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Carmy transmission is dead. I'm going to kick the car to the curb and my GF and I will look at a newer car for her.

Back from the spring update for rider training. It was pretty short but we nailed some important points. We're always improving and it's great.

I'm off to Redmond, WA for training tomorrow. The original plan was to take the bike, but there is no route I can take that doesn't pass through an area that could get one to three inches of snow accumulation tomorrow.

What the hell, weather?!

Thursday night: drove 300 miles from Redmond, WA back home.
Friday: rode the bike through multiple snow showers 300 miles to Boise, ID.
Saturday: taught a BRT class
Sunday: day two of the BRT class, ride 300 miles back home.

Stupid time zone changes: I was up at 4:30 AM Pacific Standard Time yesterday and today to get to the range.

Nice and warm on the way home from Boise and Spiral Highway was still there.

What is BRT?

AZRider wrote:What is BRT?

Basic Rider Training. It's the course TEAM OREGON developed when the MSF's Basic Rider Course (BRC) was updated from Riding Skills for the Street (RSS) to what the BRC is now. TEAM OREGON made their own curriculum that addressed issues the MSF ignored or dismissed in their update.

*sniff* Buddies are moving away so we took some pictures of us on a local road:



My new riding buddy:


The woman and me:




New riding buddy and my GF:


"bloody"' HELL IT'S WINDY:

I was almost rear-ended today.

Here's the scenario: classic left-turner violating my path of travel, but I had a tailgater behind me. I applied the brakes to avoid a frontal collision and the person behind me barely stopped before making contact with my motorcycle.

Diagram time:



The gray cars are parked cars, blocking the red vehicle/minivan's view, so the driver just pulled out without looking. What's worse is they stopped when they realized there was oncoming traffic, blocking the lane.

The purple truck behind me was inches from the back of my bike after we both stopped.

Good thing: I saw they were going to be cutting it close for stopping, so I proceeded to move forward to give them more room.

Bad thing: I stalled it because I was filled with adrenaline. Then the truck behind me started honking at me because I stopped to prevent a collision. I believe they just weren't paying attention and assumed I quickly stopped for no reason. This fits well with the usual morning drivers who can't see anything more than ten feet past their front bumper.

My future contains some practice of linking quick stops with quick acceleration from a stop to prevent this from happening.

To follow the mantra of a proficient rider, I'll be implementing mental skills to prevent my physical skills to be tested: improving my visibility to the path-of-travel offender by moving closer or onto the lane divider; keeping speeds slower, especially with tailgaters; prevent tailgaters by allowing them to pass and no longer be a threat.

Not the best way to start the morning but it got me goin' faster than a cup of coffee.

My buddy in Denver has bailed on the ALASKA '08 trip. I get to replace dates and destinations and figure out what I want to do. It was nice having him aboard since he did all the planning. Now I get to figure out what to do.

I'm a full, active instructor with Idaho STAR. Done with training and ready to roll without mentor supervision.

Students make their own enjoyment of the class.

I've taught enough classes now to see it in action. When students are there to have fun and learn, it's awesome! Smiles all around, great performances, speedy learning and everyone is happy. Last weekend I had two of those classes and it felt great. I also got to teach with instructors I had only met once before and we clicked well on the range.

On the flip side of the coin, it only takes one or two students in a class to make the entire experience seem trite. What kills me is the students who do this are the ones who need the most coaching!

I don't know why a student would voluntarily sign up for the class to be sour about the experience. Our program is a bargain for getting to use someone else's motorcycle to polish or learn motorcycling skills under professional supervision. To act in an angsty, know-it-all teenager fashion is frustrating to everyone in the class.

Thankfully I have a plan for solving the eye-rolling-student problem: a squirt bottle. Just mist in their faces every time they make a comment!

I'll try it out on my friends first.