Completed My First Experienced Rider Course

[billyboy]

Saturday afternoon in northeast Ohio was 90 degrees and sunny. Although there was a decent breeze, it wasn't a day to be doing slow motorcycle maneuvers on asphalt in the blazing sun for 6 hours with the required MSF attire.

But it was a GREAT class! It's been 12 years since I took the Basic Rider Course and I was overdue for a refresher. I thought I did pretty well considering that I don't practice slow maneuvering - I tend to get out and ride and just don't think about practicing, but that's gonna change.

Although the class had full enrollment, only 5 showed so we were able to get more time for each exercise. It was a good mix of bikes: Nomad, Road King, Shadow, ST1300 and Rocket III. All of us were in our 50s and despite the fact that the other 4 guys claimed to have ridden for decades, I was the only one who didn't put my foot down. The Road King got dropped.

It was an eye opener. I was thinking that these guys were gonna make me look bad. The grizzled old H-D guy with 2 Road Kings dropped his and I thought for sure that the ST1300 could turn around inside a phone booth, but he was having trouble staying inside the box.

I found it difficult to find the friction zone on the Nomad - same thing with my Intruder 1500. After a while on some exercises I was overthinking and would probably do better to practice alone. But overall I thought I did well. I reviewed the Ride Like a Pro DVD a few times over the past month and that really helped in remembering to turn my head and eyes and keep my feet on the floorboards.