Motorcycle Journal

There are a few people on here and other forums that have occasionally asked for the contents of a basic riders course from the MSF. Well, i am taking one right now, and would like to share my experiences in a 3 installment thread, which would hopefully let others know about what is in the course and possibly to persuade them to take it.

DAY 1
I left my house at about 3PM to get to Farleigh Dickinson’s campus in Hackensack, NJ, about a good hour from my house, which translates to 45-50 minutes of straight NJ Turnpike travel. I get to the building of the course at about 4:30PM, and ask the receptionist to show me the room. It’s right around the corner from the entrance, so I leave it at that, and decide I’m hungry and that I need to buy boots, as my shoes that I had did not cover my ankle past 1″.

I hop in the car, go to Target, buy some nice boots (very comfortable and warm, I may wear these all the time) and then get some food. its now 5:30 so I head back to the campus and go to the class. I’m greeted by two instructors, who check my permit and license and make sure I’m in the class. I sit down, and begin talking to a guy who’s never ridden a bike before. It sure is a good thing he’s taking this class, because had he been a rider, he’d be the biggest squid ever. He’s cool though, and I start telling him about my bike. He inquires to see my helmet, and I show him, and he really likes it (the color scheme, red/silver: it’s an HJC Orbit). A few more students come, and pretty soon the class is full. Out of the 10 students, 6 are men and 4 are women.

After about a half hour into the class, one of the students asks to talk to the instructor outside, and claims that he does not like the participation involved with taking the course. As ridiculous as it sounds, he leaves the course all together. What a waste of $250. whatever, at least we know he wont be halfassing the course and slowing everyone else’s learning down. We sign wavers, and get an introduction to the course, including safety and liability information. We then begin to look at the book, and the course jumps straight into the video, chapter 1 of the video, which is called Welcome to the Ride, downloadable at the MSF website. We then, after splitting into teams of 2 or 3 and making team names, begin to answer sections of the practice exams in the back of the book. The questions are very simple for the more-than-basic rider, but important fundamentals to consider nonetheless. Out of the 4 women in the course, 3 were backseat riders, and 1 presently rides a 600cc Honda scooter. Now thats a serious scooter haha. Anywho, we do 2 or 3 sections of questions followed by video segments, and then take a break.

During the break I talk to one of the instructors, who tells me the individual who left left because of participation issues. Apparently, back in the day, they just lectured students and now want to make it easier for students to pass the knowledge test and eliminate the need to study, so class participation is strictly required as a teaching aid. After a 10 minute break, we talk about meeting at the range the next day, and do a few more sets of basic questions (the first few chapters are what you’d expect from the first few chapters of a BRC - different types of motorcycles, safety, gear, hypothermia, etc… then as the chapters progress, topics such as the controls, the location of the controls, and steering are introduced, as well as petcock info T CLOCS, FINE and SEE). at about 9:45 we are dismissed, and I’m laying here in bed about to go to sleep, as i have to wake up at 4:30 tomorrow. Bummer. Oh, it’ll be cold, I know. But it just seems all too exciting. I’ll be editing this as the days go on. So far its fun, I’m looking forward to the next two days… I’m young, I can take harsh environments… I have a feeling I’m going to hear a lot of complaints from the older crowd. Oh well. I have a license to earn!

DAY 2
I’ll admit, I am not a morning person by any means. This morning began with me rolling out of bed at 4:30am. I figure out the best way to layer pretty much every pair of pants and shirt that I own, and then cook a nice big eggs and toast meal. I leave at 5:30 for Teaneck, where the riding range is (it’s the other side of the Hackensack campus, but you have to drive around the town to get to it). I get there at around 6:45am where a few of my fellow riders have showed up and are drinking coffee and staying warm in their cars.

The instructors are out on the range taking the bikes out of storage and turning each on and performing inspections. Oh, and by the way, bikes used in the FDU motorcycle program, as I’m sure a lot of places too, are not registered or insured, nor do they have turn signals or mirrors. Brake lights are there, and the headlights are disabled. The gearshift indicators are removed as well from most of them.

Well, the morning began with the infamous bike test. Everyone passed pretty swiftly, as I hoped. I would hate to see anyone leave the program so early. Next, after helmets are distributed, boots are checked and attendance is cleared, we get to choose bikes. I of course choose a GN125, my own bike. Out of our team’s 9 bikes, 8 are GN125s and one is a Honda Nighthawk (250).

I’ve never seen bikes in such horrible cosmetic shape. Dents, scratches, loose clutch levers. These bikes were abused. I saw the instructors setting a few bikes up, so I chose the one that looked the most mechanically sound, since I, a lady, and one other guy are the only three people in the group that have ever sat on a motorcycle by themselves before (the guy used to ride in the past, he and his son are taking the class together, his son being 17 making him unqualified for a license waiver automatically, and the lady’s husband bought her a Yamaha VStar as a first bike that she had been learning on with her husband for a little while as she had her permit). As you’ll find out later, my bike had something a little below the surface that would cause me some trouble later.

Nice… so everyone has a bike and helmet now. We are refreshed with TCLOCS and FINE, and are taught how to mount and dismount the bike. Leaning the bike in either direction to discover weight and learning to tell when the bike is in neutral is heavily stressed at this point. Oh I forgot to mention, we had pushed all our bikes over to the other range (there were two groups working today, FDU has a few ranges set up throughout the campus) and that helped us learn the weight of the bike as well.

Basic stuff from there on out such as finding the friction zone, pedaling with the bike, head turns are taught now. Lots of stalling. LOTS. At this point I can tell that some people are going to have a lot of trouble with this course.

Once we actually start taking our feet off the ground, things start looking up. People are getting excited and there is a lot of improvement.

I can’t remember every exercise precisely, but they progressed from simple straight lines with emphasis on braking to ovals with loose weaves and tight weaves on either side, with a turn on either end of that.

Two girls fell off their bikes. One honestly I can say will most likely not pass the course. She almost caused me to crash, and I want to say I am kind of disappointed that she was not removed or taken to the side to practice how to move. It’s really frustrating, and I can tell the other students were frustrated as well.

So we practice until about 2pm then break for lunch. A few of us go out and get BK and go back to eat. After lunch we watch movies and do questions based on road safety, since we had been on a course the whole time already, nothing really special there, basically all stuff that is on the DMV knowledge test. Class dismisses at 5:30.

I also got an offer from the FDU motorcycle program to purchase my GN125 if I ever decided to sell it. They would pay me $500, but I don’t think I could a) lose money on the deal or b) sell such a beautiful and perfect bike for such a low price. The bikes they get are from auctions in PA from other training programs. My 125 is no salvage bike, I’d even like to say it’s one of a kind, for the kind of shape that its in.

I’d also like to say that it was really nice that the instructors took the people who actually had experience on a bike and made them the “leaders” of the reversals and exercises. I was a leader for the majority of them, being that I own the bike and also have experience, so I know how the bike acts.

Well that is day two. Tomorrow is the big day. I’m going to take some NyQuil and pass out in a little while (I have a sinus congestion, it’s really f’n annoying haha). I may also say that this class is not for everyone. With people falling over and hurting themselves, and potentially hurting others, I would rather see these people fail, and practice some more before issued licenses. You must have self control in knowing when the right time is to leave the class. I just hope there is no accident come tomorrow. I really am looking forward to getting my license. In a way, I need it. And the instructors know, I made sure they knew haha.

So far I am almost completely pleased with the class, with the exception of the instructors not addressing certain problems that can potentially cause injury.

Day 3
So I wanted to wait a few days to write this to get my license, take my bike out for a few spins and to feel life as a licensed rider. So far so good.

The last day was the most fun of all. For some reason, even with 7 hours of sleep, I was alot more tired than I was with 3 hours of sleep the night before. I got to the range at 6:45 and took my Sudafed for my sinuses as I’ve been having the sniffles for a few days. The morning was a lot smoother than the one before, we just got our bikes, did pre riding inspections, etc etc. We rode the bikes to the range. The first exercise was awesome. It was a combination turning/weaving exercise. I had alot of fun on that one, the idea was to keep a constant speed of about 15-18mph through the whole thing. Alot of people were taking it at about 8-10, which was a little annoying as the instructors kept waving their hands to speed up, and the slowness caused everyone to have to slow down.

The next few exercises were turning exercises. Constant head looking and press-lean was emphasized. Next was the obstacle exercises. Four 2×4 pieces of wood on the ground around the perimeter of the range were dropped. This was easy to pick up, and most of the students were satisfied with it as there wasn’t really much going on besides riding in a circle and rising up on the seat a few times. There were a few swerve left/right/stop exercises which were fun to do because countersteering is just so much fun.

We then practiced the actual exam. There are 3 parts. The first part consists of a standstill, left turn, shift to second, make a tight u-turn (When we practiced u-turns the first time, they were alot wider, the instructor told a few of us who were doing well to try the tighter ones. I had it down the first time I tried.), another u-turn, then exit the box. Continue on to the cones, still in second, accelerate to about 15mph, and then swerve around a set of cones to the right. Brake smoothly, look back at the instructors and then proceed to the next course and cut your engine. One girl had to do this part of the exam a few times. It kinda gave us a break to relax and think concentrate on the fundamentals before the next test. The next test was a braking test, which we had practiced. You had to start out, shift to second, And then brake precisely at a set of cones in less than 14 feet. Stop with your left foot down (VERY IMPORTANT) and looking straight ahead. This one takes a little getting used to the bike to do. My brakes were sort of new on my bike so it was a little easier. The last test was another 2 part test. Start out, shift to second around the corner of the range, make a right turn, accelerate, and then complete a 130 degree turn (outside inside outside very important) all while looking with your head of course, and then exit the turn, ride down to the cones, brake smoothly, and then wait for instructions. The one girl who took extra time doing the tests needed extra tries on every part of the exam. But it gave us all a few minutes to relax.

Next was lunch. Had some amazing Boston Market chicken.. mmmmmmmmm… Anyways, the test was next. Let me tell you this test was ridiculously easy. Simple questions, and maybe 5 trick questions, but whatever, it was easy.

After everyone was done with the test, we got them back. I got a perfect 100. Everyone passed the test except for the girl who took extra time with the riding exam. She got a 78. An 80 or better is required to pass the course, so she automatically failed regardless of her riding score.

The riding score works like this. You start with 0 points. Mistakes made on the riding exam have numerical scores attached to it. You want to have as little of a score as possible. We finally got our score sheets back. Everyone passed except for the girl. I guess some people are just not made to ride bikes. Oh well, I got a 4 on the test, i stopped 1 foot too far on the braking exam, and I was going too slow going into the first turn on the last part of the exam. Oh well, nothing too insane, but happy with my score nonetheless. I got third place in the class, one kid got a 3 and his father got a 1. Not bad at all.

Come Monday, I go to the MVC to get my license, then take my bike to get inspected at Kilmer station. Passed with flying colors. There is so little involved with motorcycle inspection. I then rode it to class which was exhilarating.

Overall I was very pleased with the class. Definately worth every penny. I believe that I have learned techniques that can very well save my life in the event that I am presented with the need to use them. Although I have my license now, I must say that I still feel like I can learn a lot more about riding. I want to get a bigger bike (my 125 won’t cut it for long) and learn more when I have a bigger one. This class was so much fun, and although everyone passed but one, I think everyone in that class, including me, can benefit from the A or B-BRC refresher class.

I’d like to thank my instructors Renee and Blaise for helping me out as well as the entire class and having the patience to introduce alot of people to the sport of motorcycling. Hopefully one day I can take another class or something with a bike other than my GN125! Haha. ANYWAYS, I 110% strongly suggest taking this class, if you have your permit, have a license but never took the class, or are just interested in motorcycles. The skills you learn will last you a lifetime, and it is alot of fun in the process too!

If you have any questions about the class, I would be happy to answer them at jlink2@pride.hofstra.edu, or crossoutthestars@hotmail.com.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 5th, 2006 at 2:10 am and is filed under Motorcycles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.