A couple of months ago, I attended the Yamaha Champions Riding School. It was pretty cool!
What is Yamaha Champions Riding School?
Yamaha Champions Riding School (YRCS) is a motorcycle training school that teaches racetrack techniques but tailored for the everyday rider. The instructors are all world-class racers so you’re really learning from the best of the best. I’ve heard really good things about YRCS’s 2-Day ChampSchool, which is their flagship program where you spend 2 days on a closed-course track and they teach you a bunch of racing techniques and you get to actually try them out on a track.
I’ve always wanted to do a motorcycle track day, and what better way to do it through a course?
You’d think that being in a closed-course would be safe and nice and chill, right? NO IT WAS FREAKING SCARY BRUH. But it was a very fun experience.
The Logistics
After booking the school at Chuckwalla, the first question I had was “Ok, how do I get my motorcycle there?”
Of course, I can just ride there on my motorcycle. But that’s probably not ideal because:
- The track is 3 hours away
- I need to bring additional gear that may not fit in a backpack
- If something happens to my motorcycle, I have no way to bring it home
General advice on Reddit says to “just rent a U-Haul motorcycle trailer and tow your bike” but I don’t have access to a car that can tow. So I just ended up renting both a U-Haul pickup truck and a U-Haul motorcycle trailer. It was kind of pricey ($400ish) but oh well it was the most optimal.
I never towed anything in my life, so I had to watch a bunch of videos on how to set up the towing rig, how to strap down my motorcycle, and general towing best practices.
Also, since it was a 2-day course, I had to find lodging. I ended up just booking 2 nights at the Chuckwalla cabins nearby, since all the other lodging options were about a mile away.
The School Experience
The school itself was really really amazing. We were split into two groups (more experienced riders and less experienced riders) and alternated between classroom sessions and on-track sessions. We did tons of drills that really helped with our techniques.
One of my favorite exercises was the two-ups, where an instructor would ride around the track with a student as a passenger. (The bikes had grab handles mounted on the gas cap. It would be weird for us to hold onto the instructor directly.) The point for this exercise was to show the student all the correct lines, when/where to brake, when/where to look, by being directly on the bike ridden by a professional. And you may think “Ah okay, cool demonstration, very nice.”
But no, these guys were riding 160-horsepower MT-10s that can go 0-60 mph in just 3 seconds. And when I say they were going fast, they were going fast. Every turn they went so quickly they carried so much lean angle that I felt like I can reach over and touch the ground. And on every straightaway or corner exit, they’d accelerate so much I was hanging onto the grab handle for my dear life. If I had let go, I’d just be flung off the bike and probably die.
-CVR-4243-Feb1926-245PM-Cali-Photo.jpg)
Besides the riding experience, we had some pretty good food and I had the opportunity to chat with some folks. Everyone was super nice and super helpful, but also probably lowkey super wealthy too. When the instructors had each of us introduce ourselves, I noticed that the students were either:
- Business owners/entrepreneurs
- Worked in high-paying fields (a pilot, an engineer, and another cybersecurity guy besides me)
- Retired from the above
So, yeah. Seeing how motorcycling is an expensive hobby, this makes sense, but also felt really weird since I was hanging out in a totally different tax bracket than I’m supposed to be in.
Is It Worth It?
If you have the money, the time, and the means to do it, I think it’s worth it. It was definitely worth it for me, and I got some pretty sweet pictures from it too. But I did learn a lot and was able to practice these techniques on a closed-course track with instructor feedback. Had I practiced these on the twisties, I’d probably be way too afraid to really drill these techniques due to gravel and oncoming traffic and other sketch stuff that happens on the twisties.
However, as for purely course content, I feel like the ChampU course covers everything you need to know. The videos are very well explained and they have drills for you to do as well. But getting customized feedback and just getting myself on the track made all the difference.