Woohoo... Wife and I graduated the riders edge course tonight. I took the class to be with my wife so she could learn what it took to learn and understand the mechanics of riding on a bike herself. It was LONG 25 hours (supposed to be) but ended up being longer since we had the largest class that they've taught so far. Saturday ended up being 10 FULL Hours of riding and Sunday was 8. Not to mention the 12 hours of classroom time. Weather was beautiful.

We had 11 participants with different skill sets.

(3 husband/wife teams)

6 people in class who NEVER had riden a motocyle.
1 was coming back after a serious crash in 2000 to relearn the skills.

What I thought was AWESOME - the TOP rider after the riding evaluation was actually a person who NEVER rode a bike before. Her husband had been riding for 11 years (he didn't attend). She was SMOOOOTH... Go Girl..

2 gave up (one was an experienced rider when his wife didn't pass the riding evaluation.)

2 didn't pass the riding evaluation

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All in all, this course is for EVERYONE. I would HIGHLY recommend this course to those who have been riding for a while too (although there is an advanced course), it is a fantastic and fun course and you use their bike not yours, even if it's to dust off the basics. Bring a friend too..

I found that it was a little dull in some areas but we were ALL there as teams and ALL learned something. Just to see the look of excitement on the people faces when there was accomplishment, motivation and encouragment to those that needed it when things didn't go as planned as well as confidence building with going through all the riding challenges.

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In our class experience I must admit that there was some scary moments with my wife at first, but as we agreed I WOULD NOT interviene, coach, or tell her "My opinion", that was the instructors job. She understood that I can't drive the motorcycle for her and if she wanted to learn then EVERYTHING was up to her

For 4 hours I couldn't stand to watch just from the sheer frustration she was displaying when she couldn't accomplish but the very basic skill. After STALLING the bike most of this 4 hours trying to take off but eventually "the light bulb came on" and wow.. what a difference that made. Once she got her feet up and was able to play with the throttle she was in heaven. Well almost, but HEY!! she was doing it..

The instructors were EXTREMELY patient, informative, built confidence and most of all passed her the basic knoweldge so she could apply the mechanics, some valuable lessons were learned the hard way. She fell 2 times and luckily didn't injure herself too bad. (more embarrasing then pain)

Fall 1 - put the wrong foot down when the balance of the bike was going the other way at a stop.

Fall 2 - applying the front breaks making a u-turn in the figure 8 box. ooops..

All in all she was really excited (me too) that she passed both the riding experience and passed the written evaluation.

I re-learned some skills, changed old habits into updated skills, rebuilt confidence in areas I THOUGHT I knew pretty good and most of all learned to be more patient with skills that needed improvement.

Wfie and I earned nicknames.

Wife: "Moto-acrobat"
Me: "Smooth Rider"

Special THANK YOU go out to our instructors and Metairie Harley-Davidson.

Ride on..
Jaydubb

 

Hey Weejee,

Congratulations, I too recently took a MSF course and have been a riding fool ever since.

Ride safe!!

 

My wife took the class when she got her first bike in 2008.
Last year she tooke the ERC and made me take it as well.

Both were great classes (I watched her riding in the first class)

 

I have been riding for 20 years, dirt bikes, crotch rockets and Harley's. I have been thinking about taking a MSF course. Never taken one, but I must be getting older cause I am starting think it would not be a bad idea.

 

Congratulations, I like yourself learned alot......especially....look where you want to go., One thing they don't teach, which surprised me alittle, was and up hill start. I knew what to do since I also have a 73MGB 4 speed, but it can be somewhat tricky.

 

I took the class in June this past summer, rented a bike the Tuesday after I finished it and bought my first Harley two weeks later. I put 4,000 miles on so far since then. I can't say enough about how much I learned from that class. I had NO experience on a bike before that. I would reccomend it to any new riders!!!!

 

Congrats! I took my Riders Edge course three weeks ago and passed with flying colors. I took mine at the House of Harley in Milwaukee, WI. It was really cool too because our riding range was the parking lot of Harley Davidson Research and Development!

 

Congrats... I think you stepping back and letting the instructors teach her was an excellent idea (however hard it may have been). I know I would have struggled with that part.

If my wife ever decides to ride, I think I will take the course again with her as well. I was out this Sunday riding with my father-in-law and we stopped at the Harley dealership outside of Reading PA. They had a class going on in the parking lot and it brought back memories of taking the MSF course and how much I learned in that class.

 

I was taken out last week by a car on the highway doing 60 mph. I was talking the state police on the road at the time of the crash. He had just finished his class of 4 day of riders edge course. He was think what a joke the class was. They never had time on any one thing keep changing to finish everything on time. He felt bad for any beginner on the bikes. To fast pushing them out with licenses.

 

I had the opposite problem.

When my wife got her first bike, she had no experience and immediately signed up for the course.....but the next open spot wasn't for a month later.

She kept trying to get me to teach her "some basics" before that, but I was VERY hesitant about it. I'd been riding for 13 year, but I never thought of myself as a very good teacher of anything, much less something that someone could get hurt trying to do. Besides the "too close to home" aspect, I was nervous that I was telling the wrong things, or in the wrong way.

I was VERY happy when the class came up, and she did a good job with it.

Sounds to me like either bad instructors or they were being forced to try to teach too much.
The "typical" basic riding class in MO is only 16 hours total, and people I've known who took it learned what they needed to. The Riders Edge was far more in-depth than other state or county planned/run courses. I mean that in terms of how much time was spent on the same basic skills, not how many topics could be covered.