Walneck's Classic Cycle Trader - November 2008 - (Page 17)

SPECIAL FEATURE STORIES O.P.P. If we had any doubts of this he suggested we check the Wall of Remembrance in the lobby of the College. It was true, more officers had been killed by motorcycle crashes than bullets. It didn’t matter I was 24 years old and undeterred by his negativity. OUR WINNER’S STORIES! RICK WEILER The Police College at Aylmer is an old Canadian Air Force base complete with airplane hangars and runways. It is the ideal place to train would be motorcycle cops. I thought with my EXTENSIVE riding experience this would be a cakewalk. The instructor burst that bubble with the comment that they preferred students who had never touched a motorcycle. Those students had no bad habits they would have to break. Our second morning was filled with control familiarization and basic maintenance drills. We were issued gray coveralls and assigned our ride for the course. The bikes were all early 70’s Fl’s that had seen much better days. They were stripped of their bags and radios. Later that day we started our first cone work, pushing these tired hulks around the course on the runway. At the end of the day there were 12 very weary riders. The next day we actually started the motorcycles and practiced clutch and throttle control this made for some very entertaining scenes as the those “preferred never touched a motorcycle” students learned the basics. Cone work, slow racing, and avoidance braking would fill in the remainder of the day and that week. At lunch on that third day the instructor announced a new rule. He noticed that in spite of being told numerous times that the gas petcock must be closed before leaving the machine, several riders were leaving the valve open. Henceforth any student leaving his bike parked with the gas on would have to buy the instructors a beverage at the lounge. They never bought their own beer for the remainder of the week and right up till graduation were still catching the odd offender. I never had to buy, as I was already accustomed to turning off the gas on my own bike. We were allowed to go home on the weekends. Early April in Ontario is always unpredictable for weather. On Sunday of the second week what should have been a 90-minute drive took 3 hours to drive back to the college. Monday morning dawned and Aylmer was a winter wonderland complete with 4 inches of crusty snow. We thought we might sit around and play cards for the day but at 9:00 a.m. our illustrious instructors had found 10 snow shovels and scrapers. We cleared a section of runway and resumed our cone work. The day was miserable with ice pellets and freezing rain. The salt gave just enough grip to keep the bikes upright most of the time and each tip over resulted with the instructor gleefully asking if we really sure we wanted to be a motorcycle rider. By midweek the snow had melted and the fields adjacent to the runways were very wet. Our sadistic instructor saw this as a rare opportunity in the furtherance of our education. He picked a harvested WALNECKS.COM I WALNECK’S CLASSIC CYCLE TRADER® | November 2008 17 http://www.WALNECKS.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Walneck's Classic Cycle Trader - November 2008

Walneck's Classic Cycle Trader - November 2008 Contents American The Buzz w/Buzz Walneck Our Winners Stories! By Rick Weiler 1962 Henkel Tourist Motorcycle Tips w/Mike Brown Our Winners Stories! By Tom Sutherland Event Listings & Advertisements Bench Racing w/Mark Zimmerman British Biker of the Month: Hagon Shocks European Japanese Davenport Show Recap Motorbikes & Scooters 1956 Maico Mobil 197cc 1952 45cc VeloSolex Memorbilia Antique Cycle Clubs Parts, Accessories, Want Ads How to Place a Word Ad How To Place a Photo Ad Area Code Directory How To Subscribe Let Us Help With Your Event

Walneck's Classic Cycle Trader - November 2008

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