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It's not
a place that makes much news - it's that way by design, so chances are you haven't even
heard about the HPCC. But Reg and some CLASS instructors got a chance to spend the day at
this desert oasis - riding and teaching on the test track and
having a jolly good time! No video or still pictures and
not even a track map to show you - if she did she'd have to kill
you... But drop in to see how the day went from Gigi's CBR600RR...
Under the Desert Sky
A rare day at the Honda Test Facility
Have you ever thought about who tests
motorcycles? Can you imagine that they must be put through some
serious paces in order to know where they can be improved? Not
just race bikes, but all bikes. I never gave it much thought at
all – as I go lap after lap, touch the button for start after
start and take the reliability of my bullet proof CBR600RR
totally for granted.
In December Reg got a call from Gary Christopher
at Honda. Gary asked if Reg could help them out and train some
test riders. These guys get paid to just ride and ride and ride
(nice work if you can get it!) but every now and then, they
destroy some perfectly good motorcycles. Hoping to reduce that
incidence, Gary thought of Reg and the Honda Sponsored CLASS
Motorcycle School to come out and give them some training. We
quickly hooked up with Steve, the manager out at the Honda test
facility, and arranged to meet with him.
The Honda Proving Center California is out
in the Mojave Desert, not too far from a little airport. An hour
from homebase at Santa Paula Airport in the Citabria or 3 hours
by car, Reg and I bundled up and jumped into the Citabria for a
flight to go check it out.
Steve met us at the airport and we headed out to
the track. This is really out in the middle of nowhere. Being a
local, Steve knows the shortcut and we head over a bouncy dirt
road for a few miles. Up another paved road a few more miles and
there it was, majestically standing in the middle of the desert
– a sign that said:
The compound is home to a 7.5 mile oval (!) with
almost 5 miles of twisty road courses taking up a very small
portion of the infield. They mostly test Honda and Acura cars
here but this is where the bikes get put through the paces too.
Next to the road courses are the Motocross and Supercross
tracks.
We turn in at the big sign and travel a couple
more miles up the road toward the gate and quickly learned that
security is extremely tight. This place is so low profile, we
hear there are even employees of Honda who have never heard
about it. Being with the manager is our ticket in so it’s easy
for us. Still, you don’t only check in here, you check out when
you leave too. “No, we don’t have a camera. No, my cell phone
doesn’t take pictures”. They take it and look at it to be sure.
We hear that pilots flying near the track have reported seeing
cars immediately heading for cover as they got close to the
facility. I don’t know exactly what they are testing but they
clearly don’t want any of their R&D getting out before its time.
The meeting goes well.
Fast forward to February 21
That’s
the date we set to teach a group of riders on the Winding Road.
The WR is a track, but it’s not actually a ‘race track’. There’s
not a lot of run-off, and there are some obstructions on the
pavement in a couple of places – designed to be rough on
equipment. But it’s got some fast turns, and it gets real
technical too - we soon found that it was a lot better than we
expected.
Not needing to bring a lot of bikes, we took the
mini-me of CLASS transporters: John’s Excursion towing his 4
bike box trailer. Reg took his VFR, my 600RR, a CBR600 for Phil
and John brought his CB919. Reg figured a variety of the milder
bikes would be more appropriate than a bunch of 1000s. And
anyway, the camera bike (a CBR1000RR) wasn’t invited.
The desert is cold in the winter time. It can be
really windy too. But it’s usually extremely clear and this part
of the Mojave is just beautiful. It’s breathtaking to take in
the panoramic views with visibility to the ends of the earth. I
think it’s actually obstructed only by mountains or the earth’s
curvature, it’s that clear out there. The colors are brilliant
with the bright blue sky contrasted by the earthy tones of
browns, orange and golden mountains. In the early morning and
late afternoon, the desert is one of my favorite places to be.
It’s like that at Willow too.
 Reg and I are joined by Fred on his Gold Wing –
it’s always a blast to watch Fred on the Gold Wing, knee on the
ground and sparks flying (no Fred, I don’t think that unusual
wear on the pegs and engine guards is a warranty issue), Phil,
Gary C, and John – 6 of us for this group of students. We all
met up the evening before at the hotel in Mojave, found a nearby
restaurant and a good meal, and talked about our plan for the
next day.
The next morning was cool, but not nearly as cold
as had been forecast. And this day we are very lucky. The cold
winds forecast never join us, and we have the perfect day for a
ride. Still, it was mid 30s early on which makes us bundle up to
keep warm. We arrive at HPCC just before 8:00 eager with
excitement for what the day would bring.
There’s a great little bungalow set fairly
adjacent to the track and in true Honda fashion, it was decked.
It had of course air conditioning and heat, coffee and even a
computer screen which tells up to the minute weather and winds,
and even the exact track temperature at any given time. We got
our cold, stiff leathers out of the trailer to lay them in the
sun, but quickly realized that putting them in the classroom was
the best way to warm them up. Talk about comfort, in the
bungalow even the toilet seats were warm! The lap of track
luxury in the desert it was.
Reg didn’t know who was going to be in the CLASS,
and the riders didn’t really know what they were in for this
day. They were simply asked to bring their own bikes for some
high speed training. Oh, and make sure the tires are good. Many
didn’t know who Reg was. Some were on Harleys. There were a
couple of Honda cruisers, some VFRs, a Gold Wing and even a
Suzuki GS500. Not the usual array of sport bikes, but we always
gear the school for everybody nonetheless. Reg warmed them up
easy – not wanting to offend any body as they were all
experienced riders.
After a riders meeting which was a little less
structured than the usual CLASS day, we take to the track in
pace lines. Most (but not all) of us had been around one lap in
a car, so we were really fresh. But using Reg’s formula, we
instinctively knew the line. After a couple of laps, things were
clicking along just fine.
The Winding Road
The track is a blast! Fred
says it was the most technical track he’s ever ridden, and he’s
ridden a few. My lap of the track goes like this: Turn one: a
long fast left hander that only gets faster on the exit which
I’ll call turn 2. Straight down to turn 3 a fast right hander –
except there are some good rough bumps right on the line which
makes you stay loose. Exit 3 and you go straight up a long hill.
It’s a 3rd gear
 hill with a “trust me” crest because
it looks like you’re gonna blast off the top of the world – I’d
say for sure steeper than going up to 7 at Laguna. Ted and Jim,
you would have definitely been practicing some wheelies here…
Down the hill and almost at the bottom there’s this lip – get
your braking down right or you’ll catch air (or is that the best
part?) and then you’re in turn 4. A flat left hander that
reminded me of turn 3 at Laguna – except of course it turned the
other way. But a totally flat turn with some snakes in it, those
made me respect it more than was probably necessary. On the gas down to 5. This was a way
cool turn – a fast banked looong left that looked like you
needed to slow down to get into, but you really didn’t need to
slow down much (well, I didn’t, but Ted would tell you that’s
because I’m already slow ;-). It went forever and then broke
into this right hander that looks fast, but then takes this
decreasing radius twist that baffled me much of the day. A great
skill builder though. If I went as fast as felt comfortable on
the entrance, but didn’t look far enough ahead, it would be very
easy to run off on the exit. By now we’re coming into 8 and this
one put the T in Technical: it’s a slow sharp hairpin
left. Go wide on the entrance and for reasons that I've been
edited from saying,
you better have some good suspension. The turn goes left and up
a short steep incline. Go wide on the exit and you’re down the
embankment. Hit it right and it takes you to the crest and then
down to a fast right, then left, then a right hand hairpin,
short straight another inclined left hairpin, over the blind
crest and you’re on the front straightaway.
As is usually the case, the straight was a great
place to pass, especially with my CBR600RR. It has the full
Erion Race exhaust system on it and such a sweet sound. I swear
that bike has a personality – not to mention some horsepower. A
couple of times I got behind the big Harley Dresser coming out
of the last turn and got on the gas hard to go by at a pretty
good clip. He later was looking at my bike and asked what I had
in there. I think he was impressed that it was “just” a 600.
The day went well with each session getting
faster and faster for everyone. The classrooms were really good
with input from all of the instructors and good questions from
the students. Reg gave several of the guys rides on the back of
his VFR and as usual, everyone got more and more excited as
their riding improved and their confidence grew. The cruiser
guys were starting to hang off and you couldn’t wipe the smiles
off their faces.
At the end of the day, almost all of them were
planning on taking another CLASS one day soon. Reg handed out a
couple of books to the guys that were most improved. Then tired
and happy, we called it a day. Loaded up and another good meal
behind us, we headed back to Santa Paula, John at the wheel with
Reg up front, me stretched out in the back of the Excursion to
fall asleep and dream of the great day we had.
So I’ve told you about this awesome place with a
totally fun track with the warm hospitality and the warm toilet
seats. And I know what you’re thinking now: So when are we
having a regular CLASS here? Well, unfortunately that can’t
really happen. Even though it’s a wonderful place to ride, it’s
just not a place to invite the public to. Too many cameras out
there. But, we hope we made a worthy contribution to the rider
skill of some of those riders who make sure your Honda goes lap
after lap, start after start, and makes reliability something
you too can take for granted. Thanks
Honda.
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