Trama's MSF Basic Riders Course

[P1NDLESK1N]

Well, I was unsure of going through with the class, as seen In my other thread.
However after much back and forth, I decided to go through with it.

With a few weeks experience I wasn't expecting to learn much. The Basic Riders Course is for people with zero experience on a motorcycle, or for people who haven't ridden in years. I figured the class was going to be pretty boring, seeing as I was familiar with all the controls, techniques, and exercises they teach you. But after completing the class with a 96/100 written, and only 1/21 points on road test, it wasn't as boring as I thought it'd be.

Here's a little summary of my MSF experience.
-Day 1-
All classroom, from 6:30pm-10:00pm.
It was pretty fuckin boring. The instructors introduced themselves, as did each of us. I was the only 20yr sportbiker, so I was instantly branded as the dumb kid who's gonna kill himself. One woman in her late 20's, an old man who was 80, and a healthy mix of midlife-crisis-going men who haven't ever ridden, or rode 'back in the day'. We read some information out of a book, question and answers, and watched a few informational clips. It seemed like an eternity. I didn't learn anything I didn't already know.

-Day 2-
We met out at the riding course, at a harsh 7:00am to 5:00pm.
They had the bikes all out choked and warming up. I brought my own gear, but the only necessitys were a helmet which they'd provide for those who didn't have one, over the ankle boots, long pants and a long sleeve shirt/jacket. Someone was sent home for not having their ankles covered. We picked our bikes from either a GN125 or an Eliminator, few older and newer models, all pretty shitty looking. I sat on top of a GN125 and we proceeded to learn how to operate controls and how a bike handles.
We took a few breaks, rode through a few exercises, all with the main focus of braking, accelerating, turning, and clutch control. The 80 year old man fell a few times, but everyone else kept it up with some skids and step downs.

After 1:30pm, we met up at the classroom at 2:00pm.

We went over the last few sections of the book, few more videos, some questions and answers, then took the test. 50 questions, ABC multiple choice -easy. All in all the riding part of the day was alright, I got some slow maneuvering practice in which was nice, but definitely not worth the pricetag I payed.

-Day 3-
Met out on the course again 7:00am-2:00pm(out early), but this time the riding was far more bearable than yesterday. We stayed in 2nd gear mostly but hit 3rd in one exercise. Main focus was on cornering, fast stopping, swerving, and slow turning. Since we were going a little quicker I was enjoying it much more. I got more experience with using both brakes (my lazy ass liked the rear brake too much), and got more comfortable with leaning into turns (more so than the instructors would've liked). On the 130* corner I scrapped the peg at the apex, which I was pleased with. No body could grasp the concept of looking where you want to go. People were riding all over 'the box' instead of performing the simple u-turns and figure 8s inside it. The 80 year old guy fell a few more times, but still got back on and continued.

And then it was test time.

The road test consisted of 4 exercises:
-We did the figure 8 inside 'the box'.
-We swerved around an obstacle of cones.
-We drove past marker cones, then stopped quickly.
-And lastly we drove through a 90* and a 130* corner.

Points off for crossing lines, looking down, etc.
Everyone passed, some people did well, others just barely. The old guy was one of the ones who just barely passed, I hope to god I never see him on the road.

Was it worth it for me? Arguably yeah, I get the insurance discount, my license, and some practice.

For people who get to spend a little to nothing on the class? Absolutely.

And now I play the waiting game. C'mon mail man bring me my DMV papers!