It was an overcast April evening when Wendy and Lilian set off to attend the California Superbike School. No, we were not off on one of overseas adventures again, this time it was a short ride to Silverstone.

We arrived the night before at a very interesting B&B, where we got to our room through the owners lounge, and breakfast was served over a deep well with a glass cover!

At 7am we header off to Silverstone track, and after getting signed in, our clothing checked,  we settled down to listen to the first briefing.

Everyone has to start with Level 1 and the day consisted on a classroom session where Andy gave us a task, like turn on the yellow cross and then we had around 25mins on the Stowe circuit to practise. Everyone is assigned a coach who watches you for the day and gives you advice and advises on your progress.  Initially the exercises may seem strange, but by the end of the day, the 5 exercises all come together and you realise just how much you have learnt.

Gluttons for punishment, we returned the next day for Level 2 which is all about vision techniques.  By the end of my two days as you can see I was really enjoying myself and yes I can lean that bike and thanks to the professional photographer on hand I have some great memories of my weekend which also includes Wendy saying she had brought the ambulance over (all I needed was some Imodium, they didn’t have any, but did have morphine!)  and I was awarded runner-up as most improved student on the day.

It wasn’t until I started riding home that I realised how all the techniques I had learnt at the school helped my riding and it definitely helped those twisties in Germany. It may be expensive but I highly recommend it. Now should I return for Level 3 and learn how to get my knee down?