Some of you may or may not know (b/c I sneakily posted it in another thread) that I took the MSF course this weekend. For those of you who could care less about reading the rest of this post, I will help you be on your way and say that I passed it with flying colors! But For those of you who love a good noob story, read on!
I will try and skip as much details of the course itself, since we've all done it and it would only sound like a broken record, and insert as much opinions and my own personal happenings as I can muster! First day was a seriously quick run through of the workbook, with the bulky Army Sarg in the front of the room picking out paragraphs as test question study points. Honestly, why give us the book? Just hand out 50 points, or better yet, give us a copy of the test to study. Ah well. It's not like it mattered because most of it I put into practice within 12 hours!
As you know, the second day we got out on the bikes. I... was... nervous. Here is the effect of my nerves... guess what happened.
Yup: dropped the bike I learned on. It was a Suzuki GS125 (I think). And I did it within the first 10 min of looking at it. But it was the best thing that could have happened, because after that I had zero nerves, and kicked a-s-s the whole day. In fact, the instructors were complimenting me the whole day on how quickly I picked up on all the activities we did. I didn't put sunscreen on my face, so I've this nice Batman-like burn that covers the middle part from where the full-face helmet sat all day. Sorry, no pics there! lol...
On the second day, I learned of a weakness -- I have a big insecurity about turning sharply to the right and I learned that while trying to do the figure 8 in the box. We worked on that about 5 times in a row, and I could do the left. Then as I'd move into the right side, my right foot would just touch the ground on it's own. Every time I came out of that I was pissed I couldn't get it, and the instructors could see the frustration in me over it. A guy who was following me in the line to do the figure 8 was frustrated too over it, and we told each other that we would conquor that little SOB of an activity if it killed us! lol ... too late! New activity, and ever closer to the driving exam.
So, after lunch, we all lined up in alphabetical order to get the driving exam on the way. Of course, I was first -- and my last name doesn't even start with any of the immediate letters in the alphabet! I was clear with the instructor that I wanted him to be clear about where I was to go, because I hated being point man.
I realized in the first test that the tight weaves that I was kicking a-s-s in on day 1, actually ended up being the only place I lost points on. I was smooth on the tight weaves before because I came at them with speed and was able to line myself up and zoom-zoom through them. At the test, I had less than 10 feet to get into 2nd gear, while approaching them from a less than desirable angle -- which threw off my groove, and I skipped the second-to-last "cone". Ah well... no biggie. Kicked butt on the 2nd and 3rd test...
and before I knew it I was staring down the figure 8 box. And I was first. I ran it over in my head, and thought "i think I can, I think I can..." Went on in the box, and immediately shifted to 2nd, wrapped myself around the left u-turn, and headed for the right-side and I could feel my insecurity creep up on me. I whipped my head around my shoulder, and even though the handle bars were tightly turned, I made that right u-turn without touching my foot down in the box!! BAM!! Insecurity met head-on! I zoomed out of that box, and I whipped up my left hand and flashed the horns!!
I whooped and hollered in my helmet, and heard the big Army Sarg yell out, "GO ON GIRL!!"
I only missed 3 points for skipping over that little nipple of a cone in the tight weaves. I passed the writing test with flying colors! And I came to find out that I can, in fact, get the waiver for my drivers license!! Holy crap! What a surprise, considering on the school's website it reads that all attendees of the BC level would have to go and complete the Intermediate Course before even thinking about getting a license waiver (which is about 60+ days after the BC).
OH and for those of you who've been dying to see pics of the bike I got last week, here you be:
Thanks for reading my story! Enjoy the ride...
PG