The world of motorcycle racing or any other motorsports for that matter is all about one thing; TEAMWORK. Racers can’t win by themselves and bikes can’t be maintained to their optimum performance without all of the team members and crews.
This is where a dedicated group of individuals comes to play. From team bosses, pit crews to race mechanics and technicians, each person has a huge role to play in obtaining the best possible results during race day.
For superbike technicians, there’s nothing like witnessing your motorcycle racer crossing the finish line and finishing on the podium. Despite the celebrations, all of the work that has been put through in order to achieve the results for your riders however, does not start the night before. Here’s a look into a day in the life of a superbike technician during race day.
After at least a week’s worth of preparation prior to the race weekend, teams as well as their race machines and racers make their way to the track on Friday or Saturday depending on the race series format. Witnessing them functioning as a well-oiled singular unit is nothing short of amazing.
After scrambling through practice and qualifying sessions, it’s time for race day. People often mention the ‘calm before the storm’ but it’s only a temporary silence before the race bikes are fired up and superbike technicians are seen getting everything ready in an organised manner despite all the chaos.
The TOC HKM Racing Team currently competing in the 2018 Pirelli Malaysia Superbike Championship is a great example of how superbike technicians are trained and develop their skills in the art of motorcycle racing.
It’s all down to one thing and one thing only; getting the bike at its most optimum performance for the rider. From getting the right tyres, fitting the tyre warmers, checking fuel and fluid levels, and everything else in between, it’s a breathtaking sight once you see that high-performance machine ready to blast down the straights and carve through corners as fast as the rider can ride it.
As most of you may have heard, the TOC Automotive College has recently launched their first-ever Superbike Technician Course and part of their program is to get future superbike technicians involved in motorcycle racing as part of their curriculum.
Race days are not just about getting the race bikes ready to battle it out on the track but also provide real-world situations to the superbike technicians from swift maintenance to emergency parts replacements. Maintaining a cool head in a stressful environment will make any person grow and if they are able to practice their craft in the scenario, the results are certainly impressive. This is what the TOC Automotive College is all about.
In other words, TOC’s involvement in motorcycle racing will broaden their students’ knowledge as well as motor skills where some things can’t be obtained by working in garages and workshops. Their recent collaboration with the Malaysia Speed Festival also gave birth to the MSF Motor Racing Study Course which further elevates their dedication in bringing nothing but the best for future superbike technicians.
When it comes to becoming the best Superbike Technician, TOC Automotive College provides the best program catered to any passionate individuals wanting to start their career with motorcycles whether at the workshops or race track.
To know more about TOC’s Superbike Technician Course, CLICK HERE!
• Trusting your bike to a certified technician is a no-brainer.
• There are great “traditional” mechanics out there but motorcycles are getting more complex.
• A certified technician invariably means official training, discipline and knowledge.
Before we go on, surely you have experienced a horrific visit or two to a motorcycle workshop. You have ridden motorcycles for decades, but there always seem to be something to surprise you.
We had written about this earlier, please click on the link below to read about the horror stories of giving your bike to the wrong mechanic.
As we mentioned before, there are a few great mechanics around. These ‘otais’ cut their teeth in motorcycle maintenance and repairs usually from when they were very young. However, the key to their businesses surviving for so long is not due to offering cheap parts and accessories; instead, it is due their passion in applying proper workshop practice and techniques. Visit one and you may see a good workshop manual or two in the office.
But how about the younger generation coming into the job market? It was something of an eye-opener for us when the TOC Automotive College launched their Superbike Technician Course a few weeks ago.
To recap, the TOC Automotive College (TOC) launched their Superbike Technician Course. Also during the launch, TOC signed an agreement with the Malaysian Motorcycle and Scooter Dealers Association (MMSDA). To summarize, the agreement will see students of TOC’s Superbike Technician Course be sent to MMSDA affiliated workshops to undergo industrial training as part of their curriculum and find job placements there when they have completed the course.
Mr. Wee Hong, Chairman of MMSDA iterated that there is a pressing need for qualified technicians at member workshops. (Please click on the link below for more details.)
So why the need for qualified technicians over those who were self-taught? (Again, we stress that not all self-taught technicians are bad.)
Therefore, the benefits of having your pride and joy looked after by a certified technician are:
• Proper workshop practices such as using the right tool for the right job. For example, using a torque wrench rather than whacking away with the pneumatic impact driver.
• TOC, for example, requires a passing mark of 80% for each subject. That means their graduates have already been ingrained with most, if not all, knowledge about motorcycles.
• Again, TOC does not compromise with students who missed any class twice in a semester. This sort of training inculcates not only skill and knowledge, but also discipline.
• Discipline translates to ownership and responsibility. We’ve had some great experience visiting a few workshops whose technicians performed superbly, despite their young age.
• Being certified means the technician is able to understand English. Now, it is not that we are ostracizing non-English speakers, but the cold, hard fact is that workshop manuals, owners’ manuals for imported motorcycles, guidebooks, most technical publications and videos are in English.
Motorcycles are getting ever more complex, especially in terms of electronics. The new crop of technicians is trained to diagnose these problems with the help of electronic testers.
While the above may not be 100% representative of the real world, at least it is better than having your bike’s CAN-bus worked on by a pokok ceri mechanic. Think of it this way: Would you visit a doctor or your neighbor (because he has a hot daughter) to diagnose your illness?
Interested to sign up for the TOC Superbike Technician Course? Want to build a career out of your passion? Click here to get more details about this course! And don’t worry about financing, TOC has you covered. Read about TOC’s financing program here.
Education is one of the most important aspects of modern life, if not the most important. Lives are built based on education, and goals too are achieved through good education. Unfortunately education sometimes is out of reach for the regular person due to accessibility issues such as the costs associated with education.
While there are many scholarships available in the market, these are usually reserved for top tier students with near perfect results. Options are not as great for others, and that is what TOC Automotive College aims to change through a special financing program called TOC Bina Bakat Program.
Launched at the beginning of 2018, the TOC Bina Bakat Program which translates to Building Talents Program in English, works to provide financing to students who need it the most. It offers both apprenticeship programs and loan repayment plan for students where an education loan is provided for the enrolled courses and the students will only need to make the repayments through a monthly deduction from their salary or allowance. This deduction will only take place once the student obtains apprenticeship or a permanent job placement.
“With living costs increasing steadily, more parents and students find themselves struggling to pay for tertiary education cost. Our role as the pioneering educator in Malaysia’s automotive industry is committed towards overcoming external challenges which could deprive higher learning opportunities among the younger generation. Through the TOC Bina Bakat Program, we hope to bridge the financial differences and provide easier access to quality education for everyone,” said Adelaine Foo, Founder of TOC Automotive College.
Foo further added, “TOC Bina Bakat Program strikes long term mutual benefits for students and TOC’s Industry Partners as these students will be groomed in the very organization they hope to secure permanent placement with, be it in after sales-service or in the technical area.”
The TOC Bina Bakat Program also applies to the recently introduced Superbike Technician Course, which aims to provide certified training to students who want to pursue a career in superbike maintenance. What’s more is that TOC Automotive College has partnered with the Malaysian Motorcycle and Scooter Dealers Association (MMSDA), and through this partnership students who have undergone TOC’S Superbike Technician Course will be able to find almost instant employment among the MMSDA’s 5,000-member workshops.
Students who are interested to pursue this course will be able to secure a 100% loan to finance their education, repayable only when they secure a job.
Click here for more information regarding TOC Bina Bakat Program and the Superbike Technician Course.
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