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I'm hoping it will be better this weekend when we're actually at the range and the class size is a little smaller. Maybe they'll use visual aids this weekend once the bikes are out.

All I know is I finally got my riding pants last night so I'm all set to go. Nuts to them if they don't want to wear the right gear.

Glad you're getting all set up with the class. You'll be feeling pretty stoked by Sunday afternoon. Enjoy!!

Cheers,
Loonette

Okay, did the first 5 hours of the range portion of the class this morning. Much better than the classroom. There is still some room for them to discuss and such, but they did a better job of teaching and running us through the exercises.

After much thought, I ended up using their bike instead of my own. I ended up on a Yamaha XT 225. Not bad at all. Overall smaller than my bike, the throttle was a lot touchier but at with the limited power supply it was very easy to ride. My only beef with the bike was it's tempermental RPM's. Sometimes it was idling nice and easy and the next it kicks up in RPM's and doesn't want to settle down. But hey, I got through it.

We did 9 exercises today, including cornering, weaving and the quickstop. Sounds like tomorrow we're tackling the s-curves and figure 8's and such. My only minor gripe so far is the fact that there were 12 students and some of the excercises could get really congested if you had a student who couldn't keep pace. It'd have been nice to see them set up 2 areas and divide the class based on how they were doing.

Overall I'm much happier with the way things are progressing, what I'm learning and actually being able to get my endorsement tomorrow.

How many instructors were there? I hope there was 2.

Maybe you could suggest to them that they cone two courses.

When I took the course, there was 2 instructors for 10 students. They had 2 courses set up in the parking lot so that only 5 were using a course at a time.
I agree with you that it's easier to learn on a small bike. I found I had difficulty with the first gear riding on the lesson bike. And then couldn't shift any of the gears on one of the others. I think the bikes get so abused by beginners it's hard to keep them adjusted.
The switch to my new bigger bike took a little getting used to because of the weight of it, but it sure does shift nice compared to the lesson bikes.

We'll be looking for you report after your next session.

Woohoo!!! Once I go to the DMV on Tues and pay the appropriate fees I will be an officially endorsed motorcycle rider in the state of MN. Yeah me!!

Finished up my range this morning. Not bad at all. Ended up on a Kawasaki KLR250 today, kickstart no less. Let me tell ya, it was fun to start on a cold morning. Anyways, it rained a bit during the class so we got to experience what that was like. Made me a little more nervous, but once I got through the first exercise I was cool with it. Speaking of first exercise, it was the figure 8. I sucked at it. I don't think it was as bad as I was anticipating, based on some of the threads on the board, but it is hard to do. Surprisingly I actually aced that part of the test. Anyways, we pulled everything together through a couple of complex exercises and then tested out. Lost 9 points over 2 parts. 4 point deduction for not stopping quick enough and 5 point deduction for decelerating a bit through the cornering portion. Oh well, life goes on.

We did have our first and only dump of the class, one of the other riders locked his brakes up to quick during one of the braking exercises where you had to brake while in a corner. he didn't get straightened and hit the brakes to hard. He was cool about it, uninjured and a good learning piece for those of us who saw it.

All in all, I would recommend the class to everyone. While there were some things I'd have liked to seen more of in the class overall I feel it was a good investment, especially the riding part. I plan on waiting a month or so and signing up for the ERC.