Riders edge advice.......
Road Captain
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 538
Likes: 0
From: British Columbia
Hang in there, you'll do fine. I so support taking the courses.
Been riding a fair time now, remember my first year of being so stressed and tense trying to learn alone. Some serious scary stuff happened in that first year of learning.
You are gonna miss all that... and be glad you did eh. I learned some tricks of the road the hard way, you are gonna be taught.
Have fun, and WELCOME to the highway. May the riding bug truly bite you, be warned, if it does, the itch never goes away.
Been riding a fair time now, remember my first year of being so stressed and tense trying to learn alone. Some serious scary stuff happened in that first year of learning.
You are gonna miss all that... and be glad you did eh. I learned some tricks of the road the hard way, you are gonna be taught.
Have fun, and WELCOME to the highway. May the riding bug truly bite you, be warned, if it does, the itch never goes away.
Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 2,202
Likes: 5
From: Hudson Valley, NY
The class is easy, almost impossible to fail.
Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 3,158
Likes: 68
From: Martinsburg, WV
After it's been raining for a little bit and the oils get washed from the road surface, you'll have a lot more traction than you think.
HD dealers (At least in the NE US) used to sponsor an event called Battle Trax, which was like auto cross for motorcycles and setup to show case the Buell's handling. I would run it on my R6 and one morning I rode all the way from Eastern WV to Gettysburg, PA in the rain thinking that it would be cancelled and we'd be done for the day. I got out there and there were people scraping pegs in a wet parking lot with a steady raid coming down.
Sure, take it easy when it gets wet out, but it's not like the road surface immediately turns to ice. Tires are designed to flow water away so that you have traction. You won't have as much traction as on a nice dry slab of asphalt, but I'll bet you $50 you'll have a lot more traction than you think.
HD dealers (At least in the NE US) used to sponsor an event called Battle Trax, which was like auto cross for motorcycles and setup to show case the Buell's handling. I would run it on my R6 and one morning I rode all the way from Eastern WV to Gettysburg, PA in the rain thinking that it would be cancelled and we'd be done for the day. I got out there and there were people scraping pegs in a wet parking lot with a steady raid coming down.
Sure, take it easy when it gets wet out, but it's not like the road surface immediately turns to ice. Tires are designed to flow water away so that you have traction. You won't have as much traction as on a nice dry slab of asphalt, but I'll bet you $50 you'll have a lot more traction than you think.
Outstanding HDF Member
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 2,036
Likes: 8
From: Temecula, CA
I went to my class having been on a motorcycle a grand total of about 30 minutes. I paid attention in the classroom and on the course, listened to every detail the instructor gave us, and even went home and practiced on my Sportster on things I was having an issue with. Passed with a perfect score.
They really do take their time. We spent something like 20-30 minutes on just the controls...where they were, how to start the bike, how to shut off the bike, how to shift, etc. Then we spent another 30 minutes or so just on the friction zone of the clutch and letting the bike rock back and forth to just get a feeling for how and where the clutch engaged. Only then did we actually move the bike under power. It's a very well designed course and if you pay attention and don't stress yourself out too much (we had a guy quit in tears because he was so scared of riding a "motorcycle"...he just wanted to ride a scooter. If you've seen how "big" the "motorcycles" they use for the course are you'll note they are just barely one step above a scooter for the most part) you'll do fine.
They really do take their time. We spent something like 20-30 minutes on just the controls...where they were, how to start the bike, how to shut off the bike, how to shift, etc. Then we spent another 30 minutes or so just on the friction zone of the clutch and letting the bike rock back and forth to just get a feeling for how and where the clutch engaged. Only then did we actually move the bike under power. It's a very well designed course and if you pay attention and don't stress yourself out too much (we had a guy quit in tears because he was so scared of riding a "motorcycle"...he just wanted to ride a scooter. If you've seen how "big" the "motorcycles" they use for the course are you'll note they are just barely one step above a scooter for the most part) you'll do fine.
Cruiser
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 205
Likes: 1
When I took the MSF course, they told us about a recent class that had done it in tempest torrential downpours, complete with the little cones floating away. (Don't know why they went forth with that class, but they did; probably because the schedule was booked up for months into the future.)
Point it, everyone in the class still passed. And we're talking about rank newbies, just "getting their feet wet" (get it? A pun!) with ridin'...
Point it, everyone in the class still passed. And we're talking about rank newbies, just "getting their feet wet" (get it? A pun!) with ridin'...
Tourer
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 480
Likes: 17
From: Northern Virginia
You may want to get a rain suit so you are not stressing about getting/being wet while trying to do everything else.
When I took the MSF course, we ended up taking the final riding tests in a rain storm. Sooner or later you will get caught in the rain so better to learn how to deal with rain and wet roads in a controlled situation.
When I took the MSF course, we ended up taking the final riding tests in a rain storm. Sooner or later you will get caught in the rain so better to learn how to deal with rain and wet roads in a controlled situation.
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Cruiser
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 134
Likes: 0
From: Bixby, Ok
I took it when it rained 2 days straight. It was cold and gross but the way I looked at it. Is if u could ride in that and pass the course I can ride in anything. Gave me an excuse to buy some frog toggs also! Gl
