Is it important to get formal training for riding motorcycles? What kinds of training have you had and how did it help your overall riding?
Excellent! And I love your open mindedness about learning from different sources and understanding that like any skill it requires practice. I was at a track day recently where a guy crashed twice in only four sessions of riding and when asked why, just said, "I lost the front." He was sort of under the impression that crashes JUST happen and that it was no big deal to crash twice in one day. When I asked him a few questions about body position and hanging off and lean angle he didn't know any of the answers (he crashed right in front of me) and I felt like he needed a little bit of education in his own riding to keep himself (and the other riders around him) safe.I think it is important. I rode for a lot of years before I did a track day and that certainly opened the door to more possibilities. I figured it would be a better use of track time to incorporate some training/coaching so took some with California Superbike School, Reggie Pridmore's CLASS and Jason Pridmore's STAR school. Very beneficial to see different training philosophies and skill drills. The biggest benefit was to make the components involved in riding well conscious thoughts rather than auto-pilot and incorporating the individual components into smooth, cohesive, deliberate riding. The elements involved in riding are not always intuitive and there are few "natural" riders. Like any skill, it requires practice to improve and better to practice good skills than bad habits. Cracks me up the guys that say, "I've been riding for twenty years" and you watch them and think, "yeah and you've been doing it wrong for twenty years."