Going for the license this weekend........

[vadasz1]

Well y'all, I'm going for the Gearing Up course tonight.  It's the 3 hour session where some paper work is done and the safety rules are gone over for the new riders.  Probably get to see the rides before we mount them on Saturday morning.  I sure hope everything will go OK.  You might think I'm nucking futs but I sure hope that it rains some on Saturday ONLY!..This way I can see how the bike reacts in the wet.  And I sure hope that Sunday will be SUNNY as to keep us all more confident.  I read their website again today and the instructors seem like a good bunch, or are they told to be that way for recruitment....hehe.

Anyways , wish me luck and I hope to be riding at Tiger's fall ride, if he is going to hold one this year. ::)

[Brian Moffet]

Good luck!. 

Tiger not hold a ride?  He would have to be ill or on Cancun or something!

[Tiger]

Good luck!. 

Tiger not hold a ride?  He would have to be ill or on Cancun or something!

;) Damn straight Brian... 8) A fall ride and some inbetween me think's, eh!!!

:) vadasz1, the instuctors are great people. They ride bikes on a day to day basis, to work not just "at work"... ;)

:) Tonight you won't see a bike, only on paper work and some video's. The lead instuctor and his staff will explain what the course is about, do's and don'ts, riding gear, etc, etc. You have paper work to complete, a waiver form for one!!, etc.

DO NOT BE LATE FOR ANY OF THE THREE DAY'S...OR YOUR OUT!!! :o

DO NOT FORGET YOUR LICENCE...OR YOUR OUT!!! :o

LOOK, LISTERN AND LEARN... 8)

                8).......BEST OF LUCK TO YOU....... 8)

[h2olawyer]

Good luck!

Wish they had these courses when I got my license.  I just grabbed a friend's GPz550, took it to the court house, took the written test & then rode the bike around some dots in the court house parking lot while the examiner watched.  Went back in to the office & paid $5 for the motorcycle endorsement.  While there's no substitute for mileage & experience, the course gets you started with good habits to learn.  I took a beginning rider course a couple years ago to see what I could be doing better.  It corrected a couple minor technique points and changed a little of the way I mentally approach danger situations.  Well worth the time & $$.

H₂O

[Brian Moffet]

It was a requirement of my dad that I take the MSF course when I started riding in 1984. I was borrowing my mothers Suzuki GS350 (or something like that) because I had lost my car in an accident.  (In case people who have seen the scars on my arms, that's where they came from...)

I highly recommend it.  I should probably take the advanced rider course sometime, but learning the slow speed work they teach at the MSF course really helped.  That and a very conservative style has allowed me to ride all that time with only one accident (and it was due to a pickup pulling through a stop sign into my path..)

Brian

[Tiger]

 

           ???... So, how did we do... ???

[Rick G]

I have only been one accident where a car got the best of me, in 1965 a woman backed out of her drive way ,concealed by the oleander bushes, and I laid a customers 80 cc Yamaha down to avoid her car. The bike was unharmed but I had a lacerated right wrist , a broken left collar bone and my right elbow was pushed beyond full extension (still wont straighten out all the way)
All my other crashes I have managed to do ,without any help!

[vadasz1]

 :'(  :'(  :'(  :'(  :-[  :-[  :-[  :-[

I am sad to say that my first attempt at the M1 exit test did not go well.  It seems that I was a tad slow at accelarating in the curved timed zones.

I am already scheduling myself for the second attempt at the test along with a few extra hours of practice the day before.  Now that I know exactly where my weak points are I can hopefully develope those better.  Unfortunately I have to wait 10 days to do the retest.

>:(  >:(  :-[  :-[  :'(  :'(

[vadasz1]

I've got some pics to share.  They are of my youngest daughter (6) and myself at the training course.  My oldest daughter (8) and my wife didn't want to get on the bike or even take a pic with it.  They are the shy ones.  My youngest takes after me and has balls of brass just like her old man. ;D

http://robertpendli.spaces.live.com/

[YellowJacket!]

:'(  :'(  :'(  :'(  :-[  :-[  :-[  :-[

I am sad to say that my first attempt at the M1 exit test did not go well.  It seems that I was a tad slow at accelarating in the curved timed zones.

>:(  >:(  :-[  :-[  :'(  :'(

Dang they're harsh.  MSF was great.  Very "coaching" and was a terrific learning experince.
I guess that having such tough requirements makes for better riders in the end.  Hang in there and keep practicing and good luck to you next time!!

David

[Rick G]

I got my first motorcycle endorsment in  CA in 1971 or 2. When we moved to MN. I thought  I won't need it so I didn't transfer it. when it turned out I did need it I had to start from scratch, with a learners permit. When I finally went in to take the test  I was so concerned about holding the bike to the required 25 mph on the braking test, that I over shot the line , and the officer ,who obviously didn't like motorcycles or motorcyclists flunked me .I came back two weeks later and passed . This time the officer was a rider and praised my performance.  She was a motorcyclist!

[inanecathode]

I held my permit for the required time then took the test. I failed the first time, the instructor didnt explain how to complete one of the tests properly (said i had to turn around inside the box instead of around the box, the former being physically impossible for even an xt250). The second time i passed it with no problem at all.

[ps2/bikevision]

i didnt get a permit. just went to sec. of state, took the written test. rode to a testing place 30 miles away and took the road test. passed it with only 1 point. i didnt get the clutch all the way in before i stopped and stalled it. i then took the paper back to the sec. of state and added the endorsement to my licenese. didnt even have to take an eye test.

[vadasz1]

Well I'm glad to see that I wasn't the only one with no good luck on the first try.  I really thought I was doing well and so did the others, when all of a sudden one of the instructors comes to me with my yellow paper and tells me that I didn't pass. :'( :'(

Well 'F*CK THAT' I said to myself.  Atleast I know exactly where I was weak and also know what they are really looking for.  I WILL pick up my speed next Friday on the re-test, and I WILL pass with little points accumulated.

All in all, the instructors were a good bunch of guys that kept us all under control.  We only had one dropout, a girl that was terrified on Saturday, and 2 that didn't pass (that's including moi).  So the pass rate was 17 out of 20 or 85%, which I think is damned fantastic.

Now if I can only talk Tiger into lending me his.................................. ::) ;D

[joevacc]

Practice - Practice  - Practice !  That is how I got my license on the first shot!

Lots of Practice, yep... thats how I did it.

                                    ;) i rode for 20 years before i got it... just kept retaking my permit test every two years ;)

[Rick G]

I got my first endorsement on a CB750 , while on a test ride at work . i didn't own a street bike , so the service manager suggested , I go to DMV on a test ride. I aced  it  that time , but then I was 29 years old  and rode 7 or 8 different bikes a day.