Well I just finshed taking my MSF Basic Safety Course down at Southwest Texas. The class was a prototype of a new teaching method, so I thought it worthwhile to drive ~45 min each way from Austin. Anyways, I'll break it down for ya.
Friday night
Part of the new Basic Rider Course, as opposed to the old course, is an increased emphasis on teamwork. So we did the usual bookwork for three hours. It was pretty dulll, and it more or less ate up my Friday evening, but it was worth it because I wouldn't have felt comfortable getting on the bike for the first time Saturday morning without the Friday night intro.
Saturday Morning
I get a stupid dualsport bike
Its a Texas summer still, and the fvcking bike won't start! I guess dualsports are pretty picky about starting, so I have to pull the choke almost all the way out to get the bike to start. My clutch work sucks. Every car I've ever driven stick was a torque monster (Camaro SS, RX7 3rd gen modified) so basically in a car like that, you don't need to have perfect clutch work because you can almost take your foot off the clutch and still not stall. We spend about 2 hours becoming acquainted with the bike - in particular, the friction zone and the throttle response. After that, we begin the weaves and begin to look at cornering. By this time it was lunchtime; after lunch, we spend another two hours on the bikes doing things like shifting and quick-stopping. One point of note was that my bike had a hard time going into first occasionally. So once I kept on stalling it, got kinda pissed at it, revved it kinda high and popped the clutch...BAD IDEA. I popped a not-so-reassuring wheelie and sent my legs flailing. I didn't realize until I talked with my RiderCoach that the reason why I stalled was that the bike was in second...and that I may have needed to doubleclutch to get it to go into first. Just my luck, too, I get the only dualsport out of eight bikes, since the rest were primarily Honda Rebels or Nighthawks. At around 3, we go back into the classroom and finish up on advanced street strategies.
Sunday Morning
The basic angenda for the day called for riding from about 8:30 till lunchtime and from about 1 till 2. Rider evaluations were from 2 to 3 or so; from 3 to 4 the goal was to finish up classroom stuff. By 4:30 or so, we took the (rediculously easy) written test. From 4:30-5:30 they went over things like insurance and helmet requirements, etc. In any event, the on-bike training in the morning called for practice on advanced street strategies. Low-speed (<5 mph) cornering was the first thing we did. After that, we had a lesson on how to ride over obstacles. There was more quickstop and more weaving after that. After lunch, we did low-speed cornering and quickstops AGAIN. By this time, though, it had started raining. The tarmac got very slippery and the bikes' brakes were not in the best of conditions. But nonewithstanding that fact, rider skill played a big role into why I fell on a quickstop. I braked as if I would have when the pavement was dry, and this was a big mistake. I gave it to much front brake and slid right under the bike at around 10 mph. My jeans tore through and my elbow and knee were pretty scraped, but it was just minor. I was one of three riders (in a class of 8) to have fallen that day; me and one other did it on the rain and the third guy did it earlier that day on a quickstop coming out of a turn, when the pavement was dry. This was a BIG lesson for me.
When it came time for evaluations, the test was outlined to us: there were four major tests. The first was low-speed cornering. The second test was a weave, followed by a quickstop and finally a high-speed (relatively) cornering run. I only missed points on the low-speed cornering, as did most everyone else. I was much more careful about braking during the quickstop since the tarmac was still wet.
After the evaluation, everyone went inside and we finshed the last classroom session, which was about drugs and alcohol. We then went over licensing and helmet and insurance guidelines, and then we took a written test, which I made a 98% on. They gave us our certificates and we left.
My reflection
I went into this weekend thinking I was relatively hot sh!t...no. I definitely see now how a throttle can get you in trouble. You can't just buy an R1 and tell yourself "I'll just watch the throttle" because you can't. I got in trouble a couple of times on the 250, namely with the wheelie and also a few times when I ended up entering a turn a bit too fast. When I dropped the bike on the stop, I was able to pick it up with no problems because the bike was naked. It it had fairing, it would have been expensive to replace. I came into this class telling myself I was going to get out and buy YZF600 or an SV650....no. I actually think I am going to get the first bike I ever thought about getting, the GS500. 500 is a lot of power, and I'd rather buy a bike I outgrow and have to sell than buy a bike that is way too fast and I get in trouble on. Plus, the Ninja's fairing would be very expensive if I ever dropped in in a parking lot, I could just pick up the GS500 and walk away. I'm actually a bit more hesitant now than I was on Thursday night, after seeing how easily I went down. I went down at no more than 10 mph...what if I was doing 40?
But, I can now say that I am certified to operate a motorcycle in the state of Texas
Sunday Morning
Friday night
Part of the new Basic Rider Course, as opposed to the old course, is an increased emphasis on teamwork. So we did the usual bookwork for three hours. It was pretty dulll, and it more or less ate up my Friday evening, but it was worth it because I wouldn't have felt comfortable getting on the bike for the first time Saturday morning without the Friday night intro.
Saturday Morning
I get a stupid dualsport bike
Its a Texas summer still, and the fvcking bike won't start! I guess dualsports are pretty picky about starting, so I have to pull the choke almost all the way out to get the bike to start. My clutch work sucks. Every car I've ever driven stick was a torque monster (Camaro SS, RX7 3rd gen modified) so basically in a car like that, you don't need to have perfect clutch work because you can almost take your foot off the clutch and still not stall. We spend about 2 hours becoming acquainted with the bike - in particular, the friction zone and the throttle response. After that, we begin the weaves and begin to look at cornering. By this time it was lunchtime; after lunch, we spend another two hours on the bikes doing things like shifting and quick-stopping. One point of note was that my bike had a hard time going into first occasionally. So once I kept on stalling it, got kinda pissed at it, revved it kinda high and popped the clutch...BAD IDEA. I popped a not-so-reassuring wheelie and sent my legs flailing. I didn't realize until I talked with my RiderCoach that the reason why I stalled was that the bike was in second...and that I may have needed to doubleclutch to get it to go into first. Just my luck, too, I get the only dualsport out of eight bikes, since the rest were primarily Honda Rebels or Nighthawks. At around 3, we go back into the classroom and finish up on advanced street strategies.Sunday Morning
The basic angenda for the day called for riding from about 8:30 till lunchtime and from about 1 till 2. Rider evaluations were from 2 to 3 or so; from 3 to 4 the goal was to finish up classroom stuff. By 4:30 or so, we took the (rediculously easy) written test. From 4:30-5:30 they went over things like insurance and helmet requirements, etc. In any event, the on-bike training in the morning called for practice on advanced street strategies. Low-speed (<5 mph) cornering was the first thing we did. After that, we had a lesson on how to ride over obstacles. There was more quickstop and more weaving after that. After lunch, we did low-speed cornering and quickstops AGAIN. By this time, though, it had started raining. The tarmac got very slippery and the bikes' brakes were not in the best of conditions. But nonewithstanding that fact, rider skill played a big role into why I fell on a quickstop. I braked as if I would have when the pavement was dry, and this was a big mistake. I gave it to much front brake and slid right under the bike at around 10 mph. My jeans tore through and my elbow and knee were pretty scraped, but it was just minor. I was one of three riders (in a class of 8) to have fallen that day; me and one other did it on the rain and the third guy did it earlier that day on a quickstop coming out of a turn, when the pavement was dry. This was a BIG lesson for me.
When it came time for evaluations, the test was outlined to us: there were four major tests. The first was low-speed cornering. The second test was a weave, followed by a quickstop and finally a high-speed (relatively) cornering run. I only missed points on the low-speed cornering, as did most everyone else. I was much more careful about braking during the quickstop since the tarmac was still wet.
After the evaluation, everyone went inside and we finshed the last classroom session, which was about drugs and alcohol. We then went over licensing and helmet and insurance guidelines, and then we took a written test, which I made a 98% on. They gave us our certificates and we left.
My reflection
I went into this weekend thinking I was relatively hot sh!t...no. I definitely see now how a throttle can get you in trouble. You can't just buy an R1 and tell yourself "I'll just watch the throttle" because you can't. I got in trouble a couple of times on the 250, namely with the wheelie and also a few times when I ended up entering a turn a bit too fast. When I dropped the bike on the stop, I was able to pick it up with no problems because the bike was naked. It it had fairing, it would have been expensive to replace. I came into this class telling myself I was going to get out and buy YZF600 or an SV650....no. I actually think I am going to get the first bike I ever thought about getting, the GS500. 500 is a lot of power, and I'd rather buy a bike I outgrow and have to sell than buy a bike that is way too fast and I get in trouble on. Plus, the Ninja's fairing would be very expensive if I ever dropped in in a parking lot, I could just pick up the GS500 and walk away. I'm actually a bit more hesitant now than I was on Thursday night, after seeing how easily I went down. I went down at no more than 10 mph...what if I was doing 40?
But, I can now say that I am certified to operate a motorcycle in the state of Texas
Sunday Morning
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