Anyone fail the MSF course?

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cb360
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#31 Unread post by cb360 »

-Curly- wrote:The MSF is just a scam. I paid $195 for a 2 1/2 days. 6 hours class room and 10 hours waiting in line to do a couple of runs on there course. The state doesn't have to test you, so they save money and some small company gets some work, and your money.

But since I never rode before, I took it. I failed the figure 8 misurably, the swerve was a joke, I had no problem with the quik stop, hit two cones on the curve thingy, and passed.

I got my license, used the exercises in a parking lot when I bought my bike, and 1400 miles later I am better off now that I took it.

The MSF is a scam, a helpful scam, but still a scam.
Maybe you got hooked up with a bad outfit...

#1 It was raining cats and dogs on both our course days... and we still had at least 12 hours on the bikes. A whole lot more riding than waiting.

#2 I don't think you'd have passed our class. Points off for the figure 8 of course... and if I remember correctly they told us we failed automatically if we went outside the lines on the curve thing - which was admittedly pretty easy. Sounds like they just wanted to get out of there and didn't want to bother with a re-test.

- Like any other class, it is all about the teacher. Our teacher was a career Navy man who took his job very seriously. He told you the parameters and graded according to them. If you passed, you passed, if you failed, you failed. He was nice about it, but a couple people didn't make it.

Anyway - I thought the local Seattle class was great and I'd recommend it to anyone. Definitely learned a ton and it certainly wasn't a scam or a waste of time. It would be a pretty simple job to flog though, if that's the kind of person you were... 'That's great... you all pass! I'm outta here. Oh wow, we finished 2 and a half hours early!"
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#32 Unread post by Mustang »

scanevalexec wrote:But, I think if we could charge more and pay the trainers (at least a small fee) we would have more trainer, more times to choose from, and more trained (or filtered out) riders. Mandatory training/testing seems like a good way to start people.
Exactly my thought. With it being mandatory, the availability of the class would have to be increase. Should be inexpensive with part of the costs coming from what money is spent by the DMV to give the motorcycle test, since that would be who you're effectively replacing.

I don't understand the powers that be ignoring the motorcycle. They're are so many drivers ed programs for kids, why wouldn't you have something in place for a bike?
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#33 Unread post by rockytime »

I did recently fail the MSF course. It was a two day course because the written work was to be done prior to class time. The course was $200. I thought it was reasonable. I had not ridden a bike since 1964 and I'm 67 years old. However, hoping to be a kid, again I have decided to take up riding again. I failed the course in spite of an excellent instructor. I was taking the course with people who had ridden before but perhaps moved in from out of state, were fairly new riders and all had some experience. Trying to keep up was intimidating. Having repect for my own skin and others I do not ride on the street. I did this weekend take my bike to a large high school parking lot for practice riding. It actually went very well. I had no one to answer to except my son-in-law who rode the bike to the lot for me. I am having a knee replacement in two weeks so practice will be deferred for a while. Also Colorado weather will be getting a little chilly. I will learn to be proficient with the excercises tho prior to taking the course again. I did appreciate and respect the instructor I had. I'm practicing on a Yamaha XV1100 which will make the course bike much easier to control.

Regards from a SQUID

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#34 Unread post by -Curly- »

#2 I don't think you'd have passed our class. Points off for the figure 8 of course... and if I remember correctly they told us we failed automatically if we went outside the lines on the curve thing - which was admittedly pretty easy. Sounds like they just wanted to get out of there and didn't want to bother with a re-test.
I got 3 points deducted for each time I crossed the line. I crossed the line about 5 ft the first half of the 8 and about 2 feet out of the box on the top half. -6 points. The instruter said it was 5 points if you put your feet down, so 1 person just walked his way around it and got less points deducted then me. At least tried to do it. I think the cones were 6 points each cause I ended up -18 points out of 20 when it was all over.
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#35 Unread post by CajunBass »

-Curly- wrote: I got 3 points deducted for each time I crossed the line. I crossed the line about 5 ft the first half of the 8 and about 2 feet out of the box on the top half. -6 points. The instruter said it was 5 points if you put your feet down, so 1 person just walked his way around it and got less points deducted then me. At least tried to do it. I think the cones were 6 points each cause I ended up -18 points out of 20 when it was all over.
As I was leaving after the first day of my MSF, I heard the instructor telling one of the other students that you could either put your foot down, or go outside the lines and still pass, but not both.

She asked him, "You mean we can just walk the bike through and still pass?"

He said "You can put your foot down, or you can go outside the lines and still pass, but not both."

Maybe I should have gone back for that third day. With instruction like that I might have passed after all.
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#36 Unread post by cb360 »

-Curly- wrote:
#2 I don't think you'd have passed our class. Points off for the figure 8 of course... and if I remember correctly they told us we failed automatically if we went outside the lines on the curve thing - which was admittedly pretty easy. Sounds like they just wanted to get out of there and didn't want to bother with a re-test.
I got 3 points deducted for each time I crossed the line. I crossed the line about 5 ft the first half of the 8 and about 2 feet out of the box on the top half. -6 points. The instruter said it was 5 points if you put your feet down, so 1 person just walked his way around it and got less points deducted then me. At least tried to do it. I think the cones were 6 points each cause I ended up -18 points out of 20 when it was all over.
seems like our class had -5 for just about everything.
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#37 Unread post by scan »

Just for a point of reference I rode all over that figure 8, but mostly outside the lines and passed. I did flawlessly on everything else. They gave us time to practice on our own before the test (hour or so) and I spend a lot of time obsessing about failing the class because of the 8 box. It ended up not being the most important thing.
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#38 Unread post by cb360 »

Yeah, the whole figure 8 thing is a source of great consternation for many, mostly because it's a slow maneuver that takes a while and if you freeze up you can be 15 points down (two foot downs and one outside the lines, e.g.) lickety split. I posted this in another thread a while back - if you are concerned that you won't ace it, just blow the first turn way wide.... that makes the second turn a piece of cake. You'll miss a total of 5 points. That's what I did and I think I got a 93. I question the inclusion of this exercise on the test - I agree that it demonstrates skill at slow speeds - an important thing... but it's just not something you need to do to be a good rider and I would wager that more points are missed on the test for this than anything else. It seems like they could add more exercises on tight turns and emergency breaking or engaging the clutch on an incline or anything really to take it's place. Being able to do a u-turn in a tight spot is not near as important as being able to stop safely in the middle of one if you're gonna hit something or being able to make the decision that a u-turn here isn't a very good idea. That's my two cents.
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#39 Unread post by Shenanigans7 »

my instructor told us flat out that the figure eight is not something that was gonna save our life someday, as opposed to the quick stop and swerve. so he told us that it would be graded accordingly. most my class did great on it, and yea, i think the most anyone missed for it was five points.
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