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After looking at the bike in the garage for a month I finally started the MSF course yesterday. Friday night just book learning and videos. Important and interesting but not the fun stuff. Today was all riding. Started basic and worked up in difficulty. Everything was going great until the figure eight in the box. That thing kicked my butt. I never did complete it today, but I know where I am going wrong and just need to be able to fix it. I'm not taking the first (left) turn around far enough and that is leaving me too little room for the return loop. I end up turning the wheel full right and having to put my foot down. I have come close but never quite did it with no foot touch. If I fail, that will be what does it to me. I rode a Suzuki GZ250 with a fairly touchy throttle and tight clutch. I can't wait for tomorrow but not looking foreword to trying the box again. Even had some rainshowers move through so we got some wet surface training.

The figure-8 was tough, but don't worry too much about it. If your class goes anything like mine did, you'll have another opportunity to practice it before the skills test, and then even if you don't get the box in the skills test, don't worry about it. We had a bunch of people in my class that didn't make the box, and still passed.

Something our instructors told us up front: If you pass the class, it doesn't mean you have the ability to go out and ride a motorcycle, and if you fail the class, it doesn't mean you lack the ability.

The only real difference the class made for anyone in my group was for the military guys who wanted to ride on the arsenal. No pass, no ride.

The class (and a few minutes at the DMV) will also probably get you the M endorsement on your license, which should get you a better rate on your motorcycle insurance.

The keys to the U-turns are:

1. Move your butt over on the seat (counterweight).
2. Really feel the lean of the bike while keeping your upper body straight (more counterweight).
3. Try 2nd gear, stay in the friction-zone, using the foot-brake if you can; keeping the throttle up and steady against the brake, using the clutch to control acceleration, will reduce the jerkiness and dead-zone you get when you use the throttle and engine for both speeding up and slowing down.
4. Turn your head and look in the direction you want to be heading at the end of each turn.

And each time you ride a different bike, practice U-turns again, because there's muscle-memory involved and the dynamics of the bike are significant.

I made it through the course . I finally did the box without touching my foot a few times, then touched the line during the evaluation so took 5 points. I lost a total of 10 points overall and aced the written test. Now a bunch of practicing the skills with my bike and I will finally be a rider.

Fropa wrote:... then touched the line during the evaluation so took 5 points.

Interesting. They told us that the way the rules are written you actually have to cross the line and show bare pavement on the other side to be considered outside the box. Touching the line doesn't incur a loss. Maybe it's an Arizona DMV thing and YMMV.

The problem is, they weren't allowed to tell us that before the test, so lots of people touched the line and bailed, thinking they'd already lost the points. I don't know why the test has secret rules. It just does.

Congratulations!