The i2i Motorcycle Academy is run by Tom Killeen at various locations across the country, the nearest to Kent being Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedford.
I managed to get on the last course of the year, Machine Control 1 at the end of September. With a start time on 9am and registration 20 minutes before it was an early start from Pluckley, before sunrise and I blessed my heated grips as the sun started to make an appearance into what turned out to be a lovely day.
Machine Control is a series of courses held away from traffic and purely focuses on how a motorcycle works and how the rider interacts with it. Tom has a friendly and engaging approach to training and with the help of Colm, a talented assistant, demonstrated what was required of us before each exercise. Machine Control 1 is the first of a series of courses available which progress your skills and riding techniques with the higher-level modules providing a motorcycle to ride (Triumph Street Triple). These include a knee down course where full leathers are required and advanced and extreme braking. I am a relatively new rider (3 years) and sometimes encounter issues where I feel I am entering corners too quickly which results in slowing the bike on entry or I am just a little slower than the conditions would allow. Researching the issue, I knew I needed the confidence and ability to lean the bike faster and perhaps further and this lead me via recommendation of a friend to the i2i Academy and got myself booked in.
After registration we all (around 16 riders) had chance to introduce ourselves and what we hoped to improve or take away from the day. The morning starts with how we as riders mentally engage with riding and how to interpret our feelings to positively impact how we behave. Our posture, where to place your feet, knees and backside on the saddle all lead to good balance and remove the load from the handlebars. With the riding positioning understood you get to learn how stable the bike is whilst its moving and riding without hands to establish the ‘death grip’ is not only unnecessary but a hindrance to how a bike recovers its posture after an interruption in the road surface. You then progress to experiment on how to interact with the handlebars, how to push / pull and to what degree to obtain the lean required. Although this all sounds like basic stuff it was great to experiment in a relatively safe environment and I quickly found a greater level of confidence.
Moving on to grip, Tom explained how grip improved as the bike turned, demonstrated by Colm this was quite eye opening and understanding how we can improve and maintain grip through bends really assisted with my own personal goal. There was plenty of practice time with a sweeping corner to build confidence and to get the bike correctly leaned over in a timely fashion to make the corner in one fluid and safe manoeuvre, maintaining speed throughout. To be clear, this course is not designed for track riding or how to ride fast, it’s focused on safe road riding, developing skills to help keep you safe and calm.
After some time focusing on cornering, we moved our attentions on to the mechanics of changing direction, dispelling the myths, and focussing on what works you are able to test for yourself to see and understand what works with the most efficiency.
Brake control is covered and practiced on the course with good explanation of how to apply the brake and to stop efficiently but I understand that Machine Control 2 goes much deeper into this aspect of riding. It was a great experience to stop quickly from 40MPH and see stopping distances shrink as your confidence grows. There are not many places where you can repeatedly practice this, and the time was a valuable addition to the day.
Concluding the itinerary was turning and slow riding which was completed with the bike in first gear, clutch fully out which after IAM slow riding seemed fast to me but it was interesting to see that the bike could still make tight turns at speed although I struggled to lean the bike far enough to get a tight enough radius. Something that will require more practice to conquer!
I would recommend this course to anyone wishing to improve their confidence or riding skills of all abilities as the course focuses on your personal feelings and behaviours as well as riding techniques. There were plenty of experienced riders there on the day including a fellow IAM member, Observer and Master who agreed the day was money well spent. We all have experienced situations that influence how we then react and behave on the bike this is the perfect environment to overcome these difficulties or areas that need a little help.
Millbrook is not a cheap venue to hire so this is reflected in the course cost which was £190. It finished just after 2pm allowing time to be home for dinner. The next sessions will start again next spring and can be booked via the i2i Motorcycle Academy website. Unfortunately, being a vehicle test facility cameras and photography are not permitted at the venue so I am unable to provide any shots of my amazing riding prowess on the day so you’ll just have to take my word for it!
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