nscrbug I paid 395 for the course. It was at Woodstockand pickedthe RK. I was one of the 4; one of the other's was a Riders Edge instructor that passed on a retest.Everyone had their choice of Blast/Sportser or RK. All but 1 moved up at least one bike if they started on the Blast or Sportster. Although the RK is bigger it is much easier to opperate at slow speeds than the others.

 

Thanks for the info, Buddha. Sure sounds like a challenging class. Not sure if I'm ready for that...yet. I've only been riding for about 7 years. I've taken the MSF Advanced course twice, but those courses are a cakewalk compared to something like this...I'm sure. I wasn't going to ask, but....did you drop the RK in the class? And if so...on what type of exercise?

 

I say go for it. If you have Chicago traffic for years then you have more practice then not to slam anyone but lets say rural IA for decades. Dropped just once on the u turn had the diameter at 18 ft. Had one guythathad just picked up his SE ultra and had it in the garage. He was exausted picking up his RK each day. Had another lady thatroad her Ultra to class then had plpenty of practice picking up the RK whilepracticing. You WILL learn from this class regardless of "passing" the ride test. Just having some of these guys evaluate your riding is good. and the class is held rain or shine. It does build the confidence

 

Using a RK sounds like a good class to take.

I'm going to check with my friend and see what the cost was for the Beemer course. For something this involved it might cost more than I'm interested in paying.

These courses probably are expensive when you think of the maintenance costs, liability insurance etc.

I really would love to find a quality course that uses a Harley (not your own) and teaches some advanced defensive driving skills. I haven't found much googling but maybe something will pop up someday.

 

This brings up a good topic.

The Ride Like A Pro course I teach is $150.00 and you use your own bike. A lot of riders shy away from taking the course when they hear they may drop their bike. Most in class don't even push the limits of what Iteach for fear of dropping their bikes. So I am considering purchasing a fleet of used Kawasaki Police Bikes for the course.

In this thread so far there have been prices of $395.00 up to $2,200.00 for these courses that provide bikes. I realize they are different, and thus charge different prices. But I am curious to know if folks would be more interested in the class if a bike was made available to them, and how much would they be willing to pay. Keep in mind, like someone mentioned earlier, the bikeswill bringadded costs from fuel, maintenence, and insurance. If the price is too high, folks won't take the course. If it's too low, the costs will eat everything up.

How much would you be willing to pay for Ride Like A Pro with a Kawasaki Police Bike provided? I looked at used Harleys, but even the price of one used Sportster could buy 2-3 used Kawasakis. Besides, I have an affinity for the KZs, as those are what I learned on in Police Motor School, and I KNOW FOR A FACT those bikes can take a beating and keep on running.

Mark

 

I took advanced lessons from Wells Cornette Top Gun school. The school is in Lousiana but he came to Houston.
http://www.wellscornette.com/page/page/2985738.htm
Never dropped my bike during the course. He offers an even more advanced level that I would like to take some time.

I got a lot out of it and would highly recommend it to any intermediate or higher level rider.

 

Bug,

Thanks for the posting. This school charges $200 for the group rate, and $300 for a personal lesson with bike provided if needed.
What did you pay, was an indivudal price, orgroup rate? Did you use your own bike or rent one of theirs?

Thanks

 

We did it as a group.

The cost was $200 each.

I used my own bike.

Since we had a group andat least one othergroup in Houston had expressed interest, Wells and one other instructor came to Houston instead of having us drive to Louisiana and spending a night or two there.

We all used our own bikes. I think he did bring his bike for demostrations and one other bike in case someone didn't feel comfortable trying something on their own.

With the stepped approach to the training, I never felt nervous aboutdropping mine. Plus if you ever feel like you can't make a maneuver just run over a cone. Its not like it is a curb or car or something that won't move.

The braking training was great.

Glad to see you are doing this in SoCo. I have talked to a few guys on here that wanted to take a class but didn't know about anyone close to them.

I practice the stuff we learned every couple of weeks.

It really has made me a more confident and skilled rider.

I rode the Dragon this summer and had no problems at all.

I have had to make tight u-turns on tiny country roads with ditches on both sides and my wife on the back and didn't even think twice about it.

I still have lots of room for improvement but have come a long way.

 

I'm glad there is interest out there in an advanced course that would use "rental" bikes. Ideally the option should be available to use your own or a "rental".
In answer to your question the ideal course should take2 1/2days ,limited to a small number of riders (4-6), and be dedicated to street driving. Emphasis should be on slow maneuvering skills and accident avoidance strategies and techniques.
I think the course should cost somewhere between $200-$300. If you "rent" a bike then an additional cost needs to be factored in. I don't know what this cost might be, but I would assume it might be as high as $1000-$1500 when you figure in damage, maintenance, insurancecosts, etc.to keep a fleet running. I would figure the "rental" bikes would have some serious crash bars installed, so I would think most of the damage would only be cosmetic most of the time.
In order to justify somebody forking over $1500 for a course it needs to be a cut above what's out there and really teach some serious skills.
Then there is the issue of where to do the course. Might want to consider doing such a school in Fla and Arizona to appeal to a lot of riders who might want to drive their own bikes.
I would be interested in what others consider to be an ideal structure for such a course.

 

For anyone in Northern California I would recommend the Alameda County Sherrifs civilian course. It is taught by the EVOC instructors on the EVOC courseand is a full 8 hr day. They have basic, intermediate and advanced courses but will teach according to your skill no matter what class you have signed up for. I took the basic one day and the intermediate another day and ended up getting an advanced certificate. You can ride your own bike, like I did, or for $50 you can rent one of their police Kawi 1000s.

Cost is $150 and $50 for a bike.

Watching the Ride Like a Pro videos and then taking these courses have improved my riding 100%.

http://www.alamedacountysheriff.org/...otor/class.htm