Today I went through a special course called "Train Biker" (it rhymes only in Hebrew, alas). It's goal: to teach motorbike riders skills and techniques which are not learned in the mandatory bike-riding schools.
For almost 8 hours we, the trainees, rode around an small abandoned parking lot near Rishon-LeZion's "Superland" amusement park. My speedometer tells me that I rode a total of about 70 kilometers in that lot. I can't say that every bone in my body hurts, but many of them do, quite loudly.
It was also great fun.

There were about ten trainees and five instructors. Each had his (no girls, alas) own bike, starting from a small scooter, through moderate 500cc bikes like my own, and up to a huge, amazingly chrome-and-nickele-shiny, heavy, massive and VERY loud Harley Davidson.

This, of course, gave our course a very special flavour:

Instructor: "Slower! Drive slower!"
Spoons: "You wish! The Harley's behind me!"

and:

Instructor: "Don't look at the RPM – FEEL the RPM, HEAR the RPM!"
Trainee: "I can feel and hear the RPM alright, only it's not mine, it's the Harley's."

And also:

Instructor: "You! On the Harley! Stop! Hey! Stop! Will you please stop? Whoa!"

At lunch break three instructors rode some rounds on their supermoto (specially refit) bikes, showing us some tricks that you usually see in "The Most Dangerous Stunts On Earth" shows. This, of course, was for fun only. Children and grownups, don't try this at home.

All in all, it was a very professional course, and quite an enjoyable one. I learned a lot from it, a huge amount of information that I simply had no way of learning or finding myself. Anyone who's riding on two wheels should do it. But it got me thinking: maybe there are such courses for four-wheelers as well.

My, how those bones ache.