HART level 8&9 - Advanced 1 vs. Level 6/7 Intermediaate

Hey all

Just in case anyone's planning to take a HART course in the near
future, here's my advice:

6/7 and 8/9 are basically exactly the same. You do the same things, in
the same order. They hold the 8/9 at Calder park, but you don't use the
race track; you use the pit lane in the Thunderdome area. 8/9 is a bit
faster, but only a bit, as the course is very tight and technical
anyway. You do get to do your emergency braking from a higher speed at
Calder.

Both courses are good fun and great practice, but I wouldn't bother
doing the 6/7 and then the 8/9 unless you wanted to brush up on what
you learned last time. A few of us were pretty disappointed that the
8/9 wasn't more different, and the tarmac at Calder is pretty cracked
and lumpy compared to the nice smooth stuff at Sharps Rd.

All in all, I reckon you're better off doing the 8&9 course straight
off, as there's more insurance leverage with an advanced certificate
than an intermediate, and the 8/9 is a pre-requisite for the level 10
Advanced 2 course. Having said that, they're not running any level 10
courses at the moment - it's a racetrack course at Broadford and
they're waiting on new bikes before they fire it up again; their 600
Hornets are getting a bit long in the tooth.

I gotta say, I reckon any training's money well spent. I might book in
for the superbike school next, that looks like a blast.


Loz

 

Hiya Loz.
I did the lvl 8/9 course a few Yrs ago at Calder, It was ok, learnt a
fairbit actually, unlearnt some bad habits. I didn't get to do the lvl 10
course though, That was being done on the race cicuit at Calder, A mate of
mine did it there & said it was great fun.
What are they replacing the Hornets with?
--
Aido. >
Bikeless. >

PS: I agree with you when you said that Any training is better than no
training.


in message:

 

Something that outruns Tarago's?

 

At the moment they're looking at getting a fleet of CBR600Fs, stripping
the fairings off and plonking the crash bars on (the crash bars got a
workout on Saturday - including one spectacular stack in the emergency
braking run right in front of everyone.

So basically, same engine as the Hornets, but with lower bars and a rat
bike look Either that or they'll try to import a bunch of Hornet
400s from o/s. It's not like it really matters, skills stuff is easier
on smaller bikes anyway. My 900F felt a bit tanky after getting off the
6.

 

I did the HART 8/9 here in Sydney about a month ago. They've gotten
rid of all their 'big' bikes (they had Hornet 600s once upon a time,
apparently) in part (they said) 'cos the punters tended to prefer
to use their own bikes.

So I did the course on my yzf1000rj (thunderace, not r1). Had
no particular dramas with the big bike, but then I suspect that
slow speed stuff might be my forte - I've done the HART provisionl
(learners) preparation course on the yzf1000 too, and I had no
trouble keeping up with the little tackers on their learnerbikes
in the cone weaves and u-turns and stuff. Obviously, the yzf
stops a bit better than your average leanerbike!


When they did the throttle control bit, sweeping turns from
right to left and back without ever changing out of first gear,
our instructor set up a learner-style-but-eight-cones-instead-
of-five cone weave over the back of the circuit (HART in Sydney
have the old NSW Police Driver Training School grounds at St
Ives, so they have a small road circuit through the bush, its
pretty good, but dodging ducks, snakes and wallabies is an
additional part of the Sydney curriculum!).

I was the wanker who did the cone weave three times in a row
with my left hand on my thigh - no clutch.



Having talked to folks who did the Sydney 8/9 course on company
bikes (Hornets) in the past, I did come away with the impression
that HART don't ask you to thrash your own bike quite as hard
as they (apparently) encourage you to thrash the company bikes.

One young feller commented that he got his Kawasaki somethingorother
600 (ZX maybe?) airborne around the back of the top circuit trying
to keep up with me, but apart from that, I don't think anyone came
even remotely close to dropping a bike or stacking or anything.


GB

 

You can't thrash a 600 Hornet They don't encourage you to thrash
(mistreat) the bikes, however on this course and the Level 10 course they do
encourage you to explore the limits of the bike's cornering and braking
traction, and this where the advantage of using the HART bikes is because most
people will be reluctant to really explore these limits on their own bikes.

None of the bikes at the Level 8/9 or 10 courses I did were dropped, not even
when we were doing practice front wheel lockups on the grass.

Nev..
'03 ZX12R

 

Stripped CBRs sounds interesting. When I did my lvl 8/9, My own bike was a
2000 Hornet 6S, I hadn't long actually baught it after writing of both me &
my 99 600 Hornet, So the there was adjustment time req for me. I think
they're a underated bike.