I figured i would do a little write up on the MSF class i took at Howard Community College in Columbia, MD this weekend. It is actually run by another member here,
Jim Schmidt
the class was actually pretty easy to register for. i procrastinated for a while and the class i was originally going to take got filled up.. so i registered for the last open BRC of the year... i signed up for the class on monday. it started on wednesday.
now for the in classroom part of the course. honestly i dont think i picked up anything i hadn't already learned. i think i picked up more reading all the info i could find online on the subject and both "twist of the wrist" books by keith code. i also have already had my learners permit for 6 months. most of the stuff we were learning was similar to what you had to know to get your learners permit. dont get me wrong, the class was very informative. it was exactly what i expected it to be, very basic. perfect for alot of the people in the class who had never been even near a bike before.
our classroom instructor was very knowledgeable. iirc he said he had been riding 15-20 years. the only thing i disagreed with him about was when he said a bike shouldn't be upshifted without the clutch... i was going to argue with him but i just let it go...
on the first day the class was structured so that each table went and found the answers to like 5 questions. then he went from table to table going over the questions, the answers we got, and discussing them with the whole class. the second day was a little different. we got the answers for our section and asked the rest of the class the questions. we basically got to teach them... then obviously our insructor stepped in and discussed it a bit also. the videos were pretty informative but i thought they could be better.. it just kept repeating the same 3 scenes over and over again... but saying different things... plus im pretty sure ive seen all the videos before from the msf's website... and youtube...
we came in saturday morning bright and early and guess what? it was raining like crazy... no surprise though because it had been crappy weather all week. it was supposed to dry up a little later in the day so we went inside and took the written test. the test was ridiculously easy. each question had only 3 answers and most of the time, the other 2 wrong answers were obviously wrong. for example:
if a dog is running at you what should you do?
a. Kick the dog
b. slow down untill he approaches you and then accelerate away, so to interupt his timing
c. aim straight at the dog like your going to run him over, he'll move out of the way on his own
i may be exaggerating a bit but thats how the whole test was to me...
after we finished the test we went out to the range. we were split into two groups. since the school had two ranges and two sets of bikes. normally the other class would have went to the other range but all the rain caused it to flood... lol, so we both had class together. since half the bikes were still down at the other range, we switched off being on the bikes. because of this we were a little behind but given the situation, i think it was handled extremely well by the instructors. in the first day we got through 4 exercises when he said they would normally get through 9. we started late (probably 9:30ish) and finished at 1. we would have gladly stayed later but they needed the range for another class starting at 1.
the next day we started at 8am. the weather was great, albeit a little chilly.. we got though all the exercises and finished the test by 4:30pm.
the bikes we were riding were GS250's. you could tell they had all been dropped a lot, but mechanically they were all in great shape, not including the few bikes that were hard to get into neutral... the bikes felt pretty weird though because when i first got on them i couldn't find the footpegs... i kept reaching back for where they would be on a sportbike... it took me a little while to realize how far forewords they were. it felt kind on unnatural sitting like that. i also felt pretty cramped on the bike. i may not be that tall but i have long legs.. and imho it just wasn't that comfortable... maybe i just dont like that style of bike. going around turns i kept leaning forwards like on a sportbike. for what it is though they are good beginner bikes.
now for my impressions of the exercises...
i don't remember all of them in detail but the i will list the ones that stood out to me.
-the first exercise was where you had to push the bike across the range when it is off... i can see the point of the exercise but it was just a pain in the butt.
-the next one we had to learn the clutch... apparently there were a few of people in our class who had never driven even a manual car before..
this one took way longer than it should have... we then we had to "power walk" the bike across the range... i was pretty bored at this point just because its remedial stuff... but i was just happy to be sitting on a bike...
-the shifting/downshifting exercise was alot of fun. there were a few different ones but the one im talking about was the one where you get to go into 3rd. i started out in the front of the line. we went out 6 people at a time. it was fun until after maybe a lap and a half into it when i caught up to the person at the end of the line... i think i was the only one who understood we were supposed to be getting a good amount of speed and powering out of the turns. i would slow down, downshift to 2nd, then roll on the throttle throughout the turn, shift to 3rd as soon as the bike was straightened up rinse and repeat. i even shifted without the clutch once or twice...
-the first exercise we had to make a turn on was pretty interesting... when out instructor was demonstrating it she dragged a peg, then the metal bracket, then chopped the throttle and lowsided... she thought she had broken her ankle. they called the ambulance and a few hours later we found out she was fine and that it was just a bad sprain. i guess she was used to her sportbike which leans a lot further than that...
-the most fun exercise to me was the swerve one. you have to pretend there is a bus in front of you and swerve to avoid it. but you dont know which way you are going to swerve until he tells you at the last minute. i hit it at about 20 mph... it was pretty fun.. then on the return loop you do the swerve between the cones thing again. which was also alot of fun
-another cool exercise was the 90 degree turn and 135 degree turn. yes it was on the test but it was pretty fun. i guess i just like cornering.
-the panic braking was pretty cool too... i would get up to like 25mph and start braking. i locked up the rear tire a few times too... i would stop in like 14 feet when the distance i should be under was "20 plus"
-i saved the worst for last... the box... i just couldnt get it down.. i did it without putting my foot down but i kept going wide. yes i turned my head as much as possible. i was counterweighting.. idk its just something i will have to practice on my own once i get a bike... i dont see how i will ever use it in real traffic though... i can do 1 u-turn inside the box no problem, but getting set up for the second one was screwing up my second turn... on the final test i ran wide, got 5 points but thats it. i expected to screw it up though.
after we finished all our exercises we ll got in line to take the test. as i just mentioned i got 5 points off in the box and then 1 point because in the turn i didnt want to go too fast, so i did it perfect, but in 3.0 seconds. had i have done it in 2.9 i wouldn't have got the point... honestly i think it was just a matter of the person on the stopwatch... i felt i was going sufficiently fast for the turn.
only 2 people in the class failed the riding test... both ran wide on the 135 degree turn and both screwed up the box. one woman dropped out of the class after about halfway through the first day of riding.
over all it was a great experience, anyone in the area i recommend take this course. the instructors were all great (even though one fell...) and i had a lot of fun. afterwards i realized i should have taken the alternate BRC, but since it was filled up i had no choice...
the only complaint i really had was that there was this one guy in the class... he would not stop cursing... i swear to god every other word out of his mouth was either fuck or shit... after about 15 minutes of this i just got fed up... nobody wanted to say anything to him though... but i think one of the instructors should have told him too cool down... it was really bad... he was this skinny little "gangster" white kid that wanted a literbike... i overheard him say "600's are for pussies, im a real man i want a 1000" i just rolled my eyes to myself... i'll let him kill himself...
My MSF BRC experience, Md
Small world.
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