Knee-Down School

We’ve been asked continuously over the last few years for ‘back-to-back’ courses – for riders who wish to punish themselves with a double dose of kneedown and wheelie training over two days.  This is a particularly popular request from individuals travelling from Europe or from the further reaches of the UK, to reduce travel costs.

So we’ve announced two back-to-back courses for this year

28th & 29th May
18th & 19th June

We’ve also teamed up with a local motorcycling holidays organisation which is able to provide low-cost overnight accomodation with secure bike storage for those who are travelling on bikes.

For anyone wishing to attend either of these courses, please book sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment. Both dates are booking up very quickly, due to high demand.

Be warned – you will definitely feel stiff at the end of this course. Might be worth prebooking the Monday morning ’sickie’ day off work!

Make sure you buy this month’s ‘Fast Bikes’ Magazine – which has a two-page feature on Kneedown School.

2nd April (Friday)
17th April (Saturday)
30th April (Friday)
8th May (Saturday)
14th May (Friday)
28th & 29th May (Friday/Saturday) – dual day, for riders wishing to book both courses back-to-back
4th June (Friday)
18th & 19th June (Friday/Saturday) – dual day, for riders wishing to book both courses back-to-back
26th June (Saturday)
6th July (Tuesday)
17th July (Saturday)
30th July (Friday)
7th August (Saturday)
21st August (Saturday)
27th August (Friday)
11th September (Saturday)
17th September (Friday)
25th September (Saturday)

These dates are available for booking now. Places available on a first-come first-serve basis.

We look forward to seeing you next season.

Last Dates of the season:

Here are the last dates for this year:

17th October (Saturday) Kneedown is fully booked/ Wheelie Places Available
23rd October (Friday) Kneedown School – Places available

Charlie Oakman arrived at Kneedown School on the 17th June 09 to glorious, hot sunny weather (ideal for magazine photography!). He, and another member of Fast Bikes staff had never got their kneedown, and needed to earn the respect of their co-workers. Neither were particularly confident they’d achieve their goal, but both followed instruction extremely well – meaning that they’d both got their knees down by lunchtime. Later in the afternoon, both achieved some fantastic long slides.

Well done to both, who can now truly claim their magazine’s tagline ‘Truth, Knowledge and Knackered Kneesliders’

Charlie putting in an impressive knee-slide

Group photo

We’ve been asked to do a feature for ‘Fast Bikes’ Magazine. Later this month we’ll be teaching Steve and Charlie from ‘Fast Bikes’ how to get their knees down. Steve has been complaining that he’s being teased in the office about not being able to do it, so he’s decided to come to KneeDown School to sort it out once and for all…..

Look out for the feature, which should be in the shops in early August. Pictured below are Steve and Charlie with their bikes.

Recently we took delivery of the new Paradox Wheelie Training Bike, and today we completed testing on the bike. The bike has been designed to have many more features than most standard wheelie school motorcycles. It’s also been designed to provide consistent wheelie cut-out regardless of rider weight (most anti-flip devices need adjustment between riders of different weight, to compensate for the different loading on the rear suspension). The Paradox Bike is also designed with soft cut-out – which helps to avoid hard-landings, and soft mechanical-limit, which avoids jarring at maximum wheelie height. There are no less than 3 wheelie-limiting features to provide maximum protection.

See our ‘Wheelie’ page for further info.

Well we had our work cut out, as the weather forecast predicted rain all day. It turned out worse than expected – with heavy rain from the start which continued until midday. Despite the rain, 4 out of our 6 students got their knee down DURING RAIN, on a thoroughly soaked track. Getting your knee down in the rain is certainly something worth boasting about – but nevertheless it’s still much more fun in the dry, so everyone was relieved when the rain stopped around lunchtime. Due to the slight gradient of our training area, the track dries out very quickly – much quicker than you’d expect, so by early afternoon, despite no sign of sunshine, the track was dry once again. <>By the end of the day, all 6 students had got their knees down – not just once, but repeatedly. <>The training needs to be pretty intense in rain, so we didn’t get chance to take any still photos of the 4 students who managed knee-down during the rain, but we do have it on video, so I’ll try to locate and extract photos over the next few days. In the meantime, here’s a few photos.

Photos from the day:

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Six satisfied customers, with a combined 131 years of riding experience, who fulfilled their knee-down ambitions today. Pictured in our VIP hospitality suite.

Another easy knee down

…and another…

and another

New pair of kneesliders required at the end of the day!

A confident knee down

This knee-down is pretty much at maximum lean angle.

Once again our 100% success record has been upheld, despite the weather. We had a couple of rain showers during the day, and moderate winds, but this didn’t stop our 4 knee-down virgins achieving touch-down. In fact, two even managed knee-down during light rain.

Four sets of scuffed kneesliders testify to the day’s success.

Classic Knee-Down Action

Maximum Lean-Angle

Two new Knee-sliders required for this student at the end of Knee-down School

Even though you’ve never done it before, you’ll look like you’ve been doing it for years at the end of the day.

Overcast weather throughout most of the day, with occasional drizzle/hail didn’t stop our intrepid students from getting their knees down! Once again, 100% success rate – and for the first time, all had got their knees down before lunchtime, saving the afternoon for honing and developing their skills. For the second time we’ve filmed the event, and it’s amazing to see the difference between the guys on their first attempts and then again in the afternoon, when they’re all cornering like pros. One student even got his knee down during a hailstorm – now how often would you do that?!