I recently (August 2003) attended my second motorcycle performance riding school at a track. My first was at Beaver Run. I'm going to tell you basically the differences between the two schools, so please read the first article first.

The "Motorcycle Performance Riding School" aka "Advance Street Riders School" was held by FASTTRAX at Nelson Ledges. FASTTRAX is based out of North Canton, Ohio (about 50 miles south of Cleveland) and Nelson Ledges is about 30 miles SE of Cleveland.

Turn 1 @ Nelsons

Back Straight between turn 11 & 12. I'm the 2nd from the left.

The school is $175 (but expected to be $279 next year). We arrived at the track at 7:15am. I registered and had my bike teched. It drizzled until about 8am. We had our drivers meeting around 8:15am, then the track walk. Everything seemed more organized then the Beaver Run class. There seemed to be less people at this event, maybe 55 or so people. They split us into two groups. The racers were in group A and the non-racers were in the B group. If you had taken the course at that track before and wanted to not start out as slow, they would put you in the A group.

Hot Pits, orange group getting ready to go out.

This time most of the classroom sessions were taught by the group leaders (last time I called them control riders) rather than the owner. They also had prepared lesson boards. The class sessions seemed to be less stories and more content. The class session reiterated what I needed to know plus filled in some gaps. The technique that helped me the most is "steering in turns via throttle".

back straight

The 30 minute track sessions alternated with the 30 minute classroom sessions. The track sessions started out slow, but each successive one got faster. The last couple were pretty fast. The last one we didn't have to stay in our group and could pass on the front/rear straights. We went about 120 miles, which is about 60 laps, which is considerately more then the last school I went to.

Front Straight

Nelson Ledges is a 2.0 mile natural roadcourse. Here is a track diagram (.PDF). It is very fast. The slowest corner you can take at 60mph. Most of the others you can take at 80-100mph. The straights are nice, long, and fast. A 1000cc bike can top out on the back straight (160mph). The surface is mostly asphalt, some of it is not great, but there were no potholes (there have been in previous years). The class sessions were held in a barn. The restrooms had running water. There was an observation tower.

Front Straight (I'm the third from the right)

There was one crash during the class. I don't think it was too bad though. I had a great time, I think I enjoyed it more then Beaver run (it might be just because it was my second class, or because the track was quicker). I'm getting a little bored of the time it takes to get up to speed, so I'll probably go in the "A" group at Baever Run in a couple weeks.

More hot pits

We stayed a while afterwards to watch some of the endurance racing. They sure do go alot faster then us......