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As some of you may know I signed up to take the MSF BRC class over the last 2 weekends. I took the course in Beverly at Cycles128 and wanted to post my thoughts and get insight from other instructors about the class.
Last weekend I went to class on Saturday and sat through an entire day of listening to the instructor and watching some DVD's. All along the way they made sure to bring attention to the "important" parts. By important the instructor meant things that would be on the written test after the class.
The classroom portion of the course was pretty easy in my opinion because as long as you paid attention you were almost guaranteed not to fail the written portion. I ended up getting one answer incorrect and did not get to see what it was or what the correct answer was. After I found out I had passed I headed home for the day and waited until the following weekend to do the riding portion.
This past weekend I arrived at the class around noon and was informed we would be riding until around 5pm. The instructors started everyone off by teaching how to mount the bikes and making sure everyone had a good idea of which controls where where.
The instructors then had everyone sit on the bikes with thier legs stretched out in front resting our heels on the ground. They then instructed us to put the bikes in first gear and ease out the clutch and having our feet roll so that when we stopped our toes were on the ground (behind us now) rather than our heels.
Everything was going smooth and it appeared like everyone had a good handle on the bikes. The instructors continued to have us do these small tasks preparing us for the actual riding time.
Once the instructors thought everyone had a handle on the bikes we started to do some actual riding. We first started out doing an oval just to warm up the bikes and then the fun started. I will not be going into detail about every maneuver they had us complete but I will cover the one I had concerns with.
I am not sure if this is because I have experience riding bikes and I was mixed with a crowd that did not or if the area in which the test was given was not large enough.
Behind Cycles128 they have a large paved area which they have markings painted for the maneuvers. One such maneuver they wanted us to do was to ride in an oval in 2nd gear leaning through a 180 corner (smooth radius, not sure how else to say it) and as we hit the mid point in the corner they wanted us to shift to 3rd then back down to 2nd before the next corner. I was having a bit of a problem with this because I was unable to get to a stable speed for 3rd gear. Either there was another bike in front of me or the corner was right there, this happened every time I did a lap.
Now before you say well it must have been the other riders I almost think it would not have been an issue had the instructors done things a bit differently. You see the oval was not that large and they had 8 bikes running at the same time so one person could slow everyone down. I think they would have done better had there only been 4 bikes running at a time.
Day one was pretty easy for everyone there. No one seemed to have a problem handling the bike through the basic maneuvers. Day two however went a bit better than day 1.
On day 2 of riding not only did the maneuvers get a bit more difficult but the instructors actually separated the group for the most part. This time they either had 4 bikes running at a time or they made us crisscross so there was more distance between each bike.
They had us once again do the 180 degree turns with steady throttle. The instructors would take turns calling a person and watching you do the maneuver then you would pull up along side them so they could provide you with constructive criticism on what you could do in order to do the maneuver better. What I thought was funny is that on day 2 we had 9 riders (a stray came in I guess) and 2 instructors. So the instructor would watch you and say ok next time I want you to do this. However when it was your turn next since there was an odd amount of riders the "other" instructor would tell you to go and be watching you. So I was not sure why one instructor would tell you to do something yet not be the one watching you do it. The other instructor did not hear what the first instructor told me.
Also on day 2 we were doing the turn again and the one instructor told me to push my right more when taking the right turn. I said ok and went on my way. The next thing the instructor sees is me going through the corner and hears shhhkkkkkkkkk from the peg the entire way through the corner. He just laughed and the other instructor said I was crazy. When we had a break I asked the instructor if he had told me to do that intentionally and he said yep I just didn't think you would push "that" hard.
Also I am not quite sure why (maybe because I had experience or they wanted someone to pick on) but I was always the first in line (or leader) as they called it for all maneuvers we completed on day 2.
That's pretty much all I will be saying about the course aside from don't let the Box or Figure 8 (same maneuver different name) deter you from taking this class, it was actually not that hard and out of 9 people only 1 could not accomplish it without putting a foot down.
I asked to know what my score was after the course and they said it's passing but would not tell me what I lost points on etc. I also was not informed on anything that "I needed practice on". It's hard to believe I don't need to "practice" any of those maneuvers.
The one concern I do have is the fact that they have you take the class on these "fun to lean" and "holy hell maneuverable" Honda Nighthawk 250. I asked just how difficult the box would be on my bike and the instructor responded with "I am an MSF Instructor and I can't do it on my bike, I'm just not willing to take the chance". I guess it's nearly impossible to do on a bike with so much torque and that has to lean at such angles.
I also did not "personally" like how they handled the one person who did not pass the course. Rather than having an instructor talk to the student who was not passing and having the other instructor bring the other students to the classroom they opted to both talk to her and send everyone else upstairs. The student then had to go to the classroom to return her helmet and (opted) to tell everyone she failed. They basically did all of this in-front of the rest of the class and you could see the *embarrassment* on her face.
They suggested she take the class again and also get some one on one training which I agree would be good for her as she was having trouble.
Does this sound very similar to the classes that other instructors on here hold or do you generally not have 8-9 bikes running at the same time? I am only asking because I think that is the one thing Cycles128 could have done to make the class more enjoyable for everyone.
Sorry for making this a novel
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Originally Posted by jcrawford
