I passed!!!

Fear not great Northeast......I have officially passed the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's BRC. Or the beginner riding class. I officially have my motorcycle license....and I am professionally trained to ride around under 10 mph in a parking lot with cones, surrounded by a guard rail.

Seriously.

That's what I was trained on. A parking lot with a bunch of cones, and painted lines.
That's EXACTLY the layout.

In all actuality, I'm being sarcastic again. The class was a HUGE help. I have learned so much in just the 15 hours, it's amazing.
My class consisted of 20 people total. Tuesdays from 6-8:45 PM, we did classroom work. There's a text book with over 100 questions in it. We all read the book outloud, asked the question ouloud, then answered it outloud. Our in-class instructor, Tom, was not only a great teacher from the book, he helped by creating examples of situations using our imaginations, as well as racking our brains for questions, answers, and case scenerios.
Then on Sundays, 10 of us showed up at 10AM for the "Riding" part. We all were assigned a motorcycle that was "ours" for the lessons....I had Number 9.......and that was the bike we used for the Riding Exam. Out in the parking lot, Tom was there, as well as another instructor Annette. The both of them together was a BLAST!!! I won't get into too much detail, but what they taught ME (I can't speak for the whole class), I don't think I could have learned just by riding out there on the streets.
So the last classroom class, we had a written test, 50 questions....I got 100% correct. -Happy dance-!
Then this past Sunday, (yesterday), we had the Level 2 of the riding lessons, then the riding test. We had to perform 4 challenges that we learned over the class, and we then got scored on them. The scoring was like golf. The lower the score, the better. To pass, you had to have a score of 19 or lower. If you scored 20 or higher, you failed the riding portion of the exam. Here were the four exercises I had to perform:

1) The dreaded "BOX". Now, everyone panicked over this exercise because you had to do two, count `em, two "U" turns (Figure 8) in an itty bitty, teeny weeny rectangle. You could NOT go outside the lines, you could NOT put your foot down, and most definately, DON'T drop the bike!!! Dropping the bike meant INSTANT FAIL. Doing the other "don'ts" were just points added to your score.
We were told to NOT worry so much about the Dreaded Box. Just do your best. Well, I worried a bit, and ended up putting my foot down. Yep, I did a "don't". Guess how many points they gave me for that? 1. Whew. I shouldn't have worried.

2) The swerve. Coming out of the "box", you had to pick up speed, aim through 2 cones going fairly fast, then go through another set of cones and QUICKLY swerve to the RIGHT around ANOTHER set of cones, coming to a STOP well AFTER the cones. I'll save you the pointing system, but I did that one perfect. Zero points.

3) The "Quick Stop", or the emergency stop. Here, you start off from a stop between 2 cones, getting into 2nd gear, up to 15 mpg, and as soon as your front tire goes between 2 other cones, you slam on your brakes, squeeze your clutch, downshift to 1st, all within 5 feet. For every foot you go over, you get points. For anticipating the stop BEFORE the cones, you get LOTS of points. I went 1.5 feet over the 5 feet. I got handed 4 points. I would have rather gone OVER, than stop BEFORE the cones. OOOOdles of points for anticipating.

4) The right turn Clyde. This is harder than it sounds. It's a 135 degree turn to the right, and you have to go into it from 15 MPH. Here's how it works.......you start between 2 cones, get into 2nd gear and go towards the right. Get up to 15MPH, slow down BEFORE the turn starts, LOOK to your right on where you want to go, PRESS the handlebars to the right, then ROLL on the throttle. Keep the throttle at a steady speed and go through the full turn in 3 seconds. Yes, 3 seconds. A full 135 degree turn in 3 seconds. I could NEVER find the sweet spot on my throttle, so I took my time. I did the turn in 4 seconds. 4 points! I wasn't going FAST enough. Hey, at least I didn't drop the bike. :)

So all in all, I got 9 points. Remember, you needed 20 to fail. The whole class passed everything. No one dropped the bike, no one cursed up and down. No one crashed into anyone else....although we were aiming for our rider coaches sometimes...LOL.

If you EVER plan on riding a motorcycle...Please please please take this class. http://msf-usa.org/index_new.cfm It's absolutely free in Pennsylvania, they give you the bikes to practice on, and the knowledge. I feel MUCH safer. And I'm more aware of things I never even knew existed.

If you don't plan on riding a motorcycle....Please please please remember, I do ride one, and I'd really appreciate you keeping your eyes open for me as well as other cyclists. Try this next time you're driving home and you see a biker.....stick your thumb up in the air like Fonzie and see if he's hidden behind your thumb. I bet he is. That means we're harder to see.....and I refuse to wear Neon Green, with flashing strobe lights, playing the Bee Gees, "Stayin' Alive" through huge speakers so you can not only see me, but hear me too! LOL. Be careful, be aware, and be patient. We've got more places to look before we release the clutch.