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Walking on air, I am! Passed the MSF course this weekend! Got 100% on the written, (of course, that's no real feat), and accumulated 3 points on the riding portion.

Having no real m/c experience, I was quite nervous but very excited. The instant I got on the bike and we started out, the nervousness turned to just feeling thrilled. I knew in my gut that motorcycling is for me!

Now I'm legal to ride anywhere I want to...but my experience level relagates to quiet neighborhood streets and big, open parking lots for now. Which is fine with me...I've been married 17 years and have a 7 year old daughter that depends on me---I'm all about the safety/experience thing.

On Sunday I actually hit the 3 inch high boundry cone, that marked the inside of the left turn, with the left foot peg! I'm sure the lean didn't look as agressive as it felt, but that feeling when your pushing on the handgrip, trusting the bike, looking through the turn, steadily increasing on the throttle, head up, etc... is heaven.

Of course I can't do it consistantly, but there were a few times that the execution felt perfect and everything came together....it was effortless.

So much information picked up on this forum really helped in the course; thanks so much for all the postings.

I'm hoping to close a deal on a Nighthawk 450 this weekend, guess I'll see you in the, (ahem), deserted parking lot soon!

My friend just passed the MSF course. Now she's running around a parking lot on her ride. She's graduating herself to the street next week. This week she's trying to come up with cone courses that will challenge the crap out of her. We found this video- maybe on here but I don't have the link on this computer- of a police motorcycle school and she's setting up all the hard courses that they do.

Have fun with it, be safe and I hope you get that 450

1 word.

Phenominal


Is that spelled right?

Its spelled right enough for me...thnx

That police m/c training video sounds interesting. The books "Proficient Motorcycling" and "How to ride a motorcycle" have enough excercises to keep me busy for quite a while...thank goodness we just got an extra hour of daylight!

Daylight Saving Time was conjured up by a motorcyclist

Congrats! I'm sure you'll be getting in some road time soon.

thank goodness we just got an extra hour of daylight!

Nope. We just shifted it from the morning to the evening. The hours of daylight didn't change.

Just thought I'd share my experience so far since I passed the MSF about 1.5 weeks ago. I got my vulcan 500 last week thursday and rode only in the quiet streets of my townhouse community area and I stalled a few times and the weight of the bike felt considerably more than the suzuki gz250 I rode at the MSF. Since it was near dusk I didn't do much riding and the next day I ventured onto one slightly busier public road and opening it up to about 45 mph once to get the feel for it, but I was having the apprehension of riding with cars behind me and next to me for the first time and I was stalling a bit too. The worst was 5 times from a stop sign! I did that once and hope I never top that again!

Didn't ride sunday which was a shame since it's normally the best day to ride (for a beginner). Today however I got a little more courage and took it to a busier 2 lane same direction road and found myself initially making unrefined moves. For instance when I was doing a right turn onto the busier road (45 mph speed limit) there was traffic coming and I was leaving more room than I would in my car, but I still felt the urge to hit the friction zone and get going quickly and I hit more throttle than easing out the clutch smoothly and start bucking out there, but got my composure quickly and moved on. The second mini-trip (after going home to recollect my thoughts) I decided to go a little further and onto a road with some curves. I was very cautious of left turners and was slowing down a little as I approached them. Took some curves and practiced countersteering a little at faster speed to get a feel for the greater amount of force needed to swerve. Anyhow, I got back home in one piece today and I had a blast and found my weak spots to work on.

Man, I didn't think I'd make such a long post, better put a blog up or something...

Dash Riproc wrote:I'm hoping to close a deal on a Nighthawk 450 this weekend, guess I'll see you in the, (ahem), deserted parking lot soon!

LOL Except for the "7 year old daughter" part, your post *exactly* reflects my feelings after finishing the course 8 months.

Congratulations, continue to ride safe and have fun!