Midlife Crisis Bike...

[yoda731]

My friends that ride told me to go in with this attitude-- its not if I will drop it or lay it down, its WHEN I will drop it or lay it down.

If I may....that is a HORRIBLE attitude to have going in, in my opinion. It is a popular mindset, but not at all helpful. You're setting yourself up for failure. You can and probably should buy a beater to start on with the understanding that you are more prone to making mistakes early on, but you should never go into it with the understanding that you will fall. With that concept eating at the back of your mind, you will almost want to wreck just to get it over with.

I have to agree with Zoo, go into it with a positive mind set. Other wise you'll approach a difficult situation with a bad attitude instead of a skilled mind set. You don't want to approach a curve or turn thinking "Oh no is this when im gonna eat it?" when you should be thinking about how to properly execute the turn.

Hey, fellows. I do actually agree with your sentiments, too, and I am 100 million per cent positive and expecting to excel. The point of the comment is to be realistic about the risks going into it. If a person is absolutely terrified of wrecking or dropping it, they probably don't have the huevos or the fortitude to to see the learning process through. And specific to this posting, weigh that when picking your first bike, since the odds are higher (I'm guessing) that it will be damaged as you learn. I'm not expecting to wreck, but I am going in to this with the attitude that it is a strong possibility, but it is one I aware of and willing to live with.

Of course, I'm trying to be smart and cautious. Let's see how this all plays out...

I'm up to 40 miles of riding around our condo complex in the last two weeks, practicing maximum braking, some countersteering, some counterweighting...

Thanks as always,
JC

[keysman]

Glad to hear you are taking the MSF first. That is a smart thing to do.

Not to be a naysayer, but I see this all the time and I want to add my $1.05....

I just recently (last Saturday) passed the MSF course. I followed the "take the class before buying a bike" advice everyone gives. Here's the problem: Of the 11 people in the range portion of the class, all but 3 of us owned a motorcycle, and all but 5 of us "had ridden"... two actually rode to the class! The instructors clearly expected us to practice on our own bikes (start of day two, one instructor to group: "Has everyone been practicing what you learned last week?" Me: "No" Him: "why not?" Me: "I don't have a bike." He looked taken aback at this.)

Of the three who didn't have a bike, one noshowed day2 (she was not asked to repeat day 1, but was looking very discouraged by the end of the day after making several safety-related mistakes) and another was having trouble all through both days and flunked the test. He was looking overwhelmed and discouraged by the end and I wouldn't be surprised if he gave up. I passed, but I would've been a lot happier if the course had been paced better. Day2 was supposed to run to 5PM but we had finished the testing and shut down the bikes for the day at 3:15PM.

The worst passing score went to one of the people who rode to the class. The second worst passing score (eight) was a tie between me and the other person who rode to the class. The people who owned a bike (and practiced between day1 and day2) but either had ridden a lot 20 years ago or had never ridden before the class did the best. So I'm not saying get a bike and ride it before the class. I'm saying take the class first like everyone says but be prepared to be playing catchup from about half-way through day1.

The reason you are suppoed to take the class before you get a bike is so that you don't learn and train yourself into bad habits. It's harder to break bad habits than it is to learn the right way in the first place.

In my mind there is no need to practice between Day 1 and Day 2 of the beginner MFS course. The course is designed for individuals that have never rode before and I recomend it to anyone who is looking to start riding.

It's not that big of a suprise to me that the people who rode to the class had lower scores. They have already learned bad habbits. Studies have shown that you'll do best by taking the class first. If you don't take the class you'll acutually do better off teaching yourself than you would if you have a friend teach you.

I had no problems with the pace of the course nor did I ever feel like I was playing catch up. I did not have a motorcycle before I took the course and I did not get one until after I completed the class. I will say one thing, if you have never drove a car with a stick shift, do yourself a favor and learn how to drive a stick before you take the MSF course. There were a couple of young people in the class that had never drove a stick and they did have a little more trouble with the class.

If you don't pass the class, don't feel bad. You just need a little more training. Take the class again, it's cheap.

[Kal]

The worst passing score went to one of the people who rode to the class. The second worst passing score (eight) was a tie between me and the other person who rode to the class. The people who owned a bike (and practiced between day1 and day2) but either had ridden a lot 20 years ago or had never ridden before the class did the best.

This is probably not going to translate well but

Instead of viewing the course as the World Series[sup]tm[/sup] and competing with your fellow trainees think of it as Golf where you are competing against yourself.

Once you have that ticket in your hand the only person whose riding has to get better is yours.

[blues2cruise]

dieziege
I had a similar situation in my classes as well. I was the only woman in a class with 9 guys, most of whom either rode to class or had a bike already. I did not have a bike either.
The instructor was so race oriented. I really didn't see how watching his videos of racing was going to teach me how to shift from 1 to 2.
Although I did pass, I went and got a few private lessons after to learn to ride the bike that I did buy.
It was money well spent.

[High_Side]

Verm, I'm waiting for my roalty check on this one...

[basshole]

I bought my first bike ('06 Suzuki C50) this past October when I had just turned 45. I researched ALOT on different boards before pretty much decided on what I wanted before I took by course but I didn't buy my bike until AFTER I had started my msf course. And I've never bought into the theory that you should buy used because you're gonna drop you bike. That just re-inforces negative thought and makes you LOOK to drop your bike. Take the course and you'll do well.

[VermilionX]

Verm, I'm waiting for my roalty check on this one...

i tried the website listed but doesn't work... do you still have the original pic? or a link to another site that host it?

[keysman]

dieziege
I had a similar situation in my classes as well. I was the only woman in a class with 9 guys, most of whom either rode to class or had a bike already. I did not have a bike either.
The instructor was so race oriented. I really didn't see how watching his videos of racing was going to teach me how to shift from 1 to 2.
Although I did pass, I went and got a few private lessons after to learn to ride the bike that I did buy.
It was money well spent.

Perhaps it all has to do with the instructor. My MSF instructor was very mellow.

[JediNut]

If you don't pass the class, don't feel bad. You just need a little more training. Take the class again, it's cheap.

Either the classes vary wildly on cost, or you have a very different idea of what is cheap for 15 hours of instruction. Here it is $224 for the class...to me, that's not exactly what I'd call cheap.

But then again, it's a heck of a lot cheaper than repairing the damage to a bike you've wrecked.

-JN

[Kal]

15 Hours plus test over 6 days for the Direct Access Course cost me £470 about $830...

As it was I had to lay out a further £160

So my licence cost roughly $1,110.

I'd say $224 is cheap...