Total Motorcycle Community Forums

my BRC is gonna be 2 weeks from now. it doesn't say on their website what bikes they have available.

i hope that i get to use a sportsbike for the class so i can relate more of my training there when i go back to my bike.

Usually very small standards or cruisers. These bikes get dropped a lot and they don't want to fix the plastic. Don't worry. You will relate and learn. Just do not expect to have all the answers when you are done. The course is good it is very basic. As someone else said, when you pass the course you are capable of riding in second gear around a parking lot.

ya small standards or crusiers. My BRC had Honda Nighthawks and Rebels. All banged up and trashed but the honda dealership accross the street kept em runnin, barely



JWF

JCS wrote:Usually very small standards or cruisers. These bikes get dropped a lot and they don't want to fix the plastic. Don't worry. You will relate and learn. Just do not expect to have all the answers when you are done. The course is good it is very basic. As someone else said, when you pass the course you are capable of riding in second gear around a parking lot.

2nd gear around a parking lot???

if you're serious... i might just be going there for my DL389. still not so bad. i saw how small the circle is on the DMV. i never even attempted to try it even though i was already there w/ my bike.

i could probably do it on a smaller bike like the nighthawk, but not even gonna try on my bike.

JCS wrote:Usually very small standards or cruisers. These bikes get dropped a lot and they don't want to fix the plastic. Don't worry. You will relate and learn. Just do not expect to have all the answers when you are done. The course is good it is very basic. As someone else said, when you pass the course you are capable of riding in second gear around a parking lot.

ya thats about right, sence you got some EXP going in you may get some more out of it like the foundation of what your already doing, but hard to say


JWF

VermilionX wrote:

JCS wrote:Usually very small standards or cruisers. These bikes get dropped a lot and they don't want to fix the plastic. Don't worry. You will relate and learn. Just do not expect to have all the answers when you are done. The course is good it is very basic. As someone else said, when you pass the course you are capable of riding in second gear around a parking lot.

2nd gear around a parking lot???

if you're serious... i might just be going there for my DL389. still not so bad. i saw how small the circle is on the DMV. i never even attempted to try it even though i was already there w/ my bike.

i could probably do it on a smaller bike like the nighthawk, but not even gonna try on my bike.

Well, the MSF I took taught me more then that, emergency manouvers, including evasion, emergency braking, rapid acceleration and throttle control. What most of the nay-sayers don't seem to realize is that what applies at slow speed is just as important at high speed. Any idiot can go fast in a straight line. It takes real skill to go slow either in a straight line or around corners. The same idea applies to Tai Chi. It is, or was a form of self defense, where the people who had learned it in the traditional fashion could defend themselves using it. Now it's just a novelty. But I digress. The point is that learning the slow speed skills will transfer over to high speed.

As far as the circle. You better be able to do it on your bike. Having a bigger bike is not an excuse for being less willing to take a turn. I've seen a full dress valkyrie do perfect figure 8's inside of a normal 2-car garage. Starting on and owning the bike you do means you're responsible for practising even harder then the people who started small. Because their bikes are easier to get through the manevours being what they are. Being able to do the tests they set up may save your life some time.

i heard that the small circle DMV test doesn't really prove anything except you are great at balancing at slow speeds.

i heard it's great if you're into stunts, but i don't intend to do stunts.

i don't see any need for doing such a small circle in traffic or on the track. am i mistaken?

but anyway, i'll probably try do it on my bike some day. the DMV is very near our place so i can easily go there on weekends when they're closed to practice that circle.

Mintbread wrote: A smaller bike?

I hope you are talking engine capacity.

nope, an actually smaller and lighter bike. im sure it will be easy on it compared to mine.

http://www.motorbikes.be/en/compare/4625/4567/

the nighthawk is almost 70lbs lighter than my bike.

Mintbread wrote:haha, you really need to ride some other bikes.

That thing (K5) is tiny.

my bike's K6 but it's practically the same as the K5.

im not built for big bikes. im only 5'9" (175.26cm) and only 128lbs (58kg).

sure it would be fine at moderate to high speeds but at slow speeds, it's gonna be hard for me to balance big bikes.

VermilionX wrote:i heard that the small circle DMV test doesn't really prove anything except you are great at balancing at slow speeds.

i heard it's great if you're into stunts, but i don't intend to do stunts.

i don't see any need for doing such a small circle in traffic or on the track. am i mistaken?

but anyway, i'll probably try do it on my bike some day. the DMV is very near our place so i can easily go there on weekends when they're closed to practice that circle.

Sev is 100% correct on this one. Skills learned at low speeds are skills learned for high(er) speeds. It's like the wheelie argument i've brought up before. If you can master turning while in a wheelie, even slowing down to under 10 mph and still hold it, imagine how well you could handle the bike on TWO wheels. The skills you learn (be it at the MSF course or out on the street) all compound on each other. For instance, the throttle and clutch control it takes to controll the bike in a small circle will help even the mundane task of turning right from a stop. Clutch and throttle control is also really important at high speeds too, if i'm not mistaken. Now, like you said, you might never need to turn around in a really small area (i know i have, on a dirt bike, which has a similar rake degree to a sporty bike), but what if you actually do need it? You'd be suprised at things like this. Hell, what if you pull into a parking lot, go down a row of cars and find it's a dead-end with no open spots? Sure, you could duck waddle the bike, but why not just turn around?

Advice for the MSF, if you can, grab a Nighthawk, it'll be the closest to your bike in terms of ride. Not much closer, but more so than a little rebel or GZ250.