Hey, nike,
Don't worry about it at all. I took the MSF class in late September and had never ridden a motorcycle before in my life (I'm 27 years old).
I got the "bug" in June while just window shopping with my cousin. After spending three months researching motorcycles, reading everything I could about them, and going to dealerships and getting "ideas" from them I was all psyched up for the class.
I had the "weekend" class, which was Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Friday consisted of just classroom stuff...workbook/video/discuss, repeat, rinse repeat, etc.
Saturday was about another hour of workbook/video stuff and then was the "fun part"...riding on the bikes on the course.
We had Honda 250's, a couple of Suzuki 250's, and a Kawasaki Eliminator 125 (the one I got). The Eliminator was pretty cool because it was the closest to "cruiser" styling that they had, and gave me an idea of what I would be riding on.
The first hour or so involved finding the friction-zone and getting comfortable with that. Then we "power-walked", which was moving across the course with our feet sort of "walking" us, but really going under the power of the bike by using the clutch to get into the friction zone of the bike enough to make it move, then pulling the cluth all the way in to just sort of "coast".
Once that was finished, our next exercise consisted of actually riding across the course...in first gear. You'd ride across the course, turn around, stop and wait for the rest of the class. After that we took a break. I was a little nervous, so I sat on a picnic table off by myself and gathered my thoughts and prayed (don't mean to get all "Bible-y" on you, but it's what I did...).
Break was over, and it was time to do more exercises. Again, nothing major...mainly wide cornering, then tight corners, and tighter corners. Then we worked on the stopping and "power stopping". Once everybody was done with that it was time to go home. Driving my truck home did NOT feel right! The next day, the inner part of my legs were "bruised" from pressing on the gas tank too hard!
Sunday was a few more hours of practicing. We started off with swerves, riding over obstacles, more on cornering, and then the "figure-8". Once that was done, it was lunch time. After lunch it was the riding test. After that was the written test.
I only had a few points taken off because my front tire went out of the figure-8 box by a little bit. A tip that one of the instructors gave me was to use my back brake lightly, and stay in 2nd gear(I was trying to use too much clutch to control myself during it). I did have the best time in the corner-speeding section. *star for me*
After that was the written test. Aced that. I am now the proud owner of a 2005, blue Suzuki M50!
A lot of people recommend buying used, and if I could've found one used I would've, but I'm taking my time with it and practicing as often as possible. Enjoying the 450 miles I've been able to put on it since mid-October.
The main things to remember, keep your eyes up, listen to the instructors, don't try putting your feet down while riding (did that once, and it's not the most pleasant thing to do...) and have fun!
The instructors aren't going to have you do anything that will kill you, so just make sure you understand what they've explained to do. At our training, we had two instructors. One would explain the riding task, and the other would demonstrate it a few times to make sure we understood it.
Again, have fun...if you're like me, this will be the most fun "class" you've ever taken!
Sorry for the length of this post. However, if you'd like any more information, feel free to PM me or whatever.
Enjoy!
-B