Only say it if you mean it

[Hmar]

Took the basic course last year, was my first time on a bike (around here traffic can be nasty, and drivers are stupid. Wouldn't even consider first ride on the road)
The course gave me the confidence I needed to get on the XS, in a parking lot, and try out what I had learned on my own.
I suggest the rider course to anyone who asks my opinion.

[DGXSER]

Good point HMar, My class was at a local career college. About 2 miles form my house. The back parking lot is marked with the lines and dots for the cones and such. So on a week night I can go there and take the XS through the course. Weaving the cones is a bit of a challenge, and I still have not got the zig zag turn around down to within the small box yet. But the rest is pretty much cake walk now. Highly recommend to anyone if you get the chance to take your bike through the course.

After all the years of riding I had done prior to the course, I knew about counter steering. The timing between vehicles and watching for idiots to be idiots was not a new concept, though it never hurts to be reminded. The biggest surprise to me was that if you turn your head, not look with your eyes, but physically turn your head to look at where you want the bike to go, the bike and your body will follow naturally. Never been shown that before and it was impressive to me.

[JerseyJon]

the course

I've been riding since I was 22, and I'm 48 now. There have been some hiatuses in those years. I'm taking an advanced riding course at the end of april. I'm very impressed with the videos showing men and women riding giant goldwings and full dresser harleys slowly and in perfect control around a parking lot course. I want that kind of control. To me, safety is about confidence and feeling in control.

[Erik the Red]

3 MSF courses offered

MSF offers 3 courses; Basic Rider Course (BRC), Returning Rider BRC (formerly known as the PB, or Performance Based), and then the Advanced Rider Course (ARC).

All are well worth taking, and the RRBRC is designed for people who already know the basics of a motorcycle, but want to learn the techniques of the curriculum.

Good riding habits are the cornerstone of coming home safely. The class definitely made me more aware, and I apply the principles even to driving. ...And walking around corners in the office. Full head turn, chin to shoulder.

I HIGHLY recommend taking at least one of the courses. I liked it so much, in fact, that I became a certified instructor. It doesn't make sense not to, in my opinion. Or as my old band teacher used to say: in my humble, but accurate opinion.

[jetmechmarty]

The XS11 is a real hand full. It's hard to imagine it as a first bike. It is a heavy bike that does not stop particularly well. With a worn out suspension, handling can get pretty dicey. It can "fall" into turns at low speeds. I've made many improvements to mine, but it still doesn't compare well to a modern motorcycle. (Well, maybe to a heavy cruiser.) I'd be a bit concerned about someone close to me starting out on one. If it was one of my kids, I would forbid it.

It's a great motorcycle and I love it. Can you imagine someone taking the basic rider course on one?

[Joab]

The XS11 is a real hand full. It's hard to imagine it as a first bike. It is a heavy bike that does not stop particularly well. With a worn out suspension, handling can get pretty dicey. It can "fall" into turns at low speeds. I've made many improvements to mine, but it still doesn't compare well to a modern motorcycle. (Well, maybe to a heavy cruiser.) I'd be a bit concerned about someone close to me starting out on one. If it was one of my kids, I would forbid it.

It's a great motorcycle and I love it. Can you imagine someone taking the basic rider course on one?

On the bright side, if they passed...they more then earned their license!

[Hmar]

I had some reservations about it as a first bike, but I think that the fact that I am 35 and not 16 made a difference as well. I approached it with more caution than I would have 18 years earlier

[cywelchjr]

Here in California, you MUST take the course to obtain the class 3 endorsement on your license. At the local community college, I used to see the young kids, and now and then the "biker", all in the class! I will be looking into the advance class later this year. 31 years legal on the street, but I hope I can still learn.
As for the comment about dirt and street, I ALWAYS tell someone to ride in the dirt for a few months BEFORE trying the street. That will give them time to learn the controls, and hopefully slide and fall a few times. For the most part, you don't have a car ready to run over you in the dirt when you make the error the first or second time...

I've heard of the requirement for those under 18 in Ca, but have never heard of it for those over and have NEVER been asked about the course.

[Lonerider62]

In my home state you can't register/plate a bike if you don't have the cycle endorsement on your license and you don't get the endorsement if you haven't taken a class. Above all that, I've never seen a dealer sell a bike to anyone who wasn't certified to ride one. That's all probably a good thing because I've heard of several young people get killed on a bike because they never worried to learn how to ride one. Although I got my cycle credentials before the MSF course was available, I have taken several rider's courses to try to keep my edge. I use my FZ1 about 90% of the time, mainly because it's light, powerful, and agile. When you are 62, 150 bs wet and only about 5'6" tall, a bike like the XS11 is a hand full. I've had 26 road bikes since I started to ride in 1965 and my first bike was a rather timid, actally very timid (1963 Ducati Bronco) bike, but it did allow me to get to know the controls, ballance, and witts it takes to keep from being run over or run over something I wasn't supposed to. In my 47 years running the blacktop, I've been down three times pretty hard, and rear-ended once. Twice I, mis-judged the surface and once I hit antifreeze that a school bus had dumped on the first day of school in the fall, that couldn't be seen until way too late in the middle of a sharp turn. We learn from our experiences and Im still learning, and, I still remember every instant of every time I've been down. That makes me a better rider.

[b.walker5]

On a completely different note, and wildly off topic, but hey Lonerider, who the hell named your town ? and did he make it out in one piece ?

[Elevener]

Gaylord, an anglicisation of the French surname Gaillard . It is used widely for many things.

Now Invercargill on the other hand.

[b.walker5]

You'd have to go talk to a Scotsman named Cargill who liked rivers about that one.. (Inver comes grom the Gaelic and means River Mouth)

[ViperRon]

empathy

I started out on a mini bike when I was 11 years old and bought my first new motorcycle in 73 at 15. I put 10,000 trail miles on that little Yamaha before I ever rode on the highway. I road the $ell out of it and a few times it rode me. I have a hard time with new riders having an SX1100 as their first motorcycle because the leasons of how it gets away from you and what happpens when it does are impossible to learn on a bike big enough to grind you into the ground. My best advice is to take the courses and learn how to ride safe. Get someone with real experience to help you and if possible ride some other smaller bikes to learn some handling because the first time being wild with this thing could be bad and we all want you here on the forum for a long time.

[planedick]

Hard lessons

Been riding since '52, started on a Whizzer and at 14 owned a Hardly '42 Springer.

I took the course and they provided the motorcycles, 250's and such. I found out the SX11 won't do the turns in the boxes they used even if you turn the bars to the stops. I did learn the best way to do a circle with the bars against the stop without putting your food down (paddle footing it), is to put some RPM's on it, about 2000, put the steering to the stop, pick up your foot and maintain balance by slipping the clutch and using the rear brake. Works real good. Try it in a parking lot sometime.

To make it really complicated and sometimes necessary, test it by trying to make a "U" turn in the road facing up a steep hill with the XS without putting your foot down. Before I took the course that was the first time my XS was down. Since the seat was facing down the hill and the pan up, I couldn't get it right side up. I was lucky enough, someone came along and helped me right it.

[yamtom]

courses

Hi All,
I too started with a Whizzer way back in 63 at thirteen. I think I pushed that bike as far as I ever rode it. Same with my Harley Sprint at sixteen. Then, I bought a fancy new bridgestone 350, and totalled it on the third day. So I took a couple years off. It was a not so auspicious start for my riding career to say the least.
After another prolly ten bikes, I decided to take the msf course a couple of years ago with my grandson, we took the basic and advanced class too. My grandson did well in the advanced course with my MNS and I did well with the M109. We are going to take another advanced course this year, he is going to ride his dual purpose bike, and I think I will ride the MNS this time. The local school only charges twenty five bux for either class, although they say they get a bunch more from the state to run the basic one. I cant imagine not taking the basic course before starting to street ride.