So, in addition to having an ever growing case of new bike lust, as mentioned in my New Bike Deliberations blog entry, I’m also spending a lot of time looking at all the track schools that are now available.

There are some track schools, most notably national schools like Reg Pridmore’s CLASS and Keith Code’s California Superbike School, which have been around for many, many years. I’ve heard good things about them and undoubtedly would learn a lot from either. Likewise, a local friend runs a school called Go 4 It which would be nice, since being a local instructor means I could work with him repeatedly to improve my riding. But its the star-power of many of these newer schools that really blows me away.

First, Jason Pridmore started his STAR School. Learning from an active AMA Superbike racer would we impressive, particularly since I’ve heard Jason and his instructors are great teachers. Riding with even the most skilled racer would be a a waste of time if they don’t have the people skills necessary to pass along that knowledge.

But two more schools have opened over the past few years which dwarf Pridmore’s fame in leaps and bounds. Famed Grand Prix racer Freddie Spencer has started his High Performance Riding School at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and has heavyweight instructors like journalist Nick Ienatsch. Additionally, Spencer was able to leverage his relationship with Honda to get CBR600RR bikes for his school, as well as a fleet of XR100 bikes to do dirt track training exercises. Just the idea of sliding a muddy XR100 around a race track with Freddie Spencer makes this school seem like a dream vacation.

More recently, and just as impressively, ex-Grand Prix champ Kevin Schwantz has started a Suzuki sponsored school at Road Atlanta. Like Spencer, Schwantz has pull in an impressive array of talent to be co-instructors including ex-superbike champ Jamie James, WERA champs Tray Batey and Michael Martin, superbike racers Lee Acree, Opie Caylor and ex-World Superbike champ Tray Batey. Jeez-us, what a line-up. Additionally, its at Road A which is a far cooler track than a NASCAR track in Vegas.

But not content to have Walter Mitty visions of tearing around a race track with an ex-world champion giving me pointers, there is also Danny Walker’s American Supercamp, a class focused entirely on dirt track and using XR100s. I know a few folks that have taken this and all of them say you learn more about throttle control in one day that in a decade of street riding. The only downside is that you need to be about twice as fit as I’ve been in the past decade. I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to walk if I took the class…Guess I shoulda made a New Year’s resolution…

And today, Suzuki announced a Supermoto class at Road America in Wisconsin. Do these people never tire of finding new ways to torture me!?!?

Guess I’ll just have to spend a few more nights dreaming about riding classes to decide which one to take…or foresake a new bike in 2005 and just take them all!

[image from Freddie Spencer High Performance Riding School web site]