And it was great! I took BRC in 2015 when I got my license, and it was pretty disappointing. The instructors left a lot to be desired. BRC 2 was so much better, and the instructors were excellent.

I knew I had areas where my riding could improve, and the class shined a light on those areas, and also helped me realize I picked up a bad habit. I was originally scheduled to take BRC 2 last year but it got rained out, so I was glad to get to it this year. Even with 19K miles of riding over the last 2 years, there's still much to learn.

Oh, I have ARC in 3 weeks.

 

For us old farts that are tired and have to get up early to get to work to supplement our bike habits would you mind clarifying the acronyms please? I can come up with conclusions but want to make sure I am understanding you.

 

Ha ha!

BRC - Basic Rider Course - for beginners
BRC 2 - for skills refresher, for riders with some experience.
ARC - Advanced Rider Course

All are MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) courses

 

I guess I took the BRC when I had to get my motorcycle endorsement AGAIN. Still, I learned a few things from it, so it wasn't a total waste.

 

OP~
Good on you for taking the add'l courses!

Glad to hear your instructors worked out for you.

Work on that "bad habit" you acquired during your riding.

Since you're taking the ARC in 3 weeks, I'd like it if you could share your experiences with the boards. Many riders get "reluctant' to take anything with the word "ADVANCED" in it for fear of not doing well. (Trust me, it isn't THAT advanced.)

Let me say this~ If you think the BRC2 is fun, just wait until you have the ARC! It is the most fun course the MSF teaches on a regular basis. There are higher MSF courses that will challenge just about any rider.
These include~

BB= Bike Bonding

UBB= Ultimate Bike Bonding

All together, the MSF has lots of courses, covering dirt, street, passengers & others.

When it comes to motorcycling, the more you know, the better it is!

 

Good for you for expanding your skill set. I'm curious about the bad habit???

 

Yeah, fill us on the bad habit, maybe some of us have it too.

 

OK, well you know the technique for U-turns where you feather the clutch in the friction zone, and apply some back brake? That's very useful in parking lots, and in stop & go traffic so you don't have to put your feet down. Well, I developed the habit of doing this when making turns at intersections. Not when starting from a stop, but when rolling up to a green light and making a turn. The result is I was sometimes decelerating or coasting through, so I wasn't doing these slow turns confidently. But it didn't register why.

In the class yesterday they had some exercises where you'd get up to 20-25mph and then approach a tight turn. I was rolling into the turns with the back brake applied lightly. The instructors spotted this and asked "Why are you doing that?" They said I should slow sufficiently before entering the turn, and then once in the turn, gradually roll on the throttle when appropriate.

This is what I do when entering curves at riding speed, but at the slower speeds I wasn't. As I started doing it the right way, it was like a light bulb went off. Now it felt right. So on the ride home I was doing it correctly and the difference was very noticeable. Instead of feeling a little unsteady because the weight was mostly on the front wheel, now the back wheel is pushing me forward.

This is one of those things I probably would've kept doing wrong until someone else more experienced pointed it out.

 

I took the ARC a few years ago. It was worth taking. God luck.

 

I've been riding 35 years and just took the BRC yesterday for the first time. I had to because I'm going to become a Rider Coach for MSF classes and that's required before they take you into the other Riding Coach classes. I thought I'd be bored but I had fun tooling around on a beat to **** Honda 250. lol Can't say I learned anything about riding but but I did learn a little on how they run the course.

It was a good group. There were nine of us and 4 (2 girls/2guys) of the 9 never rode a bike before. No one dropped a bike and only a few stalls. One of the girls I nicknamed Hobbs, after Roy Hobbs in the movie The Natural. She was amazing considering she never been on a bike before. If she didn't tell me she never rode before I would have guessed she had a thousand miles or so under her belt. Some people were just born to ride.