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Short filmTranscript
00:02Motor cops ride these big bikes that look like two-wheeled SUVs. They throw them around through
00:07tight corners, carving up cones and waves both 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
01:57police spec version. This is the 2026 Honda NT1100 police. It starts its life as a standard NT1100 but
02:05gets 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. All right Bill, I see a lot of cones, a
02:34lot of 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 going to start at the the basic fundamentals and progress from there
02:46to where we can get you through the advanced cone patterns hopefully by the end of the day today.
02:53Okay. We'll start literally at the the very basics. We'll probably start just practicing turns and the
02:58fundamentals of turning. Okay. And then we'll take that and just make it smaller. Okay. We'll move to
03:05probably a box. We'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 going to be very deceiving
03:16for you. Yeah. It'll make the pattern look small even though physically it'll be the same size as the
03:22turns you just made. Okay. Without the cones around you. Number one rule, motorcycles are fun.
03:29Yeah. So you got to have fun. Okay. Don't get frustrated. Don't forget that. Look at it as
03:33I'm just progressively getting better. Okay. And then truly the number one rule uh is head and eyes.
03:39Motorcycle will go wherever your head and eyes go. Okay. If you feel like you are not going to make
03:45it
03:45through a pattern uh head and eyes power to the rear wheel. Okay. And it's better to drive out of
03:51a
03:51pattern tend to fall down. Okay. Because if you fall down you're getting hurt you don't get to go
03:56through the pattern again. Yeah. Okay. Gotta learn to walk before you can run so. Absolutely. Knowing we
04:03were starting with the basics made this whole thing feel a lot less intimidating. At this point I was
04:08mostly curious to see how badly I was going to struggle. The first drill was a simple figure eight
04:12around two cones. The idea was to start wide and easy and tighten things up as I got more comfortable
04:17with
04:17the bike and started to figure out the technique. All right Evan uh we're going to do basic figure
04:22eights just around the cones. Start as wide as you have to and then we will just bring it in
04:28and make
04:28it smaller and smaller. Again basic fundamentals. Head and eyes. Motorcycle is going to go where the head
04:33and eyes go. Uh once the bike starts to lean a little bit more keep your body upright. Okay. Uh
04:40with the
04:41the road surface counterbalance on the bike. Everything should be uh clutch and throttle to
04:48for the power. Especially as small and as close as the cones are together. So let's just start with
04:55the the absolute basics. Uh circles are figure eights around the cone and I'll coach you through of if you
05:02need any uh advice as you're going. Okay. Yeah. All right. I'll jump into it. It's got to start somewhere.
05:08I'm nervous.
05:18Oh yeah. Head and eyes. Eyes need to be up. I'm not committing enough huh. Eyes need to be way
05:24up.
05:25You should be looking at me all the way up here. Oh 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. Okay. So keep your head and eyes up. The moment you look down on the ground
05:42you'll go down. Yeah. The right heart. I'm bad at right handers. As I circled the figure eight more
05:48and more I began to loosen up and feel more relaxed. There you go. Way to get your head and
05:53eye. Nope.
05:54Gotta keep them around. Yeah. By keeping my eyes up to locate the cone markers felt unnatural. Cocking my head
06:00around to the extreme felt exaggerated at first. There you go. Much better. But once I began to find a
06:06flow it felt natural to turn my head and eyes locate the cone dip the bike and commit to applying
06:11throttle before chopping the gas and applying the brakes. Looking through the turn is key to success.
06:16The head and eyes go first and the bike and body will follow. 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
06:26just about dodging cones in a parking lot. It's about mastering the motorcycle in the most challenging
06:30conditions controlling your riding destiny in the face of any challenge you might face on the road
06:36as an officer. Shifts can be 12 hours a day and most of that time is spent in the saddle.
06:41Motor officers can easily cover 30,000 miles a year on the job with the bike burning three to four
06:46sets
06:46of tires getting five to six oil changes and two sets of front brake pads and three sets at the
06:52rear.
06:52Burning 750 to 1,000 gallons of fuel comes with the territory. This isn't just a fun cruise on your
06:58motorcycle. The job description is riding towards danger all day every day. A lot of cops will tell
07:04you this is the coolest job in the department but also one of the most challenging which is why the
07:08training is so intense. And right when I thought I'm starting to get the hang of this Bill tightened
07:13up the cone pattern increasing the difficulty and my first major mistake happened. There you go.
07:21Officer down. I stepped on the rear brake. Yeah just a little uh need a little more power. Okay.
07:33First of all out of the way yeah wow it is it's like what do you think went wrong uh
07:40eyes looking
07:41where I was I was the eyes and the power I think the power yeah yeah you had your head
07:46and eyes coming
07:47around but unfortunately your power dipped down so much and I was kind of looking the other direction
07:51so I couldn't see if it was clutch or throttle it sounded like throttle just because I kind of had
07:56my back before I turned um yeah it's that power that's syncing up because there's like the commitment
08:02of I'm looking where I want to go but then I'm hesitating to and then you feel the bike dip
08:07that's
08:08when we should be applying a power okay we have to have power otherwise there's no momentum right yeah
08:12mm-hmm yeah okay well you got the first one out of the way yeah okay yeah let's jump back
08:18into it
08:18I think I and I stepped on the rear brake I think I'm gonna be a little more cautious again
08:23if uh if
08:24you have to we should be hitting that rear brake kind of trail brake into it then let it off
08:29and then
08:29power going around your head and eyes at first you were kind of looking down a little bit then you
08:35brought them up your head is coming around good let's keep it coming around but keep your eyes up
08:42yeah and I don't know if you got scared because I moved the cone in no I think I mean
08:46I don't think
08:46so I think I just I was just getting sloppier and sloppier so fundamentals we want to do the same
08:53thing every time okay after tipping the bike over I started paying a lot more attention to the techniques
08:58Bill was talking about keeping my head up looking where I wanted to go staying smooth on the controls
09:03and carrying enough throttle to keep the bike stable at slow speeds the more I focused on the
09:08fundamentals the more the drill started to make sense instead of fighting the bike through the
09:12turns I started to trust what Bill was telling me and let the motorcycle work underneath me the tighter
09:18cone spacing still made the figure eight more challenging but after a few more attempts I finally
09:23started finding a rhythm and running the drill cleanly at that point I was feeling a lot more confident
09:28and ready to move on to the next drill all right it's time to make it harder okay the next
09:36drill was
09:36built on the same idea as the first one except now I was working inside a tight four cone box
09:41and just
09:42like before once I started getting comfortable Bill would make the pattern smaller and even more
09:46challenging again we're working on fundamentals that's the most important part of this this drill
09:53fundamentals to get us to the next step where we can advance to a smaller cone pattern anywhere
09:58within just stay within the square and either a circle or figure eight up to you okay yeah I actually
10:05I'll start with circles so I can just get the idea of how just how much I can keep the
10:11lean going
10:12absolutely it feels like I at one point I felt like I was I would have the bars turned so
10:18much I got on
10:19the power and it felt almost like I'm just experimenting like there's things that I well
10:24that's why we're starting small yeah is because you want to actually feel the bars lock you do okay
10:29because when we get to the advanced stuff all your turns are going to be locked to lock yeah wow
10:34otherwise you won't make it through you're going to have to lock the bike out and hit the steering
10:38stop uh otherwise it will be so small you won't make it all right so get used to that feeling
10:44get it
10:44used to okay all right let's do more of that feeling
10:47i feel like a dog chasing his tail
10:56oh man i'm getting dizzy do a larger circle within like uh circles are fine but let's do a larger
11:04circle
11:04within the box okay and again circles or figure eights but let's do a larger circle rather than just
11:11one small okay the tightness of the four cone box created less room for error as we started advancing
11:17from one drill to the other the technicalities started compounding requiring more attention focus
11:22and precision head and eyes up head and eyes up i'm yeah look where you want to go
11:34i'm worse at the right turns all right we'll do a figure eight now we want to use as much
11:40of the
11:41real estate within the cone pattern as possible okay and the reason is because when we get to the
11:46advanced tighter turns we have to use all the real estate so if we're now making a figure eight we
11:54want
11:54to come and make the figure eight out here to set us up correctly to make figure eight on the
12:01other
12:02end because if you short yourself and you're turning here when we get to a tighter more advanced pattern
12:09you will not have enough room on the other side i see so while we're just practicing fundamentals and
12:14turns we're also practicing kind of spacing spacing and using all the real estate within this box
12:21because when we move to the smaller one we have to use all the real estate yeah okay once i
12:27understood
12:27what bill was talking about i started focusing on using all the available space inside the cone pattern
12:32every time i rush to turn or cut in early i leave myself no room for the next one and
12:37that became a
12:38much bigger problem once the cone pattern started getting tighter and more technical slowly i was
12:43starting to get more comfortable keeping my eyes up and linking turns together and once i understood how
12:48use the available space inside the box the entire drill started flowing a lot more naturally very
12:54good very good
13:04oh i'm pumped up the next drill was called the offset 90s and unlike earlier exercises this was an actual
13:13section from the full cone course the goal was to ride through the gates make tight u-turns then
13:18immediately line yourself up for the next section without running wide or clipping any cones these
13:23gates are wider than the uh figure eights and circles that we fundamentally started with it's the same
13:30principles uh you're gonna go through the first gate make that left turn set yourself up by coming out a
13:37little bit wide for the second gate and it's going to be basically a tear drop that is why we
13:42started
13:42with circles and figure eights everything we're doing here if you can do the figure eights you can make
13:47any turn through any of these patterns head and eyes clutch throttle okay push with your feet to make
13:52your turns okay and keep your you keep your body centered to counterbalance the the bike leaning okay
14:00all right i think you're gonna do great there we go give yourself plenty of room there you go
14:15head and eyes up look at your next cones
14:20control your speed with a clutch and throttle and just like that with bill's advice and affirmations
14:26i jumped into my first attempt at the offset 90s but couldn't manage passing through the
14:31first gate without knocking down a cone maybe bill spoke too quickly okay how did that feel it felt good
14:38i think yeah i mean i could tell i was still making some mistakes and like just you just need
14:44to run
14:45through it a couple of times to get it down again head and eyes keep them where they are if
14:49you need to
14:50make that speed adjustment in the middle it looked like you were kind of gaining speed um make that
14:56speed adjustment in between your turns if you have to okay again we can just apply a little rear brake
15:02kind of trail brake into the corner but we want to be off so that we can get the motorcycle
15:06down and
15:07that rear brakes not working against us while we're doing it and you can adjust with minimal
15:11movements with the clutch and throttle in between each gate okay this is good like you could you just
15:17you can feel when you do it right and when you make a mistake it's like it's so noticeable and
15:21then just
15:22make that small adjustment for the next gate okay you did great though you did better than most people
15:28i've trained on their first day but you have obviously a ton of motorcycle experience most
15:32people i've trained don't have that yeah yeah i got a little head start a little head start yeah
15:36okay here we go head and eyes
15:40trying to spot the next gate before completing the current gate was an exercise and peripheral vision
15:44as with most of the drills i started stiff tight and not confident but with practice and repetition
15:50i continued to improve and build confidence adjust your speed and on my second attempt i made the
15:57same mistake like driving a long truck or pulling a trailer i needed to be much more aware of the
16:02track
16:02my rear tire was following when it comes to the offset 90s swing wide truck driver style that one didn't
16:09feel as smooth yeah you were kind of rpms were up speed was kind of wonky yeah i was thinking
16:15a lot about
16:16that rear brake just need to uh just smooth it out and honestly it'll smooth out once you do it
16:21a
16:21couple of times crack once you do it one or you know one or ten more times honestly it'll smooth
16:26itself out completely uh still cut cut that one short same thing just when you make your left turn
16:31come out a little bit wider just and then teardrop around okay you're doing good though not feeling
16:38smooth on the controls my inputs were too abrupt sacrificing balance and rhythm let's try that again
16:46trying to follow the path of a teardrop would ensure proper spacing and positioning easier said than
16:52done i started to find a flow and gain confidence in the offset 90s but i was flirting with a
16:59close
17:00line inside the cones i'm going to learn to ride like a cop i'm going to have to master spacing
17:05in each
17:05pattern the offset 90s ended up taking a lot more attempts than i expected at first i kept knocking
17:13down cones at the gates turning in too tight and struggling to stay smooth through transitions
17:18every run exposed something different too much rear brake inconsistent throttle control not using enough
17:24space or just not committing enough with my vision and body position and just to make things worse
17:30cones weren't the only things tipping over whoa
17:36timber slowly though things started cleaning up the cone stopped falling over and i was mostly just tapping
17:42them instead the bike started flowing more naturally through the pattern and by my ninth attempt
17:46i was finally able to put a clean run together without any mistakes
17:52head and eyes coming around there you go just think smooth
18:14once i completed the course cleanly bill had me start running it in both directions and by that point i
18:20was
18:20finally starting to feel comfortable enough on the bike to stop thinking about every individual input and
18:26just ride the pattern naturally it also meant i was ready to move on to the next challenge we're
18:31gonna make a motor cop out of him uh no problem the next drill was called the intersection and by
18:37this
18:37point the patterns were starting to feel a lot less like individual exercises and a lot more like an
18:42actual flow course full u-turn quick transition into a tight right hand turn then immediately back into
18:49another u-turn on the opposite side fundamentally what do you need to do look at where i want to
18:55go head it up
18:56eyes up head and eyes up what other adjustments are we making on the bike um a little less rear
19:01brake
19:03um counter sit push the bike underneath counter balance the bike so we're using our legs to hold
19:08the motorcycle we want to be gripping here okay holding the motorcycle and we're pushing down with
19:13our feet on the pegs to move that but we're keeping our body upright with the with the ground okay
19:19and
19:19your adjustments you can come in and trail brake just a little bit before your u-turn okay and then
19:25let off and then power through last exercise we dab the rear brake a little bit too much you're just
19:32a
19:32little heavy on it a little less on that rear brake and that i think is going to cause the
19:36rpms to come
19:37down because you won't be trying to fight yourself and overcompensate the bike we want it to be just
19:43pulling itself okay all right okay start with just going down making a u-turn coming back making
19:50a u-turn and then when you're comfortable with that you can even switch directions start to make a figure
19:55eight okay as soon as you get comfortable switch directions and go the other way soon as we've got
20:00that down we'll move on to actually making it into a cross okay so where we're switching from that u
20:05-turn
20:06to now a quick right turn into a u-turn to a quick right turn yeah that looks tough okay
20:11okay it's not tough for you no head and eyes fundamentals okay
20:20just like the earlier drills it took me a few attempts to loosen up get comfortable
20:24and start instinctively applying the 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 we want to use up all the space okay the tight transitions required me throwing the bike from
20:45one side of the tire to the other before slipping the clutch and feeding the throttle out of all the
20:50drills before this one was the most technical requiring me to lean and counterweight the bike
20:54before slipping the clutch and applying power as a rider with motocross experience this sensation felt
21:00similar to dipping a bike into a rut and squirting out on the gas go all the way uh all
21:06the way to the
21:06very end and the only reason i'm saying go all the way to the very end is because
21:12shortly we're going to end up making that right u-turn and then a quick left turn okay so we
21:17don't
21:17want to be getting used to being here so we're not going to make that turn yeah okay
21:25come out here because now you're going to have time to make an adjustment
21:30to set up for this turn because things will happen quickly when you go from a right turn to a
21:35u-turn
21:35right turn or a left turn to a u-turn so even though it's very easy for you to make
21:40the turn here
21:42just practice making it as far out as you can hit those edges hit the edges absolutely okay the
21:49intersection drill had a rhythm to it a quick transition from left to right then immediately
21:53setting yourself up for the next turn and with bill constantly reminding me of the fundamentals
21:58keeping my head and eyes up using all the space and staying smooth on the controls things started
22:03clicking pretty quickly head and eyes coming around that sounds fantastic you're right at that point
22:09where the bike's pulling so you're right at that friction zone just like a rider hitting their marks
22:15on a racetrack i was beginning to understand where the bike needed to be positioned before the next turn
22:19and with every lap consistency started to build confidence the more i rode it the lighter the
22:25bike started to feel and the more i trusted those quick transitions from one side to the other
22:29hey very good very good the final drill of the day was a full course figure eight on paper it
22:37looked
22:37similar to the first drill we started with but the added cones and tighter spacing made it feel a whole
22:42lot more intimidating instead of focusing on just two cones and open space now i had to stay smooth and
22:47consistent while working in a much tighter and more confined pattern this is uh no smaller than all of
22:55the turns we've been making there's just cones all the way around the edge so visually it looks more
23:02deceiving this is where what really comes into play other than we've been talking about all the fundamentals
23:09of riding this one really is use all of your real estate but we want to be along the edge
23:16of this
23:16pattern and again we want to set ourselves up for the next turn so any speed adjustment can easily be
23:23made in between these two turns okay it's a smooth transition we adjust whatever speed we need but we
23:30can't short ourselves if we try to turn here we are not going to make it out that exit yep
23:36use up all the
23:38real estate you've heard that term several times today use up all your real estate you have plenty of room
23:43why not use it make it easy on yourself and come outside and go as far as you can okay
23:49around here
23:50okay same size is everything else we've been doing it just visually looks different because of the
23:56number of cones yeah and then you can either stay in and keep doing figure eights to practice or
24:02technically this is the exit out of it okay stay 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 this required all the fundamentals and techniques of the previous drill
24:21but now demanded full lock steering throwing the bike from one side of the lock to the other was the
24:27skill i feared the most right we're pushing that one i struggled with head and eyes come around
24:33if your head and eyes don't come around it's much harder that's why fundamentally we always start with
24:38the basics head and eyes here your head and eyes have to come around okay and then again more legs
24:44and
24:44legs and feet yeah we should be pushing uh yeah you look like you were sitting a little more upright
24:49and
24:49just turning versus trying to push down on the bike yeah but once you do it once or twice you
24:53get the feel
24:53okay yeah much better your head came around you should be looking all the way over there okay
25:17hey that was great you made a micro adjustment with your speed over here okay
25:23much smoother just like all the drills before i started off timid and rigid hesitation led to
25:30mistakes which robbed the rhythm i'd built from the previous drills but with practice came improvement
25:38oh nope you still got it you have plenty of room
25:51you made a small adjustment coming with your clutch over here to adjust your speed and
25:56hesitated through one of your turns yeah we're a little more upright but then you made that adjustment
26:00and dipped the bike and yeah yeah the right hander because i struggle more with the right where i was
26:05yeah push with your feet get the bike down yeah
26:26oh i'm hesitating i have that that hesitation came back
26:30tried to stay committed to the head to keep it up but again we're just counter balancing the bike
26:36that's all we're doing counter balancing the motorcycle okay
26:41little less rear brake just barely feather it
26:45your turns are good like you're lock to lock and you're lean
26:48lock to lock and lean is good little less i'm just just a little less not much
26:54after a handful of mistakes and a lot of hesitation things finally started to click
26:58the biggest breakthrough came once i backed off the rear brake and started trusting the bike through
27:02the turns yeah head and eyes around that looks great i can tell you're getting comfortable because
27:08you're accelerating in between each figure eight oh yeah like right now you're accelerating uh yeah
27:15i'm just not even i'm way less on the bread the rear brake that was really hurting me
27:21fighting the rear brake so much with my head and eyes up smoother throttle control and less input
27:26fighting the bike the entire figure eight started flowing a lot more naturally by the end of the day
27:31i was riding the pattern cleaner smoother and with a lot more confidence than when 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 i dropped the bike a few times but by the end of the
27:51day
27:52i started to get a handle on these skills and drills my confidence was up so for today we're
27:57gonna do a lead follow with bill he's gonna take me through the entire course see how everything
28:01connects and then we're gonna do a head-to-head time trial against bill to see how my time stacks
28:06up against his before we jumped into the full course bill walked me through the entire layout to show
28:11me how all the cone patterns connected together and once he started to explain where the bike needed
28:16to be positioned for each section the whole thing started looking a lot less random and a lot more
28:21calculated every turn was really just setting up for the next one but before trying to piece the
28:26entire course together i figured it was probably a good idea to warm back up and revisit some of the
28:31drills from the day before reciting to myself all the techniques i learned the day before as i practiced
28:43the five fundamental drills i tried to get loose and find a rhythm the next challenge would be my biggest
28:49yet all right i warmed up did a couple more drills what's next we're going to do a follow leader
28:56through
28:56the speed course this is going to put together every individual cone pattern that you've successfully
29:03completed we're not going to rush through it at any type of high speed this is going to be just
29:09to get
29:09the pattern of the course itself and linking all the different cone patterns together uh eventually
29:17once we've done that a couple of times we'll work into uh a little more work a little more speed
29:23into it
29:23okay all right you just need to follow me sir okay let's do it having you ready yep ready
29:30bill took off quicker than i expected i thought he said we were starting off slow i can't imagine
29:35what fast looks like to him trying to catch up i cut the first corner short and nearly tipped over
29:40not off to a great start i needed to stay relaxed breathe and study bill's lines it was all about
29:46spacing and positioning maximize every possible inch if not you are bound to fail the cone course is more
29:53mentally strenuous than physically
30:01so
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
30:26felt impossible but 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
30:43than others my goal today is to complete the course without knocking over a cone and avoid another fall
31:02all right good job that was yeah i knocked some cones over even i got one i put my foot
31:08down a couple
31:08times too but yeah wow yeah i saw a little bit of a little bit of a struggle in the
31:14far one before
31:15we started yeah yeah that's right just cut you probably cut your turn too short because it looked
31:21like you were on the far end of the yeah so right after the fire hose start that left turn
31:26before that
31:27right turn yeah i think i i started it all wrong from the beginning and that caught up to me
31:32okay i cut it
31:33early early early early and then it was just yeah i was just watching the tail i caught the tail
31:37end of
31:38it and i'm like oh he's really far yeah yeah coming into it i was like i'm not making this
31:42yeah i could
31:42tell and it's probably a little different following me like having someone directly in front of you
31:47yeah because that's the first time that we've had you directly in front of or directly behind me
31:53mm-hmm so and yeah i struggled with the the the slalom right here i missed half of them the
31:58slow
31:58hit one the slow cone weave is difficult yeah that was like it's very difficult upright slow and lock
32:04to lock yeah we're not leaning the bike and counterbalancing at all it's all upright lock to
32:09lock okay yeah but you did great appreciate it yeah you did great that was fun i like that we
32:14ended up
32:15running the full course a few more times and after each attempt bill would stop and break down what i
32:19was doing right and where i was still struggling by the third lead follow run bill had me right in
32:24front so he could watch how i approached each section of the course on my own and while i was
32:29definitely still making mistakes here and there the entire layout was finally starting to connect
32:33together in my head instead of feeling like a bunch of separate cone patterns which meant there was
32:38only one thing left to do put down a timed run and see how i stacked up against bill bill
32:44was up first
32:44and watching him ride the full course really put into perspective how much scale this actually takes
32:57everything looked smooth controlled and effortless he wasn't just riding through
33:01the patterns he was linking every section together with speed and precision in a way that made the
33:06entire course flow the craziest part was how calm it looked from the outside because from the seat of
33:19the bike i knew 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
33:56when 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 at this point if i could somehow get into
34:08the two minute range i'd be pretty stoked all right here we go you know what to do you learn
34:15the drills
34:17put it together but smooth is fast focus on hitting your marks that's all you can do hit your marks
34:25the speed will come
34:27don't worry about bill's time worry about your technique your skills okay smooth is fast finish first first
34:36you gotta finish attempting to get a fast start i bring the revs up and drop the clutch coming into
34:43the
34:43first turn i get hard on the brakes without triggering the abs the 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 i'm focused on using every bit of available space
35:29and not cutting the turns short there's not much room for air 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 a quick downshift and hard application to the brakes i whip the bike around
35:49and get back on the gas a quick dip and dive through the chicane and i'm free without any issues
36:04for a
36:05moment i blink on where the course goes next and start heading left but catch myself just in time to
36:10turn right toward the full course figure eight
36:34entering the offset 90s i remind myself not to get greedy on corner entry and clip the inside cone
36:40feathering the rear brake slipping the clutch and keeping the rpm steady
36:43i haven't made a big mistake yet
36:57rounding the final corner i head toward the finish but 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 no okay that was fun my arms are all punked up dude i
37:26don't know if
37:26i could do another lap what was the time 233 with and he might have rubbed the cone but didn't
37:31knock
37:32any over i had a penalty of 230 but 233 i guess for anything yes 233 79 uh we'll make
37:39a motor cop out of
37:40him uh yeah we just got to get him a haircut and uh mustache yeah yeah because the buzzer that
37:46was an
37:46excellent run it looked great yeah it really did that's fun yeah it's so much fun like this is just
37:51a blast it's technique wise you look look solid uh you're wondering for that okay yeah really really
37:56good you've earned the honda motor officer challenge coin oh look at that
38:03i'm gonna take this out here or you might not be okay i know it's on look at it i
38:08got my usa one
38:10so team america honda motor unit let's go so how hard is it to ride like a motor cop honestly
38:18harder
38:19than it looks a lot harder i came into this thinking it was all about learning how to weave through
38:24cones
38:24and throw a big motorcycle around at slow speeds but after two days out here i realized it has a
38:29lot less
38:30to do with cones and a lot more to do with fundamentals look where you want to go trusting
38:34the bikes staying smooth on the controls and being consistent every single time and sure getting
38:40within a few seconds of bill's time felt pretty good but that was really never the point the point
38:45wasn't beating an experienced motor officer it was learning something new and becoming a better
38:49rider than i was two days ago we spent a lot of time as riders chasing horsepower faster lap times
38:55and the next upgrade for our bikes but sometimes the biggest improvement you can make
38:59isn't the motorcycle underneath you it's the rider sitting on top of it
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