I took the MSF course this weekend, and I did great. I didn't have any problems.... until it came to test time. I scored 100% on the written test, and a perfect score on the first 3 riding tests. The first one was two U turns in a 20 by 40 box. I had a Honda Nighthawk 250, so it was doable, not extremely difficult. The second one was a quick swerve, there is an obstacle you have to swerve around. No problems, perfect score. The third test, is a quick stop. You speed up to 15 miles an hour, hit the breaks at the cones, and stop quickly. For the speed I was going it should have taken me 13 feet to stop, it took me exactly 13 feet. The last one!!! you do a 135 degree turn, approach it at about 20 mph, and then hit the breaks before the turn, then speed up through the turn. Don't hit the breaks during the turn, or roll off the throttle. I didn't slow down quite enough, and was to worried about rolling off the throttle. I hit the turn and as I was coming up to the end, I saw myself heading towards the outside line and turned a little bit harder. The right foot peg hit the ground, and the bike just kind of slid out from under me. There are only two things that will instantly fail you on the test, popping a wheely and dropping the bike. So, even though i did everything else perfectly, I dropped the bike doing something I have done about a hundred times before. On the bonus side, I can go back next week and just do the riding test again. I don't have to go through the hole course again. Also, on the bonus side I got to experience my first, and hopefully only low side and it wasn't on my bike. It was on the crappy little bike that they give you.

 

lol I'm sorry I don't mean to laugh, ok yes I do that is a freaking funny story!!!!! Atleast it was one of those crappy ol MSF bikes that you crashed instead of your own! Man I remember when I was taking the MSF on those things. One of the days when we were supposed to just be riding in a big huge circle I was going as slow as humanly possible and holding everyone up until the instructor told me to speed up just a little. Well, I opened that bad boy up and was scraping my shoe (I wore shoes and was yelled at 3 times but still kept wearing them anyway) and the peg feeler going around the circle at like 25mph while screaming in my helmet with the visor open yelling "OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOD I'M GOING TO DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The lady gave me a freaked out look like I was serious.

On our test the only things that you would instant fail for was putting your foot down or crashing the bike. They gave us all day to practice the test before we each took our turn. You know the one part where you have to speed up and then stop in a straight line when they tell you to the emergency brake thing or whatever? Well the first time they said I was going to fast and told me to slow down so every other practice I went down that line at like 5mph and they kept making the hand signals to hurry up. Well on the test I got the thing up to like 40mph and just locked up the front and rear brakes and skidded right past them. After I stopped and turned around and shrugged the lady instructor looked at me kind of chuckled and shook her head like I'm an idiot. How I have my motorcycle license we will never know.

I was also kicked out of the drivers ed class room atleast 3 times.

Good luck next time on your test man! I have faith in you!!!

Mike

 

It's OK to laugh, I did after I was done being pissed. I even laughed at the course. I'm not concerned about failing it again, like I said I had no other problems the entire day. The instructor even told me that he and the other instructor just kind of sat there staring at each other going.. .how? what? He said neither one of them expected me to have any problems on the test. They said, if I would have not even done the last test, and would have just rode up to them and parked, and said "I'm done". I would have passed. But since I dropped the bike, they had to fail me.

 

Lots of people in my class a few years back were clipping the pegs on those POS cruiser type bikes. Scared the hell out of all of them.

I got lucky and got a Ninja 250 - nice little bike.

 

i just took the MSF course this weekend as well. i passed . i did scrape the footpegs through just about every corner though. some damn chick got the ninja 250 i had my eye on.

 

ninja 250s are SWEET for the msf. fun to ride around on the street too. for my msf, i had some little yamaha dual sport thing. not the greatest thing in the world, but it was small, light, and turned on a dime. got a 100% written and 98% driving score my first try. they only knocked off a couple points because i went like 3inches over the line during the "oh sh*t!" braking test.

 

i had fun in my MSF course last year. I'm 6'3" and 240 lbs, riding a Buell Blast 500. You couldnt really see the bike under me. Kinda funny riding a bike that weighs only a little more than I do.

 

That's what's good about the MSF course. You have the chance of doing something wrong with their bike and learning your lesson from the course.

 

i did mine on my F4i the first day.. not exactly the best bike to be doing these low speed turns... i dont even think its possible to do the s turn in the 20x40 box on it since the handlebars dont turn as far as the reble i was riding the 2nd day because my clutch hand hurt so much from going in out in out 090238902932 times... lol i'd been riding for 5 years when I took the MSF i didnt learn anything but it was really fun I took it with my GF. I always wanted to take it a long time ago but my dad never let me he kept saying "here" as he threw the keys to our 1973 Honda CB350 at me "just ride around the block till you figure it out"

god that bike scared the **** out of me all the time cuz i was clueless rofl!

 

Its very possible, its called lean lol. and if you didnt learn nothing you didnt pay enough attention. Not diss what you do know, just that you can always learn new things or how to improve I dont care if you have been riding for 80 years. [sm=icon_cheers.gif]