Well today was my second day of the MSF course. First day was about 3 hours of talking and learning what a "motorcycle" was :o
Today was the fun stuff, from about 8:30am till 2pm we were on and off the bikes. I personally thought it was a hell of alot of fun. There were some draw backs though.
Namely that fact that other people were there too. During the fast cornering objectives (~20mph) they would go sooooo slow, slow enough where i was having trouble balancing the bike around the turn.
Dont even get me started on the parts with weaving! No one crashed or even droped the bike, which i found amazing. Several people stalled right infront of other people when we were starting off but that got better.
The only part I think I had problems with was, hard breaking (I did good, but not as good as i thought i could do), and U-turns/90 degree turns to the right. I dont know why but i just suck turning to the right compared to the left.
At 2 we went in got some lunch and did more book work and finally took the written test. I got......
100%! First one done too (no im not braging! ;) ) Just hope i do that good tomarrow on the skill eval.
Funny side note, 3 people had bikes. Me, Some kid with a semi sport bike, and some guy who has a zx12 as his first bike. The instructor just laughed at him and told him to pay attention to clutch control and whatnot. I have a whole month (~100 miles) riding experiance and I ruled him in everything. Oh well, i wish i had a zx12 8).
Just wanted to let you guys know how it went! Im having so much fun!!! Im definatly going to need to play around in a parking lot by myself for awhile before i start doing too much traffic and all that.
Hey it was my 2nd day at MSF as well. It was cold and rainy but a fun day nonetheless.
The place where I had the most trouble was low speed maneuvers. My bike was a Suzuki 250 dual sport and the throttle was rather jumpy. I tried the Buell Blast later and found it much more to my liking.
Tomorrow is the big test day. Wish me luck!
Congrats on the test. Good job, I think I got a 96. When I took my course, I was disappointed at how badly other people did, especially those that rode already. I was the only first-timer that got 100% on the skills test, and probably the only one going over 20 in the 120 turn. I was leaned so hard I coulda put a knee down, but, seeing as I was in jeans, and didn't yet know what knee dragging was, that wouldn't have been a good decision. :)
Heh, what did you think the hardest part of the test was? (skill test)
Good luck to ya Pragmatic! Hope we both do good!
Glad you're having fun in the course, I did.
That first day was boooring, though, no joke.
During the hands on, I had a Nighthawk 250. Ditto with the newbies out riding the "experienced", and people going too slow. One lady dropped her bike 3 times.
I thought it was a toss up between "The Box" and the braking chute. The instructors made such a big deal out of that, they made everyone nervous. Even so, it was a breeze. The whole class was cake.
Good luck!
Wow... it must be MSF week at GStwin.com. I'm taking my skills test tomorrow too!! :thumb:
When one of the dual sport 125's broke down, the instructor asked who had the most riding experience. We decided that it was me (~800 miles) and she proceded to roll out a Virago 250.. ugh.... its fun to ride in the braking and broad turing drills, but a gigantic pain in the butt to do the figure-8.
Do I understand correctly that some of you are allowed to use your OWN bikes for the Basic Rider Course?! I would love to use mine, but its not allowed :bs: Although I guess I can see the rational. I don't want some squid with more money than sense to show up on a Hayabusa and kill someone :nana:
Briliu, I totally feel your pain. There are two riders in my class who go sooooo slowly that they make it tough to ride properly, and since all of the drills are in a loop-fashion in a small area, traffic jams ensue rapidly... definitely irritating.
Good luck with your test!!
peace
Ahhh, the memories!
Congrats Briliu and Pragmatic!
The worst part, or the part that made me the most nervous was when we had to force a hard break (locking up the rear tire) so that we could practice "riding it out." It's hard to tell your brain to do something that you aren't *supposed* to do! Of course, all the guys couldn't WAIT for that part.
The weaving was funny. It was on the second riding day and we only practiced a little and it was on the riding test. I made it through without missing or hitting cones but I sure didn't win any style points on that one!
It was kind of cool because I was one of three women in our group of 12 and everyone...women, men and instructors commented on how well I rode. That felt good. I think I was one of the few who knew how to ride before the course.
Congrats to you guys and best of luck to those who still have yet to take the course.
hehehe.. i remember my MSF course.
I couldnt do the emergency braking, i had expereince in it (in india i used to send my bicycle lock thru the rear spokes as an emergency brake) but i still couldnt.. my bike's geometery was so bad that i couldnt do it. it would shake when i hit the rear brake, plus its hard slamming on it when you know there is no danger up front to do that manuver.
Anyway I did it finally after they gave me anew bike (on the 3rd try). Finally I was so happy I went around to be with the rest of the group, and then as i went around i found myself on teh ground.. I hit teh rear brake while going into the turn. The other bike the rear brake was hardly working right (and with teh bad geometery it was really f%&ked up) and this one had a really nice rear brake. ANyway i fell down. I dont know if it was the heat + dehydration + lack of energy but I had to stop get somethign to eat and drink before continuing.. I was alright.. i was just shaken up a bit.
The right handed 90 degree turn is so freaking hard.. I nearly dumped when i did it (maybe too much pressure on me to try and get it right). Anycase i passed with a 90% over all (100% on the written test). They told us our drive test scores and though i put my foot down on that 90 degree turn they gave me the MSF. I put it after i took the turn. I think I target locked on the cone and basically lost balance.. i can do 90 degree turns no problems these days.
i used a cheesy 250 (gz250), i liked the weaving cones second best, doin about 25 ish, but the holy s%^t stopping was by far the best. my 1st attempt i shifted into 2nd, then, on cue, i hit 1st, and both brakes at same time. well on 1st attempt, i locked up front, it slid to side about 3ft, they said i was only 1 they could remember that kept it up. :mrgreen: it was extremely fun, informative, and a definite must do :mrgreen: :cheers:
i think the hardest part for me was the full lock turn without putting your foot down even to skim. the only goof i had during the riding test was you were spose to accelerate up through gears to 3rd and when he waved you off, you were spose to stop as quickly as you could safly do so and put a the front wheel in the box. now, having riddin many miles prev to class i was able to stop very quickly so quickly that when he waved, i stoped 3 bike lengths from the box. he wouldnt let me redo it and he marked it missed. i didnt find that fair, but what ever. that was woo, 14 years ago.
In our class, we also had a guy that bought a ZX-12 as his first bike. He had it for a month before the MSF. This guy was afraid of riding the Nighthawk 250's on the course...I don't see how in the hell he rode his 12. He was the slowest in all of the riding practices. Even slower than the 55 year old woman whose Harley riding husband put her in the course so she could get her own bike.
well I passed =) see this thread about mine and vtlion's courses. http://www.gstwins.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4782
I pretty much psyched myself out on some of it ( i was first to do all of them).
We never did intentional skidding, even rear break. Or any stop in the box kind of things. The timed us, and measured the distance for our time. Pretty fair.
NOW, time to get REGISTERED!!! :roll: