Ride Report....Kind of...

UNSTUCK

But stuck more often.
Well I figured because so many of us are getting into the motorbike scene, I would post up on my last two Saturdays spent at the SLCC/MSF beginner rider course.

First off, I have almost a year of riding under my belt so I was a bit ahead of the game, but I still learned a lot. There were ten people in my class. Both Saturdays were pretty evenly split between classroom and range time. The instructor that I has was Laura. She knew here stuff very well. She teaches the all female class that I want to get my wife into after our baby comes. Laura picked on me a lot, because of my riding time. There was only one other guy that had even sat on a bike before. The other 8 had no clue.

The range on that first saturday was VERY basic. Most of the time was spent teaching clutch friction points and power walking. SLCC provides the bikes that we used, so you don't have to own one yet to take this course. For the most part, they are all 250's and are easy for a first timer. They weren't beat up like I thought they would be, although there were a few drops in our two day course.

The range time on the second Saturday was a lot better in terms of things I learned. I was frustrated that I had to spend so much time in line waiting for my turn to practice the technique we were talking about. Laura told me they like to keep the class size down to 5 or 6, so this was just an odd class. Maybe if it wasn't so hot out that day it would have been better.
Laura would have me do the techniques a bit different to challenge myself because of my ride time. I though that was nice, and it paid off.

In the classroom on the second Saturday, we finished the book and then took a written test. It was a 50 question, 3 answer multi-choice. And most of those questions had two answers that were obviously wrong. Needless to say, I got a 100% on it.

As we finished up the different techniques on the second Saturday, we moved on to the testing techniques. We practiced them over and over, so that when it was time to test it was pretty easy. For me, I was doing all of them perfectly by the end, but when I did them for the test, I messed up a bit. This is where the class is really great, I thought. Had I done this cold turkey at the DMV, I could have failed the test. But Laura and already watched me do the techniques over and over and knew I could do them, so she didn't take off the full points that she could have, do to "nerves". So I passed the test.

Once everyone was done, she gave out cards that we take to the DMV. We just have to show it to them and they will issue us our liscenes. My buddy let me use his KLR 650 to get the unrestricted liscense, so after everyone left, I had to go back out there and do it all over on the bigger bike. I did better on it then I did with the smaller bike!

So in the end, I'm happy with the class. It cost $180 and took up two Saturdays, but I feel it was worth it. I can really feel the difference in the way I ride as I try to keep some of the main points in my mind, the most being while braking and cornering. I will finish out this riding season and then take the advanced course next spring. I'd like to keep taking classes and sharpening my skill. By then my wife will be ready to ride as well and will get her going in them. I feel like our bikes are a lot like our Jeeps. There is a right way to wheel. That way will keep trails open and people happy. Bikes are the same way. Proper riding will help keep us and those around us safe and ready for the next ride. -RANT ON- I hate that bumper sticker that says "start seeing motorcycles". I want to make one up that says, "give us a chance to see you". -RANT OFF-

As I understood it, they offer a dirt bike course as well. This may be of more interest to most of you on here, but I don't know the details of it. My goal was to be able to ride my bike to the trails and then as I get better, start getting into more of the long distance adventure rides, like what Greg posts up.

Hope this helps someone out. Sorry my thoughts are kind of scattered. :D

Josh.
 
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