yeah, let's jump back into it.

08:18Absolutely.

08:19And I stepped on the rear brake, I think I'm going to be a little more cautious with that.

08:23Again, if you have to, we should be hitting that rear brake, kind of trail brake into it, then let

08:28it off, and then power going around.

08:30Okay.

08:30Your head and eyes, at first, you were kind of looking down a little bit, then you brought them up.

08:36Your head is coming around good.

08:38Let's keep it coming around, but keep your eyes up.

08:42Yeah.

08:42And I don't know if you got scared, because I moved the cone in.

08:45No, I think, I don't think so.

08:46I think I just, I was just getting sloppier and sloppier, so.

08:51Fundamentals, we want to do the same thing every time.

08:54Okay.

08:54After tipping the bike over, I started paying a lot more attention to the techniques Bill was talking about.

08:59Keeping my head up, looking where I wanted to go, staying smooth on the controls, and carrying enough throttle to

09:05keep the bike stable at slow speeds.

09:07The more I focused on the fundamentals, the more the drill started to make sense.

09:11Instead of fighting the bike through the turns, I started to trust what Bill was telling me, and let the

09:15motorcycle work underneath me.

09:17The tighter cone spacing still made the figure eight more challenging, but after a few more attempts, I finally started

09:23finding a rhythm and running the drill cleanly.

09:25At that point, I was feeling a lot more confident and ready to move on to the next drill.

09:31All right, it's time to make it harder.

09:33Okay.

09:35The next drill was built on the same idea as the first one, except now I was working inside a

09:40tight four-cone box.

09:41And just like before, once I started getting comfortable, Bill would make the pattern smaller and even more challenging.

09:48Again, we're working on fundamentals.

09:50That's the most important part of this drill.

09:53Fundamentals to get us to the next step where we can advance to a smaller cone pattern.

09:58Anywhere within, just stay within the square and either a circle or a figure eight.

10:02Up to you.

10:03Okay.

10:04Yeah.

10:05I actually, I'll start with circles so I can just get the idea of how, just how much I can

10:11keep the lean going.

10:12Absolutely.

10:13Because it feels like, I at one point, I felt like I was, I would have the bars turned so

10:18much.

10:18I got on the power and it felt almost like, I'm just experimenting.

10:23Like there's things that I, well, that's why we're starting small.

10:25Yeah.

10:25Is because you want to actually feel the bars lock.

10:28You do.

10:28Okay.

10:29Because when we get to the advanced stuff, all your turns are going to be locked to lock.

10:33They're going to have to be like that.

10:33Yeah.

10:34Wow.

10:34Otherwise you won't make it through.

10:35You're going to have to lock the bike out and hit the steering stop.

10:39Otherwise it will be so small.

10:41You won't make it through.

10:43All right.

10:43So get used to that feeling.

10:44Get it used to.

10:45Okay.

10:45All right.

10:46Let's do more of that feeling.

10:52I feel like a dog chasing his tail.

10:56Oh man.

10:57I'm getting dizzy.

10:58Do a larger circle within like, circles are fine, but let's do a larger circle within the

11:05box.

11:06Okay.

11:06And again, circles or figure eights, but let's do a larger circle rather than just one.

11:11Okay.

11:12The tightness of the four cone box created less room for error.

11:16As we started advancing from one drill to the other, the technicality started compounding,

11:20requiring more attention, focus, and precision.

11:24Head and eyes up.

11:25Head and eyes up.

11:26Yeah.

11:27Look where you want to go.

11:34I'm worse at the right turns.

11:37All right.

11:37We'll do a figure eight now.

11:39We want to use as much of the real estate within the cone pattern as possible.

11:43Okay.

11:43And the reason is because when we get to the advanced tighter turns, we have to use all

11:50the real estate.

11:51So if we're now making a figure eight, we want to come and make the figure eight out here

11:58to set us up correctly to make the figure eight on the other end.

12:02Okay.

12:02Because if you short yourself and you're turning here, when we get to a tighter, more advanced

12:08pattern, you will not have enough room on the other side.

12:11I see.

12:12So while we're just practicing fundamentals and turns, we're also practicing-

12:16Kind of spacing and that stuff.

12:17Spacing and using all the real estate within this box because when we move to the smaller

12:23one, we have to use all the real estate.

12:25Yeah.

12:25Okay.

12:26Once I understood what Bill was talking about, I started focusing on using all the available

12:30space inside the cone pattern.

12:32Every time I rushed to turn or cut in early, I leave myself no room for the next one.

12:37And that became a much bigger problem once the cone pattern started getting tighter

12:40and more technical.

12:42Slowly, I was starting to get more comfortable keeping my eyes up and linking turns together.

12:46And once I understood how to use the available space inside the box, the entire drill started

12:51flowing a lot more naturally.

12:54Very good.

12:55Very good.

13:04Woo!

13:05I'm pumped up.

13:07The next drill was called the offset nineties.

13:10And unlike earlier exercises, this was an actual section from the full cone course.

13:14The goal was to ride through the gates, make tight U-turns and immediately line yourself

13:19up for the next section without running wide or clipping any cones.

13:23These gates are wider than the figure eights and circles that we fundamentally started with.

13:29It's the same principles.

13:31You're going to go through the first gate, make that left turn, set yourself up by coming

13:36out a little bit wide for the second gate.

13:39And it's going to be basically a teardrop.

13:41That is why we started with circles and figure eights.

13:44Everything we're doing here, if you can do the figure eights, you can make any turn through

13:47any of these patterns.

13:48Head and eyes, clutch throttle.

13:51Okay.

13:51Push with your feet to make your turns.

13:53Okay.

13:53And keep your body centered to counterbalance the bike leaning.

13:59Okay.

14:00All right.

14:00I think you're going to do great.

14:02There we go.

14:10Give yourself plenty of room.

14:12There you go.

14:15Head and eyes up.

14:16Look at your next cones.

14:20Control your speed with a clutch and throttle.

14:23And just like that, with Bill's advice and affirmations, I jumped into my first attempt

14:28at the offset nineties, but couldn't manage passing through the first gate without knocking

14:32down a cone.

14:33Maybe Bill spoke too quickly.

14:35Okay.

14:37How did that feel?

14:38It felt good.

14:39I think.

14:39Yeah.

14:39I mean, I could tell us still making some mistakes and like, just.

14:43You just need to run through it a couple of times to get it down.

14:47Again, head and eyes, keep them where they are.

14:49If you need to make that speed adjustment in the middle, it looked like you were kind of

14:54gaining speed.

14:55Make that speed adjustment in between your turns.

14:59If you have to.

14:59Okay.

14:59Again, we can just apply a little rear brake, kind of trail brake into the corner, but we

15:04want to be off so that we can get the motorcycle down and that rear brakes not working against

15:08us while we're doing it.

15:09And you can adjust with minimal movements with the clutch and throttle in between each gate.

15:14Okay.

15:15This is good.

15:16Like you could, you just, you can feel when you do it right.

15:19And when you make a mistake, it's like, it's so noticeable.

15:21And then just make that small adjustment for the next gate.

15:24Okay.

15:25Okay.

15:25You did great though.

15:26You did better than most people I've trained on their first day, but you have obviously

15:30a ton of motorcycle experience.

15:31Yeah.

15:31Most people I've trained don't have that.

15:33Yeah.

15:33I got a little head start on them.

15:35Got a little head start.

15:35Yeah.

15:36Okay.

15:36Here we go.

15:37Head and eyes.

15:40Trying to spot the next gate before completing the current gate with an exercise and peripheral

15:44vision.

15:44As with most of the drills, I started stiff, tight, and not confident.

15:48But with practice and repetition, I continued to improve and build confidence.

15:53Adjust your speed.

15:55And on my second attempt, I made the same mistake.

15:58Like driving a long truck or pulling a trailer, I needed to be much more aware of the track my

16:02rear tire was following.

16:03When it comes to the offset nineties, swing wide, truck driver style.

16:08That one didn't feel as smooth.

16:10Yeah.

16:10You were kind of, RPMs were up.

16:12Speed was kind of wonky.

16:14Yeah.

16:15I was thinking a lot about that rear brake.

16:16Just need to, just smooth it out.

16:19And honestly, it'll smooth out once you do it a couple of times.

16:22Once you do it one or, you know, one or 10 more times, honestly, it'll smooth itself

16:26out completely.

16:27Okay.

16:27Still cut, cut that one short.

16:29I did.

16:29Same thing.

16:30Just when you make your left turn, come out a little bit wider and then teardrop around.

16:35Okay.

16:36You're doing good though.

16:37Not feeling smooth on the controls.

16:39My inputs were too abrupt, sacrificing balance and rhythm.

16:43Let's try that again.

16:46Trying to follow the path of a teardrop would ensure proper spacing and positioning.

16:51Easier said than done.

16:55I started to find a flow and gain confidence in the offset nineties, but I was flirting with

16:59a close line inside the cones.

17:01If I'm going to learn to ride like a cop, I'm going to have to master spacing in each pattern.

17:07The offset nineties ended up taking a lot more attempts than I expected.

17:11At first, I kept knocking down cones at the gates, turning in too tight and struggling

17:16to stay smooth through transitions.

17:18Every run exposed something different.

17:20Too much rear brake, inconsistent throttle control, not using enough space, or just not

17:25committing enough with my vision and body position.

17:28And just to make things worse, cones weren't the only things tipping over.

17:34Timber!

17:36Slowly though, things started cleaning up.

17:39The cones stopped falling over and I was mostly just tapping them instead.

17:42The bike started flowing more naturally through the pattern.

17:45And by my ninth attempt, I was finally able to put a clean run together without any mistakes.

17:52Head and eyes coming around.

17:54There you go.

17:56Just think smooth.

18:14Once I completed the course cleanly, Bill had me start running it in both directions.

18:19And by that point, I was finally starting to feel comfortable enough on the bike to stop

18:23thinking about every individual input and just ride the pattern naturally.

18:27It also meant I was ready to move on to the next challenge.

18:31We're going to make a motor cop out of him, no problem.

18:34The next drill was called the intersection.

18:37And by this point, the patterns were starting to feel a lot less like individual exercises

18:41and a lot more like an actual flow course.

18:44Full U-turn, quick transition into a tight right-hand turn,

18:47then immediately back into another U-turn on the opposite side.

18:51Fundamentally, what do you need to do?

18:54Look at where I want to go. Head up, eyes up.

18:56Head and eyes up.

18:57What other adjustments are we making on the bike?

19:00A little less rear brake.

19:03Counter sit, push the bike underneath.

19:05Counter balance the bike.

19:06So we're using our legs to hold the motorcycle.

19:08We want to be gripping here, holding the motorcycle.

19:11And we're pushing down with our feet on the pegs to move that.

19:15But we're keeping our body upright with the ground.

19:18And your adjustments, you can come in and trail brake just a little bit before your U-turn.

19:24And then let off and then power through.

19:27Last exercise, we dabbed the rear brake a little bit too much.

19:31You're just a little heavy on it, a little less on that rear brake.

19:35And that, I think, is going to cause the RPMs to come down because you won't be trying to fight

19:38yourself and overcompensate.

19:40The bike, we want it to be just pulling itself.

19:44Okay.

19:45All right?

19:45Okay.

19:46Start with just going down, making a U-turn, coming back, making a U-turn.

19:51And then when you're comfortable with that, you can even switch directions, start to make a figure eight.

19:56Okay.

19:56As soon as you get comfortable, switch directions and go the other way.

19:58As soon as we've got that down, we'll move on to actually making it into a cross.

20:04Okay.

20:04So where we're switching from that U-turn to now a quick right turn into a U-turn to a

20:08quick right turn.

20:09Yeah, that looks tough.

20:10Okay.

20:11Okay.

20:12It's not tough for you.

20:13No.

20:13Head and eyes.

20:14Head and eyes.

20:14Fundamentals.

20:15Okay.

20:20Just like the earlier drills, it took me a few attempts to loosen up, get comfortable, and start instinctively applying

20:26the fundamentals we have been working on all day.

20:36We want to use up all this space, even though it's easy to turn.

20:39Okay.

20:40We want to use up all the space.

20:41Okay.

20:41Yeah.

20:42The tight transitions required me throwing the bike from one side of the tire to the other before slipping the

20:47clutch and feeding the throttle.

20:49Out of all the drills before, this one was the most technical, requiring me to lean and counterweight the bike

20:54before slipping the clutch and applying power.

20:57As a rider with motocross experience, this sensation felt similar to dipping a bike into a rut and squirting out

21:03on the gas.

21:04Yes.

21:04Go all the way to the very end, and the only reason I'm saying go all the way to the

21:09very end is because shortly we're going to end up making that right U-turn and then a quick left

21:16turn.

21:16Okay.

21:17So we don't want to be getting used to being here, so we're not going to make that turn.

21:22Yeah.

21:22Okay.

21:25Come out here, because now you're going to have time to make an adjustment to set up for this turn.

21:32Got you.

21:32Because things will happen quickly when you go from a right turn to a U-turn, right turn, or a

21:36left turn to a U-turn.

21:37So even though it's very easy for you to make the turn here, just practice making it as far out

21:45as you can.

21:46Hit those edges.

21:47Hit the edges.

21:47Absolutely.

21:48Okay.

21:49The intersection drill had a rhythm to it.

21:51A quick transition from left to right, then immediately setting yourself up for the next turn.

21:55And with Bill constantly reminding me of the fundamentals, keeping my head and eyes up, using all the space, and

22:01staying smooth on the controls,

22:03things started clicking pretty quickly.

22:04Head and eyes coming around, that sounds fantastic.

22:08You're right at that point where the bike's pulling.

22:11Okay.

22:11So you're right at that friction zone.

22:13Just like a rider hitting their marks on a racetrack, I was beginning to understand where the bike needed to

22:18be positioned before the next turn.

22:20And with every lap, consistency started to build confidence.

22:23The more I rode it, the lighter the bike started to feel, and the more I trusted those quick transitions

22:27from one side to the other.

22:29Okay, very good.

22:30Very good.

22:33The final drill of the day was a full course figure eight.

22:36On paper, it looked similar to the first drill we started with, but the added cones and tighter spacing made

22:41it feel a whole lot more intimidating.

22:43Instead of focusing on just two cones and open space, now I had to stay smooth and consistent while working

22:48in a much tighter and more confined pattern.

22:51This is no smaller than all of the turns we've been making.

22:57There's just cones all the way around the edge.

23:00So visually it looks more deceiving.

23:03This is where what really comes into play, other than we've been talking about all the fundamentals of riding.

23:10This one really is use all of your real estate.

23:14But we want to be along the edge of this pattern.

23:17And again, we want to set ourselves up for the next turn.

23:20So any speed adjustment can easily be made in between these two turns.

23:25Okay.

23:26It's a smooth transition.

23:27We adjust whatever speed we need, but we can't short ourselves.

23:31If we try to turn here, we are not going to make it out that exit.

23:35Yep.

23:37Use up all the real estate.

23:39You've heard that term several times today.

23:40Use up all your real estate.

23:42You have plenty of room.

23:43Why not use it?

23:44Make it easy on yourself and come outside and go as far as you can.

23:48Okay.

23:49Around here.

23:50Okay.

23:50Same size as everything else we've been doing.

23:54It just visually looks different because of the number of cones.

23:57Yeah.

23:57And then you can either stay in and keep doing figure eights to practice or technically this is the exit

24:03out of it.

24:04Okay.

24:05Stay wide.

24:10The full course figure eight drill forced me to use up all of the available space in the pattern in

24:15order to complete this section.

24:17This required all the fundamentals and techniques of the previous drill, but now demanded full lock steering.

24:24Throwing the bike from one side of the lock to the other was the skill I feared the most.

24:29Right?

24:29We're pushing another piece.

24:30That one I struggled with.

24:31Head and eyes come around.

24:33If your head and eyes don't come around, it's much harder.

24:36That's why fundamentally we always start with the basics.

24:39Head and eyes.

24:40Here, your head and eyes have to come around.

24:42Okay.

24:42And then again, more legs and feet.

24:45Yeah, I felt stiff.

24:46We should be pushing.

24:47Yeah.

24:47You look like you were sitting a little more upright and just turning versus trying to push down on the

24:51bike.

24:51Yeah.

24:51Once you do it once or twice, you get the feel.

24:54Okay.

25:03Yeah.

25:04Much better.

25:04Your head came around.

25:07You should be looking all the way over there.

25:09Okay.

25:17Hey, that was great.

25:18You made a micro adjustment with your speed over here.

25:21Okay.

25:23Much smoother.

25:25Just like all the drills before, I started off timid and rigid.

25:29Hesitation led to mistakes, which robbed the rhythm I'd built from the previous drills.

25:33But with practice came improvement.

25:37Oh.

25:38Nope.

25:39You still got it.

25:39You have plenty of room.

25:51You made a small adjustment coming with your clutch over here to adjust your speed and hesitated through one of

25:57your turns.

25:57Yeah.

25:58We're a little more upright, but then you made that adjustment and dipped the bike.

26:01Yeah.

26:02Yeah.

26:02The right hander.

26:03Cause I struggle more with the right where I was.

26:05Yeah.

26:06Push with your feet.

26:06Get the bike down.

26:07Yeah.

26:07Mm-hmm.

26:26Oh, I'm hesitating.

26:27I have that.

26:28That hesitation came back.

26:30Tried to stay committed.

26:32To the head.

26:33To keep it up.

26:34Okay.

26:34But again, we're just counterbalancing the bike.

26:36Mm-hmm.

26:36That's all we're doing.

26:37Okay.

26:37Counterbalancing the motorcycle.

26:39Okay.

26:41Little less rear brake.

26:42Just barely feather it.

26:45Your turns are good.

26:46Like you're lock to lock and you're lean.

26:48Lock to lock and lean is good.

26:50Little less.

26:51Just a little less.

26:52Okay.

26:52Not much.

26:54After a handful of mistakes and a lot of hesitation, things finally started.

26:57To click.

26:58The biggest breakthrough came once I backed off the rear brake and started trusting the bike

27:02through the turns.

27:03Yeah.

27:04Head and eyes around.

27:05That looks great.

27:07I can tell you're getting comfortable cause you're accelerating in between each figure eight.

27:11Oh yeah.

27:12Like right now you're accelerating.

27:14Yeah.

27:15I'm just not even, I'm way less on the rear brake.

27:18That was really hurting me.

27:21Fighting the rear brake so much.

27:23With my head and eyes up, smoother throttle control and less input fighting the bike, the

27:28entire figure eight started flowing a lot more naturally.

27:30By the end of the day, I was riding the pattern cleaner, smoother, and with a lot more confidence than

27:35when we first started.

27:36Which was good because day two was all about putting these drills together on the full course.

27:43It's day two here at the training facility and yesterday started off rough.

27:47I struggled a lot in the beginning.

27:49I dropped the bike a few times, but by the end of the day, I started to get a handle

27:53on these skills and drills.

27:54My confidence was up.

27:56So for today, we're going to do a lead follow with Bill.

27:58He's going to take me through the entire course, see how everything connects.

28:02And then we're going to do a head to head time trial against Bill to see how my time stacks

28:06up against his.

28:07Before we jumped into the full course, Bill walked me through the entire layout to show me how all the

28:12cone patterns connected together.

28:13And once he started to explain where the bike needed to be positioned for each section, the whole thing started

28:19looking a lot less random and a lot more calculated.

28:22Every turn was really just setting up for the next one.

28:25But before trying to piece the entire course together, I figured it was probably a good idea to warm back

28:29up and revisit some of the drills from the day before.

28:39Reciting to myself all the techniques I learned the day before as I practiced the five fundamental drills, I tried

28:45to get loose and find a rhythm.

28:47The next challenge would be my biggest yet.

28:50All right, I warmed up, did a couple more drills.

28:53What's next?

28:54We're going to do a follow leader through the speed course.

28:57This is going to put together every individual cone pattern that you've successfully completed.

29:04We're not going to rush through it at any type of high speed.

29:07This is going to be just to get the pattern of the course itself and linking all the different cone

29:15patterns together.

29:16Eventually, once we've done that a couple of times, we'll work a little more speed into it.

29:23Okay.

29:24All right, you just need to follow me, sir.

29:26Okay, let's do it.

29:27Gavin, you ready?

29:28Yep, ready.

29:30Bill took off quicker than I expected.

29:32I thought he said we were starting off slow.

29:34I can't imagine what fast looks like to him.

29:37Trying to catch up, I cut the first corner short and nearly tipped over.

29:40Not off to a great start.

29:42I needed to stay relaxed, breathe, and study Bill's lines.

29:45It was all about spacing and positioning.

29:48Maximize every possible inch.

29:50If not, you are bound to fail.

29:51The cone course is more mentally strenuous than physically.

30:19Standing on the sideline, the course looked like complete chaos.

30:22With cones everywhere, trying to figure out the layout and remember where to go felt impossible.

30:28But once I was on course, everything started to click.

30:37Just like any racetrack, it's a series of obstacles to navigate and naturally, some will do it faster than others.

30:44My goal today is to complete the course without knocking over a cone and avoid another fall.

31:02All right.

31:03Good job.

31:04Yeah, I knocked some cones over.

31:06Even I got one.

31:07Good job.

31:07I put my foot down a couple times too.

31:09But yeah, wow.

31:10Yeah, I saw a little bit of a struggle in the far one before we started to head back.

31:15Yeah, that's right.

31:16Yeah.

31:16Just cut.

31:17You probably cut your turn too short because it looked like you were on the far end of the turn.

31:23So right after the fire hose, start that left turn before that right turn.

31:28Yeah, I think I started it all wrong from the beginning and then it caught up to me.

31:32Okay.

31:32I cut it early, early, early and then it was just, yeah.

31:35I was just watching the tail.

31:37I caught the tail end of it and I'm like, ooh, he's really far out.

31:39Yeah, yeah.

31:40Coming into it, I was like, I'm not making this.

31:42Yeah.

31:42I could tell.

31:42And it's probably a little different following me, like having someone directly in front of you.

31:48Yeah.

31:48Because that's the first time that we've had you directly in front of, or directly behind me.

31:53And yeah, I struggled with the slalom right here.

31:56I missed half of them.

31:58The slow cone weave is difficult.

32:00Yeah.

32:00Believe it or not, it's very difficult.

32:02Upright, slow, and lock to lock.

32:05Yeah.

32:05We're not leaning the bike and counterbalancing at all.

32:08It's all upright, lock to lock.

32:10Okay, yeah.

32:11But you did great.

32:11Appreciate it, yeah.

32:12You did great.

32:13That was fun.

32:13That looked good.

32:14We ended up running the full course a few more times and after each attempt, Bill would stop and break

32:19down what I was doing right and where I was still struggling.

32:21By the third lead follow run, Bill had me ride in front so he could watch how I approached each

32:26section of the course on my own.

32:28And while I was definitely still making mistakes here and there, the entire layout was finally starting to connect together

32:34in my head instead of feeling like a bunch of separate cone patterns.

32:37Which meant there was only one thing left to do.

32:39Put down a timed run and see how I stacked up against Bill.

32:43Bill was up first, and watching him ride the full course really put into perspective how much scale this actually

32:48takes.

32:57Everything looked smooth, controlled, and effortless.

33:00He wasn't just riding through the patterns.

33:02He was linking every section together with speed and precision in a way that made the entire course flow.

33:15And the craziest part was how calm it looked from the outside, because from the seat of the bike, I

33:19knew just how much focus and control it actually took to ride the course cleanly.

33:31Watching Bill ride the course, you could tell he wasn't just reacting to the cone patterns anymore.

33:36He knew exactly where the bike needed to be before he even got there.

33:55When Bill crossed the line, his time was 2 minutes and 30 seconds, and according to him, it wasn't even

34:01one of his smoother attempts.

34:02Which honestly made me even more nervous about my own run.

34:06At this point, if I could somehow get into the 2 minute range, I'd be pretty stoked.

34:11Alright, here we go.

34:13You know what to do.

34:15You learn the drills.

34:17Put it together.

34:19But smooth is fast.

34:21Focus on hitting your marks.

34:23That's all you can do.

34:24Hit your marks.

34:25The speed will come.

34:27Don't worry about Bill's time.

34:29Worry about your technique, your skills.

34:32Okay.

34:33Smooth is fast.

34:34Finish first.

34:35First you gotta finish.

34:39Attempting to get a fast start, I bring the revs up and drop the clutch.

34:42Coming into the first turn, I get hard on the brakes without triggering the ABS.

34:46The first obstacle is the intersection.

34:49A pattern that helped me find my flow earlier in the day.

35:03Exiting the intersection is a set of tight, narrow corners that require less speed than precision.

35:08Next is a section of hairpin corners that are essentially a string of teardrop turns.

35:12This pattern requires eyes up and commitment.

35:24This is the section I've been worried about most.

35:27I'm focused on using every bit of available space and not cutting the turns short.

35:31There's not much room for error here, but I make it through clean.

35:39Being mindful not to clip a saddlebag in the next set of turns, I exit cleanly onto the straightaway and

35:44grab second gear.

35:45A quick downshift and hard application to the brakes, I whip the bike around and get back on the gas.

36:01A quick dip and dive through the chicane and I'm free without any issues.

36:04For a moment I blink on where the course goes next and start heading left.

36:08But catch myself just in time to turn right toward the full course figure 8.

36:12A quick dip.

36:34Entering the offset 90s, I remind myself not to get greedy on corner entry and clip the inside cone.

36:40Feathering the rear brakes, slipping the clutch and keeping the RPM steady, I haven't made a big mistake.

36:45Yet.

36:57Rounding the final corner, I head toward the finish.

36:59But between the checkers and me, is the slow cone weave.

37:03Wanting to rush to the finish line, I remain calm.

37:05Surely I haven't worked this hard to throw it all the way on the final straight.

37:09Staying slow and steady, I clear the final cone and goose it to the finish.

37:19I think I hit a cone, huh?

37:21No?

37:22Okay.

37:23That was fun.

37:24My arms are all pumped up, dude.

37:25I don't know if I could do another lap.

37:27What was the time?

37:282.33.

37:29And he might have rubbed a cone but didn't knock any over.

37:32I had a penalty of 2.30.

37:332.33.

37:352.33.

37:35Where'd he come?

37:362.33.79.

37:38We'll make a motor cop out of him.

37:40Yeah.

37:41We just got to get him a haircut and a mustache.

37:44Yeah.

37:44Back at the buzzer.

37:45That was an excellent run.

37:46It looked great.

37:47Yeah.

37:47It really did.

37:49It was fun.

37:49Yeah.

37:50It's so much fun.

37:50This is a blast.

37:52Technique-wise, you look solid.

37:55Okay.

37:56Yeah.

37:56It's really, really good.

37:57You've earned the Honda Motor Officer Challenge coin.

38:00Oh, look at that.

38:03Take this out.

38:04Here.

38:04Or you might not be able.

38:05Okay.

38:06Look it.

38:07I got my USA one.

38:10Team America.

38:12Honda Motor Union.

38:13Let's go.

38:15So, how hard is it to ride like a motor cop?

38:18Honestly, harder than it looks.

38:20A lot harder.

38:21I came into this thinking it was all about learning how to weave through cones and throw a big motorcycle

38:25around at slow speed.

38:27But after two days out here, I realized it has a lot less to do with cones and a lot

38:31more to do with fundamentals.

38:32Look where you want to go, trusting the bikes, staying smooth on the controls, and being consistent every single time.

38:39And sure, getting within a few seconds of Bill's time felt pretty good.

38:42But that was really never the point.

38:44The point wasn't beating an experienced motor officer.

38:47It was learning something new and becoming a better rider than I was two days ago.

38:51We spent a lot of time as riders chasing horsepower, faster lap times, and the next upgrade for our bikes.

38:57But sometimes the biggest improvement you can make isn't the motorcycle underneath you.

39:01It's the rider sitting on top of it.

39:04Other than we had roars when you're walking around, we had to die.

39:05There's a lot more riders who have been driving on here on the ride.

39:05But it's a lot more ridership that you've seen on the ride.

39:05Let's move to the car.

39:06Let's walk.

Training To Ride Like a Cop Was WAY Harder Than I Expected. | On Two Wheels

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