Photography: Aditya Bedre & Team
After attending California Superbike School in 2024 with over three decades of riding experience, I spent the better part of the year, trying to put into practice and remember what was taught during CSS Levels 1, 2 & 3. Some things definitely improved, but I felt something wasn’t still quite right with the way I was riding. I couldn’t turn in quicker, nor was I able to relax as much on the bike as I would have wanted to. There was only one way to get better. So, it was time for me to go back to school – California Superbike School, class of 2025.
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California Superbike School was founded by Keith Code in 1980 and offers a structured curriculum focussed on improving riding techniques and safety. Today, it operates in 27 countries around the world, with California Superbike School India setting up its first school at the Madras Motorsports Club track in Chennai back in 2010. A renowned team of international coaches has since been coming to India over the past 15 years to impart training to students at the school.
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What do the coaches have to say?
And despite the name having “superbike” in it, CSS isn’t limited to litre-class sportbikes, or high-performance motorcycles only. It’s open to all kinds of motorcycles, and you can sign up for the school, regardless of experience, skill level, or the motorcycle you ride. Whether you’re a novice or seasoned rider, the school offers invaluable knowledge and expertise to help you become a safer and more proficient motorcyclist.
Levels 1, 2 & 3 of CSS focus on the fundamentals – imparting some skills which some of us are aware of subconsciously, and other more important ones which need to be practiced consciously to see the benefits. Level 4 is more focussed on individual areas of improvement, based on the same drills taught in the first four levels.
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CSS has a long line-up of international coaches who work with students, regardless of the Level one is attending. Dylan Code, the son of CSS founder Keith Code, and Martin Plunkett, are the Seminarists, who double up as classroom teachers, head coaches and individual coaches as well. For me, Dylan was the coach for Level 1, while Martin took over as coach for Level 2 and Level 3. Martin took classroom sessions for Level 1, while Dylan took over classroom duties for Level 2 and 3.
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Each classroom session is followed by a track session where your individual on-track coach will follow and lead you, reminding of what drill and technique you need to work on. Each track session is immediately followed by a debrief by the same coach in the pits. A typical day will include 5 sessions, three before lunch and two after lunch. In every session you will be required to try out a drill and do an on-track assignment which will be communicated to you during the classroom session.
As you progress through the drills, the earlier drills will also need to be incorporated every time you move on to the next session. For example, throttle control will be used throughout all the drills, as will vision, choosing reference points, and so on. Some drills are optional, depending on the corner and approach speed. For instance, you may or may not use the quick turn drill at every corner, depending on your choice and how you approach that particular corner.
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Lesson one at CSS kick-started with a steering drill in the morning, followed by the first classroom lesson to apply the throttle “smoothly, evenly and constantly.” Throttle control, or the instruction to open your right hand “smoothly, evenly and constantly” was a drill which is repeated several times during the lessons through the day to make you and your bike more stable and confident around corners.
That lesson is behind basic physics of a motorcycle. Opening the throttle maximises contact patch on rear wheel and offers more weight on rear wheel, resulting in a stable bike. Rolling off the throttle puts the weight on the front wheel. So, on and off throttle destabilises the bike because of uneven contact patches. The lesson to keep in mind is that good throttle control is crucial to maintain the motorcycle’s stability. And a stable motorcycle results in holding the line around a corner.
The next lessons in Level 1 are to learn how to get the best lines around a corner. The fundamental is simple – straighten out the line around a corner, with one steering input and good throttle control. And figuring out a turning point is crucial for a good line to get as close to the apex to get good speed around a corner. The next lesion in Level 1 is how to learn how to do quick turns – which involves counter steering the bike to the required lean angle, applying the throttle (smoothly, evenly and constantly) to go turn in quickly around a corner.
The final two lessons in Level 1 is to learn to relax first and then do the two-step drill. Relaxing on the motorcycle is all about not holding the handlebar tight. Contrary to what many riders subconsciously do, holding the handlebar tight may result in one or several situations which may result in an unstable bike. You could lose traction, wobble, go wide and become unstable. To relax, the rider needs to use the knees to grip the tank – outside knee to hold the bike in a corner, both knees to grip the tank during braking, and place the feet on the balls of your feet on the pegs, using the calf muscles to push the knees up to grip the tank. As its name suggests, the relax drill is about keeping the upper body free.
So, even when around a corner, the coach will ask you to flap your arms – to indicate that your grip on the handlebars is relaxed and you are using your lower body to grip the bike. The two-step drill sounds simple in theory but goes a long way in getting your line right. The two steps in this drill is to first locate the turn-in point, but before you hit the turn point, you have to look into the corner and identify the apex – the closest point to the inside of the corner as the rider passes through.
So, day one of CSS ends with the two-step drill after a long day. Brake, grip with both knees, identify the turning point, and then the apex, all the while using the throttle smoothly, evenly and constantly. And you must remember to relax on the bike (counter steering with a push of the bar) and using the outside knee to grip the bike when leaned over to hit the apex. Yeah, quite a lot of things to remember – but if you’ve signed up for CSS, you better be attentive and try and apply on track whatever is taught in class!
Day 2 of CSS is Level 2. And it’s all about vision – how to look, where to look, and how to use your peripheral vision. First up is learning to use reference points on the track to make a smooth flow of visual information. The first drill was to do the 3-step, which is to identify a turn point, the apex and the exit. Important lesson here is that the exit is not a specific point, but a general area which could be changing and is dynamic in nature.
Next up is “wide view,” which is to make you have a better sense of location, better sense of the line, and better sense of danger. Vision is extremely important, and the drills you are made to go through will not just make you safer and smoother on track but will also translate to using the same skills on the street. Better vision and awareness on the street are crucial for safety and more awareness of danger. Following wide view, is “wide view transitions” which will have you use peripheral vision to cue up the next reference point in your line.
The last lesson in Level 2 is braking, or more specifically, “trail braking,” which will have you release the brake lever as you lean into a corner. Trail braking helps precise speed around a corner, and the idea is to match speed and lean of turn. Easier said than done and needs some practice. But once you get the hang of it, trail braking is an important skill, one that will have you approach almost every corner with trail braking coming in automatically.
The third day, or Level 3, is all about body positioning – how to sit and when and how to move your body while riding. In fact, one of the most valuable lessons is to “move your ass while on the gas!” Body position early is what is the first lesson, where students are asked to keep lower body in position early, in preparation for the corner. The instructions are not to put too much weight on the pegs, and to push down on the outside peg to lock your knee on the bike. It’s not so easy to explain in words how to change body position on the bike and to reduce instability while changing body position. The idea is to minimise inputs to the bike while doing so, like steering or throttle. Also important is to learn knee to knee transitions across chicanes.
Next up on Level 3 is the hip flick which is a lesson in how to get across the bike quickly while changing body position. The drill is to use the outside leg to flick the hips quickly from knee to knee in left to right or right to left corners. The last two drills, the hook turn, and pick up, are used to avoid running wide, by adjusting speed and direction using body position. The hook turn involves moving the body forward in a corner to put more lean and weight on the front tyre to make the bike more stable. Last lesson is the pick-up drill, which is learning how to make the bike vertical from being leaned over in a shorter period of time.
Needless to say, the drills at CSS don’t sound easy, and they aren’t, as long as you remember what is being taught during the course of the three levels of training. But with three packed consecutive days of lessons, on-track sessions and debriefs, CSS is an intense course, for sure. For anyone looking to get the most of CSS, you need to be attentive, disciplined and go with a willingness to let go of old habits, some of which you may think have been correct all the time, and to start learning something new.
If you want to attend CSS, you can take your own bike or take rental TVS Apache RTR 200s or TVS Apache RR 310s at the track. The RR 310 is a friendly and forgiving motorcycle, and I’d strongly recommend it to anyone attending CSS for the first time, which is what I did during my first time at CSS. For any student, the TVS Apache RR 310 offers a superb platform to concentrate on the classes, instructions and the drills at hand, without worrying about making mistakes that will lead to panic. That is, unless you end up doing something drastically stupid, of course.
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This time around, I wanted a slight bump in performance, and chose the KTM RC 390, provided by our friends at Bajaj/KTM India. My bike was kitted out with Apollo Alpha H1 tyres which provided enough and more grip for a confident outing for the three days of attending CSS. The RC 390 also offers decent performance and could take on much bigger sports bikes around some corners to provide you with some entertainment! And gunning it around a track like MIC, while focussing on the drills and lessons at hand is quite enjoyable as well.
My advice – do not focus on the bike too much. Take your own if you want to but please pay attention in class. And try and apply what is instructed in the classroom while you’re out on track. Most of all – do not be stiff on the motorcycle; learn to relax, with arms loose and enjoy every session while following the instructions of your coach. You will feel much less tired at the end of each day. After all, it’s all about having a good time out on the circuit.
The biggest takeaway from attending CSS a second time was being able to relax more on the bike. So much so, that most of us were quite wiped out by the last few sessions. By the third day, exhaustion or not, I was feeling more relaxed, smoother, faster and calmer on the bike and around the track than ever before. I could have possibly wrapped up a couple of more sessions at the circuit, just because I was enjoying practising my drills so much.
For me, along with throttle control, vision, reference points and quick turn, the hook turn and pick up were two invaluable lessons which I intend to keep practising. This time around, I think I will remember most of what transpired at CSS to put into practice on the next track outing and more. I came back to CSS for a second time to get some finesse. After the first school, I felt I was still not a natural – something which should make me feel more at east after this time around.
Before CSS, many a track day felt like a chore, with days afterwards of nursing sore muscles, stiff limbs and an aching body. After CSS, track days have become more enjoyable. In fact, I’ll now go and often approach corners of any track, looking for reference points, the line I’d want to take to hit the apex, and the correct exit speed.
At almost 50 years of age, CSS has certainly been an eye opener, and some of the drills and lessons taught in school come naturally, while you’re out on the street, on two wheels, or four! Do I recommend attending CSS? Definitely! If you ride a motorcycle - any kind of motorcycle, you should attend, at least once!
