Total Motorcycle Community Forums

jonnythan wrote:Sounds like your instructors sucked.

All but one person in my class passed. And that one person had no business behind the wheel of a car, much less on a bike.

I thought the instructors and coaches were great as teachers. It just seemed the examiner was out of synch with them. Everyone I've talked to has said that there was one or no people who flunked in their group. But in mine, it was 5 out of 11.

Some of the other flunkies in my group deserved to. They had multiple drops over the two days and weren't ready for the road. I guess I thought I really was since I had 700 miles or so behind me, including some interstate work. It may just be sour grapes on my part.

I will admit that I totally tubed the U turn exercise. I have a mental block against turning the bars to the full lock because I'm a long time road bicyclist and if you do that on a bicycle, you go down. I need to go to a parking lot and just work through that.

It also took some mental work for me to do the hard stops. I ride a BMW F800 with Brembo brakes that will pop your eyeballs out. I was taking the course on a crappy little Kawasaki Eliminator. I had to override my instinct to be easy on the brake the way I would on my own bike.

Our instructors were our examiners. Not sure if that is typical. That high of a failure rate does indicate some problem though.

Back to the beginner at the course - I had a little bit of experience before taking the course which helped me to be less nervous. It gave me a chance to get the muscle memory of where to reach for the clutch, throttle, etc.

But more important than that is having experience with a manual transmission. If you're not comfortable with that, I bet the course would feel much harder.

There will be experienced riders taking the course but don't get intimidated. Just focus on your own learning, remember to breathe, and remember it's supposed to be fun!

Our instructors were our examiners. Not sure if that is typical.

That's how it worked with the class I was in. There were a handful of people in the class I took that didn't really want to go all that fast during the exercises. Just remember to follow the instructions of the instructors, as they'll signal you to speed up or slow down.

There were a few people who went a bit slow during the test at the end, and all that happened to them was the instructors had them go again but faster. I don't know if they got marked down for it, but I do know they ended up passing the course.

ccshamp wrote:Our instructors were our examiners. Not sure if that is typical.

That makes sense since they would have had 10 hours of watching each individual ride rather than 30 or 40 seconds. It would give them a lot better sense of each riders' capabilities.

JungleJim wrote:I had never ridden a motorcycle either, I mountain biked so my balance is good and drove a manual transmission so I knew about shifting. The pace they start you at gives you a chance to get used to riding, just follow their instructions and you'll do fine. the 250's they started us on were easy to handle, light weight and small, maybe a little too small for taller people.

Like the sandman said, if you need extra help the instructors will do so during breaks, at least they did at my course for a couple of people that were having issues.

you dont need balance to ride a motorcycle. just remember speed.

Yes, but they're also supposed to base their decisions on the exam alone. In my class there was a blatant example of that *not* happening, but it's supposed to be an objective evaluation.

I almost went too slow for judgment on the quick stop but the instructor/ evaluator said he would've just asked me to do it again. I don't know if that was in keeping with an objective evaluation but I think so.

ccshamp wrote:Yes, but they're also supposed to base their decisions on the exam alone. In my class there was a blatant example of that *not* happening, but it's supposed to be an objective evaluation.

I almost went too slow for judgment on the quick stop but the instructor/ evaluator said he would've just asked me to do it again. I don't know if that was in keeping with an objective evaluation but I think so.

Slightly different subject, but I'm amazed at the regular DVM examination here in Pennsylvania. It has four parts: pre-ride inspection, left circle in parking lot, right circle in parking lot, S turn in parking lot! So someone can have a full fledged class M license without ever actually riding on a street.

Seems to me they ought to at least have a mock up intersection. Better yet would be for the examiner to follow the rider in a car for a few miles.

Also unrelated: when I hit 1200 miles earlier this week, it was like everything just clicked. I'd been making steady progress all along, but now it's like everything is natural (particularly left curves at speed, which were bothering me before. Righties were no problem).

Thanks for all the info. guys. I do have experience driving cars that have manual transmission but somehow I think that a cycle will be much different.

ofblong wrote:you dont need balance to ride a motorcycle. just remember speed.

For the most part that's true but it comes in handy for using body position at low speeds; the 'dreaded' figure 8 U turns in the box, counter balance, etc. For straight up riding it's not a factor.

RockBottom wrote:

ccshamp wrote:Our instructors were our examiners. Not sure if that is typical.

That makes sense since they would have had 10 hours of watching each individual ride rather than 30 or 40 seconds. It would give them a lot better sense of each riders' capabilities.

So, rockbottom, did you take the state offered course, or the Riders Edge? Obviously, PA handles the license test differently than MD does (at least for our state run class).

The Riders Edge courses, in MD are taught by instructors who have passed the MD training program, then get additional "Harley" instruction to teach the Riders Edge. To avoid any hint of 'favoritism' after the instruction is complete, a NON Harley affiliated instructor oversees the riding evaluation at the end.

That said, the 'examiner' does have a bit of interaction with the class instructors. Nevertheless, the evaluation is based on empirical guidelines. Stuff is timed, there are lines that you may not cross, etc. It shouldn't be possible for the examiner to just say, "You fail."

I must be missing something here.

P